Liari starts the week in the Indy.
And an appropriately amenable puzzle it turned out to be. Nothing too demanding, though if I were to be slightly critical I’d say rather too many of the clues depended on the removal or addition of first or last letters, but that really is just a quibble. My favourites this time round: BUTCHER, MOOSE and CARPACCIO.
And that’s it for me, I believe, as this is my last scheduled Indy blog before they dump the crossies. So, many thanks to Liari for making it fun and I hope we’ll be seeing more of you as Pavo in the Guardian in future. It only remains for me to consult moh’s cruciverbal hardness-scale rating meter, which tells me this was… Gypsum.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BRAD |
Rotten around head of rusty nail (4)
|
| BAD around R[usty] | ||
| 3 | GAME |
Possibly go empty garage outside before noon (4)
|
| G[arag]E around AM (ante meridiem). The game Go would normally be capitalised, of course. Is anyone bothered that it isn’t? I’m really not | ||
| 6 | RACED |
Bolted door in the back with nail and deadlock at first (5)
|
| [doo]R + ACE (nail, as in aced/nailed it) + D[eadlock] | ||
| 9 | SECRETARY |
Assistant‘s private call about becoming associate (9)
|
| SECRET (private) and [c]RY (call) with the C changed to an A (about becoming associate) | ||
| 11 | LYRIC |
Extremely rickety houses having a light tone (5)
|
| Hidden in (…houses) extremeLY RICkety | ||
| 12 | BUTCHER |
Killer singer at end of bar (7)
|
| CHER (singer) after BUT (bar, except) | ||
| 13 | THERAPY |
Those people accepting blame for how some are treated? (7)
|
| THEY (those people) around (accepting) RAP | ||
| 14 | LADY |
Woman in station embracing daughter (4)
|
| LAY (station, place as a verb) around (embracing) D | ||
| 16 | OBLIGE |
Over 50 invading large Eastern force (6)
|
| O (over) + L (50) inside (invading) BIG (large) + E (eastern) | ||
| 18 | COW |
Bully with threatening look taking off jacket (3)
|
| [s]COW[l] | ||
| 21 | SUM |
Greek characters written around bottom of some columns? (3)
|
| Reversal (written around) of MUS (Greek characters). The columns in question are columns of numbers to be added together | ||
| 22 | ITCHES |
Problems Henry covered up causing rash reactions (6)
|
| [h]ITCHES (problems with the H removed) | ||
| 23 | LOVE |
It’s nothing, sweetheart (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | SEAGULL |
Swallow almost captured by ocean predator that scavenges near the shore (7)
|
| GUL[p] inside (swallow almost captured by) SEAL | ||
| 27 | ANALYST |
One who examines worker eating crumbled Lays (7)
|
| ANT (worker) around (eating) anagram (crumbled) of LAYS | ||
| 29 | MOOSE |
Animal doctor poses naked (5)
|
| MO (doctor) + [p]OSE[s] | ||
| 30 | RECHERCHE |
Peculiar misplaced cheer right before Taps note (9)
|
| Anagram (misplaced) of CHEER + R + CH (cold and hot, so Taps) + E | ||
| 31 | EARLY |
Almost failing to start ahead of schedule (5)
|
| [n]EARLY | ||
| 32 | YARD |
End of reinforced beam set back a few feet (4)
|
| Reversal (set back) of [reinforce]D RAY | ||
| 33 | JAIL |
Nick and Jack facing trouble (4)
|
| J + AIL | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BASEBALLS |
Sports equipment with mixed up label carried by swimmer (9)
|
| Anagram (mixed up) of LABEL inside (carried by) BASS | ||
| 2 | ASCOT |
Supporting character in costume heading off for English town (5)
|
| [m]ASCOT | ||
| 4 | ANAEROBIC |
Without oxygen and low on energy, Mike yields to Rob (9)
|
| ANAE[m]IC (low on energy) with M replaced by/yielding to ROB | ||
| 5 | EGYPT |
Perhaps unknown point in Memphis location (5)
|
| EG (for example, perhaps) + Y (arithmetical unknown) + PT | ||
| 6 | RELIEVED |
No longer worried about cover-up by editor (8)
|
| RE (about) + reversal of VEIL (cover up, in a down clue) + ED | ||
| 7 | CARPACCIO |
Starter of fish and chips cooked in oil originally (9)
|
| CARP + first letters (originally) of And Chips Cooked In Oil | ||
| 8 | DICKY |
Detective close to body that’s not in good condition (5)
|
| DICK (detective) + [bod]Y | ||
| 10 | ECHO |
What about cold duck or parrot? (4)
|
| EH (what) about C + O (duck) | ||
| 15 | DEMEANOUR |
Heartless Duke professor’s not so nice look (9)
|
| D[uk]E + soundalike (professor) of “meaner” (not so nice). Not sure I love the homophone indicator | ||
| 17 | ICE DANCER |
Athlete in Nice raced about (3,6)
|
| Anagram (about) of NICE RACED | ||
| 19 | WHEATMEAL |
Flour in Spooner’s sausage roll? (9)
|
| Spoonerism of “meat wheel”. For this to make sense we need to treat the words “sausage” and “roll” separately | ||
| 20 | MINUTELY |
Record cover of Loverboy with great attention to detail (8)
|
| MINUTE (record) + L[overbo]Y | ||
| 24 | RARE |
Bloody extraordinary! (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | SOMME |
A few crossing source of meandering river in France (5)
|
| SOME (a few) around (crossing) M[eandering] | ||
| 26 | LARRY |
He’s very happy to linger topless beside lake (5)
|
| [t]ARRY beside/after L | ||
| 28 | YUCCA |
Plant that tastes awful trimmed roughly (5)
|
| YUC[k] (that tastes awful, trimmed) + CA (circa, roughly) |
I liked LARRY for the definition and THERAPY for the surface. I can just about imagine a fancy sausage roll being called a meat wheel.
