I believe this is Ruskin’s first MyCrossword featured puzzle and I found it most enjoyable.
The original puzzle may be found here.
A really fun crossword which I managed to complete in one sitting, albeit after resorting to word searches for my last few in the SW corner. I’m not happy that I’ve got the definitive parsing for 14d though I still solved it. If there’s a better explanation then I’m sure someone will enlighten me.
I had an inkling of an arboreal theme but on reflection the theme is definitely based around black and darkness, with BLACK part of the solution for 10d and the clue for 22d. I’ve spotted BLACK FOREST GATEAU, black COUNTRY, blackMAIL, black MARIA, CHARCOAL, blackHEADS, NOIR, blackLIST, black ORANGE, EBONY, PANTHER, CORMORANTs are (generally) black, black OLIVE, black MIRROR[ing], blackCURRANT, and SHADE. Any more?
As with my initial idea of trees, internet searches tend to throw up something for most combinations – apparently OLLIE Black is a professional footballer though I can’t say how well known he is!
Many thanks to Ruskin for the puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EXPECT |
Look forward to being kissed when chatting with old flame (6)
|
| EX (old flame) + PECT – sounds like (when chatting) pecked i.e. kissed. | ||
| 4 | FOREST |
Outcry on fairway finally creates opening for Tiger Woods (6)
|
| FORE (golf call, so ‘outcry on fairway’) + create[S] + T[iger]. | ||
| 8 | COUNTRY |
Land line number switched (7)
|
| RY (short for railway, so ‘line’) + COUNT (number), switched in order for the solution. | ||
| 9 | KINDRED |
Lovely leftie folk (7)
|
| KIND (lovely) + RED (leftie). | ||
| 11 | MYTH |
Mystery tollbooth turned out to be fake news (4)
|
| Outside letters of/removing inside letters of/’turned out’ of MysterY TollbootH. | ||
| 12 | OLLIE |
Happier on the inside? Jump on board! (5)
|
| Inside letters of [j]OLLIE[r] (happier).
An ollie is a skateboarding move involving jumping. |
||
| 13 |
I’m over fifty and I’m defensive (4)
|
|
| MAI, a reveral (over) of I AM (I’m) + L (Roman numeral for fifty). | ||
| 14 | MARIA |
She loved Tony Blair – a man to some extent from the right (5)
|
| Hidden, reversed (to some extent from the right) in BlAIR A Man. Maria and Tony are the lovers from West Side Story. | ||
| 15 | CHARCOAL |
King starts to cool off after tea – a drop of Lady Grey (8)
|
| A charade of CHA (tea) then (after) R (Rex, king) + (starts to) C[ool] O[ff] + A (from surface) + (a drop of) L[ady].
A bit of a handful to properly parse with all the pieces and wanting to take the A from after but I got there in the end! |
||
| 17 | PRICE TAG |
The damage is visible on this great pic unfortunately (5,3)
|
| Anagram (unfortunately) of GREAT PIC.
‘The damage’ as in “what’s the damage?” i.e. what is the cost/price. |
||
| 19 | HEADS |
He notices Penny’s face (5)
|
| HE + ADS (notices), definition referring to the obverse side of a penny coin. | ||
| 21 | NOIR |
Leading couturier’s latest classic black-and-white style (4)
|
| NO I – ‘no 1’ so ‘leading’ + courtie[R}, for the style of film and other arts. | ||
| 22 | COLIC |
Childish complaint about cops taking sides (5)
|
| A charade of C (circa, about) + [p]OLIC[e] (taking the sides away), with a whimsical definition referring to the illness/complaint common in babies – so, ‘childish’. | ||
| 23 | LIST |
File claims regularly ahead of time (4)
|
| Alternate letters (regularly) from cLaImS + T (time). | ||
| 25 | MIRACLE |
Extraordinary scene as learner involved in chase on motorway (7)
|
| A charade (on) of MI (M1, so ‘motorway’) + RACLE, an envelope (involved in) of L (learner) inside RACE (chase). | ||
| 26 | RETREAT |
Rodent traps to be seen in French hideaway (7)
|
| An envelope (traps) of ÊTRE (French for/seen in French ‘to be’) inside RAT (rodent). | ||
| 27 | GATEAU |
Posh silver on the counter crammed with tea and cake (6)
|
| An envelope of TEA (from surface) inside GAU, a reversal (on the counter) of U (posh) + AG (chemical symbol for silver). | ||
| 28 | ORANGE |
Might a useless electric vehicle have this tone? (6)
|
| If an electric or any other type of vehicle had ‘0 range’ it would indeed be rather useless. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EBONY |
Jacob’s last son (not the first) wearing coat of every colour (5)
|
| An envelope of B (last letter from Jacob) + s[ON] (not the first) inside (wearing) outer letters (coat of) E[ver]Y.
