It’s Scorpion today and it’s Tuesday so we expected there may be more to the puzzle than usual.
When we checked previous Scorpion puzzles we noticed that there was another clue involving BARNET. Maybe the setter has a connection with the place – or is it just a coincidence?
Once we had noticed the theme to the puzzle we expected that it may help us solve some of the clues but it didn’t! There were a couple of definitions that we needed to check. Chambers has ‘LINEMAN’ for a person who attends to the lines of a railway, telephone or power wires but our old Collins has it down as ‘LINESMAN’ with the alternative spelling down as an American alternative.
We may be missing something in 3d and we are not sure about BAT being a high flyer in 13d. Can anyone help us out?
| Across | ||
| 8 | Carp served with perhaps fancy dish | |
| BEEFCAKE | BEEF (carp) + CAKE (fancy perhaps) | |
| 9 | Canopy on holiday unit originally dry | |
| HUSKY | SKY (canopy) on H U (first letters of Holiday Unit or ‘originally’) | |
| 10 | One cuts tip of conifer in ground there | |
| ETCHER | C (first letter or ‘tip’ of Conifer) inside an anagram of THERE (anagrind is ‘ground’) | |
| 11 | Linesman might do this on edge of pitch stifling Irish | |
| REWIRING | RE (on) + WING (edge of pitch) around or ‘stifling’ IR (Irish) | |
| 12 | Stretch out electronic single containing dub, when spinning | |
| ELONGATE | E (electronic) + LONE (single) around or ‘containing’ TAG (dub) reversed or ‘spinning’ | |
| 13 | Yes-man did business lecture vacuously | |
| POODLE | POOD (did business) + LE (first and last letter of LecturE or ‘vacuously’). For some reason or other, Joyce had to have the parsing of this one explained to her! | |
| 14 | Sort of cross with fellow holding firm back | |
| MALTESE | MALE (fellow) around or ‘holding’ SET (firm) reversed or ‘back’ | |
| 16 | Having had 99 at back of theatre, who’s mad for some chilling entertainment? | |
| ICE SHOW | IC (99 in Roman numerals) + E (last letter or ‘back’ of theatrE) + an anagram of WHO’S (anagrind is ‘mad’) | |
| 19 | I run for far-right in Chesterfield, say | |
| SETTER | SETTE |
|
| 21 | Foreman perhaps finished boxing essentially when losing power | |
| OVERSEER | OVER (finished) around or ‘boxing’ |
|
| 23 | Farm resident chips in when fencing acre | |
| FRIESIAN | FRIES (chips) + IN around or ‘fencing’ A (acre) | |
| 25 | Maybe meat and two veg seen in these containers inviting rook | |
| BOXERS | Joyce has obviously led a very sheltered life despite being with Bert for almost 50 years as she had no idea why Bert was laughing when he solved this clue. BOXES (containers) around or ‘inviting’ R (rook). If you are reading this and have no idea what the definition is just think of David Beckham modelling his brand of underwear! | |
| 26 | Stones song covered by Crosby and Nash originally | |
| CAIRN | AIR (song) inside or ‘covered by’ C and N (first letters of Crosby and Nash or ‘originally’ | |
| 27 | One used to dig around tip to annoy inspector | |
| EXAMINER | EX MINER (one used to dig) around A (first letter or ‘tip’ of Annoy) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Class in zoology? Some fail it, perceptibly upset | |
| REPTILIA | Hidden and reversed or ‘upset’ within the clue fAIL IT PERceptibly | |
| 2 | Australian spread around extremely garish blanket | |
| AFGHAN | A (Australian) + FAN (spread) around GH ( first and last letter of GarisH or ‘extremely’) | |
| 3 | Frightening film clip set in Barnet? | |
| HAIR-RAISER | A play on the fact that Barnet is another word for HAIR, which may be ‘set’ standing up or ‘raised'(?) Not one of our favourite clues in the puzzle! Maybe we are missing something. | |
| 4 | Soldier from mess up in rank | |
| TERRIER | ERR (mess up) in TIER (rank) | |
| 5 | Fuel hard to find in Hereford? | |
| CHOW | H (hard) found inside COW (Hereford is a breed of cow) | |
| 6 | Extortionate high-class port brought into America repeatedly | |
| USURIOUS | U (high-class) + RIO (port) inside US US (America repeatedly) | |
