The 10th October comes around and the weather feels more traditional. A crossword from Brunel – a new setter for me. Anything hidden in the hull I wonder?
Good fun with nothing hidden that I could find. Perhaps the legend is not true. A number of good homophones or homonyms depending on your preference.
16ac amused me, 14ac was ingenious, 8dn for its complexity of construction and 24dn for the surface were my pick of the clues.
Hopefully not the last puzzle I get to blog from Brunel but if the rumour of the Independent crossword’s demise are true, this may well be my last blog. It’s still my go to paper, not as great as it was in the late 80s/ 90s but still an interesting read. Been doing the crossword there since the first days of it too. Sad times indeed as the world dumbs itself down even further.
Key * anagram; DD double definition; underline definition; Rev. reversed
Across
1 Game up here when the shooting starts? (6,4)
Cryptic definition GROUSE MOOR
6 Little bit pale, lacking energy (4)
white (pale) – e (energy) = WHIT
10 Having big mouth, little fish eats bass (5)
goby (little fish) around b (bass) = GOBBY
11 Trace wrong steering component over the radio (9)
homophones of sin (wrong) + tiller(steering component) = SCINTILLA
12 Pieces of silver handled by disciples? (7,6)
Cryptic definition APOSTLE SPOONS
14 Inconsequential tinkering after volume decreases (8)
fiddling (tinkering) changing f(forte) to p (piano) = PIDDLING
16 Group hanky-panky? Offensive (6)
sex (hanky-panky) + tet (offensive) = SEXTET
18 Small number working for a European royal position (6)
three (small number) swapping on (working) for e (European) = THRONE
20 Meets costs (4,4)
DD RUNS INTO
22 Ground opal, the former material for shiny ornamentation (6-2-5)
(opal the former)* + MOTHER-OF-PEARL
26 8 exploded, blowing top – as once happened here? (9)
(transition – t)* = SANTORINI
27 My lord takes horse, a mighty steed (5)
sire (my lord) around h (horse) = SHIRE
28 Healthy locations permit cycling (4)
pass (permit) cycling = SPAS
29 Leave audible interconnected trail, perhaps, for sharp-eared predator (6,4)
desert (leave) + homophone of links (interconnected trail perhaps) = DESERT LYNX
Down
1 Old Bet‘s touch of grey heralds advancing years (4)
g (touch of grey) + age (advancing years) = GAGE
2 In agreement with director’s position (2,5)
DD ON BOARD
3 Choosy, asks selection to be held up for approval (3-2)
Rev. hidden choOSY ASks = SAY-SO
4 Cookware for, possibly, Tommy and Mike, arranged in small sets (4,4)
M(mike) + (in s sets)* = MESS TINS
5 Offer view, needing essentially too long (5)
o (essentially too) + pine (long) = OPINE
7 Reportedly sank putt on, say, eighteenth and last (4,3)
Homophone of holed out (sank putt) = HOLD OUT
8 Organised demo embraces nothing to support Trump’s lead in changing States (10)
ran sit in (organised demo) around o (nothing) after T (Trump’s lead) = TRANSITION
9 Bit of sticking plaster for shredding equipment used in office (8)
s (bit of sticking) + (plaster)* = STAPLERS
13 Is personification of India featured in free-form poems I set? (10)
(poems i set)* around I (India) = EPITOMISES
15 Knight, behold, impaling one with double-edged blade (8)
lo (behold) inside lancet (double edged blade) = LANCELOT
17 Photo capturing 50 wearing certain religious apparel (8)
pic (photo) around l (50) in sure (certain) = SURPLICE
19 Approximate time for filling area round building (7)
round (approximate) around t (time) + a (area) = ROTUNDA
21 Wipe out impact of yen in full meltdown (7)
(y in full)* = NULLIFY
23 Held over using methamphetamine (2,3)
DD ON ICE
24 No right to claim an advantage (5)
assert (claim) – r (right) = ASSET
25 Spy uncovered by people in 50s, maybe (3,1)
agent (spy) – at (uncovered) + x (by) = GEN X
Surely, THRONE is THREE with ON replacing the (first) E (European).
