An enjoyable but tough challenge from SOLOMON today
FF: 10 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DREAM |
King in the midst of struggling made aspirational vision (5)
|
| R ( king ) in [ MADE ]* | ||
| 4 | RECIPIENT |
He takes instructions, and the list of ingredients includes ‘one nut’s shell’ (9)
|
| [ RECIPE ( instructions and the list of ingredients ) containing I ( one ) ] NT ( NuT, shell of i.e. end characters ) | ||
| 9 | MOUSTACHE |
Hair of hard predator held back by its prey (9)
|
| [ reverse of H ( hard ) CAT ( predators ) ] in MOUSE ( prey ) | ||
| 10 | PANIC |
Flap I see on the back of utensil (5)
|
| PAN ( utensil ) I C ( see ) | ||
| 11 | TEWHIT |
Lapwing excavated tree with it (6)
|
| TE WH ( TreE, WitH, excavated i.e. without inner letters ) IT ; i had to get help to solve this as i didnt know what a lapwing was though i had enough crossers to figure out what the solution was likely to be | ||
| 12 | CARMINE |
Red vehicle goes ahead of Solomon’s (7)
|
| CAR ( vehicle ) MINE ( solomon’s ) | ||
| 14 | ERATO |
Judeo-Christian books are about mythical being (5)
|
| reverse of [ OT ( judeo-christian books ) ARE ] | ||
| 16 | ARTILLERY |
Weapons I will put inside vessel (9)
|
| I’LL ( i will ) in ARTERY ( vessel ) | ||
| 18 | ROTHERHAM |
Woman’s enthralled by rubbish actor in Yorkshire town (9)
|
| HER ( woman’s ) in [ ROT ( rubbish ) HAM ( actor ) ] | ||
| 21 | PATIO |
Exactly ten paving-stones? (5)
|
| PAT ( exact ) IO ( 10 ) | ||
| 22 | PUDDING |
Turn up before the start of dinner and ring for dessert (7)
|
| PU ( reverse of UP ) D ( Dinner, first letter of ) DING ( ring ) | ||
| 24 | TOSS-UP |
When a high turnover of cash is the deciding factor (4-2)
|
| cryptic def; loved the surface | ||
| 27 | LEARN |
Discover rake in the back of hovel nearby (5)
|
| not sure about the parse for this. wondered if it was R in LEAN ( rake does have a connotation of thin ) or if it was an anagram of ‘..hove[L NEAR]by..’ but couldnt do justice to the clue. surely someone can shed light. | ||
| 28 | WINNEBAGO |
Secure container kept inside new caravan (9)
|
| WIN ( secure ) [ BAG ( container ) in NEO ( new ) ] ; never heard of this word before and had to google it | ||
| 29 | SPARE TYRE |
Roll around the middle of party, dancing with beers, topless (5,4)
|
| [ PARTY bEERS ( topless i.e. without first letter ) ]* | ||
| 30 | FLEET |
Legends surrounding the origin of Liburnian ships (5)
|
| FEET ( legends ) around L ( Liburnian, first letter of ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DUMP |
Dirt tipped on top of ploughman’s ditch (4)
|
| [ reverse of MUD ( dirt ) ] P ( Ploughman, first letter ) | ||
| 2 | EXUBERANT |
Lively old colonist catches cab (9)
|
| [ EX ( old ) ANT ( colonist ) ] containing UBER ( cab ) | ||
| 3 | MATCH |
Go where the cat sat on empty couch (5)
|
| MAT ( where the cat sat ) CH ( CoucH, empty i.e. without inner letters ) | ||
| 4 | RICOTTA |
Prig discovered about to eat too much cheese (7)
|
| RI ( pRIg, discovered i.e. without end characters ) [ CA ( about ) containing OTT ( too much, over the top ) ] | ||
| 5 | CREW CUT |
King Charles going around with cute hairstyle (4,3)
|
| CR ( king charles ) [ W ( with ) CUTE ]* ; i dont think there is enough in the clue to suggest that CUTE cycles around W | ||
| 6 | PAPER CLIP |
Secretary put on a short video for wiry filing auxiliary (5,4)
|
| PA ( secretary ) PER ( a ) CLIP ( short video ) | ||
| 7 | ENNUI |
Rod leaves pants unironed, causing dissatisfaction (5)
|
| [ UNIroNEd ( without the letters of ROD ) ]* | ||
| 8 | TICKETY-BOO |
Penalty notice raised by second-in- command, ending in jumbo fine (7-3)
|
| TICKET ( penalty notice ) YB ( reverse of BY ) O ( cOmmand, second letter of ) O ( jumbO, ending of ) | ||
| 13 | METROPOLIS |
Fritz Lang film M is about troop wrestling with heartless evil (10)
|
| [ M IS ] containing [ TROOP EL ( EviL, heartless i.e without central characters ) ]* | ||
| 15 | OBEDIENCE |