| 7 | That chap on recital neatly evens out songbook | |
| HYMNAL | HYM (sounds like HIM or ‘that chap’ when recited) + NeAtLy (removing all the even letters) | |
| 13 | With much money, high-flyer maintains old watercraft | |
| PACKET-BOAT | PACKET (a lot of money) + BAT (high-flyer) around or ‘maintaining’ O (old). We are not sure about ‘BAT’ being a high-flyer though. Can anyone help? | |
| 15 | Beast used as payment – it’s raised by the gorge | |
| TITHE-PIG | IT (reversed or ‘raised’) + THE + PIG (gorge) | |
| 17 | Revolutionary protest march attracts similar type of bandit | |
| ONE-ARMED | DEMO (protest march) reversed or ‘revolutionary’ around or ‘attracting’ NEAR (similar) | |
| 18 | Guide Italian team under nearby waterway | |
| POINTER | INTER (Italian team) under PO (river near MILAN). We checked this while we were writing up the blog and discovered that the river is connected to Milan via a net of channels called ‘navigli’ which Leonardo da Vinci helped design. Its amazing what you learn from crosswords. Click on the link for more information if you are interested. | |
| 20 | Decorate Morecambe hotel with new interior | |
| ENRICH | ERIC (Morecambe) + H (hotel) with N (new) inside or in the ‘interior’ | |
| 22 | Divorcee opening up revealed adult toy | |
| SEX AID | EX (divorcee) inside or ‘opening up’ SAID (revealed) | |
| 24 | Island on edge of Argyll | |
| IONA | A cryptic definition. I (island) + ON + A (first letter or ‘edge’ of Argyll). Iona is found off the coast of Argyll. | |
I loved this puzzle, despite not liking dogs, especially the ones that jump all over you or try to hump your leg. It made me laugh, POODLE and BOXERS especially (Joyce, you need to get out more, love).
BAT for a ‘high-flyer’ works for me, but I can’t help any further with HAIR-RAISER. I was pleased to get TITHE PIG from the wordplay, because I’d never come across the term. As I’ve said before, you learn stuff from crosswords, dontcha?
Thanks all three, especially Scorpion for an entertaining crossword this morning.
3d – something frightening makes your hair stand on end, so that seems fine
13a – thought there should be an ‘e’ in POOD
Presumably the clip set in one’s Barnet can raise the hair (either out of one’s eyes or to stick up fashionably) so I was OK with HAIR-RAISER as a DD
Theme didn’t penetrate my brain at any stage; yet so obvious now. I don’t look for themes, suspect others do.
Agree with @2Paul A. Think “shoo”, “woo”, “boo” etc; definitely should be POOED and cannot believe there is a dictionary that says otherwise (famous last words).
Entertaining, so thanks to Scorpion and Bertand(demure)joyce.
Thanks to Scorpion and B & J,
I really enjoyed this despite a few quibbles with some clues as noted by others. A good challenge without being too frustrating and a nice theme to boot. I suppose 25 is the obvious candidate for COD (I’ve never seen the David Beckham ad but I get the drift!) though for me 11 was even better, if more conventional, and took me ages to work out. TITHE PIG was also satisfying to get from the wordplay and goes into the ever expanding file of new words/terms I’ve learnt from cryptics.
Just the right balance of entertainment versus difficulty. Thank you again.
I saw the theme fairly early on but, like others, it didn’t help with the unsolved clues very much and AFGHAN was my NTLOI before BEEFCAKE. I vaguely recall having come across TITHE-PIG before but I didn’t enter it until I had got the wordplay.
This is very good. TITHE-PIG is the only one in there that is all that would fit, everything else very passable. Good clues as well.
The FRIESIAN pointer is used as a guard dog on farms.
Thanks B&J didn’t spot Maltese in the theme, but it gave away a few others.
Not an expert but guessed 24d was & lit.
Merci Scorpion.
Why is it always the one I didn’t get that’s one of the best? 🙂
Today it was SETTER (19ac), great clue for such a chestnutty word.
Thanks to Scorpion for the challenge (by far, the most difficult puzzle in today’s broadsheets).
And, of course, to B&J – safely down to earth after last Friday?