A tricky solve, with many fun clues and several bits of parsing that needed more time at the end. Many thanks to Vlad for the puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DOG’S BREAKFAST |
How many setters start the day in chaos? (4.9)
|
| cryptic definition: “setters” as in a type of dog breed, so e.g. an Irish Setter might start the day with a DOG’S BREAKFAST
“setters” could mislead if read e.g. as ‘crossword setters’ |
||
| 10 | APENNINES |
A long lens ultimately keeping Lenny’s body in range (9)
|
| definition: a mountain range in Italy
A (from surface) + PINE (to pine after, to “long” for) + ultimate letter of [len]-S; all around the central letters (“body”) of [L]-ENN-[y] |
||
| 11 | ABETS |
Supports while accepting risk (5)
|
| AS=”while” around/accepting BET=”risk” | ||
| 12 | ENSUE |
Check Republicans’s been sacked – result! (5)
|
| ENSU-[r]-E=”Check”, with R (Republican) removed/sacked | ||
| 13 | NEIGHBOUR |
Awkward our being close to Spanish border (9)
|
| definition: NEIGHBOUR as a verb, to border, to exist next to
anagram/”Awkward” of (our being h)*, with the h coming from the closing letter of [Spanis]-h |
||
| 14 | IONESCO |
Is company taking on somebody as playwright? (7)
|
| definition: Eugène Ionesco the playwright
IS (from surface) + CO (company); around/”taking on” ONE=”somebody” |
||
| 16 | SNUFF IT |
Enjoyment’s over – ready to leave for good (5,2)
|
| definition: to die, to leave for good
FUN’S=”Enjoyment’s” reversed/”over”; plus FIT=”ready” |
||
| 18 | GLEANED |
‘Gathered government’s not productive’ (Davey) (7)
|
| G (government) + LEAN=”not productive” (e.g. a lean season for crops) + ED (Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK) | ||
| 20 | BESPOKE |
Keep boss cut off, exactly as ordered (7)
|
| anagram/”off” of (Keep bos)*, with bos-[s] “cut” short | ||
| 21 | LIFE CLASS |
Go with girl to collect a little cabinet – it should contain drawers (4,5)
|
| definition: a LIFE CLASS is an art class with live models, and would contain people drawing i.e. ‘draw-ers’
LIFE=”Go” + LASS=”girl”; around a little bit of C-[abinet] a LIFE can refer to a ‘go’ in a computer game, where one stops playing after running out of lives/goes |
||
| 23 | CARGO |
Load coach before journey (5)
|
| CAR=”coach” before GO=”journey” | ||
| 24 | PRINCE ANDREW’S CLOSE |
See 26
|
| 25 | TROOP SHIP |
I made a mistake taking heroin during journey – 19s might be on it (9)
|
| definition: 19s suggests ‘draftees’ (19dn DRAFTEE), and those drafted for military service may be on a troop ship
OOPS=”I made a mistake” plus H (heroin); inside TRIP=”journey” |
||
| 26, 24 | PRINCE ANDREW’S CLOSE |
Prices down, cleaners refurbished undesirable address in Norwich? (6,7,5)
|
| definition: a street in Norwich, sharing a now undesirable name with a former prince
anagram/”refurbished” of (Prices down cleaners)* |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | OBEISANCE |
Honour thrilled niece – ASBO! (9)
|
| OBEISANCE and “Honour” each have meanings similar to ‘respect’, though I wouldn’t consider them very close in meaning
anagram/”thrilled” of (niece ASBO)* |
||
| 3 | SINGE |
Confess, having originally eaten char (5)
|
| SING (slang: to sing to e.g. the police)=”Confess”, plus original/first letter of E-[aten] | ||
| 4 | RUN INTO |
Drive home to meet (3,4)
|
| RUN=”Drive” + IN=”[at] home” + TO (from surface) | ||
| 5 | ASSAILS |
Lays into American behind troubles (7)
|
| ASS=”American [word for one’s] behind” + AILS=”troubles” | ||
| 6 | FLASHGUNS |
Gordon, comically tight, sent back shooting accessories (9)
|
| definition: a flashgun is an accessory for “shooting” as in photo shoots