Live and die repressed within after compliant following of the rules (9)
|
| [ BE ( live ) DIE ] in ONCE ( after ) | ||
| 17 | ENTOURAGE |
Those following, starting late, went today (9)
|
| wENT ( starting late i.e. without first letter ) OUR AGE ( today ) | ||
| 19 | HIGHWAY |
Taking a trip west on a county’s back road (7)
|
| HIGH ( taking a trip ) W ( west ) A Y ( countY, last letter of ) ; liked this surface too | ||
| 20 | MATINEE |
Turning up in the morning can be worthwhile — finally, one’s seen relatively early (7)
|
| MA ( reverse of AM – morning ) TIN ( can ) EE ( “..bE worthwhilE..”, last letters of ) | ||
| 23 | DRAMA |
Dead horny four-footer put on a show (5)
|
| D ( dead ) RAM ( horny four footer ) A | ||
| 25 | SHELF |
The lady left the base of cliff ledge (5)
|
| SHE ( the lady ) L ( left ) F ( clifF, last letter of ) | ||
| 26 | BOAT |
Crow species initially departing Noah’s Ark? (4)
|
| BOAsT ( crow, without S – Species, first letter of ) |
This one came surprisingly easily for me (with the exception of TEWHIT and to a lesser extent BOAT). I particularly liked TICKETY-BOO, PAPER CLIP, and SPARE TYRE, fun surfaces.
Thanks … but please can you further explain 24A … where is the high turnover of cash ?
And 30A … if Legends then feets or feats ??
Thanks 🙂
Thanks for the blog , really good set of clues with many nice ideas .
LEARN – rake in = EARN , back of hovel = L , nearby means at the front ( or back
LEARN
rake in=EARN
back of hovel=L
L near EARN
CREW CUT
WCUTE going around—>EW CUT
sarkow@2
TOSS-UP
A coin flipped high (high turn over of cash)
legends=leg ends
@sarklow #2:
When you toss a coin (cash), it turns over high in the air.
Legend meaning caption, perhaps at the foot of a map, say.
For 27 I had EARN (rake in) near L (back of hoveL)
– I see others have as well now
Hi.
Thanks for the explanations…legends … feet…love it :)))
I think that 27 is [hove]L plus EARN [‘rake in’]. A lot of tricky parsing in this puzzle but very enjoyable. Thank you, Solomon and Turbolegs.
I have 27A as EARN meaning ‘rake’, as in ‘I rake in £30 per hour’ after the L from hovel.
Some tricksy stuff in this one but glad I persevered to completion.
@sarklow: Feet are leg-ends.
Happy to complete this, though I didn’t fully parse a couple of the answers.
I liked TOSS-UP and the LEGENDS clue.
Comment #12
I gave up on this after completing the bottom half. I usually like the challenge of a Solomon but this was bloody awful. Feet = Legends, Pat = Exactly, Erato = mythical being. FFS.
Off to a slow start with this but gained momentum as time went on.
Some interesting ideas like that for PATIO (to have something ‘down pat’ means to learn it perfectly/ exactly) and a very neat surface for SHELF. TOSS-UP was another favourite. Came here to check ‘tewhit’ which I didn’t know.
Thanks to Solomon and Turbolegs.
Diane@14 , TEWHIT is Northern dialect . There are many names for lapwings , peewit is the most common .
Yet another difficult puzzle full of great clues & variety, yet with several stinkers. I ticked MOUSTACHE (clever, albeit difficult to solve) HIGHWAY, PUDDING and PATIO
Thanks for showing me how to parse OBEDIENCE and ENTOURAGE, and for explaining TOSS UP.
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs
Bobbie @13. Well you’re entitled to your opinion. Feet = leg-end is a bit of a cryptic chestnut, knowing something down pat is something I’ve heard many, many times, Erato is a mythical being. Personally, I thought it wasn’t too hard. Had to guess TEHWIT from wordplay and thought LEARN was pretty tough to see but the rest fell easily. One man’s meat …
Regarding “Pat” see Hamlet Act III Scene III line 73.
Sorry. I meant to add: Hamlet could have said “at this precise moment, just like this.” By using “Pat” he gets away with using a word of just three letters. Useful word.
I wanted 10 across to be “Pilaf” being an anagram of I FLAP and seeing as I always have rice stuck to my utensils when cooking. Personally I think it works better.