NTSPP – 493 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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NTSPP – 493

NTSPP – 493

Fluffy by Chalicea

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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.

This puzzle arrived in my inbox the day after I had described the typical Tuesday puzzles as “fluffy”!  Don’t you just love Chalicea’s sense of humour.

Lots of intentional fluffiness in this Chalicea crossword which took considerably longer to solve than the Floughies she provides for the Daily Telegraph

Across

1a     Petty Officer timid about love at first in an elegant way (6)
POSHLY The abbreviation for Petty Officer and a synonym for timid go ‘about’ the first letter of Love

4a     Islam unexpectedly accepting old language (6)
SOMALI An anagram (unexpectedly) of ISLAM ‘accepting’ the abbreviation for Old

9a     Tree to stroke with hand (4)
PALM Double definition

10a     Small plant reduced to powder to consume (6,4)
GROUND PINE A verb meaning reduced to powder followed by a verb meaning to consume in the sense of become thin with worry

11a     Conflict about good, socially acceptable American car (6)
JAGUAR A synonym for conflict goes about the abbreviation for Good, the letter used to mean socially acceptable, and the abbreviation for American

12a     Bowel problem – miserably totters round hospital (3,5)
THE TROTS This week’s yuck clue/solution – an anagram (miserably) of TOTTERS around H (hospital)

13a     Miniature prepared halibut man gutted (9)
THUMBNAIL An anagram (prepared) of HALIBUT and MN (gutted telling you to remove the A from man

15a     Jelly discovered in tea gardens (4)
AGAR Lurking (discovered) in teA GARdens

16a     Dad heartlessly riled US mate (4)
PARD Another word for dad and the outside letters (heartlessly) of RileD gives us another name for a particular ‘fluffy’

17a     Working with choppers, say, surprisingly it’s trendy (9)
DENTISTRY An anagram (surprisingly) of ITS TRENDY

21a     Concerning power-driven craft    set in motion again (8)
RELAUNCH The two letters used to mean concerning, on the subject of, followed by a power-driven craft

22a     Quietly called foremost of services for car crashes (6)
PRANGS The letter used in music to mean quietly, a synonym for called and the first (foremost0 letter of Services

24a     Large hairy creature losing urge, primarily, for the Spanish dance (10)
TARANTELLA Remove the U (losing urge primarily) from a large hairy spider and replace with the Spanish definite article

25a     Historic Scots coin an object of interest (4)
LION Double definition (triple if you include the theme!) A Scottish coin of James VI with a picture of this animal on the obverse, apparently worth 74 Scots shillings. The second definition refers to any object of interest, especially a famous or conspicuous person much sought after (named after the felines kept in the Tower, one of the sights of London)

26a     Schoolmate sadly abandoning scruffy sham fur (6)
OCELOT An anagram (sadly) of sChOOLmaTE without the letters SHAM (scruffy telling you that they aren’t in that order in schoolmate)

27a     People will tell about hour and year (6)
THEY’LL TELL (from the clue) ‘about’ the abbreviations for Hour and Year

Down

1d     Egyptian king‘s outdated expression of disgust about a Sun God (7)
PHARAOH An outdated expression of disgust (4) goes ‘about’ A (from the clue) and the Egyptian Sun God

2d     Singular American female casuals, essentially jacket and trousers (5)
SAMFU The abbreviations for Singular, American and Female followed by the ‘essential’ letter of casUals

3d     Restraint upsetting one girl (3-4)
LEG-IRON An anagram (upsetting) of ONE GIRL

5d     Minute quantities once including uranium and sulphur (6)
OUNCES ONCE (from the clue) ‘including’ the chemical symbols for Uranium and Sulphur

Image result for snow leopards cats

6d     A watering place returned sweetener for edible shoots (9)
ASPARAGUS A (from the clue), a watering place, and a reversal (returned) of a particular sweetener. Searching for images, there are lots with furry creatures eating these edible shoots, but the only reference to a named one is a character in the musical Cats

7d     Set back in ferreting incident was thing leading to explosion (7)
IGNITER Lurking in reverse (set back in) ferRETING Incident

8d     Type of butterfly‘s translucent, mottled material (13)
TORTOISESHELL Double (triple) definition

14d     Accepting couple of directions and bit of aid, mother created preserve (9)
MARMALADE An informal term for mother and a verb meaning created into which are inserted two ‘sides’ (directions) and the first bit of Aid

16d     Keep up a frightening sound in child’s game (7)
PEEKABO A reversal (up in a Down clue) of KEEP followed by A (from the clue) and a frightening sound – I’d actually add an extra letter in both this sound and the solution

