MPP 066 – Review – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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MPP 066 – Review

by crypticsue  

MPP 066 – Review

A View from the Boundary 

by Phibs

 

The person with a view from the boundary – a clear indication that we should look for a Nina round the edge of the crossword – was, of course, Sir Ian Botham. He was a CRICKETER, B (born) in HESWALL, M (married) KATHY, and has a S (son) LIAM. I’d worked out who it had to be once I’d got the cricketer and Liam; knowing his wife’s name is Kathy helped me solve the last few clues at the bottom, so all I needed to do was check that he was indeed born in Heswall, and complete the entry form.

Congratulations to second time winner, Frank Greaney, who previously won in March 2016. His name was drawn out of the electronic hat and so he wins his choice of a Hamlyn Daily Telegraph Puzzle Book

Across

8a     Bringing forward new, pungent joint (4)
KNEE – Bring forward the N (new) in KEEN (pungent)

9a     Searches ship containing fish, beginning to dismantle hold (10)
SHAKEDOWNS – SS (ship) ‘containing’ HAKE (fish) D (the beginning to Dismantle) and OWN (hold)

10a     Exploding 16 leaves nothing except perhaps this! (6)
CRATER – Remove the O (nothing leaves) from your solution to 16a and an anagram (exploding) will provide the solution to this clue

11a     Handled tool one wants desperately (5,3)
TENON SAW – An anagram (desperately) of ONE WANTS

12a     Plans time to go into how the decimal system works (7)
INTENTS – T (time) goes into IN TENS (how the decimal system works)

14a     Tough quiz one set about love (7)
GORILLA – GRILL (quiz) A (one) ‘set about’ O (love)

15a     Having eaten contents of tin, pass wind (4)
COIL – A nice misleading surface definition. Here COL (mountain pass) ‘eats’ the contents of tIn

16a     Rampant carrot eater’s No. 1 fast breeder? (7)
REACTOR – An anagram (rampant) of CARROT and E (eater’s “no 1”)

19a     Womanizing owner of French café with a large extension (7)
RENEWAL – RENE (the womanizing owner of the French café in ‘Allo ‘Allo  W (with) A (from the clue) and L (large)

21a     Bravo – goal for Crouch! (4)
BEND – Misleading capitals this time – crouch is a verb – B (Bravo in the NATOO Phonetic Alphabet) END (goal)

22a    Shell garage? (7)
CARCASE – Split the solution to 3,4 to ‘get’ the reference to garage

24a     Sultry Sue’s an exotic lass, but no fool (7)
SENSUAL – An anagram (exotic) of SUES AN plus L (Lass without the ‘fool’)

27a     Earl glowing after dog quietly revealed grouse (8)
MUTTERED – E (Earl) RED (glowing) after MUTT (dog)

29a     They ate hemp regularly, following recipe for pulse (6)
RHYTHM – The regular letters of tHeY aTe HeMp following or going after R (recipe)

30a     Extremely clean pants etc I repeatedly laundered (100
ANTISEPTIC – An anagram (laundered) of PANTS ETC I I (repeatedly tells you that you need two Is)

31a     Harsh to do away with leading character in Treasure Island (4)
SARK– Do away with the T (leading character in Treasure) in STARK (harsh)

Down

1d     Opening department of medicine stretched limits of college (8)
ENTRANCE – ENT (department of medicine) RAN (stretched) and CE (the ‘limits’ of college)

2d     Get ready to start biting bootee then nurses (6)
TEETHE – I loved this definition – the solution is being nursed by booTEE THEn

3d     What’s behind goblin standing on its head? French animation! (6)
ESPRIT – Another ‘move a letter’ clue – the last letter (what’s behind) of SPRITE (goblin) is moved to the front of the word

4d     Television not audible – resident originally turned sound off (4)
RANT – A reversal (turned) of the original letters of Television Not Audible Resident

5d     Being the ideal shape to go down chimneys, largely take Santa’s place (8)
BEANPOLE – BE A N(orth) POLE (Santa’s place)

6d     Expect to take in Royal Navy with manifestly religious dance? (8)
HORNPIPE – HOPE (expect) to take in RN (Royal Navy) with PI (manifestly religious)

7d     Require English-Latin translation (6)
ENTAIL – An anagram (translation) of E (English) LATIN

13d     Endlessly broadcast rock pieces (5)
SCREE – SCREEN (broadcast) without the letter at the end

14d     Belts and braces (5)
GIRDS – One verb, two meaning

17d     Company with defective IT lack screwdriver? (8)
COCKTAIL – CO (company) with an anagram (defective) of IT LACK

18d     Old boy supplies watches (8)
OBSERVES – OB (old boy) SERVES (supplies)

20d     One down – hard, or a deliberate repetition of a word? (8)
ANAPHORA – One of those ‘solve the clue’ check the solution exists clues – A (one) NAP (down, woolly surface on cloth) H (hard) OR A (from the clue)

