A sturdy set of clues from Moo . . .
. . . with, for me, the left side going in rather easier than the right.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | NOOKIE |
Secluded spot I finally secure for relations (6)
|
| NOOK (secluded spot) + I + last letter of (finally) [SECUR]E | ||
| 4 | FETCHING |
Pretty head of French making an impression (8)
|
| First letter of (head of) F[RENCH] + ETCHING (making an impression) | ||
| 10 | RESTIVE |
Unsettled sleep yours truly has (7)
|
| REST (sleep) + I’VE (yours truly has) | ||
| 11 | PANNIER |
Girl in PR that one might see on Harley-Davidson? (7)
|
| ANNIE (girl) inside (in) PR | ||
| 12 | HERD |
Many animals caught by all accounts (4)
|
| Homophone of (by all accounts) HEARD (caught) | ||
| 13 | DATA CENTRE |
Storage facility engineer rented at a cost initially (4,6)
|
| Anagram of (engineer) {RENTED + AT + A + first letter of (initially) C[OST]} | ||
| 15 | ELATED |
Delighted some crude tales rejected (6)
|
| Hidden in (some) [CRU]DE TALE[S] reversed (rejected) | ||
| 16 | NIBBLES |
African runner’s entertaining books — something to chew on? (7)
|
| NILE’S (African runner’s) around (entertaining) BB (books) | ||
| 20 | STATELY |
Sneaking around gallery in August (7)
|
| SLY (sneaking) around TATE (gallery), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 21 | CREASE |
Stop taking Republican line (6)
|
| CEASE (stop) around (taking) R (Republican) | ||
| 24 | ON THE TILES |
Stupidly let in those drinking to excess (2,3,5)
|
| Anagram of (stupidly) LET IN THOSE. I learned this expression from an old Mud rocker, “Nite on the Tiles,” doing their best Sweet impersonation, which probably everyone else has long forgotten. (Oddly enough, not from Zeppelin’s “Out on the Tiles,” also a pretty cool song, IMHO.) | ||
| 26 | COKE |
Fizzy drink? It might get up your nose (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | EMINENT |
Noted nightspot empty after rapper snubbed (7)
|
| EMINE[M] (rapper) minus last letter (snubbed) + outside letters of (empty) N[IGHTSPO]T | ||
| 29 | SALVAGE |
Cruel to obstruct learner’s recovery (7)
|
| SAVAGE (cruel) around (to obstruct) L (learner) | ||
| 30 | REDSTART |
Flier found by Rose (8)
|
| RED (rose) + START (found), with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 31 | ATTEST |
Confirm extremely thick female has left (6)
|
| [F]ATTEST (extremely thick) minus (has left) F (female) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | NORTH SEA |
No hearts broken in these stormy waters? (5,3)
|
| Anagram of (broken) NO HEARTS | ||
| 2 | OBSERVANT |
Devout old man embracing bishop (9)
|
| {O (old) + SERVANT (man)} around (embracing) B (bishop) | ||
| 3 | IRIS |
Woman from Dublin leaving hospital (4)
|
| IRIS[H] (from Dublin) minus (leaving) H (hospital) | ||
| 5 | EMPHASIS |
Stress rate of progress under EU at first unchanged (8)
|
| First letter of (at first) E[U] + MPH (rate of progress) + AS IS (unchanged), with “under” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 6 | CANTERBURY |
Wither pilgrims wend their way, telling tales (10)
|
| Cryptic definition, with a typo, referring to Geoffrey Chaucer. The first word is supposed to be “whither,” which confused me at first. | ||
| 7 | IDIOT |
Mug detective turned over? Nothing in it (5)
|
| DI (detective) inverted (turned over) + {O (nothing) inside (in) IT} | ||
| 8 | GARRET |
Persuade a bishop to visit poor writer’s chamber? (6)
|
| {A + RR (bishop)} inside (to visit) GET (persuade) | ||
| 9 | REGAL |
Large bust, as befits a queen (5)
|
| Anagram of (bust) LARGE | ||
| 14 | SETTLEMENT |
Conclusion of Hamlet? (10)
|
| Double definition, with a capitalization misdirection | ||
| 17 | ELABORATE |
Fancy English party talk (9)
|
| E (English) + LAB. (party) + ORATE (talk) | ||
| 18 | CLOISTER |
Minor celebrity eating duck in monastery (8)
|
| C-LISTER (minor celebrity) around (eating) O (duck) | ||
| 19 | REVERENT |
Torn about always being deferential (8)
|
| RENT (torn) around (about) EVER (always) | ||
| 22 | NO FEAR |
Rival close by, might Spooner say? Certainly not! (2,4)
|
| Spoonerism of FOE (rival) + NEAR (close by) | ||
| 23 | BEAST |
Monster strikes, moving south (5)
|
| BEATS (strikes) moving the S (south) up one space | ||
| 25 | TRIAD |
Mounting scandal involving American–Chinese gang (5)
|
| DIRT (scandal) inverted (mounting) around (involving) A (American) | ||
| 27 | FLAT |
Bubbles wanting somewhere to live? (4)
|
| Double definition |
Pretty approachable, and I also found the left side easier than the right.