18d     Thanks break down for stale beer, say (7)
TAPLASH An informal way of saying thanks and a verb meaning to break down produces stale beer, particularly the dregs of a cask

19d     Soft toy of cutie supporting student charity event (7)
RAGDOLL A cutie supporting or going after a student charity event

20d     Radio network reveals football manoeuvre (3-3)
ONE-TWO Lurking in radiO NETWORk

23d     Marble passageway (5)
ALLEY Another double (triple!) definition

 


19 comments on “NTSPP – 493

  1. Thanks to Chalicea for the bonus NTSPP. I found it a bit trickier than ‘fluffy’ so I assume that the title is ironic. There are several terms new to me including the 2d clothes, the 10a plant, the 25a coin and the 18d stale beer.
    I enjoyed the puzzle and I particularly liked 17a and the cleverly hidden 20d but my favourite (and a great laugh) was 12a.
    Can we have a Not the Sunday Prize Puzzle every week please?

      1. I take it there’s a theme then but, as so often is the case with themes unless they are something that’s of interest to me, I’ve no idea what it is.

        1. I think Cryptic Sue’s delightful gallery of cats removed any doubt. Half my pleasure in setting it was the knowledge that she would produce some real gems. The other half was perhaps a gentle tease of Big Dave’s ‘fluffies’ comment and some ‘self-irony’ about being one of the Tuesday ‘Floughie setters’ – I knew Big Dave would be blogging the following Tuesday – which was mine – as lovely ‘fluffy’ Kitty had had to stop blogging because of work pressure.

          1. Aw, thank you! :rose: If I can be assured of fixed flexitime (so to speak!), I hope I’ll be able to return to the fold before too long.

            (By the way, BD regulars may not know that in the meantime I can still be found on weekends on fifteensquared blogging some of the EV and Independent puzzles – and now also on Times For the Times with one in five of the Jumbo Cryptic blogs.)

  2. Very enjoyable with some head scratching required so I will go along with Gazza’s ‘ironic.’
    2d and 18d also new to me and perhaps the former should have had some indication of its Oriental origins.
    Favourite – 24a, even if it is an oldie but goodie.
    Thanks Chalicea.

    1. Yes, you are right about 2d. However, it appears so often in crosswords (and I’ve never met the word anywhere else) that I gave no help (maybe worried about being too ‘fluffy’).

  3. There were definitely a few clues here that I didn’t find ‘fluffy’ in the sense that BD used and a couple of alternative spellings that were new to me.
    My list of ‘things I didn’t know’ mirrored the one mentioned by Gazza, as did my list of favourites.

    Thematic, CS? I’ll take your word for it where some of the answers are concerned!

    Many thanks, Chalicea, you have the honour of being the first representative of ‘Not The Sunday Prize Puzzle’! Like Gazza, I hope that there may be many more to follow in your footsteps.

  4. Yes, a number of unknowns that the BRB explained.

    I guess the theme must be cats?

    I particularly liked 12A, 17A and 20D.

    1. Oh, for goodness sake – I should have spotted that one a mile away! Even so, I wouldn’t want to be the one to test out the ‘fluffiness’ of some of them (unless they were very, very young ones)!

  5. Spotting the theme helped with the butterfly, which for some reason I could not bring to mind. Like others I found this very enjoyable, but I wonder whether fluffy is quite the right word for clues like 2d., or more than one of the themed solutions!

  6. Very nicely done Chalicea, enjoyed that. Thank you and thanks also to CS for the review.

  7. Many thanks for the review, CS, there were certainly a couple of ‘fluffies’ that I had to look up.
    I find it rather interesting that almost all tortoiseshell cats are female – X chromosomes and all that!

    Well done for ‘getting your own back’ Chalicea – proud of you!
    By the way – who coined ‘floughie’ – I can’t find any evidence of its existence.

      1. So it was; I thought it was CS. Nice to hear from you Kitty and pleased to hear you’re not spitting feathers, so to speak

  8. A little bird alerted me to this puzzle. (It’s ok, I didn’t eat him ;) )

    Indeed, there were a few claws to be found amid the fluffiness here. 2d was new to me, and I had to trust the wp, and I didn’t know the 25a coin or the 23d marble. I will also admit to an electronic word-fit to help with my last couple: the intersecting 27a and 18d, where both the answer and the “break down” were new to me.

    Naturally I loved the puzzle, for which many thanks to Chalicea. What a wonderful way to respond to a comment! Thanks also to crypticsue for the blog and delightful illustrations, particularly the 26as and baby 5ds.

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