Lovely, Liari.
One of those puzzles that made me feel clever and happy in equal measure ( a rarity! ), and no quibbles.
I think “professor”, as in “one who professes”, is a novel/new take on the “sound-aloud” indicator, so fine by me.
19(d), WHEATMEAL, is a very smart and arch Spooner, we’ve had some good ones lately, this ranks top in my list.
A fine crossword indeed, and blog to match.
Thank you, Liari. All hail and fare thee well, moh.
The countdown is beginning to feel very real, sadly. So many swan songs for both setters and bloggers.
A suitably gentle Monday solve. Yes, quite a few single letter indicators but that is Liari’s style and she marshals them pretty well imho. Setters do need to identify and assemble individual letters and, if not SLI’s then it’s abbreviations – and some solvers complain about those too.
I agree with Petert ref LARRY and THERAPY and also enjoyed SECRETARY, BUTCHER and GAME. I agree that ‘go’ does look a little odd in the surface for the latter but note it is not shown as capitalised in either Chambers or Collins.
Thanks both
A v. enjoyable puzzle which I found a bit more difficult than our blogger and previous commenters. The one thing I would add though is that there seem to be an awful lot of clues that can be followed by a particular word, an example of which is the answer to another clue and also Liari’s alter ego (in Spanish) in the G. Hint: it flaps and it usually flies.
Thanks to moh for this blog and for many others over the years and to Liari – see you at the G
Well spotted, WordPlodder. I count GAME, SECRETARY, BUTCHER, LADY, LOVE, MOOSE, EARLY, YARD, JAIL, RARE, DICKY, not to mention SEAGULL. This was a lovely puzzle, favourites LYRIC, BUTCHER, LADY, THERAPY, SEAGULL, CARPACCIO, ECHO. Thanks Liari for all the puzzles and moh for all the blogs.
Much enjoyed this puzzle… of all the “tricks” available, not capitalising is the least, for me at least. If it had been, then the rest of the clue would have been almost tautological. Some took longer than others, which is absolutely fine. I spent a long time wandering around 4d, needing some crossers to confirm. Equally with some eg, RECHERCHÉ, n BASEBALLS, I got in a muddle over where various bits were meant to go where… especially when 1d started with a different B, to that indicated in LABELS!
Overall, great start to the week..
Thanks Liari and moh, gypsum seems correct…
PS Wordplodder@4 prompted a review of the puzzle! I found at least 11 solves which could partner up, as well as examples, or celebrities.. thanks for the heads up..
The practice in Chambers appears to be to capitalise when the name of a game is a registered trademark (Monopoly, Scrabble, Subbuteo), but not otherwise.
Hector @7 – yes that does make complete sense now I think about it again. Wouldn’t capitalise ‘chess’, for instance.
And well done WordPlodder – that theme completely passed me by, as they so often do. I seem to remember, many years ago, that there’s a US basketball player called LARRY Bird, but not sure whether or not that was a deliberate reference.
I should say that you haven’t seen the last of me (or other colleagues), as we also tend to blog on other puzzles. But, until we meet again, thanks for all the comments.
YUCCAbird sounds a bit like the boss of Meta. Ok, a bit of a whimsical stretch.
Don’t be coy, moh, which other puzzles?
In fact, I currently only tackle the Indy and the FT.
Which other puzzles do setters, bloggers and posters suggest?
Ian B
Don’t miss BRAD [theme], director of The Incredibles and Ratatouille!
Nice one, metagloria! Have certainly seen some of Mr B’s work, but I have to admit it’s not a name I know.
ENBoll& – I’ll still be popping up to do Everyman every few weeks, and now that Pete Maclean is retiring from the Saturday FT blog, a few of us will be chipping in there too.
Thank you all for the lovely comments and to moh for the wonderful blog. I also want to thank Mike and all of the other bloggers and solvers for the past 3 years. I will very much miss setting for the Indy.
~Liari