Beaten by the nho DESERT LYNX even though I had the second word. The necessary synonym for ‘leave’ wouldn’t come and the crossers did not inspire anything. Agree with Hovis ref THRONE. ASSET, my favourite clue today.
Thanks both
Battered this one into submission eventually. I wondered if a ‘mini’ theme might be emerging with WHIT, SCINTILLA and PIDDLING appearing early on, but nothing developed. Not helped by entering an unparsed STROMBOLI at 26, that’ll learn me.
I would appreciate enlightenment on twencelas’ choice of words in the preamble – “Anything hidden in the hull I wonder?” and “Perhaps the legend is not true”. Am I missing an allusion to something other than IKB’s ship building?
Thank you to both
Doofs – referring to a song by Sting in the Ballad of the Great Eastern alluding to bodies found in the Great Eastern’s hull – https://www.rousette.org.uk/archives/brunels-great-eastern/ – apologies way too cryptic. https://youtu.be/eaMQxDvfHEg?si=3FL6k7dbxrOkkbkm
I think 7d has to be HOLD OUT (rather than on), but I can’t for the life of me see what ‘say, eighteenth’ is doing. V tricky in places, this puzzle, but a good solve nonetheless, many thanks to both.
Totally agree miserableoldhack – have corrected my error. As to eighteenth not sure either other than it implies a golf course but where else to you sink a putt
An excellent puzzle, but I confess, I only got far too many from the definitions rather than the wordplay.
19(d) ROTUNDA: too many “rounds” in play.
7(d), too many words in play, for a golf round.
“Reportedly, sank putt on last”
I simply don’t get 1(d) GAGE. Though I stuck it in, thinking, I’m old and I’m GAGA.
It’s a very good puzzle, with some wonderful surface readings, but which didn’t quite click with me.
Thanks to both Brunel & twencelas
I was just one letter off getting full marks on this puzzle – I put in GROUSE MOON instead of GROUSE MOOR thinking it was a full moon that occurred on/around the 12th August (the Glorious Twelfth) when the grouse shooting season starts, but alas I was wrong
A few NHOs – SURPLICE, APOSTLE SPOONS and GAGE but not too difficult to work out from the wordplay (I say that, GAGE was my LOI and I needed both checking Gs to get it)
Favourite clue was PIDDLING for the clever wordplay about the volume decreasing (i.e. changing F to P)
Solid stuff from Brunel as ever – thanks to them and Twencelas
Does holing out imply finishing the game? I liked PIDDLING and SCINTILLA (sorry to those who pronounce the “r” at the end of “tiller”
To hole out is to sink a putt on any hole in golf. The eighteenth is the example (‘say’) used in the clue because it gives a sensible surface (being the last hole on the course).
Thanks to Brunel and twencelas
My golfing days are long since gone, but one “holes out”, ( i.e. you sink the final putt ), on every one of the 18 holes.
The eighteenth is the last hole, the 19th is the watering hole, but the clue doesn’t quite gel, with me.
New words I learned today: gobby, apostle spoons, gage
ENBoll&@7. I came hoping for enlightenment on Old Bet Gage having also bunged in GAGA to start with. Still none the wiser.
Thanks to Brunel and to twencelas for clearing up my other one which went in with a head scratch.
Apologies – Gage is as Chambers will verify is an old word for a wager / bet
n a pledge (); something thrown down as a challenge, esp a glove ().
vt to bind by pledge or security (); to offer as a guarantee (); to stake, wager (or ). obs or archaic
Gobby is a very common northern expression to cover an overly talkative person
Apostle spoons were new to me too
Lovely puzzle by Brunel, which I enjoyed. GAGE in its archaic sense of ‘pledge’ is found in the word MORTGAGE, literally a ‘dead pledge’. Which probably sounds familiar to those burdened by a mortgage which it seems they’ll never pay off in their lifetime.
I too struggled with my LOI, the DESERT part of DESERT LYNX.