The Thursday slot is occupied by a variety of setters and today by Punk, whose work tends to appear more at the start of the week.
I found this is an easier-than-average Punk to crack, with the exception of 26, where I needed to cheat in order to complete the puzzle and blog. The longer entries held me back for less time than is normal for me, although the expression at 07/09 was unfamiliar. 21 was also new to me.
Of today’s crop of clues, I would single out 3 and 14, for their surface readings, and 4 for its clever construction, although for me 01/16 stole the show for sheer flair – vintage Punk!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07/09 | ANKLE-BITER | Tinker able to fix little one
*(TINKER ABLE); “to fix” is anagram indicator; an ankle-biter or ankle-nipper is a small child in Australian slang, hence “little one” |
| 08 | EXCAVATE | Dig to find drink, tea say, in river
[CAVA (=drink) + T (=tea say, i.e. homophone of “tea”)] in EXE (=river) |
| 10 | SNORKEL | Breathe heavily holding back of mask, requiring line for breathing apparatus
[<mas>K (“back of” means last letter only) in SNORE (=breathe heavily)] + L (=line) |
| 12 | SLIDE RULE | Calculator once ill-used, range extremely inaccurate
*(ILL-USED + R<ang>E); “inaccurate” is anagram indicator; “extremely” means first and last letters only |
| 13 | YEARN | Long time, eon ultimately
YEAR (=time) + <eo>N (“ultimately” means last letter only) |
| 15 | APHIS | A local is a sucker
A + PH (=local, i.e. pub) + IS; an aphis, or aphid, is a louse that sucks plant juices |
| 17 | CUT | Percentage // reduced
Double definition: percentage is cut as in Each of them got a cut/share of the profits |
| 18 | MARAT | Retail establishment burying a murdered revolutionary
A in MART (=retail establishment); Jean-Paul Marat was a figure in the French Revolution, murdered in the bath in 1793 |
| 19 | SODOM | Sacred utterance upon the ground in place of depravity
SOD (=ground, i.e. piece of turf) + OM (=sacred utterance, i.e. in Hindu devotion) |
| 20 | UP AND DOWN | Inconsistent choices from the mezzanine?
Someone standing on a mezzanine, or intermediate floor, would be able to choose whether to go up or down |
| 22 | RATCHET | One-way mechanism upset the applecart, apple dropped
*(THE <apple>CART); “upset” is anagram indicator; “apple dropped” means the letters “apple” are dropped from anagram |
| 25 | CABIN BOY | Sailor in black hugged by shy youngster on ship
[AB (=sailor) + IN + B (=black)] in COY (=shy) |
| 26 | MESSI | Footballer a champion? Ah no!
MESSI<ah> (=champion); “ah no” means letters “ah” are dropped; the reference is to Argentine footballer Lionel Messi (1987-) |
| Down | ||
| 01/16 | UNFINISHED SYMPHONY | Tent for Beethoven?
TENT<h>; “unfinished” means last letter dropped; Beethoven completed nine symphonies, his tenth thus being his unfinished symphony |
| 02 | FLEECE | Rip off // winter coat
Double definition |
| 03 | EXISTENTIAL | Living entities, almost all unfortunately with a cross to bear
X (=cross, as on a ballot paper) in *(ENTITIES + AL<l>); “almost” means last letter dropped; “unfortunately” is anagram indicator |
| 04 | PAROXYSM | Fit, strong thing in timeless celebration with some regulars?
[OX (=strong thing, as in as strong as an ox) in PAR<t>Y (=celebration; “time (=T)-less” means letter “t” is dropped)] + S<o>M<e> (“with … regulars” means alternate letters only are used); a paroxysm is a fit of acute pain, passion, laughter, etc |
| 06/24 | WELLINGTON BOOTS | Where Russell Crowe might have bought his medicine – or rubber items?
As a native of Wellington (New Zealand), actor Russell Crowe might have bought his medicine in the Wellington branch of Boots (the Chemist)!! |
| 11/05 | PUNCTUATION MARK | Traumatic getting on with Punk badly for a period in New York, perhaps?
*(TRAUMATIC + ON + PUNK); “badly” is anagram indicator; a period is a full stop in US English |
| 12 | STAR-STRUCK | Over-awed by write-up of short story’s introduction, in plain
STRUC (CURT=short + S<tory> (“introduction” means first letter only); “write-up” indicates vertical reversal) in STARK (=plain, i.e. austere) |
| 14 | AIR HOSTESS | Is she a sort that goes abroad
*(IS SHE A SORT); “that goes” appears to be anagram indicator; & lit. |
| 21 | DOOFER | Grub served up? I’m not sure: what-d’you-call-it?
