A nice variety of clues from Neo today
The NE quadrant held me up for a while, and both TETRODE and MARTINGALE were unfamiliar to me.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CHARMER |
One seducing US singer reserves a room (7)
|
| CHER (US singer) around (reserves) {A + RM (room)} | ||
| 5 | TOEHOLD |
First established position to see bishop exiting (7)
|
| TO [B]EHOLD (to see) minus (exiting) B (bishop) | ||
| 9 | ETHER |
Subtract any number from lower number (5)
|
| [N]ETHER (lower) minus (subtract . . . from) N (any number) | ||
| 10 | EMPTINESS |
Vacancy M&S filled with essentially dippy case? (9)
|
| {EM (m) + ESS (s)} around (filled with) {middle letter of (essentially) [DI]P[PY] + TIN (case)} | ||
| 11 | VAMPIRE BAT |
Claret consumer in club following Siren and Fury (7,3)
|
| VAMP (siren) + IRE (fury) + BAT (club) | ||
| 12/6 | FIRE EXIT |
Burning issue (4,4)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 14 | AGE OF CONSENT |
This attained so one can get involved with female (3,2,7)
|
| &lit and anagram of (involved) {SO ONE CAN GET + F (female)} | ||
| 18 | FAMILY CIRCLE |
Blood group O? (6,6)
|
| Cryptic definition/&lit and FAMILY (blood group) + O (circle) | ||
| 21 | LARK |
Mad King Lear loses throne at last in play (4)
|
| Anagram of (mad) {K (king) + L[E]AR minus (loses) last letter of (at last) [THRON]E} | ||
| 22 | BLANK VERSE |
Poetry not written on very old language (5,5)
|
| BLANK (not written on) + V (very) + ERSE (old language) | ||
| 25 | EASY CHAIR |
Relax in this undemanding academic post (4,5)
|
| EASY (undemanding) + CHAIR (academic post) | ||
| 26 | NANCY |
Article recalled clubs in New York City (5)
|
| AN (article) reversed (recalled) + {C (clubs) inside (in) NY (New York)} | ||
| 27 | TETRODE |
Walked into Peg in the Tube (7)
|
| TROD (walked) inside (into) TEE (peg), with capitalization misdirections | ||
| 28 | EXAMPLE |
School test regularly applied pattern (7)
|
| EXAM (school test) + alternate letters of (regularly) [A]P[P]L[I]E[D] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CLEAVE |
Cell initially needing permission to divide (6)
|
| First letter of (initially) C[ELL] + LEAVE (permission) | ||
| 2 | AT HOME |
In moat he struggles (2,4)
|
| Anagram of (struggles) MOAT HE | ||
| 3 | MARTINGALE |
Swallow good beer going for broke at casino (10)
|
| MARTIN (swallow, i.e., the bird) + G (good) + ALE (beer) | ||
| 4 | REEVE |
Old magistrate once a Kent player? (5)
|
| Double definition, the second referring to Christopher Reeve, who played Clark Kent aka Superman | ||
| 5 | TAP DANCER |
Rapper on stage to milk a reindeer? (3,6)
|
| TAP (to milk) + DANCER ([one of Santa’s] reindeer), apparently referring to the percussive sound of the shoes | ||
| 7 | ONE-SIDED |
Partial description of Möbius strip (3-5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | DESSERTS |
Cobblers perhaps tense up (8)
|
| STRESSED (tense) inverted (up) | ||
| 13 | UNCLE VANYA |
Crazy lunacy having Welshman in Chekhov drama (5,5)
|
| Anagram of (crazy) LUNACY around (having) EVAN (Welshman) | ||
| 15 | OSCILLATE |
Liverpudlian singer in old set rewritten for swing? (9)
|
| CILLA [Black] (Liverpudlian singer) inside (in) {O (old) + anagram of (rewritten) SET} | ||
| 16 | AFFLUENT |
Waste initially cleared after a flush (8)
|
| A + [E]FFLUENT (waste) minus first letter (initially cleared) | ||
| 17 | SMART SET |
Sophisticated group examine sheep from below (5,3)
|
| {TEST (examine) + RAMS (sheep)} all inverted (from below) | ||
| 19 | PRE-NUP |
Rules of engagement? (3-3)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 20 | RETYPE |
Key again right with Jaguar model (6)
|
| R (right) + E-TYPE (Jaguar model) | ||
| 23 | NURSE |
Tend to course around Seine’s banks (5)
|
| RUN (course) inverted (around) + outside letters of (banks [of]) S[EIN]E | ||
| 24 | ECHO |
Parrot in Square Mile on horse with duck (4)
|
| EC (Square Mile, i.e., the City of London) + H (horse) + O (duck) |
Yes, the NE quarter held me up too until I got TOEHOLD.
