Another Wednesday treat for me to blog – witty, informative and good fun. Thank you Cinephile.
S has the meaning SWEET throughout the puzzle. It took me a while to catch on (via 8 down) and then after that everything fell into place.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TIRAMISU | S takes part of Semiramis in familiar French address (8) |
| semIRAMIS (part of) in TU (you, French familiar address) – a sweet | ||
| 5 | See 14 | |
| 9 | NEGATIVE | Local holding for example? No (8) |
| NATIVE (local) holding EG (for example) | ||
| 10 | TENUTO | Note – ut, possibly – kept going for longer (6) |
| (NOTE UT)* anagram=possibly – sustained, musical | ||
| 12 | See 7 | |
| 13 | ULTIMATUM | Threat to little boy in mutual trouble (9) |
| TIM (boy, little=abbrev) in MUTUAL* anagram=trouble | ||
| 14, 5, 21 down | STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING | S kid counted fifty pegs wrongly (6,6,7) |
| (KID COUNTED FIFTY PEGS)* anagram=wrongly | ||
| 16 | GENESIS | Maybe seeing’s beginning (7) |
| (SEEING’S)* anagram=maybe | ||
| 19 | AIRLOCK | Tress twice, first time with dropped letter forming obstruction (7) |
| hAIR LOCK (two tressees) the first missing one letter | ||
| 21 | PISTIL | Female part, said to be drunk and sick? (6) |
| PIST sounds like (said) “pissed” (drunk) and IL sounds like “ill” (sick) – a part of a female flower | ||
| 23 | COMFORTED | Relieved French nobleman getting about for daughter (9) |
| COMTE (French nobleman) containing (getting about) FOR then D (daughter) | ||
| 25 | SIGHT | Vision could be jolly (5) |
| double/cryptic definition – it could be a jolly sight. Unless I have missed something this seems a weak clue to me. | ||
| 26 | SUNDAE | S of the day, say (6) |
| 27 | SIDESHOW | Unimportant affair at a fair (8) |
| cryptic/double definition | ||
| 28 | SUMMER | Mathematician S with 21 down (6) |
| double/cryptic definition – one who does sums and a summer pudding | ||
| 29 | AGITATED | A fool and a 1950s boy are shaken (8) |
| A GIT (fool) and A TED (1950s boy). I wasted some time here trying to make something of 1950 in Roman numerals. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TANIST | Sort of Celtic crown prince removing odour from plant expert (6) |
| boTANIST (plant expert) removing BO (odour) – an heir elect to a Celtic chief | ||
| 2 | REGULATOR | Of body, list of duties with automatic weapon coming up (9) |
| ROTA (list of duties) with LUGER (automatic weapon) all reversed (coming up) – definition is ‘Of body’. Cinephile (as Araucaria) used this same clue in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago Guardian 26,083 . As I failed to understand it back then he has kindly let me have another go. Of is an abbreviation for ‘Office’, as in Ofcom, Ofsted, Ofgen etc which are all regulatory bodies or “regulators”. | ||
| 3 | MUTED | Kept quiet when bad name included the heartless (5) |
| MUD (bad name, expression “one’s name is mud”) including ThE (heartless) | ||
| 4 | SAVOURY | Pleasant but not S (7) |
| double definition | ||
| 6 | OPEN MINDS | Frank has a problem with those receptive to new ideas (4,5) |
| OPEN (frank) MINDS (has a problem with) | ||
| 7, 12 | FRUIT SALAD | S, possibly first about turn for a boy (5,5) |
| FIRST* (anagram=possibly) about U (turn) then A LAD (boy) | ||
| 8 | ETON MESS | S for school services’ social centre (4,4) |
| ETON (school) MESS (armed services social centre) | ||
| 11 | STAG | Party animal? (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 15 | CHOCOLATE | S ingredient – inchoate depression (9) |
| COL (depression) in CHOATE – definition is ‘sweet ingredient’. I like this type of split word clue is one of my favourites, though I know they are not for everyone. | ||
| 17 | SLINGSHOT | S alcoholic drinks, heated, fatal to Goliath (9) |
| SLINGS (sweetened cocktails) and HOT (heated) | ||
| 18 | CAUCASUS | White range? (8) |
| cryptic definition – a range of mountains. Caucasian is used to denote white people in racial classifications. | ||
| 20 | KITE | Raptor on a string? (4) |
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 21 | See 14 | |
| 22 | STEWED | S, as it may be, died, as it may be (6) |
| A sweet may be stewed. |
||
| 24 | MINIM | Reversible note or dose (5) |
| double definition and a pailindrome | ||
| 25 | SWEET | FT in group S, basically (5) |
| WE (the FT) in SET (group) – S basically=literally | ||
*anagram
22D Is anagram of sweet with D for died forming stewed for sweet as you say
Many thanks PeeDee & Cinephile.
It’s always great to cross words with The King of The Cryptics and this was a real teaser.
However, I do prefer SUNDAE as the solution to 26a.
Bryan, you are quite right to prefer SUNDAE as the solution. Blog fixed now, thanks.
Thanks PeeDee and Cinephile. 1d was new to me – but immaculately clued, as ever. Great stuff.
Thanks PeeDee and, as usual, thanks to Cinephile for his sense of humour. I loved 2d especially (‘of’ body = regulator)
Thanks to CIneohile for an entertaining challenge and to PeeDee for the excellent blog and explanation of 2d – the Of’s being essentially unknown to me, a foreign resident. However, 1d was made a little easier by knowing that the Deputy Prime Minister in the Republic of Ireland is known as the Tanaiste (pr. Tawn-ish-teh) – essentially the same word in the Irish language as TANIST.
A treat in more ways than one – luckily I have pear and ginger cake for pud tonight otherwise I would have been starting to make a nice pud.
Thanks to Cinephile for an extremely enjoyable challenge and to PeeDee for the explanations.
Thanks Cinephile & PeeDee
I sent a pdf of the puzzle to my aged uncle (who only really does Big A these days), who’s just replied that the theme is pretty brave for a chap who may well be having problems swallowing. Makes you think!