Kite rounds off the weekday puzzles
First of all, my apologies for a rather later than usual blog.
This is my fourth Kite blog in almost as many months, the previous three having been Prize puzzles. I could wish that this had been one, too, to give me more time to solve it and do the necessary research and pondering to work out all the parsing, since this attempt is woefully inadequate, I’m afraid. I was out at the theatre last night and decided to wait for the posting of the puzzle at midnight, so that I could at least solve it before going to bed for as much sleep as I could get, leaving the parsing until I woke up, as I always do, in the slightly later ‘early hours’ – except that this time I didn’t. When I did finally wake, there were some solutions that I couldn’t even remember having solved, let alone work out the parsing and so it’s over to you for several places where I just can’t see the word for the trees.
After ‘finishing’, I looked at the comments on the Guardian thread, as I often do when blogging, to see how the puzzle went down there and, reassuringly, gathered that others had had problems too – but, apparently there was an obvious theme, which had completely passed me by and I still can’t see it. This is a situation that I’ve had nightmares about for some time now: I think I’m just getting too old for this!
I know help will be readily at hand – as always, my thanks in advance, with a request to resist the temptation to simply repeat others’ suggestions / corrections, if you have nothing else to add.
Many thanks to Kite and my sincere apologies for not having done justice to his puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9 Moulding over very old fronts of library offices (5)
OVOLO
O (over) + V (very) + O (old) + L[ibrary] + O[ffices]
10 New mother, demure, has one jumper (9)
PRIMIPARA
PRIM (demure) + I (one) + PARA(trooper) (jumper) – I remembered that Kite gave us ‘nullipara’ in the July Prize puzzle, where I explained that PRIMIPARA meant ‘giving birth for the first time’
11 Study in location near to you reportedly burning and rendered unusable (9)
DENATURED
DEN (study) + AT (in location near to) + U (you reportedly) + RED (burning)
13 Getting French wine, no money left for room (7)
CHAMBER
I think this is CHAMBER[tin] (French wine) minus tin (money)
15 Revolutionary travelled around Cuba, a country in the Americas (7)
ECUADOR
A reversal (revolutionary) of RODE (travelled) round CU (Cuba) + A
17 Skirt has Northern material (5)
LINEN
LINE (skirt) + N (Northern)
18 Old monk, lacking energy, got the sack (3)
BED
(The Venerable) BED[e] minus e (energy)
20 That man will love getting to say this when meeting (5)
HELLO
HE’LL (that man will) + O (love)
22 Mother’s pet breed (7)
MASTIFF
MA’S (mother’s) + TIFF (pet)
25 Not out of Tamarindo or soda bottles? (7)
INDOORS
Hidden in (bottles) tamarINDO OR S[oda]
26 Picasso’s uncle follows artist in relationship (5)
RATIO
RA (artist) + TIO (Spanish for uncle, thus ‘Picasso’s’)
27 Hake, not initially hunted, loathe swimming in Californian water (4,5)
LAKE TAHOE
An anagram (swimming) of [h]AKE minus h[unted] + LOATHE
30 Vegetable growth after small tank’s opening, introducing discharged fluid (9)
SWEETCORN
CORN (growth) after S (small) + T[ank] round WEE (discharged fluid)
31 Duchess’s place bad, even though set back (5)
MALFI
MAL (bad) + a reversal (set back) of IF (even though) – reference to John Webster’s Jacobean tragedy
Down
1 Cross edge of field? (4)
FORD
F OR D (either ‘edge’ of field
2 Large quantity of Spooner’s urban people (8)
MOUNTAIN
I can’t even see the Spoonerism, beyond urban = town
3 State I left for job (4)
POST
POS[i]T (state, minus i)
4 Adam didn’t have one cut (5,3)
SPARE RIB
Double definition, the first a reference to this story
5 Mystery hole (6)
RIDDLE
Double definition? To riddle means to make full of holes
6 Had spasms: ill-treated, doc high, cure not right (10)
HICCOUGHED
An anagram (ill-treated) of DOC HIGH CU[r]E (not right)
7 Fashioned motor van’s first edition (6)
CARVED
CAR (motor) + V[an’s] + ED (edition)
8 Shock horror, at first express is behind (4)
HAIR
H[orror] + air (express)
13 Irish poet and Unesco luminary discovered (5)
COLUM
Hidden in unesCO LUMinary
14 Stripy birds, say, or marsupials (10)
BANDICOOTS
Sounds like ‘band-y’ – stripy + COOTS (birds)
19 Rodri in Paris perhaps knocking back a few (8)
DRINKING
I can’t see this one, I’m afraid: I found that Rodri is a Spanish footballer but I could get no further
21 Means of escape, quietly opening toilet shack (8)
LOOPHOLE
P (quietly) in LOO (toilet) HOLE (shack)
23 Kite’s one, replacing earlier English model (6)
SITTER
SETTER (Kite) with the first (earlier) e (English) replaced by i (one)
24 Guy, the Spanish Casanova, pulled up trousers (6)
FELLOW
A reversal (pulled up) of WOLF (Casanova) round (trousers) EL (the Spanish)
26, 16 Stays around dock, reviewing places to go in New York (4,5)
REST ROOMS
RESTS (stays) round a reversal (reviewing) of MOOR (dock)
28, 12 Having returned, throw out wrapper for Trump’s ‘super bad’ photo here? (4,5)
TIME COVER
A reversal (having returned) of EMIT (throw out) + COVER (wrapper) – a reference to this story – brilliant clue!