DOOF (FOOD=grub; “served up” indicates vertical reversal) + ER (=I’m not sure); a doofer is a thingamy, whatsit |
| 23 | TUBA | One’s blown neighbour up
ABUT (=neighbour, i.e. adjoin, as a verb); “up” indicates vertical reversal |
I always enjoy Punk puzzles and this was no exception. Many thanks to him for brightening up the morning cuppa!
Agree about 01/16 – simply splendid!
Thanks, RR. All good fun as is usual with a Punk. WELLINGTON BOOTS and UNFINISHED SYMPHONY were really cleverly done, but there was much else to like as well. I’m sure I’ve seen ANKLE-BITER in a Paul puzzle recently, and AIR HOSTESS had a bit of a recycled air as well.
MESSI is perhaps a bit unfair and I’m not surprised you had to cheat – fewer than 50% checking letters and the crossers being what someone else on this site once defined as ‘low-scoring Scrabble letters’ doesn’t give you much of a chance if you don’t follow footie.
But small niggles in a most enjoyable crossword – bravo, Punk.
I found the RHS much easier than the LHS because it took me a while to solve SLIDE RULE, APHIS and SODOM even after I had solved STAR STRUCK, and I was still left with the two crossing double-clues in the NW. I should have seen UNFINISHED SYMPHONY faster than I did, and it was only when I finally solved it that I saw ANKLE-BITER. I confess that I entered WELLINGTON BOOTS from the definition and didn’t bother to parse it, which is a shame because it is an excellent clue. I agree that the clue for MESSI might have been difficult to solve with only two checkers if one isn’t a football fan. Fortunately this didn’t apply to me. Overall I enjoyed this puzzle.
Not sure aboyt the TENTH idea, which is a verty controversial; assertion! They don’t know if there was a tenth on the way really.Schubert DID not cpomplete 8th howebver.
Agree with you Rowland about the TENTH. Punk would have been on safer ground with Mahler; his tenth was unfinished (although he completed enough of it for others to produce a performable version.)
MESSI was my LOI and I didn’t manage to parse it; Messiah = champion didn’t occur to me.
But thanks all the same to Punk – and of course RatkojaRiku.
Hi RR
I think you can make 14dn a complete “& lit” clue if you take “that goes abroad” as the anagram indicator. Then the whole clue is used in both wordplay and definition.
Another one for the &litters, but this won’t be disputed I’ll bet my house! Also, in British slang isn’t a ‘sort’ a decent-looking woman? The clue’s better for it, I’d say, at risk of being castrated by some feminists.
Yeah, an enjoyable run-out today, made up for my tiresome time doing The Guardian’s effort.
Just couldn’t see 7/9, even with a word search, which left 3dn a bit lacking in checking letters.
26ac was even harder for me, as I was sure 21dn was spelled DOOFAH, so no luck there.
18ac should have been easier than it was, having just last Saturday been to a screening of the 1927 film Napoleon with Antonin Artaud as Marat.
I found it hard to get going with this and was also guilty of initially putting doofah (it’s one of those words you feel could be spelt in any number of different ways depending on the speaker’s mood). I thought Russell Crowe was Australian, so Wellington didn’t exactly leap out at me. It appears he was brought up in Australia, so probably didn’t get much chance to buy things at the Wellington branch of Boots.
I couldn’t get Messi without a bit of cheating on the first letter. Messiah for champion isn’t a very obvious synonym and there are just too many footballers to think of them all.
Another who thought doofah and frankly messi although a good clue needed more checking letters. Not punk at his best sorry.
We enjoyed 6/24 although both of us thought Russell Crowe was Australian so we needed lots of crossing letters before the answer occurred to us. It took us a while before we guessed 1/16 but we needed the blog for the parsing – thanks RR!
We were completely stumped by 26 and as we were using the dead tree version there was no reveal button – so thanks again RR!
Thanks Punk although it is such a pity that you had to have a footballer at 26 when lots of other words would have fitted!
Excellent crossword for the most part. Why then did Punk have such an extraordinary grid, with so many of those 2/5 checkers? The usual justification for this is that there’s a Nina, but I can’t see anything.
And I was less than enthusiastic about Beethoven’s Tenth. I suspect he never started one, in which case it is a bit odd to call it unfinished, and as allan_c says, Punk would have been on safer ground with Mahler.