FLASH (Flash Gordon, comic book hero so “comically”); plus SNUG=”tight” reversed/”sent back” |
||
| 7 | SEE TO |
Take responsibility for diatomic carbon, they said (3,2)
|
| sounds like (“they said”) C2=”diatomic carbon” | ||
| 8 | WATERING PLACE |
Women doctors taking train east nervous – ‘Where can one get a drink?’ (8,5)
|
| W, plus GP LACE, around/”taking” (train E)*:
W (Women) two “doctors”: GP (general practitioner, doctor) + LACE (to ‘lace’ a drink is to tamper with it, to ‘doctor’ it) anagram/”nervous” of (train E)*, with E (east) |
||
| 9 | ESPRIT DE CORPS |
Dire prospects unsettled group morale (6,2,5)
|
| anagram/”unsettled” of (Dire prospects)* | ||
| 15 | SUNSCREEN |
Students about to have sex endlessly – nurse providing some sort of protection (9)
|
| NUS (National Union of “Students”) reversed/”about”; plus SCRE-[w]=”to have sex” endlessly; plus EN (Enrolled “nurse”) | ||
| 17 | FLOOR SHOW |
Shocks on the way in cabaret (5,4)
|
| FLOORS=astonishes=”Shocks” + HOW=”the way” | ||
| 19 | DRAFTEE |
Crazy English repeatedly defending king – one chosen to serve (7)
|
| DAFT=”Crazy” + E E (E for English, repeatedly); around R (Rex, “king”) | ||
| 20 | BASSOON |
Idiot stops benefit – blow it! (7)
|
| ASS=”Idiot” inside BOON=”benefit” | ||
| 22 | FLOUR |
Cake maker with large number over (5)
|
| L (large) with FOUR=”number” going around/over | ||
| 23 | CAPER |
Skip picked up more packing cases (5)
|
| definition: to jump about, to skip
hidden/cased inside: [mo]-RE PAC-[king] reversed upwards (“picked up”) |
Pleased to see the setter’s name and it definitely did not disappoint. Not as tricky as usual, the construction of the clues made more obscure clues like IONESCO and OBEISANCE easier to solve. I thought the amusing DOGS BREAKFAST was a great start and I also enjoyed PAC, the long anagram of he who should not be named. Other ticks for SNUFF IT, LIFE CLASS (I parsed it as having she had a bit of life/go about her), ESPRIT DE CORPS and the superb WATERING PLACE.
Ta Vlad & manehi.
I see The Grauniad has now corrected 20 down, which they originally had as BASOOON, at which point Hilda Baker sprang to mind.
Crispy @2: that made me laugh.
Couldn’t parse WATERING PLACE — a bit tricky. And of course the two UK-only clues were beyond me. Otherwise a successful solve and enjoyable.
I got 1a and most of the north very quickly, thinking “this is Monday level” but how wrong I was, the South was much harder and I had to reveal the last few. But all fairly clued, no obscure words or cricket references so it gets a thumbs up from me. Thanks Vlad and manehi
BASSOON is still wrong on my phone. There’s also an extra S before the apostrophe in republican’s at 12A.
I felt like I was off to a flier but things slowed down towards the south and west, partly because the word order confused me at 24/26. An excellent clue in the end.
I parsed it all except the WATERING PLACES, I don’t feel like I was close to seeing the role of lace there.
It was a really good challenge though. I liked APENNINES, TROOPSHIP, FLOUR and SUNSCREEN.
Thanks Vlad and manehi, great work getting this out so soon.
I thought Vlad was feeling benevolent today getting off to a flying start with DOGS BREAKFAST, ABETS and NEIGHBOUR. Got the first word in WATERING PLACE fairly quickly, but the second word took me a while to see, as ‘watering hole’ is more common. 26, 24 one of the last ones in for me, but worth it for the laugh. I agree with the minor quibble about OBEISANCE and honour, and the surface was a bit below par for Vlad as well, I thought. However, a very enjoyable crossword overall, and I especially liked IONESCO and ESPRIT DE CORPS. Thanks to Vlad and manehi.
