I am filling in for scchua today . . .
. . . on a Mudd that was perhaps a bit trickier than usual.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | POP OFF |
Leave father out (3,3)
|
| POP (father) + OFF (out) | ||
| 4 | MUTINEER |
Christian, say, can always set upon Greek character (8)
|
| MU (Greek character) + TIN (can) + E’ER (always), with “set upon” indicating the order of the wordplay, referring to Fletcher Christian | ||
| 10 | SOLDIER |
Regular bond has one committed (7)
|
| SOLDER (bond) around (has . . . committed) I (one) | ||
| 11 | SOJOURN |
Stay sharp squeezing juice of orange and lemon, finally (7)
|
| {SOUR (sharp) around (squeezing) OJ (juice of orange)} + last letter of (finally) [LEMO]N | ||
| 12 | IRON |
Smooth seaweed rolled over (4)
|
| NORI (seaweed) reversed (rolled over) | ||
| 13 | ASTOUNDING |
Hard to believe sun-god ain’t tanned! (10)
|
| Anagram of (tanned) SUN-GOD AIN’T | ||
| 16 | ON FIRE |
In the zone — and red-hot? (2,4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 17 | FLAT CAP |
Dull top hat (4,3)
|
| FLAT (dull) + CAP (top) | ||
| 20 | EGGHEAD |
Genius, he stuck in blunted knife, backwards! (7)
|
| HE inside (stuck in) DAGGE[R] (knife) minus last letter (blunted) and reversed (backwards) | ||
| 21 | VOLUME |
Sound publication (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | HATEMONGER |
Another gem proving fake, dislike merchant? (10)
|
| Anagram of (proving fake) ANOTHER GEM, with a slightly cryptic definition | ||
| 25 | ESPY |
See vampire bats slip away last of all (4)
|
| Last [letters] of all [of] [VAMPIR]E + [BAT]S + [SLI]P + [AWA]Y | ||
| 27 | SO-AND-SO |
Keep embroidering things, reportedly for little devil (2-3-2)
|
| Homophone of (reportedly) SEW AND SEW (keep embroidering things) | ||
| 29 | CHÂTEAU |
Drink and drink with posh wine-maker (7)
|
| CHA (drink) + TEA (drink) + U (posh) | ||
| 30 | OPPOSITE |
Facing work, ask about it (8)
|
| OP (work) + {POSE (ask) around (about) IT} | ||
| 31 | FELLAH |
Bloke tripped over, alack! (6)
|
| FELL (tripped over) + AH (alack) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | POSEIDON |
God poisoned converts (8)
|
| Anagram of (converts) POISONED | ||
| 2 | PILLOW FIGHT |
Stuffed, as the case may be — in this battle? (6,5)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 3 | FOIL |
Sword, perfect fit (4)
|
| Double definition, the second in the literary sense of “counterpart” | ||
| 5 | UNSPOILT |
Tulips on ground, immaculate (8)
|
| Anagram of (ground) TULIPS ON | ||
| 6 | INJUNCTION |
Order spaghetti spoon, last bits taken with fork (10)
|
| Last letters of (last bits [of]) [SPAGHETT]I + [SPOO]N + JUNCTION (fork) | ||
| 7 | EMU |
Bird featured in documentary running uphill (3)
|
| Hidden in (featured in) [DOC]UME[NTARY] inverted (running uphill) | ||
| 8 | RENEGE |
Cop out in Greene novel (6)
|
| Anagram of (novel) GREENE | ||
| 9 | BRASS |
Tubas etc, low musical range about right (5)
|
| BASS (low musical range) around (about) R (right) | ||
| 14 | IN A NUTSHELL |
Simply put, where kernel found? (2,1,8)
|
| Double/cryptic definition | ||
| 15 | ARCHIMEDES |
Old scientist shared mice out (10)
|
| Anagram of (out) SHARED MICE | ||
| 18 | RAINCOAT |
Villain has stolen a fashionable company garment (8)
|
| RAT (villain) around (has stolen) {A + IN (fashionable) + CO. (company)} | ||
| 19 | VERY MUCH |
Selfsame chum failing a lot (4,4)
|
| VERY (selfsame) + anagram of (failing) CHUM | ||
| 22 | PHYSIO |
Therapist, having skipped a page, so happy, I gathered (6)
|
| Anagram of (gathered) {SO + H[AP]PY minus (having skipped) [A + P (page)] + I} | ||
| 23 | PERCH |
Land fish (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | MARE |
Tethered by groom, a retired horse (4)
|
| Hidden in (tethered by) [GROO]M A RE[TIRED] | ||
| 28 | ALP |
Mountain pass left alone, initially, when climbing (3)
|
| First letters of (initially) P[ASS] L[EFT] A[LONE] inverted (when climbing) |
Liked SOJOURN, HATEMONGER (nice def!!!) and PILLOW FIGHT (for the stuffed case).
