A crossword that taught us a couple of things and made us smile, Thank you, Hamilton.
Long clues really up the ante, in our view. Until you crack them you are struggling, but once you have done, you have almost finished. Fortunately, in this case, we got the clue, and thought it was very cleverly done
| Across | ||
| 1 |
See 10 down
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| 4 | APPLE PIE |
Food of the highest order (5,3)
Applie pie is a food; to be in apple pie order is to be perfectly arranged and tidy |
| 9 | ASPEN |
Eradicated half of roughness of northern tree (5)
An aspen is a tree; the word is formed by the first half of asperity plus N for northern, |
| 10 | GAULEITER |
I regulate corrupt old official (9)
A Gauleiter was an official in the Nazi party. An anagram (corrupt) of I regulate. |
| 11 | ISOLATE |
Escalation cannot bring about quarantine (7)
Isolate is another word for quarantine (as a verb). It is formed by removing the letters c-a-n (can not) from escalation and rearranging (bring about) what is left. |
| 12 | MAILLOT |
Swim suit to send to film set (7)
Mail (send) plus lot (film set) makes maillot, a swimming costume. |
| 13 | SKIP |
Leave out college servant with big container (4)
Triple definition. We had to check on the college servant one – scouts or bedders are the ones that come to mind, but apparently college servants at Trinity College Dublin were called “skips”. |
| 14 | STICKERS |
Watch on board for diligent people (8)
Ticker (watch) on board in the sense of being in the middle of the abbreviation SS for ship. Stickers are people who stick at a task. |
| 17 | GODS ACRE |
Set off, badly scared, for burial ground (4,4)
Go (set off) plus a rearrangement (badly) of scared, makes God’s acre, a burial ground. |
| 19 | GROW |
See 10 Down
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| 22 | CARACAS |
Capital transport for conciliatory body (7)
Car (transport) plus ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) |
| 24 | NOTABLE |
Incompetent, yet memorable (7)
To say someone is not able is to say they are incompetent. |
| 25 | RASPBERRY |
Scrape through with blunder in, blow it! (9)
Rasp (scrape) plus by (through) wth err (blunder) inside makes raspberry. To blow a raspberry is to make a noise signifying derision |
| 26 | AD LIB |
Advantage to politician to extemporise (2-3)
Ad (the abbreviation of advantage in tennis) plus Lib (a member of the Liberal Party) makes ad lib. |
| 27 | SODA LIME |
Emails do reveal agent preventing carbon dioxide poisoning (4,4)
Soda lime is is a mixture of chemicals used in diving and other equipment to remove carbon dioxide from breathing gases to remove CO2 and so prevent carbon dioxide poisoning. It is an anagram (reveal) of emails do. |
| 28 | STODGY |
Dull suspect loses head; is replaced by holy man (6)
Take dodgy (suspect), remove the first letter and replace it with St (saint, a holy man) and you have stodgy (dull). |
| Down | ||
| 1 | LEAFIEST |
Education body takes endless holiday where the most green trees are (8)
LEA (an acronym of Local Education authority) plus fiest (fiests or holiday without its final letter (endless)) gives leafiest, a description of the place where the most green trees are. |
| 2 | TIPTOEING |
Naughtily petting with Io, not making a sound (9)
An anagram of “petting” plus “lo”. This had us flummoxed for a moment until we realised Io was capital I-o, not lower case l-o. |
| 3 | LANDAU |
Disembark, followed by gold carriage (6)
“Land” meaning disembark followed by “au” the chemical symbol for gold. A Landau is a coachbuilding term for a type of four-wheeled, convertible carriage invented in the 18th century. |
| 5 | PAUL MCCARTNEY |
Famous musician, “Mr Clean- Cut”, transported money outside (4,9)
The letters of “Mr clean cut” rearranged (transported) amidst the word “pay” (money, in the sense of wages) makes Paul Mccartney, an erstwhile member of a popular beat combo. |
| 6 | LEE SIDE |
Boy’s plan (mainly) for sheltered area (3,4)
“Lee’s” for boy’s plus “idea” shortened to “ide” for plan (mainly). The lee side of a ship, island etc is the side to leeward, which is sheltered from the prevailing wind. |
| 7 | PETAL |
Part of Rose, say, that will chime with the tenor in the heart! (5)
“Peal” used as a synonym for chime (as in a peal of bells) surrounding “t” for tenor. |
| 8 | ERRATA |
Time deserter is put away for his mistakes (6)
“Era” for time surrounding “rat” (crosswordese for deserter – as in rats leaving a sinking ship). |
| 10, 1 across, 20, 19 | GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW |
When central lot is redeveloped, it will yield truly impressive growth! (5,4,4,6,6,4)
If you rearrange the letters of “central lot is” you get “little acorns” Great oaks grow from them. We liked this one. |
| 15 | SCRIBBLED |
Mistress finally called about books; student dashed off (9)
“S” the last letter of mistress followed by “cried” (called out) about books “bb” and “L” student. |
| 16 | SWEET BAY |
Spooner’s got rhythm and will rock with Laurel (5,3)
A spoonerism of Beet (sounding like beat – rhythm) Sway (rock). Laurel (a small Mediterranean lauraceous evergreen tree, Laurus nobilis, with glossy aromatic leaves, used for flavouring in cooking, and small blackish berries) is also known as “Sweet Bay”. |
| 18 | DECIBEL |
Sound measure of last month one applied to half the belfry (7)
“Dec” for December (being the last month of the year) plus “I” (one) plus “bel” (being half of belfry. |
| 20 | ACORNS |
See 10 down
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| 21 | STRAIT |
Special feature of channel (6)
“S” for special plus “trait” meaning feature |
| 23 | RASED |
Some extra sediment was bulldozed (5)
Contained within extra sediment. |
Very enjoyable. The long clue was very clever, though disappointingly I guessed the answer early on and only had the pleasure of confirmation rather than discovery!
Thanks Hamilton for a good challenge. And thanks to D&L for further clarity.
Thanks Hamilton and D&L
Nice puzzle with a good smattering of new words to me (GAULEITER, SODA LIME, MAILLOT and a couple of British agencies – LEA and ACAS) along with the long clue which I didn’t get until I had most of the crossing letters (and then forgot to parse it!).
Lots of other clever clues in what was a good challenge !
Don’t think that I’ve seen the bloggers before, but thanks for a crystal clear explanation.