It was a very enjoyable grid; my favourites being AFFLUENT for its fine surface, SMART SET, ETHER and RETYPE (not a family car, by any means, the e-type but somehow, my parents squished my siblings and I on the back seat of a BRG beauty on the long drive to Cornwall).
Thanks Neo and Cineraria.
Fun puzzle, ta both. Loi 12/6, took ages mentalphabetising to get the exit bit … dim!
[An e-type family car, @1Diane!! Groovy parents, I’m envious!]
[Alas, it was sold before the three of us reached double digits but young as we were, we knew it was special!]
[My uni gf had same lament — her mum had an early Porsche, worth a mint if she’d kept it]
I used to find Neo too much of a challenge but after the last two Neo puzzles I thought I had found the Neo “wavelength”. Not so. The whole top half defeated me today apart from 1d and 7, whereas I got the lower half quite easily. Strange.
[Grant @4, Also a fine head-turner, I’m sure. What a shame]
I took FAMILY CIRCLE as:
Definition: blood
Group = FAMILY (in its less literal senses) + O = CIRCLE
Thanks Neo and Cineraria. I am a bit late to the party today, having had a complete mental block on each of the perfectly sound clues at 5ac (TOEHOLD) and 8dn (DESSERTS).
12ac/6dn: not my favourite clue type, but that is an observation, not a complaint. When I eventually got the first letter of 6dn from my belated success at 5ac, the answer to this one was obvious enough.
18ac (FAMILY CIRCLE) I took the same way as mrpenney@7.
24dn: “Square Mile” for EC could perhaps be considered a bit obscure for crosswords in some other papers, but anyone attempting the Financial Times crossword should be familiar with it, or at least accept it as belonging to this paper.
Thanks Neo for a most satisfying crossword with my top picks being ETHER, AGE OF CONSENT, TETRODE, AT HOME, and SMART SET. I thought ‘claret consumer’ was a stretch for VAMPIRE BAT but it wouldn’t be a Neo puzzle without having to stretch my brain, one of the reasons I keep him on my ‘must do’ list. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , lots of clever wordplay and misleading definitions so just right for me .
Tony@9 , claret often used to mean blood in certain sports , boxing and rugby etc .
MARTINGALE actually a roulette system where you steadily win small amounts and are unlikely to lose unless you are extremely unlucky . The dictionaries are very vague and give the clue full cover .
This was fun. I liked FIRE EXIT and FAMILY CIRCLE. [An E-Type, how swish Diane! You’ve sent me back to the day my car industry uncle let us sit in a frankly unsafe position in his convertible in the mid 70s. Maybe a Jag, he worked for them, but I’d guess Alfa].
Thanks Neo and Cineraria.
Roz@ 10: Thanks. That was a bit of old slang I didn’t know.
In roulette the martingale is in fact extremely risky but players with no knowledge of statistics think it safe. Whenever a player loses a fifty fifty bet the stake is doubled. Sometimes works but over a period is fatal.
I didn’t know vampires drink claret, I always thought they drank blood. As for “martingale” – I wasn’t going to ever get that. I stopped trying to complete this after completing the NW corner in order to avoid losing my temper.
11ac: Further to Roz@10, Chambers 2016 p 290 has claret n blood (old sl). ODE 2010 p 320 has the same definition, marked “archaic, informal”.
Really enjoyed this, had six ticks and several “quite liked” clues in this. Neo definitely on my “to do” list.
From New York i ask simply: who the heck is Cilla and is it otherwise so common that he or she should appear as fair game in a crossword?
Anil@17: Cilla Black was an associate/protégée of the Beatles, a really dynamic singer, and a fixture of the UK entertainment industry for decades.