Thanks Mudd and Cineraria (great blog).
Enjoyable overall. I found it fairly easy going, although it took a glass of red to sort out the last three answers.
As is often the case with Mudd, I had lots of ticks. I liked PERCH and lovedCHATEAU, MUTINEER, ASTOUNDING and POSEIDON. I thought IRON was clever.
I could not parse FOIL (and I am afraid I still do not see how counterpart = perfect fit), nor INJUNCTION. With great respect to KVa@1, does anyone actually say “dislike merchant”? And I thought there were a few very suspect synonyms.
Thanks Mudd and Cineraria
Martyn@2
Collins
FOIL
If you refer to one thing or person as a foil for another, you approve of the fact that they contrast with each other and go well together, often in a way that makes the second thing or person seem better or less harmful.
He thought of her serenity as a foil for his intemperance.
A cold beer is the perfect foil for a curry.
INJUNCTION is a legal order by a court, I think.
HATEMONGER
‘dislike merchant’ with a ? is a nice (slightly as the blogger says) cryptic def, I thought.
The surface leads us to a verbal phrase. Nice deception. No?
Thanks KVa@3 for FOIL – it is starting to make sense.
I actually understood the meaning of INJUNCTION and Cineraria’s parsing, and apologise if I wrote about it in a misleading way.
Easy at first but harder to finish. Liked unspoilt. Thanks both!
In a nutshell, not a dud in this Mudd, 100% excellent clueing. Loved it.
Great blog too, Cineraria. 1.35 am? That’s dedication above and beyond!
Thanks both. I found this one an odd – but fun – mix, with quite a lot of clues being very straightforward, and then a few holding me up for ages. Particularly liked CHATEAU – can’t believe I’ve never spotted the CHA/TEA thing there before – and ASTOUNDING. I parsed FOIL as in counterfoil, but your parsing it in the literary sense is almost certainly what was intended.
Very enjoyable challenge. Liked decoding Mutineer. Also appreciated the steer towards Injunction by the inclusion of spaghetti in the clue, referencing the famous UK motorway tangle.
We just about got it all, but couldn’t decide if 16ac was ON FIRE oe ‘on form’ – someone on form could conceivably be said to be both ‘in the zone’ and ‘red hot’. Otherwise no problems despite it being a bit tricky in places.
Thanks, Mudd and Cineraria.
Caroline @8 – maybe the ‘motorway tangle’ should be ‘infamous’?
Got there but took a bit longer than the standard Mudd. Some excellent clues which have been mentioned already. Soldier was my LOI, after getting a bit stuck in the top left hand corner, not least because I wasn’t convinced initially that Foil was the correct answer for 3d.
Thank you to all
Like others, I started briskly before a noticeable deceleration. No complaints though, I liked it.
I liked HATEMONGER (I dislike Amazon), MUTINEER and EGGHEAD (eventually!).
Thanks Mudd and Cineraria for going above and beyond.
Ian @6: Cineraria lives Stateside (i have never seen him saying exactly where), so 1:35 am BST is a pleasant early- to mid-evening hour here. (8:35 on the east coast, 5:35 on the west).
On the other hand, solving the puzzle and doing the blog in just 95 minutes is impressive no matter what time zone you’re in. If it were me, the writeup alone would take over an hour!
MrP @12 Great to just hear from you! I’ve been missing your wise words.
Pretty much a pen in. Bring on Paul! (I’m going to regret that, I’m sure!)