Geoff @4 if you mean 26/24 as UK only I’m not sure I agree. It’s not like anyone here has heard of it either. I only got there – eventually – by plugging away at the anagram until ANDREWS was the only possibility for the middle word.
Thanks Manehi for explaining the two doctors, and thanks Vlad for a lovely challenge.
A good challenge. It had to be WATERING PLACE from the crossers, but I couldn’t figure it out. “Doctors” for two different meanings of doctor — fiendish! DOGS BREAKFAST was amusing.
The surface of OBEISANCE is surely a nod to Linda Smith’s famous line, “People knock Asbos, but you have to bear in mind they’re the only qualification some of these kids are ever going to get.”
Many thanks Vlad and manehi.
Another one here who got off speedily but needed a bit more time later in the solve. Overall still quite benevolent again from this setter; I hope we aren’t heading towards all puzzles basically being the same level of difficulty! Roz’s words are ringing true.
Loved SNUFF IT and DOG’S BREAKFAST. It really is weird how often the same device or solution crops up twice in quick succession; the fun “How many” was new to me just a couple of days ago yet here it is again.
I was nowhere near the second doctor (“lace”) which I guess was the hardest bit of the puzzle. I also ran out of patience with ABETS; sometimes the simplest ones present most difficulty, as you either think of the synonym or you don’t. Alas I didn’t and ran out of time.
I wondered whether there must be insider knowledge re Norwich and PAC but it seems there isn’t. No matter; the joke was great and obvious enough.
Thanks both!
The street in Norwich is correctly Prince Andrew’s ROAD rather than CLOSE. Good job I got it from the anagram fodder rather than looking it up on a map!
correction to me@12 – there is a close leading off the road, so I retract what I said earlier.
PRINCE ANDREW’S CLOSE??? Eh? What kind of word is that for a crossword solution? The well-established convention is that the solutions of a crossword are individual words which are part of the shared language and would be expected to appear in a non-specialist reference dictionary as published by OUP, Collins, Chambers, Merriam-Webster, etc. or multi-word units (phrases) which might not appear in the dictionaries but which are common enough to be widely recognised as idiomatic. The words or phrases may be proper names, in which case the solver can expect that those names are recognised widely enough amongst the speech community to be considered “general knowledge”.
There’s a road just around the corner from me here called Stentiford Hill — there you are, Vlad! You can pop that one in a crossword.
Or am I missing something?
Defeated by the long anagram, and I tend to agree with pserve_p2@14.
I thought LIFE=go in 21a very far-fetched. It doesn’t even work in the context of video games, which almost never have the concept of a “turn”, and where they do it would be different from a “life”.
I did like the rest though.
@14 pserve_p2
Sadly in the UK we have heard enough about the behaviour of the Andrew formerly known as Prince to make the thought of him anywhere near us thoroughly undesirable.
The suggestion is that if you’re a teenage girl and Prince Andrew’s close, then you may want to vacate the area.
If you battle away at an anagram and reach a solution that you are confident is right, I think that’s fair. This one met that requirement for me despite never having heard of the address, which Andy confirms does exist.
pserve_p2@14 I think what you’re missing is that it’s a joke. [Nobody else has heard of a specific “P O C” either unless you happen to live near one.] The “undesirablility” comes not from having your street named after Mr Mountbatten-Windsor per se but rather by having him close (as also alluded to by MS@16 – [edit: and indeed spelt out by Martin]).
Thank you Vlad. Very nice crossword, with lots to like.
My favourites were DOG’S BREAKFAST (amusing), NEIGHBOUR (for solvers in Gibraltar?), WATERING PLACE (clever trick) and CAPER (beautifully hidden).
And thank you manehi for your helpful blog. The parsing of WATERING PLACE beat me.
I’d never seen the doctors trick before (doctors = doctor doctor, giving GP LACE.)
Always rather pleased to finish a Vlad. Tx to Manehi for the parsing of WATERING PLACE. I was another who thought of ‘go’ as ‘vim’ and therefore ‘life’ as in ‘He’s got a lot of go in him yet’ but, on reflection, I think the computer game reference is probably better.
I’m with Martin@17 on 26a.
