Good to see Kairos again; it’s a while since he lined up with my blog schedule.
Plenty to enjoy here, particularly the two long entries across the middle (a well-found anagram and a slightly sneaky abbreviation/expansion construct). I also liked the improbable language in the Times, the pointless poem, the misdirection of Ma providing a toy, and the non-masculine footwear. My only niggle is in 4d, because (as I’ve said before) I maintain that double definitions should have two independent meanings, not one obviously derived from the other.
There are a few references to classical music in the clues, but after filling in the first row of across entries I was heading in a different direction, towards Oasis in the 1990s and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? In fact we need to look at the first two rows, giving us the theme song of the children’s TV series Balamory: it’s originally from the early 2000s, the relevant “story” presumably being that it’s currently being revived after a 20-year break. Let’s just say I’m closer to the Oasis generation than the Balamory one. Thanks Kairos for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WATTS |
Needs time for new power measurement (5)
|
| WA[n]TS (in the sense of “is lacking” = needs), with T (abbreviation for time) replacing N (abbreviation for new).
Scientific unit of power, commonly used for electrical power. |
||
| 4 | THIS |
Indicated item belonging to ancient history (4)
|
| Hidden answer (belonging to . . .) in [ancien]T HIS[tory]. | ||
| 6 | TORY |
Politician closed railway (4)
|
| TO (closed, as in “pull the door to”) + RY (abbreviation for railway).
Short name for a Conservative politician. |
||
| 10 | INN |
Local Nordic people banning outsiders (3)
|
| [f]INN[s] (people from the Nordic country of Finland), without the outer letters.
Local = informal name for a nearby pub, as in “it’s my local” = inn. |
||
| 11 | BALLY |
Times describes everyone as “damned” (5)
|
| BY (times = multiplied by, as in “3 by 2”), around (describing) ALL (everyone).
Bally, as in “the bally thing doesn’t work” = a rather old-fashioned swear word, probably milder than “damned”. |
||
| 12 | MORAY |
Fish ethically removed from lakes – quite the reverse (5)
|
| The classic “quite the reverse” construction: it means we have to remove LL (two L = abbreviation for lake) from MORA[ll]Y (ethically), not the other way around as the clue initially suggests.
Otherwise known as a moray eel. |
||
| 13 | EULER |
Algebra oddly omitted by European University mathematician (5)
|
| [a]L[g]E[b]R[a] with the odd-numbered letters omitted, after E (abbreviation for European) + U (abbreviation for university).
Leonhard Euler, 18th-century Swiss mathematician. |
||
| 14 | SOLITUDE |
Anxiety leaving Channel Islands in the absence of company (8)
|
| SOLI[ci]TUDE (anxiety or concern), leaving out CI (abbreviation for Channel Islands). | ||
| 16 | EVERY NOW AND THEN |
Henry wanted oven adjusted periodically (5,3,3,4)
|
| Anagram (adjusted) of HENRY WANTED OVEN. | ||
| 20 | ATTORNEY GENERAL |
Lawyer who briefly represents German company (8,7)
|
| AG is an abbreviation (briefly) for Attorney General; it’s also an abbreviation for the German term Aktiengesellschaft, the equivalent of “public limited company” in the UK, often seen after company names as in “Siemens AG”. | ||
| 23 | DOMINEER |
Arrogantly command activist to carry bomb (8)
|
| DOER (someone who does things = activist), containing MINE (explosive device = bomb). | ||
| 26 | COOMB |
My storage unit in valley (5)
|
| COO (my! = an expression of surprise) + MB (abbreviation for megabyte = unit of computer storage capacity).
Also spelled combe (or “cwm” in Welsh), especially in place names: a valley. |
||
| 29 | MIDGE |
Small tailless pest (5)
|
| MIDGE[t] (as an adjective = unusually small), without the last letter (tail).
An annoying biting insect. |
||
| 30 | GLASS |
Almost expressionless composer (5)
|
| GLASS[y] (describing someone’s eyes: not showing any emotion or awareness), without the last letter (almost).
US classical composer and pianist Philip Glass (born 1937). |
||
| 31 | EGO |
Self esteem of love god (3)
|
| Hidden answer (of . . .) in [lov]E GO[d]. | ||
| 32 | TERN |
Reportedly go off to see flier (4)
|
| Sound-alike (reportedly) of TURN (go off = become unfit to eat, as in “this milk has turned”). Or as in “turn left” = take a side road off a main route.
A seabird = something that flies. |
||
| 33 | ARMS |
Cockney damages weapons (4)
|
| Cockney pronunciation (dropping the initial H sound) of HARMS = damages. | ||
| 34 | AUNTS |
Outings without Jack’s relatives (5)
|
| [j]AUNTS (outings = short journeys for pleasure), without J (abbreviation for jack in card games). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WHITE METAL |
Alloy Matthew and Eli smelted (5,5)
|
| Anagram (smelted = processed by melting) of MATTHEW + ELI.
A metal alloy used in imitation of silver or as a base for silver-plated items. (The term is also used in the antiques trade for items that are recognised as silver but do not carry standard British hallmarks.) |
||
| 2 | TONAL |
Two notes, one endlessly rising, using conventional harmony (5)
|
| LA (a note in the musical sol-fa scale) + NOT[e] without the last letter (endlessly), all reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue). | ||
| 3 | SOBERLY |
Seriously very well-built, we hear (7)
|
| SO (very) + sound-alike (we hear) of BURLY (well-built = big and muscular). | ||
| 4 | TELESCOPE |
Crush an optical instrument (9)
|
| Double definition, though it’s what I think of as one-and-a-half definitions: the first meaning (to compress on impact into a shorter length) is clearly derived from the second (an optical instrument typically consisting of concentric tubes that can be pushed into each other for storage). | ||
| 5 | IDYLL |
Poem your setter would loudly call pointless (5)
|
| I’D (contraction of “I would”, as spoken by our crossword setter) + Y[e]LL (shout = loudly call) without the E (abbreviation for East, a point of the compass).