There were many great surfaces today, and I had many ticks: FLAT, TRIAD, SETTLEMENT (very clever), STATELY (I forgot whether the false capital is legit), EMPHASIS, ELABORATE and CREASE
All parsed. Two notes in addition to “wither”. I continue to dislike girl cluing ANN, and I do not view extremely fat/thick to be the same as fattest.
Thanks Moo and Cineraria
One thing I’ve learnt over my time doing cryptic crosswords is that we have a heck of a lot of words for sexual intercourse. I learnt another today. Either it’s not common in these parts or I lead a sheltered life.
This was good fun, plenty of smiles and no quibbles.
Nookie?! Where have you been, GDU?
Yes, wither had me thinking like shrivel til crossers went in. Nice puzzle tho, thx Moo and Cineraria.
Wither notwithstanding, this was a fun and accessible crossword. Martyn mentions two of my favourites: SETTLEMENT and TRIAD (I like that Moo highlights the ‘dirt’ in TRIAD).
Thanks Moo and Cineraria.
Yes, at one point I had the left side done and the right side empty, but the fact that I’m currently reading The Canterbury Tales was a very serendipitous (?) way into the right side. All nice and chewy and satisfying to complete.
Martyn@1 As the meanings of “extreme” include “highest in degree” and “greatest”, the clue for 31A is correct in indicating “fattest” by “extremely thick”. As it happens, there is a clue for SOLEMNEST in today’s Times puzzle where the answer is defined as “extremely awe-inspiring”.
I’ve some friends coming over from England this weekend, so we will be out ON THE TILES in Dublin presumably eating NIBBLES with our FLAT COKE. Or more probably some Guinness.
I noticed SPEEDBALL yesterday and COKE today. If heroin appears tomorrow, I will begin to wonder.
Thanks Moo and Cineraria.
31ac further to Bagpuss@6: It seems to me that it is far less of a stretch of the language to use the word “extremely” to define a superlative than it is to use it as an indicator of the first and letters of a clue word.
[24ac: I have heard a version of the Pheasant Plucker Song (a song that needs to be sung with considerable caution) in which the chorus to one verse reads
I’m not a pheasant plucker, / He has gone out on the tiles. / He only plucked one pheasant / And I’m sitting here with piles.]
I didn’t even notice ‘wither’ when solving as the clue/solution was so obvious. I felt it didn’t really qualify as a cryptic clue at all.
Otherwise great fun.
Thanks Moo and Cineraria.
I believe I first came across ON THE TILES in P.G.Wodehouse but can’t be sure. I see the OED defines it thus:
[after the nocturnal activities of cats] on a spree, on a debauch.
As cats aren’t known for heavy drinking it seems as though the meaning may have changed a bit over the years, though the first citation in a German work of 1887 describes it as “auf dem Nachtbummel”.
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues on the whole . Same experience as Sourdough really .
NOOKIE is my favourite .
So, you like nookie, Roz 😉
GDU@2: NOOKIE very popular in children’s literature.
Bagpus@6: I take your point about “extremely”. I have been using it wrongly. For example, I would have quite happily said “all three brothers are extremely tall, and the youngest is the tallest”. But, that appears to be wrong.
We did wonder for a second or two if ‘wither’ was intentional as a definition but the rest of the clue soon ruled that out. And the clue for 29ac seemed the wrong way round to us, implying that ‘learner’ (L) was obstructing ‘savage’ not vice-versa.
Those two niggles apart this was an enjoyable solve. We particularly liked PANNIER, STATELY and OBSERVANT.
Thanks, Moo and Cineraria.
29ac: I had similar thoughts to Big Al @15 about this, but Collins 2023 p 1376 gives us obstruct 3 to impede or block a clear view of, and Chambers 2016 p 1063 has “to shut off”. I think either of these allows “to obstruct” as a containment indicator the way it is used in this clue.