29 Blackboard turning up (4)
EVIL
A reversal (turning up) of LIVE – a crossword staple – but I can’t see how it works: I suspect a ‘lift and separate’, perhaps
I found this a bit of a mixed bag with some excellent clues but others felt a bit clunky. I didn’t know the Spanish for uncle but the solution was straightforward. Also a bit baffled by the DR in DRINKING although I did find a few DR Rodris online. I liked ECUADOR, MASTIFF, LAKE TAHOE, MALFI, BANDICOOTS, LOOPHOLE and the fiendish EVIL. I couldn’t parse CHAMBER but I parsed EVIL as splitting Black = Evil and board with LIVE going up as to live or board somewhere.
Ta Kite & Eileen.
New for me: OVOLO, poet Padraic COLUM, PRIMIPARA.
I couldn’t parse 13ac, 1d, 19d, 28d/12ac apart from rev of EMIT + COVER=wrapper and tbh I am so tired of seeing references to Trump in puzzles lately. For me, every photo of Trump is a bad photo 😉
I parsed 2d spoonerism as ‘town men’.
I agree with AlanC@1 re 29d EVIL = reverse of LIVE/board as in to board in a house/room/dorm.
Theme seems to be the central BED: I can see BEDFEĹLOW, BEDCHAMBER, BEDLINEN, BEDFORD, BEDSITTER and BEDEVIL and there are probably more.
Dr/in/king – ro(dr)i – dr in the french word for king?
Paris was of course KING of Troy but somukeru @4: that looks like a better option. Well spotted gladys.
Loads more, gladys @3. BEDTIME, BEDROOMS, BED COVER, BED REST, BEDPOST, plus SPARE BED and LAKE BED. That’s probably not all. Oh, and BED HAIR.
I had ROOD for 1D which just about works (as well as a cross it’s also a linear or square measure, so could conceivably be the edge of a field). Absolutely no idea on how to parse DRINKING. Quite a patchy puzzle.
RoDRi….king in Paris Roi, Dr surrounded
Dr…in ..king
Comment #9
Bed Rest, Bed Rooms Bed Time probably more.
Thamks S&B
Thanks to all so far (special thanks to gladys and Balfour!) – I knew I could count on you!
AlanC @5 – just to show I do still have one or two marbles: the king of Troy was PRIAM – Paris was his son. 🙂
My parsing doubts were exactly the same as Eileen’s, except that decided that MOUNTAIN must come from “town men”; it’s a bit stretchy and doesn’t quite work for me.
I too assumed blackboard was a divide-and-conquer. He lives/boards there, perhaps?
To RIDDLE is to hole excessively, so that one’s also a bit stretchy.
Kudos to those who parsed DRINKING; very clever!
Overall I too found this a bit patchy and in fact failed on the intersecting TIME (cover) the nho MALFI, plus alas the “para” part of PRIMIPARA.
Tx both
gladys@3 – thanks for pointing out the theme, and BALFOUR@6 for more theme words.
Also Panthes, thanks for parsing DRINKING.
Sorry Balfour @6 we crossed
Too much ‘bung and shrug’ to be enjoyable, I’m afraid.
Nice theme, though, if only if spotted it.
In 29D, I think black is evil here, a reversal of live, as in to live somewhere is where you board. So a lift and separate of blackboard, as you suggest.
Thanks Eileen and Kite.
Eileen @11: just checking 😉
Thanks Kite and Eileen
I had a remarkable number pencilled in because I wasn’t sure they were right, though they turned out to be so. First two were COLUM (never heard of him) and LINEN (why is LINE=skirt?)
I took EVIL as black, but board for live is very loose.
