Having waited for over a year for the pleasure of blogging Vigo’s most recent puzzle, we’ve hit the jackpot again with today’s!
As with the last Vigo, we found it to be a relatively quick straightforward solve, with good surfaces and no unusual words.
As it is a Tuesday, we started to look for a theme. It took us longer than perhaps it should have to tumble to a connection to MILK. We were staggered to find no less than thirteen words that can come before or after MILK and two others (1d and 13ac) that could be said to have strong connections to milk production. Admittedly we had to check a few which we were not immediately aware of (27ac and 28ac). We did wonder whether 5d is a genuine thematic entry, as we hadn’t heard the term Milk Money before: it sounds as though it should hail from school days as the equivalent of Dinner Money (after Thatcher snatched free milk?). However, a little electronic assistance revealed that it is the title of a 1994 film starring Melanie Griffith and Ed Harris, so we decided that it qualifies.
Congratulations to Vigo for an excellent solver-friendly grid fill.
CO (commanding officer) CO (company – firm) NUT (fanatic)
NIT (idiot) in ROOM (space) reversed or ‘returning’
WHO (which people) LE (French for ‘the’)
CONS (disadvantages) C (Conservative) IOUS (promises)
An anagram of MANY TINY (anagrind is ‘flies’) round O (Oscar in the phonetic alphabet)
USER (employer) round or ’embracing’ H (husband)
FAR (distant) M (motorway)
S A (alternate or ‘regular’ letters of aSiAn) between IN (home) and NEST (home)
BE (live) R (river) LINER (boat)
L (Liberal) OAF (lout)
Triple definition
An anagram of STATIONER – anagrind is ‘untidy’
AN and A (articles) LOGO (symbol) US (American)
Hidden in or ‘part of’ photogrAPH IDentifies
I (one) ST (street – way) in or ‘covered by’ THE
S (son) LENDER (uncle possibly, as in a pawnbroker)
C (constant) WOMAN (female) with the ‘w’ (first letter or ‘head’) moved back or down (lowered) in a down clue
CH (child) LOCO (crazy) reversed or ‘about’ ATE (consumed)
DEE (river) reversed or ‘rising’ in NY (New York)
An anagram of TITANIC (anagrind is ‘wreck of’) round or ‘containing’ AC (account)
MY (setter’s) round or ‘holding’ ONE (single)
An anagram of ACORN NUT (anagrind is ‘rotten’) + L (left)
TOO (overly) TougH (first and last or ‘outside’ letters only)
REST (relax) round AzORes (middle two letters only)
An anagram of DOLT MARIA – anagrind is ‘awkward’
ASSES (idiots) after SUP (drink) round or ‘involving’ R (first letter or ‘drop’ of rum)
An anagram of CUT HANDS and E (last letter or ‘end’ of knife) – anagrind is ‘damaged’
BR (bronze) EAST (compass point)
POWER (ability) round or ‘hiding’ D (first letter or ‘bit’ of dry)
First letters of Underlying Mustard And Mace Ingredients
T (first letter or ‘start’ of tear) HOSE (stockings)
S (small) HAKE (fish)
Thanks Vigo for a well-clued puzzle, and well done B&J for the blog and for identfying the Milk theme. Much appreciated.
Blimey, spotting that theme calls for a round of applause! As the puzzle itself was quite easy, I thought there must be a theme and spent as much time trying and failing to look for one as solving it. So well done and thanks to Vigo and B&J.
I really enjoyed this puzzle which was light and fun, except for a specific bugbear of mine – strategy and tactics are not synonymous.
I thought there might be a theme, but i couldn’t find one. Respect to B&J for spotting it! You deserve to milk the praise.
I always enjoy multiple definition clues, and 22a gets my vote as favourite today.
Many thanks to Vigo and to B&J.
Lovely puzzle – missed the theme, so obvious once you see it. Well done, B and J.
many thanks to setter and bloggers.
Well done indeed, B&J, I’m another who completely missed the theme.