I saw a 3-word anagram with the first word of the fodder ‘price’ and part of the definition ‘undesirable’. It only took a couple of crossers for me to think of Prince Andrew. On checking the fodder I saw this left me with ‘ocles’ so not hard to get the address even though I’ve never heard of it.
I suspect that house prices in ST ANDREW’S CLOSE and the associated road will be adversely affected by the blighted association with Mr Mountbatten-Windsor. Perhaps property owners will petition the Council to rename it.if they have not already done so. Meanwhile, I thought that the anagram fodder was clear, and with a few crossers to help the solution came pretty easily.
Martin@8, I got as far as suspecting ANDREWS too, but then revealed the rest. While I concur to some extent with pserve_p2@14, now that I understand the connotations of the clue I must say I rather like it.
Me @22 PRINCE, of course. That comment posted itself before I had time to check it and appeared without an edit function. This seems ti happen from time to time and I don’t understand why.
Balfour@22 …or in the case of the former, maybe just rename the PA’s bit to Belmarsh’s
Re the lack of Edit – used to happen to me too but then I figured out that it just sometimes takes time for it to appear. Observe your posted comment for a few seconds after the page has refreshed and the Edit link appears.
Also wondering if the reference to Norwich is due to it being in Norfolk, not that far from Sandringham where Mr M-W is now confined.
CLOSE. I heard about a retirement home address that’s ST PETER’S CLOSE.
I noted Vlad’s name with trepidation, and it was not unwarranted, with only a handful solved on the first pass (well done those of you who found this “easier than usual”!) The long ones at 1A, 8D, and 26/24A were among my last in, which did not help. The parsing of 8D entirely eluded me.
NHO Ed Davey and will probably promptly forget him, and G for “government” I’m sure is in Chambers and the less said about that the better.
I agree with those who find LIFE for “go” a bit loose.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98n9rx5lleo
The call to rename a Prince Andrew Road and Prince Andrew Close was in the news fairly recently – although these were in Maidenhead. The above article mentions similar concerns about another Prince Andrew’s Road near Norwich. These local controversies came to mind quite readily when pondering 26/24a.
Very difficult. Solved only two on my first pass.
I did not fully parse WATERING PLACES but was sort of on the right track 😉
New for me: C2 = diatomic carbon (for 7d).
Put me in the “very few on first pass” group as well. The double bluff on DOGS BREAKFAST fooled me – I was thinking that the surface was meant to make us think of dogs instead of crossword creators… D’oh! And finding all of WATERING in (W TAKING TRAIN E) left me struggling for a second word made from the remaining letters. PAC I got from having a few crossers and a vague recollection of reading of the residents there asking for a name change. Well, I battled through in the end, so thanks to Vlad and manehi.
I’m with AdrianB #26 re Sandringham. Also the clue seems perfectly valid whether or not there is an actual PAC.
Struggled with this in the wee small hours, but came back to it, half completed, just now. Maybe I don’t sometimes get up early enough, but I’m more acquainted with a Dog’s Dinner rather that the DOGS BREAKFAST. Was making fairly steady progress, convinced that part of 26ac just had to be ANDREWS from the crossers in place when I managed to ruin my morning by accidentally pressing the Reveal All button. So sadly a retrospective appreciation of those clues I hadn’t managed to yet fathom out. Good stuff as always with Vlad, though I do think that street in Norwich is rather farfetched allbeit solvable because of the anagram fodder within the clue…
We tend to call them watering holes.
Perhaps “in Norwich” was redundant for 26,24; it makes the location too specific. The solution sounds like an address and it sounds undesirable could be sufficient. It might have been an attempt to bring Sandringham to mind, but it’s not particularly close. If that was intended, “In Norfolk” might have been better.
And of course he is now the Andrew formerly known as a Prince.
I’ve been out all morning since before the blog was posted but just have to express my admiration for PRINCE ANDREW’S CLOSE. I saw on the G thread that 26/24 was nominated for Clue of the Year and Google gave me the news item cited by RJJ @29 – absolutely brilliant! (ronald @33 and ravenrider @35 – you really need to read the article.)
Other ticks were for DOG’S BREAKFAST, APPENINES, IONESCO, TROOPSHIP, WATERING PLACE and ESPRIT DE CORPS.
Thanks as always to Vlad and to manehi.