A headscratcher from NEO this Friday!
FF: 8 DD; 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | THREE MEN IN A BOAT |
Amusing work from coxed pair? (5,3,2,1,4)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 9 | ANNULET |
Ring to cancel engagement on vacation (7)
|
| ANNUL ( cancel ) ET ( EngagemenT, on vacation i.e. without inner letters ) | ||
| 10 | LENIN |
£9 sent back for Bolshevik (5)
|
L ( £ ) [ reverse NINE ( 9 ) ] |
||
| 11 | HANOI |
Heroin around periodically in or near Asian city (5)
|
| H ( heroin ) [ reverse of “..In Or NeAr..” ] | ||
| 12 | PROVERB |
Restrain dog with lead, or let sleeping dogs lie? (7)
|
| ROVER ( dog ) in PB ( lead, plumbum ) | ||
| 13 | SNAKE |
Wind in southern plain daughters must leave (5)
|
| S ( southern ) NAKEd ( plain, without D – daughters ) | ||
| 16 | METAMORPHOSES |
Changes M&S trousers for partner returning stockings (13)
|
| MS containing [ { reverse of PRO ( for ) MATE ( partner ) } HOSE ( stockings ) ] | ||
| 20 | IMAMS |
Faith leaders in bed wear, but not judges (5)
|
| jIMjAMS ( bed wear, without J J – judges ) | ||
| 21 | RATAFIA |
Fruity cordial administered initially if a sailor returns (7)
|
| reverse of [ A ( Administered, initially ) IF A TAR ( sailor ) ] | ||
| 23 | INDRA |
Sky god right to replace second one in populous nation (5)
|
| R ( right ) replacing the second I ( one ) in INDiA ( populous nation ) | ||
| 25 | MAYAN |
Month needed with an early South American (5)
|
| MAY ( month ) AN | ||
| 27 | LEAFLET |
Flotilla on river dropping an English handout (7)
|
| LEA ( river ) FLEeT ( flotilla, without E, English ) | ||
| 28 | NORTHANGER ABBEY |
Novel, novel by A. Bronte, describing hot temper (10,5)
|
| [ BY A BRONTE ]* containing [ H ( hot ) ANGER ( temper ) ] ; jane austen work | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | GRAND OPERA |
Fondler touring with American musical show (5,5)
|
| [ GROPER ( fondler ) containing AND ( with ) ] A ( american ) | ||
| 2 | WELLIE |
Boot that is needed after flood? (6)
|
| &lit; WELL ( boot ) IE ( that is ) | ||
| 3 | DEATHBLOW |
Black inside, nasty old wheat in lethal buffet (9)
|
| B ( black ) in [ OLD WHEAT ]* | ||
| 4 | DIVAN |
Duke, Russian who was terrible in bed? (5)
|
| D ( duke ) IVAN ( russian who was terrible ) | ||
| 5 | CALLISTO |
Telephone first love — beautiful nymph (8)
|
| CALL ( telephone ) IST ( first ) O ( love ) | ||
| 6 | BONN |
P-personage travelling north for city on Rhine (4)
|
| N-NOB ( p-personage ) reversed ( travelling north, in a down clue ) | ||
| 7 | STINKER |
‘Second fiddle’ in fiendishly difficult crossword? (7)
|
| S ( second ) TINKER ( fiddle ) | ||
| 8 | TRAMPS |
Vagrants pee in public transport vehicles (6)
|
| P ( pee ) in TRAMS ( public transport vehicles ) | ||
| 14 | ACE OF CLUBS |
Really good caddie perhaps one in black suit (3,2,5)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 15 | SPIRALLED |
Upset about Gunners increased dramatically (9)
|
| SPILLED ( upset ) around RA ( gunners ) | ||
| 17 | ABSINTHE |
Drunk bathes in booze (8)
|
| [ BATHES IN ]* | ||
| 18 | PIGMENT |
FBI agents sent into Hell — it could be red (7)
|
| G-MEN ( fbi agents ) in PIT ( hell ) | ||
| 19 | PANTRY |
Food store in which ferret keeps insect (6)
|
| PRY ( ferret ) containing ANT ( insect ) | ||
| 22 | TO A MAN |
Old woman in NATO trained one and all (2,1,3)
|
| MA ( old woman ) in [ NATO ]* | ||
| 24 | DONNE |
Poet finished penning note (5)
|
| DONE ( finished ) containing N ( note ) ; solved with the parse, having no clue who the poet was | ||
| 26 | YARN |
Story that can be spun out? (4)
|
| double def |
John DONNE is worth reading – he coined “no man is an island”. I’ve read the other two books mentioned too, so this was in my general knowledge and I didn’t find it much of a headscratcher. I thought ABSINTHE was particularly neat
Thank you to Neo and Turbolegs.
THREE MEN IN A BOAT is also worth reading, albeit with a somewhat different tone to John Donne. A very nice start otherwise an enjoyable crossword with only DEATHBLOW, GRAND OPERA and PIGMENT slowing me down at the end. Nice to see GMEN being used as it should. ANNULET, CALLISTO, STINKER and TRAMPS my faves.
Thanks both
Yesterday’s puzzle was found to be easy by some and I confessed to finding it a challenge. Today, Turbolegs called this a headscratcher yet for me, it was a matter of minutes! All a question of wavelength and which side of the bed I get out of!
Anyway, I thought this was a lovely puzzle and I especially liked Northanger Abbey.
Thanks to Neo and Turbolegs (particularly for parsing SPIRALLED. I didn’t see ‘spilled ‘ as I was too busy trying to make Arsenal work).