Didn’t really enjoy it all that much. FORD favourite.
Somukeru@4. I think you are right about 19D DRINKING and that is a very clever clue. Also agree with AlanC@1 re EVIL.
[Sorry, some of the earlier comments look to have been edited and expanded since I first saw them, so while scribbling away, albeit hurriedly, I ended up repeating a couple of things that had already been suggested.]
muffin@18, the queue lined/skirted the building, perhaps?
AP @20 – your comment was fine: sorry if I sounded a tad ‘schoolmarmy’!
I couldn’t see the spoonerism, but in retrospect I think “tounmen” sounds the same as “townmen” and “moun-ten” sounds (almost) the same as “mountain” in some accents so it seems OK.
CHAMBERY is also a French wine appellation (if not one I’d choose) so I just knocked off Y (Yen). Chambertin is classier.
Picasso was seemingly stillborn, but his TIO helped bring him to life by breathing cigar smoke on him – different times.
I had FORD, JOIN, FOIL and ROOD as potential crosses, dropping to two when I had the second crosser. FORD felt better, but I didn’t now why, thanks Eileen.
Chapeau to Somukeru @4 for DRINKING. I agree with other explanations shared. I was quite baffled by MELFI then suddenly looked up the exact word on a whim.
Thanks, Kite, contributors and especially Eileen – a self-deprecating but excellent job as usual.
I think many homophones stretch things too far and if 2d is meant to be one it is going beyond too far in my opinion.
Also do not like the equation of ‘black’ with ‘evil’ in 29d.
However, now it has been explained, 19d is brilliant.
@Martin @23
31a is MALFI (actually Malfy originally), not MELFI (see Webster)
Thank you for the blog, Eileen, it was enormously helpful and informative. If it’s any comfort, I’m always relieved when you admit to not fully parsing a clue – because that happens to me a lot! I don’t feel quite so dim if even the esteemed blogger is also having trouble…
This one was a curate’s egg for me: some clues were pleasing, others felt iffy. There were lots of guesses, few completed parsings and, looking back at my printed copy, I notice FFS has been scrawled here and there.
DRINKING was a totally unparsed guess: it even took me a while to understand somukeru’s explanation.
I know Crosswordland has low standards regarding Spoonerisms, but even so, surely there has to be a better way of clueing MOUNTAIN.
I’d not heard of OVOLO; fortunately I remembered “nullipara”, so PRIMIPARA was guessable.
I liked CHAMBER, REST ROOMS, RATIO, BED and LOOPHOLE.
I parsed EVIL in the same way as AlanC.
And, like Michelle, I’m utterly sick and tired of having Trump shoved in my face as often in crosswords as in daily life.
Is there no respite from that egregious character?
Just a typo Eagle @25 Thanks.
I found that really tough although surprised myself by completing it without aids or reveals. I would never have got the DRINKING parse if I sat here all day. Needed the blog for TIME COVER but then I did think the literal was just ‘picture here’.
Thanks Kite and Eileen
As someone who often complains about homophones, I actually thought 2d was fine. At least it didn’t involve non-rhoticity. Just goes to show.
MAL does not usually mean ‘bad’, according to Chambers (and no doubt other sources). It means badNESS.
Surely the Adam’s rib story implies that he did have one to spare, contrary to the clue.
Some clues (EVIL) make me think there is probably a way to justify virtually any answer to virtually any clue, given the correct enumeration.
Thanks to Eileen and all you faithful bloggers for the explanations. I found half of this a write-in and the other half impossible without word search and guesswork . And may I ask how many European languages I need to know to be able do Guardian cryptics? It’s getting a bit ridiculous😆
Chardonneret, I sympathise!
Not only European languages plus Latin, but also an understanding of the finer points of cricket, bridge, the Old and New Testament, Shakespeare’s plays, Victorian novels, footballers of all nationalities past and present, County Towns in Britain and State Capitals in America – and that the letter A can signify a plethora of different words that start with A.
I should get out more, but the next issue of Private Eye is due to arrive soon, and Cyclops is my favourite setter…
Just for balance, and to back up poc@29, the spoonerism at 2d worked perfectly for me – it was one of my first in.
Thanks to Kite and Eileen
The Spoonerism at 2D is a massive stretch for me and that’s absolutely fine as I am able to look past my own shabby accent to reach the solution.
I also had a lot of trouble with the parsing. Thanks to Eileen et al for that. I’m with William@15 – too much bung and shrug.
Missed the theme of course.
Liked that the lovely word BANDICOOTS got a look in so my favourite clue.
Thanks Kite and Eileen