I thought PETO (unusual for a Friday) set a puzzle that was more approachable than some his earlier servings. I still needed to use the internet to confirm my answers for a couple of clues which I hadnt come across before. 14ac could use some help.
A lovely start to this Friday. Thanks to Peto for a delectable challenge.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | TRIFLE |
A small amount of dessert (6)
Double def |
| 4 | PASTORAL |
Father’s spoken about Tasso’s earliest poetic style (8)
[ PA’S ( Father’s) ORAL (spoken) ] about T (Tasso’s earliest) |
| 9 | ASSUME |
Dancing amuses when appropriate (6)
Anagram of AMUSES |
| 10 | OLEANDER |
Working alone at the German plant (8)
OLEAN (Anagram of ALONE) DER (‘the’ in German) |
| 12 | SILL |
Shelf stacker’s first to get sick (4)
S (Stacker’s first) ILL (sick) |
| 13 | PLUMP |
Full page on growth (5)
P (page) on LUMP (growth) |
| 14 | MERE |
Measure piece of tubing removed from lake (4)
MEtRE (Measure, lacking ‘T”, piece of Tubing) [Thanks to June@1 and Muffy@2]
|
| 17 | CONVENTIONAL |
Customary for a religious community on this island at the start of Lent (12)
CONVENT (religious community) IONA (Island) L (start of Lent) |
| 20 | BLUESTOCKING |
Hannah More for example is a Conservative with shares in Google primarily (12)
BLUE (conservative) STOCK (shares) IN G (Google primarily) – This was a new word for me. Funnily enough, had to google to confirm. |
| 23 | LEAR |
Gain knowledge mostly from this poet (4)
LEARn (gain knowledge, mostly) |
| 24 | SHUNT |
James Hunt’s showing what he was trying to avoid (5)
Hidden in “jameS HUNT..” |
| 25 | PASS |
Free ticket’s almost out of date (4)
PASSe (out of date, almost) |
| 28 | VANGUARD |
Tsar not initially having a person keeping watch in front (8)
iVAN (Tsar, not initially) GUARD (person keeping watch) |
| 29 | WIMPLE |
The wife of Bath had one trick to ensnare a politician (6)
WILE (trick) containing MP (politician) – Didnt know this either. |
| 30 | REMINDER |
Memo’s about getting a bodyguard (8)
RE (about) MINDER (bodyguard) |
| 31 | REVEAL |
Show girl captured by artist at end of rehearsal (6)
[ EVE (girl) captured by RA (artist) ] L (end of rehearsaL) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TRANSACT |
Negotiate with skill to mount new production of Cats (8)
TRA (skill = ART, mount = reversed) N (new) SACT (anagram of CATS) |
| 2 | INSOLENT |
Consequently Len gets a bit of teasing after wearing lippy (8)
[ SO (consequently) LEN T (bit of Teasing) ] after IN (wearing) – I am wondering if I have got the ‘IN” parsing correct. |
| 3 | LIMP |
Proceed with difficulty when lacking energy (4)
Double def |
| 5 | ALL IMPORTANT |
Essential for every man to consume drink during it (3,9)
ALL (every) [ {MAN consuming PORT (drink)} during IT ] |
| 6 | TRAM |
Try at first taking sheep by public transport (4)
T ( Try, at first) RAM (sheep) |
| 7 | REDEEM |
Consider following soldiers to get back (6)
DEEM (consider) follwing RE (soldiers) |
| 8 | LARDER |
Fat queen found in pantry (6)
LARD (fat) ER (queen) |
| 11 | CLOTHES HORSE |
Dresses and stockings worn by Russia’s top fashion model (7-5)
CLOTHES (dresses) [ HOSE (stockings) around R (Russia’s top) ] – One more learning for the day. |
| 15 | REPLY |
Depend on receiving Penny’s answer (5)
RELY (depend) around P (penny) |
| 16 | CATCH |
A round clasp (5)
Double def. Round refers to the meaning of catch signifying a round, typically with words arranged to humorous effect. |
| 18 | BIG APPLE |
Heads of British industry look with amazement around Poland’s financial centre (3,5)
BI (heads of British Industry) [ GAPE (look with amazement) around PL (Poland) ] – New York |
| 19 | EGGSHELL |
Protective layer for example seen on German racing boat (8)
E.G. (for example) G (German) SHELL (racing boat) |
| 21 | GLOVER |
What John Shakespeare was extremely genteel about (6)
GL (extremely GenteeL) OVER (about) |
| 22 | MAGNUM |
Bottle shown by mother to grab unruly nag (6)
MUM (mother) containing anagram of NAG |
| 26 | TURN |
Change colour when shot (4)
Double def |
| 27 | LIVE |
Edges away from Cromwell perhaps to escape death (4)
oLIVEr (Cromwell perhaps, with edges removed. English military leader)
|
I think that the definition at 14ac is “lake” rather than “measure” – the piece of tubing to remove is “t”.
Was grateful for your help with the parsing of 16 & 26d. Thank you, Turbolegs.
Thanks Turbolegs and Peto,
I think 14ac is MERE – METRE – T(ubing).
It took a while for me to get CATCH at the end.
To be honest thought this was a bit on the easy side except for one or two harder and excellent clues such as 20ac 29ac.
The down sequence 6dn 7dn 8dn were particularly straightforward clues.
Enjoyable none the less, thanks Peto and Turbolegs
Thanks Peto and Turbolegs
Found this puzzle much easier than his last toughie back in January, still it was a very enjoyable solve. Finished in the SW corner with GLOVER and TURN the last couple in.
Saw a similar James Hunt clue in a Guardian puzzle (think by Enigmatist aka Io) late last year, where he had a whole theme around hunt words.
Turbolegs, I think that you are spot on with the IN (wearing) at 2d – I had a query with where the IN came from – but you have nailed it.
Had to look up a couple – didn’t know Hannah More, but did know of the BLUESTOCKINGS. Hadn’t heard of William’s dad John or that he was a GLOVER (quite a tough clue – almost impossible – without aids). Also was ignorant of Chaucer’s ‘wife of Bath’ until looking her up to confirm that she did in fact wear a WIMPLE after working it out from the cryptic part.
For me, Poins/Peto has become a setter to really look forward to.
I find his neat style, with its generally smooth surfaces and its (dare I say, nowadays?) technically sound constructions, very attractive.
As others said, this was not Peto’s hardest but I enjoyed it.
The only thing I didn’t understand was why IONA (as part of 17ac) was clued as ‘this island’.
Why ‘this’?
Many thanks turbolegs for your clear blog.
Thanks Turbolegs and Phi. Enjoyable, good stuff. I’m a bit late posting but maybe the answer to Sil@5 is that Iona is famous as a base for a religious community – so “this” rounds out the surface nicely.