This collection of clues from Tramp required plenty of lateral thinking, but they had me chuckling nonetheless.
I could not see any special theme this time. The two Spice Girls references did have me wondering whether a 30th-anniversary reunion tour was in the offing, though. (Apparently not.)
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SOUP KITCHENS |
Ultimately, Katie Hopkins cuts off support for the poor (4,8)
|
| Anagram of (off) {last letter of (ultimately) [KATI]E + HOPKINS CUTS} | ||
| 9 | GORED |
Pierced from stab and stained with blood (5)
|
| 10 | ROUNDHAND |
Way to write cards after game of golf (9)
|
| ROUND (game of golf) + HAND (cards), referring to a fancy, calligraphic style, with “after” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 11 | CHEVRON |
Check – moving over knight, one might give away rank (7)
|
| CH. (check, in chess) + anagram of (moving) OVER + N (knight, also in chess), as an indication on a military uniform | ||
| 12 | HUNCHES |
Hotel food around midday, that’s left out, curls up (7)
|
| H (Hotel) + [L]UNCHES (food around midday) minus (that’s [i.e., that has] . . . out) L (left) | ||
| 13 | PHOTOSHOOT |
A Spice Girl over making comeback around fiery studio session (10)
|
| {POSH (a Spice Girl, aka Victoria Beckham) + TOO (over) reversed (making comeback)} around HOT (fiery) | ||
| 15 | CHIN |
Restrain having thrown a punch (4)
|
| CH[A]IN (restrain) minus (having thrown) A | ||
| 18 | JUTS |
Saucy thing admits backside in miniskirt sticks out (4)
|
| JUS (saucy thing) around (admits) last letter of (backside in) [MINISKIR]T | ||
| 19 | FANNY ADAMS |
Nothing from lover, as many desperate to pick up date (5,5)
|
| FAN (lover) + [anagram of (desperate) {AS MANY} around (to pick up) D (date)}] | ||
| 22 | SOD’S LAW |
Typical bits of grass, garden getting trimmed (4,3)
|
| SODS (bits of grass) + LAW[N] (garden) minus last letter (getting trimmed). I can hear Basil Fawlty saying, “This is typical! Absolutely typical!” | ||
| 24 | MONITOR |
Check dipstick in car? No time (7)
|
| NIT (dipstick) inside (in) MO[T]OR (car) minus (no) T (time) | ||
| 25 | POSTNATAL |
Last panto rearranged after infant pulled out (9)
|
| Anagram of (rearranged) LAST PANTO | ||
| 26 | INEPT |
Awkward to write about boring sex (5)
|
| PEN (to write) reversed (about) and inside (boring) IT (sex) | ||
| 27 | FOSTER PARENT |
Guardian fellow sent a report for editing (6-6)
|
| Anagram of (for editing) {F (fellow) + SENT A REPORT} | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCREEN OUT |
Filter air – not at home (6,3)
|
| SCREEN (air) + OUT (not at home) | ||
| 2 | UNDERDOG |
Fail to warm up sufficiently before start of game – one’s likely to lose (8)
|
| UNDERDO (fail to warm up sufficiently) + first letter of (start of) G[AME] | ||
| 3 | KORAN |
Before artist put on the canvas new religious work (5)
|
| KO (put on the canvas, i.e., in boxing) + RA (artist) + N (new), with “before” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 4 | TOUCH DOWN |
Feel sad? Come in (5,4)
|
| TOUCH (feel) + DOWN (sad), as with a passenger jet | ||
| 5 | HIDING |
Beating from punch, getting cut before sound of the bell (6)
|
| HI[T] (punch) minus last letter (getting cut) + DING (sound of the bell) | ||
| 6 | NEATH |
Rugby Union club having straight rugby posts? (5)
|
| NEAT (straight, as with whisky) + H ([the image of] rugby posts?) | ||
| 7 | EGGCUP |
Perhaps copper maintains good power – it might retain output from battery for consumer (6)
|
| [{E.G. (perhaps) + CU (copper)} around (maintains) G (good)] + P (power), referring to its holding the contents of the eggshell after the top has been struck off with a knife or spoon. Update: See comments suggesting that “battery” here refers to hens in battery cages. OK, that sounds more like what Tramp was getting at, but I think my reading also works, oddly enough. | ||