Ebony is a dark wood traditionally used to make black piano keys. |
||
| 2 | PANTHER |
Cat nap around the middle of journey (7)
|
| A charade of PAN, a reversal (around) of NAP, + THE + R (middle letter of jouRney).
Panther is not the name of a species but refers to black coloured individuals of various big cat species. |
||
| 3 | CORMORANT |
Shag my frisky matron (9)
|
| COR (my – oh my! cor!) + MORANT, an anagram (frisky) of matron. | ||
| 5 | OLIVE |
Charged next to nothing for wood (5)
|
| LIVE (charged) after/next to O (zero/nothing). | ||
| 6 | ENDEMIC |
Regularly found half drunk by enclosure (7)
|
| DEMI (half) inside/drunk by ENC[closure]. | ||
| 7 | THE RIVALS |
Play Laver with this shot (3,6)
|
| A anagram (shot) of LAVER and THIS for the theatrical work. A nice misdirection between wordplay & definition. | ||
| 10 | BLACK GOLD |
British have no energy left and initially drill for oil (5,4)
|
| B[ritish] + LACK (have no) + GO (energy) + L[eft] + D[rill]. | ||
| 14 | MIRRORING |
Copying two circles with radius and circumference reversed (9)
|
| O (one circle) + RING (second circle) + R (radius) + RIM (circumference), with the letter order of the latter two reversed as well as their order in the solution vs the first two.
I can’t make the parsing work without ‘reversed’ being applied twice – maybe I’m missing something? |
||
| 16 | A THICK EAR |
Absolute bastard showing up with love-bite nearly received punishment (1,5,3)
|
| An envelope (received) of HICKE[y] (love-bite, nearly) inside AT AR, a charade of A[bsolute] + TAR (rat or bastard, reversed/showing up). Another clue/parsing with quite a few pieces to combine. | ||
| 18 | CURRANT |
Tore into pithy fruit (7)
|
| An envelope (into) of RAN (tore) inside CURT (pithy). | ||
| 20 | AILERON |
New role in a banking regulator? (7)
|
| An anagram (new) of ROLE IN A, for the control components of aircraft wings. | ||
| 22 | CILLA |
Black mark left by editor (5)
|
| A subtraction (left by) of CEDILLA (the ‘mark’ dangling from the c in garçon) minus ED[itor].
The definition refers to the English singer, actress and television presenter. |
||
| 24 | SHADE |
Hell is cycling in darkness (5)
|
| HADES (hell) cycling its first letter to the front. |
Thanks to Ruskin and simonbyc. This had many enjoyable definitions such as 11a, 12a, 14a, 19a (I did struggle with the defs in 13a, 3d, and 22d). I also liked 1a (neat indicator). Always nice to see NOIR in a puzzle, especially as the heart of a theme, and 24d is a very nice capper to that theme. Simon, I parsed MIRRORING as O+RING next to (with) both [R (radius) and a reversal of RIM] – the “with,” which I think is ok but have wondered about before, is an interesting discussion point as it juxtaposes two separate elements with an elided conjunction between them. Thanks again Ruskin and simon.
— sorry for the italics, not sure what happened there
Top job of setting, Ruskin, well done! Took quite a bit of nutting out too. Agree with Simon tho, that for 14d, “Copying two circles after etc” might’ve been better. In all, most enjoyable, thank you both.
I dnf, but I’m blaming the fact that I’m ill in bed and have brain fog (although I suspect it still would have been very tricky in places anyway). Even so, very enjoyable with some lovely wordplay, and the ones I did get were most satisfying when they fell into place. Will be looking out for this setter.
Chewy in a good way. CILLA was my loi, but perhaps my favourite. I liked THE RIVALS for the same reason as the blogger.
Some (overly?) complex letter/word sequencing required, and elusive definitions, ( LOVELY = KIND ; FILE = LIST; extraordinary scene = MIRACLE ).
Finding synonyms from a unclued multiverse, to then delete the outer letters, [ (J) OLLIE (R); (P) OLIC (E) ] is an easy thing to set, but not my kind of clue.
Lots of well-crafted clues, cunning wordplays, and skilful surfaces, I look forward to another Ruskin, forewarned and forearmed.
Thanks, Simon
Magnificent! One of my favourites of this series to date. Some very clever definitions here and there too. Favourites: KINDRED, OLLIE, MAIL (super surface), MARIA (ditto), PRICE TAG, HEADS, ORANGE and CORMORANT.
More please!