Many thanks to Vigo for the puzzle, it’s always a pleasure to solve one of your compilations.
Not only did we rattle through this quickly we also spotted the theme as soon as we’d finished, although we missed a couple of thematic entries.
We share Rabbit Dave’s reservations about 4dn (and incidentally we also deplore the confusion of stress and strain frequently encounterd in crosswords). Otherwise it was all good and difficult to nominate a CoD so we’ll just say we liked MONITOR, ANONYMITY and MALADROIT among others.
Thanks, Vigo and B&J
Another pleasing puzzle from Vigo. Not too stretching, but tractable can be enjoyable. No special favourites; it was all good.
Did I see the theme? Don’t be silly.
Thanks to all three.
Well done to those who spotted the theme. Despite looking and suspecting there must be one (Indy+Tuesday=theme) it escaped me. I’m another in the Rabbit Dave camp when it comes to strategy v. tactics. I had a question mark against FARM. Is this a definition by example?
Add me to the ROUND fans.
Thanks to Vigo and the clever B&J
Not a difficult puzzle, but a genial one. I certainly didn’t spot the theme. With WordPlodder also wondered about FARM. There are farm buildings, but farm is not synonymous with building.
28A, the “l” for lake is missing in the blog.
Thanks to Vigo and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks to Vigo for a lovely puzzle and to B&J for the blog. My first two entries were COCONUT and CHOCOLATE so I was tending towards ice cream at first but soon spotted the milk theme.
First time commenter here, my lockdown challenge has been to learn the tricks, guts, and rules of cryptics starting from zero, so from mid-March I have been playing catch up with the Indy puzzles from Jan 2020, trying to get through at least two a day. Finally I’m up to date, and yesterday for the first time I managed to complete puzzle (thanks Shaboo) without help (missed two parsings though), so for these reasons I feel it’s now approriate to join the fun here.
If it wasn’t for Fifteensquared I’d still be stuck at the odd anagram solved per day. Massive thanks to all here, bloggers, commenters, setters coming in to clear up issues, by far the most didactic resource one could hope for. I’ll confess that many of the tricks are still beyond me, I find Tyrus and Serpent particularly difficult, you know you are in trouble when you can’t even spot the anagrinds, but I’m determined to get there with the help of Fifteensquared. Another confession – I’ll admit that, sometimes, even with the parsing explained here, I fail to understand what’s going on, so there will be a few “newbie” questions popping up from me here in course. Apologies in advance if they provoke forehead-grasping moments among you.
And finally, I’m in Mexico, so my personal favourite so far was the chile-themed puzzle a while back, for the first time ever I had the edge!
Hasta pronto!
Welcome to Fifteen squared El_Gwero.
It is really heartening for us bloggers when we have someone new. Do not worry about asking questions. We are all happy to assist – that is why we are here. We found the site originally looking for help on the parsing of a clue and would not be without the site.
We nearly all find Tyrus and Serpent difficult – as well as Nimrod and a few others!
Happy solving.
what a great post from El Gwero
What baerchen said.
Congratulations, El_Gwero, on completing your crash course in cryptic crosswords! Great to hear from you, and keep the comments coming.
@El Gwero – your story was mine a couple years ago, and fifteensquared got me to a point where I often (though certainly not always) can complete the grid and have even done so on a couple of Serpent’s, which was quite satisfying! This community has been quite welcoming and I will say that my experience has seen them very patient with my newbie questions and comments. Welcome!
Welcome El Gwero. What an excellent and productive way to spend lockdown! I wish you many, many hours of solving pleasure.
I am delighted that my puzzle on Monday was the first that you have completed.
Stay safe.
A bit late in the day, but I agree with everything that people have been saying about El Gwero’s post. And to have started from scratch in mid-March and reached this level is pretty impressive. No worries at all from anyone (except perhaps from bloggers like me who feel they haven’t explained things clearly enough) about simple questions. If you’re learning then that’s what you do. Or should do, anyway.
Nice crossword, but like others I was very uncomfortable with FARM. A farm is not a building.