23d     Former pupils uncovered false accusation by one (6)
ALUMNI – Uncover or remove the outside letters of cALUMNy and put them ‘by’ I (one)

25d     Morecambe perhaps pressing Northern hospital to improve (6)
ENRICH – ERIC (Mr Morecambe, perhaps) ‘pressing’ N, the result followed by the abbreviation for Hospital

26d     Supremely self-conscious in flashy establishment (6)
SHYEST – Lurking in flaSHY ESTablishment

28d     Suggestion of Simpsons moving away from Springfield? It’s dictated by job (4)
DUTY – S (a suggestion of Simpsons) moving away from DUSTY (Springfield)

Thanks to Phibs and the BDs too

22 comments on “MPP 066 – Review”

  1. Thanks very much for the review, CS. Unfortunately I still don’t understand 5d which was the one answer I couldn’t parse. I got the N POLE bit and I assumed that BEA was a word for “take” missing it’s final letter but I couldn’t think what that word could be. Can you put me out of my misery please?

    2. Would that I could. That’s why my explanation isn’t the most helpful. Perhaps someone else can enlighten us

    3. Hi RD – the word you were looking for was BEAR (in the sense of ‘to tolerate’, ie ‘take’). BTW, ‘Being’ is a noun (=person) in the definition.

      1. Thank you very much for the explanation, Phibs. You meet CS’s requirement perfectly of “someone else” to enlighten us! Many thanks too for such a splendid puzzle.

      2. I did try to find a picture of a person of that shape but they ranged from the not quite right to the frankly weird, so I decided not to illustrate that clue

          1. That was a failed attempt to paste a picture of a person who is definitely a 5d. The link takes you to a Wikipedia page which includes said picture …

            Is it possible for a mere mortal to add a picture to a comment?

            1. I get in a muddle adding pictures to comments but I’m sure BD will be able to help you out in due course

          2. I can’t look at pictures of that particular beanpole without thinking about something amusing someone told me he said.

            I’m going to leave you guessing as to what that was

            1. If it’s what I think you are thinking, I don’t think it’s unprintable, so here goes (with my apologies if anyone is offended by it):

              Interviewer: if you hadn’t been a professional footballer, what would you have been?
              Peter Crouch: a virgin

  2. Many thanks for the second review of the day, CS – and congratulations to Frank. The only ‘Frank’ I can think of from the blog is the one who used to comment as Frank the ref – is that you?

    4d was my hang-up on the parsing front – so easy now that you’ve explained it, CS.

    Confession time – I guessed from the title that we were looking for a cricketer and quite early in the solve spotted ‘Kathy’. Aha, I thought – I remember a cricketer who made headlines after he reportedly cheated on his wife, Kathy. Sorry, RD, hanging head in shame.

    The comb has been at it:-
    19a Needs the ‘W’ capitalising.
    29a Very minor nitpick – the Y needs a colour change.
    31a Answer needs changing.
    3d Answer needs changing.

    Thanks again both to Phibs for the puzzle and CS for the review.

    1. All corrected now – fine examples of how the brain thinks one thing and the hands type something else

    2. What threw me was that Botham always refers to his wife as Kath, and so I took the appearance of Kathy in the Nina as a coincidence in spite of having Liam there as well – stupid or what?! Don’t answer that …
      :oops:

      1. Kath was what I thought too until I solved 28d and realised Phibs was being slightly more formal

  3. My guess was the equivalent of a total bung-in and I was completely wrong, needless to say. Decided it was worth a shot though, having completed the grid. Had I printed it off I may have stood a better chance!

    Thanks for the puzzle Phibs and thanks for the review CS

  4. I also used 14a as a pointer towards Sir Ian Botham – wasn’t he known as ‘Guy the Gorilla’? Didn’t put two and two together for ‘Heswall’ in the nina, but got the answer anyway. Many thanks for an entertaining crossword, Phibs, and to CS for the review.

  5. Congratulations Frank. I solved the puzzle but made a total mess of answering the question. All I could see of the Nina was the word CRICKETER and that is what (after several doubts that it was a bit weak) I submitted. As I knew nothing about his background or family it was no wonder that the rest of the Nina looked like gobbledygook to me.
    Thanks for the puzzle Phibs and CS for the review.

  6. All I could see was Cricketer too , so thought the answer was Neville Cardus, the cricket commentator known as Cricketer…..oh well, try again next month!

    Many congratulations to Frank!

    Thanks to Phibs and to Crypticsue

  7. For once it seems I know more about Cricket than the rest of you.
    Makes me quite chaffed.
    Thought the Nina was very clever with the abbreviations for born, wife and son. Very crosswordy.
    Congratulations to Frank and to Phibs again.
    Thanks to CS for the review.

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