| 8 | ODDS-ON |
Pretty certain con is set-up – sucker not Yankee (4-2)
|
| DO (con) inverted (is set up) + D[Y]SON (sucker, i.e., vacuum cleaner) minus (not) Y (Yankee) | ||
| 14 | HEADWATER |
Not initially bad weather for swimming in spring? (9)
|
| Anagram of (for swimming) {[B]AD minus first letter (not initially) + WEATHER} | ||
| 16 | HEARTBEAT |
Romeo during passion done in a flash (9)
|
| {R (Romeo) inside (during) HEAT (passion)} + BEAT (done) | ||
| 17 | MAINLINE |
Ocean vessel docked for a major route (8)
|
| MAIN (ocean) + LINE[R] minus last letter (docked) | ||
| 18 | JOSEPH |
Biblical figure formed from rib inspiring epistle (6)
|
| JOSH (rib) around (inspiring) EP. (epistle) | ||
| 20 | SCROTA |
They hold balls in opening of Royal Ascot racing (6)
|
| Anagram of (racing) {first letter of (opening of) R[OYAL] + ASCOT} | ||
| 21 | PLANET |
Body in zone for running during training (6)
|
| LANE (zone for running) inside (during) PT (training) | ||
| 23 | DISCO |
Criticise old following Conservative Party (5)
|
| DIS (criticise) + C (Conservative) + O (old), with “following” indicating the order of the wordplay, with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 24 | MELBA |
Old singer, ace, supporting Spice Girl (5)
|
| MEL B (Spice Girl, aka Melanie Janine Brown) + A (ace), with “supporting” indicating the order of the wordplay, referring to Nellie Melba |
I had 9 across with “stab” meaning having a GO at with RED, “stained with blood”, giving GORED, but it was my Last One IN, with Chevron a close second to last.
It was nice to see KO clued a little differently for a change.
I thought GO RED = “stained with blood” but perhaps “stab” = GO works better (#1).
Was delayed for a while by having STRAIN OUT at 1d.
Also EGGCUP I presumed it was referring to the battery chicken’s output, e.g, an egg!
7 down – an egg can be an output from a battery (of hens)
Thanks for the blog, Cineraria.
I think in the clue for EGGCUP, “output from battery” refers to an egg from a battery hen.
And I think that the wordplay for GORED is GO from stab (as in “have a stab” or “have a go”) plus RED, for “stained with blood”.
Sorry to commenters above – I type too slowly!
I agree with egg from battery hens, thats how i read it. A DNF for me as I got sweet FA for FANNY ADAMS, even with all the crossers. Great crossword.
Fun puzzle. Like other commentators, took GO=stab.
Usually, repeated non-function-words in the same puzzle (e.g. punch, spice girl), if it’s not a theme, have different meanings each time. Not so here. I concluded it was either a clever kind of double-bluff, or Tramp doesn’t care about the “convention”.
There were some vocabulary differences from what I am familiar with – do for warm up in UNDERDOG, TOUCH DOWN for come in, but one can expect some stretchiness in a Prize puzzle.
I liked the output from battery.
SCREEN OUT was LOI, and took a minute or two to understand after entry, but now I really like it, although the surface seems a bit unnatural.
I was defeated in a couple of clues. But I might have overcome my problems if I hadn’t entered STRAIN OUT for 1D which meant I failed on CHEVRON. Good puzzle for a Saturday with things to get our teeth into!
Liked GORED< SODS LAW, UNDERDOG, HEARTBEAT, ODDS-ON and JOSEPH.
HEARTBEAT
I took 'done in' as BEAT (in the sense of exhausted as in 'I am beat/done in').
EGGCUP
Parsed it as the blogger did.
Thanks Tramp and Cineraria.
Thanks Tramp for a slow but satisfying solve. My top picks were JUTS, INEPT, HIDING, HEADWATER, and HEARTBEAT (COTD). I nho NEATH but nothing else fit the crossers. Like CanberraGirl @8 I initially had ‘strain out’ for 1d but 11a had to be CHEVRON so I managed to correct my error. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.