My apologies for the late posting. I am on the Belgian coast this week and internet access has been sporadic to say the least.
Bluth, one of the latest additions to the Indy compiling team, has set today’s mid-week puzzle. This is the first Bluth crossword that it has fallen to me to blog, and I certainly hope that it will not be my last.
I found that I made fairly steady progress through this puzzle, with some of the longer composite clues, e.g. at 5 and 6, slotting into place very easily, while others kept me guessing until the very end. I needed to “cheat” to get 21, where this meaning of “axe” I had forgotten if ever I had known it, and to understand the wordplay at 8, where the slightly cheeky “min” for “smallest”, rather than “minimum”, stopped me from teasing out what was happening in -MINGWAY. I think that everything has now been parsed satisfactorily.
There was much to enjoy in this puzzle. I particularly liked 4, for its topicality; 8, for its golf references, even though I couldn’t fully unpick the clue for myself; 14, for its use of “All Shook Up”; 26, for concision and for using the solution to clue the wordplay. And Bluth deserves a big pat on the pack for making 1D and 8 cross on an “x”. Incidentally, the entry at 23 was new to me.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | DROOPS | Weeps, dropping back in to doctors
OOP (POO=dropping, excrement; “back” indicates reversal) in DRs (=doctors); to weep is to sag, hang down, hence “droop” |
| 04 | DIVORCEE | Cummings on COVID’s return, embodying King Henry VIII, perhaps
R (=King, i.e. Rex) in DIVOCEE (E.E. (=Cummings, i.e. US poet) + COVID; “return” indicates reversal) |
| 10 | A DROP IN THE OCEAN | Barely any road cycling before a drink – spill each one
A DRO (ROAD; “cycling” means last two letters are moved to front of word) + PINT (=a drink) + *(EACH ONE); “spill” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | GASTRIC | Vegas trickster’s entertaining a sort of band
Hidden (“entertaining”) in “veGAS TRICkster” |
| 12 | USELESS | Rubbish former tennis player visits America
SELES (=former tennis player, i.e. Monica) in US (=America) |
| 13 | TOTAL | Come to finger gangster
TOT (=finger, i.e. small amount of alcohol) + AL (=gangster, i.e. Al Capone) |
| 15 | STEAM BATH | Business degree for learner during a secret procedure – it’ll make you sweat
MBA (=business degree) instead of (“for”) L (=learner) in STEALTH (=secret procedure) |
| 18 | XYLOPHONE | Axes chop and sharpen instrument
X, Y (=axes, i.e. in maths) + LOP (=chop) + HONE (=sharpen) |
| 21 | STRUM | … good man suspect’s axe stroke
ST (=good man, i.e. saint) + RUM (=suspect, dodgy); as axe is a slang word for guitar, a strum could be described as an “axe stroke” |
| 22 | LOVABLE | Fetching last of quail eggs – half edible
<quai>L (“last of”” means last letter only) + OVA (=eggs) + <edi>BLE (“half of” means 3 of 6 letters only) |
| 24 | ABANDON | What a concert venue might have to give up
A concert venue may have “a band on”, i.e. performing there! |
| 26 | DISLOCATED ELBOW | It’s painful below
The solution is a cryptic clue to the wordplay: *(ELBOW), with “dislocated” as anagram indicator, gives “below” |
| 27 | RADIATOR | Artist starts to draw in a tiny, overcrowded room – it heats up
RA (=artist, i.e. Royal Academician) + D<raw> I<n> A T<iny> O<vercrowded> R<oom>; (“starts to”) means first letters only |
| 28 | STURDY | Staunch Republican in office
R (=Republican) in STUDY (=office, den) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | DRAUGHT EXCLUDER | Cross lecturer had dug out some insulation
X (=cross, symbolically) + *(LECTURER HAD DUG); “out” is anagram indicator |
| 02 | OGRES | Occasionally Doug breeds monsters
<d>O<u>G <b>R<e>E<d>S; “occasionally” means alternate letters only |
| 03 | PAPER CLIP | Stupid PPI call cut short without salesman looking up – one might go over documents
PER (REP=salesman; “looking up” indicates vertical reversal) in *(PPI CAL<l>); “cut short” means last letter dropped from anagram, indicated by “stupid” |
| 05 | IN-HOUSE | One with common sense bottling hydrogen – to begin with engineer’s not outsourced
{H (=hydrogen) in [I (=one) + NOUS (=common sense)]} + E<ngineer> (“to begin with” means first letter only) |
| 06 | OZONE | Groucho finally put on Zeppo’s coat with the essence of manic energy – it’s a gas
<grouch>O (“finally” means last letter only) + Z<epp>O (“coat” means first and last letters only) +<ma>N<ic> (“essence of” means middle letter only) + E (=energy) |
| 07 | CREPE HAIR | Curious, hip career – unconvincing beard?