My faves:
T M I A BOAT, LEAFLET, DEATHBLOW, ACE OF CLUBS and PIGMENT.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs.
[Postmark@2 Three men in a Boat I’m banned from trying to read aloud, I know I can’t read Three Men on the Brummel aloud, I give up with the bike preparation.]
This took a bit of work but I got there in the end. Three Men in a Boat is one of my comfort reads; I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read it, or re-read passages from it. A work of comic genius. That went in with the other two long book titles pretty quickly – especially and coincidentally since I am currently reading Ovid – but then things slowed down a bit, although it was all fairly straightforward (once the pennies dropped). Thanks to Neo and Turbolegs.
The MAYAN was a Central American. Perhaps a south American, but “South American” seems off by miles. Three or four countries in fact.
Totally agree Diana @3 this was an enjoyable and solvable puzzle and yesterday’s was more tricky for me than for others.
Some great clues esp proverb, metamorphoses, northanger abbey, divan.
Needed help with WELLIE. In SNAKE, I was looking for a word for “plain” with two Ds (“daughters”) – should have been “daughter” probably? Agree with Reg@7 on MAYAN.
I particularly liked ACE OF CLUBS. Not sure what “coxed pair” means in TMIAB – is it somehow a reference to Jerome Jerome? Jorums (for me) PANTRY, N.ABBEY, RATAFIA… Thanks Neo and Turbolegs!
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
Layman @ 9
d = daughter(s) is a standard abbreviation in genealogy – eg so-and so, 1s 2d.
A coxed pair is two men in a boat with a cox, as opposed to two men in a boat without a cox.
Simon S @10, thanks a lot, clear!
I found this a mix of easy and difficult clues. NHO THREE MEN IN A BOAT, but it was my FOI! Sounds like I should read it. Liked DIVAN, PANTRY, and ACE OF CLUBS
I could not parse several clues, some needing knowledge I do not have (eg never heard of JIMAMS or G-MEN) and the error in MAYAN slowed me where I did have the knowledge.
While I think the clue is funny, I do wonder whether anyone in the last 20 years has actually said “Fiendishly difficult crossword” or “the crossword was a STINKER”?
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
We didn’t need too much headscratching and this certainly wasn’t a 7dn. 1ac was a write-in although 28ac needed a little thought. 16ac was our LOI. Lots to enjoy, such as PROVERB, IMAMS, CALLISTO and SPIRALLED.
Thanks, Neo and Turbolegs.
Never got METAMORPHOSES because I was always looking at the wrong side of the clue for the definition! Nice diverting surface! Thank you oriel and neo and all.
Thanks Neo for an intelligent crossword that was fun as well. I missed INDRA by writing in an unparsed INDIA and couldn’t parse BONN & LEAFLET but I managed all else. Favourites included GRAND OPERA, TRAMPS, & ABSINTHE, all with surfaces to my liking. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
You have to admire Neo’s cultural breadth Three Men in a Boat to Callisto via John Donne. A day to take me back to my humour loving youth, with Jerome K Jerome here and P.G. Wodehouse elsewhere.
I was done by Chambers for MAYAN then: ‘A S American people of Central America and S Mexico who developed a remarkable pre-Columbian civilization’. Colombia is between Ecuador and Venezuela which would appear to be in South America, but they’re defined elsewhere as mesoamerican. Gah. Anyone know for sure?
Thanks all et Turbs.
25ac responding to Neo@17: It is certainly not clear what Chambers means by “A S American people”, but they definitely are not claiming that Mayans lived in what is now called South America, as they give the correct location of Mayans as “Central America and S Mexico”. I think “pre-Columbian” means before Columbus sailed in 1492 to meet some of the descendants of the people who really discovered America by crossing the Bering Strait.
I’d just add that I think WELLIE is well/flood plus ie, boot as definition, as well as an &Lit?
George @19: I think you are right that the wordplay in 2dn is WELL (flood) plus IE. However, I think there can only be one definition in the clue, either the whole clue or “boot” on its own, my preference being for the whole clue, including the question mark at the end to indicate a definition by example. Counting the whole clue as a definition as well as taking “boot” as a definition on its own would, in my view, be a bit like saying that the clue for 11ac HANOI contains two definitions, “city” on its own as well as “Asian city”.
Loved this crossword! Enjoyed being reminded of many great works, and lots of humour and elegance in the clues.
And for the record we would be often found referring to an extremely difficult crossword ( certainly not this one) as a stinker….i think notably our first attempt at the listener crossword in which we solved 2 clues after a week of trying!
And in Mrs Ps mind the American continent is divided in to two halves, the bit above the constriction being North America and the bit below being South America…. whatever the technical geographic definition given by the more learned other half.
Thanks Pelham.
Chambers ducks out of pre-Columbian, defining only Columbian, which it says means ‘relating to the United States; American’. Collins says ‘relating to the Americas before they were discovered by Columbus’. (I think sapiens had been there for a very long time before Columbus ‘discovered’ the Americas, but there we are.)
So: what? As pre-Columbian evidently doesn’t mean pre-Colombian, I’m editing that definition, even where a trawl of certain websites reveals a number of clues using the ‘S American’ idea.
Neo@23: Thanks for coming back on MAYAN. I should have gone to ODE or the Concise Oxford for pre-Columbian, where I would have found “relating to the history and cultures of the Americas before the arrival of (Christopher) Columbus in 1492”. (ODE does not include “Christopher”.) I am glad to see they have avoided the word “discovery”. As I am sure you have realised, if you had left “South” out of the clue, there would be no possible grounds for complaint.