A poem describing an idealised view of rural life. |
||
| 7 | OARED |
Audibly amazed to be provided with blades (5)
|
| Sound-alike (audibly) of AWED (amazed).
Describing a boat propelled by oars (blades) instead of sails or engine power. |
||
| 8 | YO-YO |
Ma, possibly, gets you toy (2-2)
|
| Double definition. The Chinese-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma; or a toy consisting of a wheel on a string. | ||
| 9 | EMOTED |
Showed strong feelings when first duke departs reduced in rank (6)
|
| [d]EMOTED (reduced in rank), with the first D (abbreviation for duke) taken away. | ||
| 15 | ANKLE BOOTS |
Perhaps not a bloke’s type of footwear (5,5)
|
| Anagram (perhaps) of NOT A BLOKE’S.
Ankle-high boots, either functional (for example workwear or walking boots) or as fashion items. |
||
| 17 | EST |
In short established a psychological training programme (3)
|
| Double definition. The first is an abbreviation for established, in giving the date at which a business or institution was founded. I think the second refers to Erhard Seminars Training, abbreviated to est, a somewhat controversial programme from the 70s and 80s. | ||
| 18 | ALGERIANS |
25D confused Mr. Hislop’s country-folk (9)
|
| Anagram (confused) of ELGAR (25d), then IAN’S (belonging to Ian Hislop, British journalist, satirist and television personality).
Folk from the country of Algeria. |
||
| 19 | HER |
Picture of goddess scratching bottom (3)
|
| HER[a] (Ancient Greek goddess) with the last letter (bottom, in a down clue) scratched (removed).
Picture = film, in this case a 2013 sci-fi film about an AI system with a female voice. |
||
| 21 | RAIDER |
Pirate king and queen capturing assistant (6)
|
| R (an abbreviation for king, from Latin Rex) + R (also an abbreviation for queen, from Latin Regina), containing AIDE (assistant). | ||
| 22 | NICOSIA |
Revolutionary top socialist in capital (7)
|
| AI (A1 = the best = top) + SOC (abbreviation for socialist) + IN (from clue text), all reversed (revolutionary).
Capital city of Cyprus. |
||
| 24 | ORDER |
Type of rook entering river (5)
|
| R (abbreviation for rook, in chess notation) inserted into ODER (a river in central Europe).
Order, as a noun = type = classification. |
||
| 25 | ELGAR |
Tease the French over composer (5)
|
| RAG (as a verb = tease) + LE (a form of “the” in French), all reversed (over).
Composer Edward Elgar. |
||
| 27 | OCEAN |
Main part of our home (5)
|
| Cryptic definition. The sea as part of our home planet Earth, with “main” either as an archaic / poetic term for sea or indicating the fact that a majority of the Earth’s surface is covered by sea. | ||
| 28 | SMUT |
Primarily salacious material used titillatingly (4)
|
| First letters (primarily) of S[alacious] M[aterial] U[sed] T[itillatingly].
Clue-as-definition: slang for sexually provocative writing and/or images. |
A bit chewy but got there in the end, though I had to come here to find out why the answers were ATTORNEY GENERAL. SOLITUDE, and why TO meant CLOSED,
In the Lake District combe is a hill eg Black Combe
When setters come up with the likes of EST and HER, not to mention OCEAN, as clued, I lose the will to even bother.
Not so much, Balamory, more like Pointless.
And, no, “I wouldn’t like to know”.
Haven’t heard of the film HER but I got it from the goddess. I thought the theme was pretty clever although I was wondering whether Miles Jupp and co would be popping up in the bottom half of the grid somewhere.
A lovely offering from Kairos for this hot day
Didn’t spot the Nina – I was too old for Balamory when it first aired (9/10) but I heard a lot about it at the time
I was convinced that 4D was an anagram – ‘an optical’ is 9 letters and ‘crush’ seemed to me a likely anagrind, so when I got the S from SOLITUDE I thought ‘hang on, have I gone wrong?’ but then I thought about it for a minute and then realised it was a double definition and that I vaguely remember from a puzzle a while back about the crushing meaning of ‘telescope’
Hadn’t heard of the German term AG or EST for the psychological training programme, and wondered why HER meant picture until I came here and read the blog and realised it was the film
Thanks Kairos and Q
I didn’t expect to finish that, it was not easy (although I got one letter wrong in the TELESCOPE clue because I thought it would end in -ONE like idiophone etc.), but it was still undoubtedly fun.
I’m not a fan of purely-cryptic-definition clues like for OCEAN, but nevertheless I did get it before seeing this blog post (and I thought of Quirister’s second interpretation for “main”). There were also a few clues I didn’t get which is why the blog posts remain helpful as always.
Thanks Kairos for the entertainment and Quirister for the enlightenment!
Thanks both. Liked the Nina homophone more than I did SOBERLY (wouldn’t say it as suggested even drunkenly) and had misgivings already referenced about HER and EST, plus I’m struggling to be convinced in ANKLE BOOTS that ‘perhaps’ serves as an anagram indicator, though doubtless it’s been used before.