*(HIP CAREER); “curious” is anagram indicator; crepe hair is used in e.g. theatres to make false beards |
| 08 | ERNEST HEMINGWAY | Writer eagles on the smallest golf course
ERNES (=eagles, at sea) + THE + MIN (=smallest, i.e. minimum) + G (=golf, in radio telecommunications) + WAY (=course, path); the reference is to US writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) |
| 09 | SNACKS | Bags containing last of autumn’s nuts, perhaps
<autum>N (“last of” means last letter only) in SACKS (=bags) |
| 14 | TELEVISED | Support director covering Elvis’ All Shook Up for broadcast
*(ELVIS) in [TEE (=support, in golf) + D (=director)]; “All Shook Up” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | TON | It’s not about weight
NOT; “about” indicates reversal |
| 17 | MISS A BEAT | Hesitate as I pick up fish, wrapped in bacon, say
[I + SSAB (BASS=fish; “pick up” indicates vertical reversal)] in MEAT (=bacon, say) |
| 19 | OREGANO | Herb, duck and orange cooked
O (=duck, i.e. zero score) + *(ORANGE); “cooked” is anagram indicator |
| 20 | ENAMEL | Nurse – don’t open camel coat
EN (=nurse, i.e. Enrolled Nurse) + <c>AMEL (“don”t open” means first letter is dropped) |
| 23 | BIOTA | What lives and grows in a region – from Africa to Iberia – keeled over
Reversed (“keeled over”) and hidden (“from”) in “africA TO IBeria” |
| 25 | DEBAR | Baked bread hamper
*(BREAD); “baked” is anagram indicator |
Bluth brings an interestingly different style to the party, and this was an enjoyable challenge.
I couldn’t parse the EE part of DIVORCEE, so thanks to RR for the explanation. CREPE HAIR seemed a bit unconvincing. In 27a, “start to a” doesn’t strictly mean “a” – “any” would work.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY was my favourite.
Many thanks to Bluth and to RR.
Thanks RR. Joyce solved 1ac but was confused as her parsing required extra letters as she had SPOOR reversed for dropping. However, Bert parsed it correctly and we checked in Chambers. SPOOR is a track or trail of an animal, not necessarily a dropping.
A fun puzzle though with quite a few guessed before the parsing – the author at 8d being one of them. We’d never heard of 7d and guessed CREEP HAIR at first when we had some crossers. Joyce vaguely remembered 23d from another crossword.
Thanks to RR and Bluth.
He may be more famous in his other job but this is yet another superb cryptic. Normally, a clue like 4a would be a stand out favourite but I thought 8d eclipsed it. Lots of great clues. (I don’t object to the “a” in 27a. It is both the start letter and the end letter as far as I’m concerned.)
I have to say I would class Bluth as one of my top handful of setters. I don’t say that about many others 🙂
Thanks to Bluth and RatkojaRiku.
I’m fast becoming a fan of Mr Gorman’s efforts here. Lots to like today with TELEVISED and DRAUGHT EXCLUDER my favourites. A 30 minutes solve which is quick for me for a puzzle with so much about it.
Thanks all – I’m very flattered. Particularly by Hovis and Tim @3&4. And Rabbit, I have to say that, strictly speaking, A is definitely the first letter of ‘A’. And as Hovis says, it’s also the last. I’d agree with you if you were making a case for it not being the middle… but it is definitely the start!
Oh, and I forgot to say – thanks to RR for the blog. Especially under the circumstances. I hope you can relax and enjoy your time there without need of wifi for a while.
Another great crossword, thank you Bluth. Thanks also to RR
Another fine crossword. 8d was simply brilliant, closely followed by 4a. I suppose even e.e. cummings woulod have capitalised his name at the start of a sentence. Thanks, Bluth and RR.
Thanks crypticsue and IanSW3… as a side note, Ian, I always thought Cummings always styled his name in lower case letters but according to Wikipedia, apparently not: “Cummings’ publishers and others have often echoed the unconventional orthography in his poetry by writing his name in lowercase and without periods (full stops), but normal orthography for his name (uppercase and periods) is supported by scholarship and preferred by publishers today. Cummings himself used both the lowercase and capitalized versions, though he most often signed his name with capitals.”
Have yet to make my mind up about this setter and 1a didn’t get me off to a good start. However, I thought ERNEST HEMINGWAY was very nicely done.
Thanks to Bluth and also to RR for the review.
I liked this when I found the time to give it a good coat of looking at. The east side was tougher than the west, not helbed by suffering from a dislocated bowel. I had to grin and bear it until Mr Hemingway gave me the checker to correct my first impression. 10a my favourite long one and 1a favourite short one.
I did wonder if 7a was creep hair too and when I discovered it was crepe hair I thought of the unconvincing beard of our setter ( particularly the cardboard cut out version of his TV programme)