A Puzzle by Jeemz
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
NTSPP regular Jeemz is in the hot seat this week giving us a very enjoyable themed puzzle. Thanks to him.
Across
1a Amount of noise made by awful bed lice (7)
DECIBEL: BED LICE* (awful)
5a Plant genuses America imports (6)
SESAME: Hidden (imports)
9a Sick from sailing in Tahiti? (3,2,3)
MAL DE MER: The French for seasickness (Sailing in Tahiti…part of French Polynesia)
10a Looks for adult missing from regular stamping grounds (5)
HUNTS: Remove the abbreviation for Adult from some regularly frequented places
12a Luminary's heading back for river (4)
AVON: Reversal (heading back) of a luminary in the sky
13a Kicked off in the first place and plundered (10)
FREEBOOTED: A synonym of kicked preceded by (in the first place) one of off in the sense of not at work maybe
15a Brief in court defends street ball game (8)
INSTRUCT: IN from the clue plus an abbreviation for CourT “defend” an abbreviation for STreet and one of crosswordland's favourite games
16a Text about incense produces funny looks (6)
SMIRKS: An abbreviated text message around incense as a verb
19a Storybook pirate captain's old fire raisers? (6)
FLINTS: Double definition, one a character in a novel, the other something used to produce a spark
21a Tittle tattle has Dame Edna finally in such deep water (5,3)
WHITE SEA: A synonym of tittle plus the final letters of the following four words. I'm not a fan of this type of clue where finally is used to indicate multiple preceding or following words.
24a Give the go-ahead: AA accept it surprisingly (10)
CAPACITATE: AA ACCEPT IT* (surprisingly)
25a Stop soldiers entering counterattack when exhausted (4)
CORK: Some abbreviated soldiers inserted into the outside letters (when exhausted) of CounterattacK. Very nice
27a Wags about fifty flags (5)
WILTS: A synonym of wags as a noun around the Roman numeral for 50. I like this.
28a 17 boundaries securing first of Lancashire's astounding victories (8)
FLAVOURS: Some cricket boundaries “secure” the first letters of the last three words of the clue
29a Best teams making departures (6)
ASIDES: If we split the solution 1-5 we have a possible description of best teams.
30a Beastly waste, facing inordinate stretch down here? (7)
DUNGEON: Some “beastly waste” (maybe a cow) plus a long period of time. Lol, I like this one too.
Down
2d Learns about dreary oddly forgotten colours (7)
CRAYONS: An insertion of the even letters of dReArY into a synonym of learns
3d Gardeners get to work on these degrees (4)
BEDS: Double definition
4d Five artistic lines of fruit put out (8)
LIMERICK: A fruit often used in an alcoholic drink and a synonym of put out or strain. A nicely disguised definition.
5d Two hands involved in climbing up the old American conveyance (6)
SURREY: Two abbreviated hands inserted into a reversal (climbing up in a down clue) of an archaic “the” and one of the usual Americans. The solution is a horse-drawn carriage
6d Prime team played pal from college (10)
SCHOOLMATE: A synonym of prime as a verb and TEAM* (played)
7d Follow plonker entering dock (7)
MONITOR: A plonker or fool inserted into a synonym of dock as a verb
8d Mistreated and put out when missing party (4)
USED: Remove the usual two-letter party from a word meaning extinguished
11d Upended tree's contributing to bloated list of duties (6)
TARIFF: Insert a tree into a synonym of bloated or overweight and reverse the result
14d Given bad press floundering CID tries capturing nucleus of radicals (10)
CRITICISED: CID TRIES* around (capturing) radICals.
17d Narcotic linked to Sweden's fishing boats (6)
SMACKS: A slang word for a narcotic and the IVR code for Sweden
18d Scottish crime series plot follows plonk guzzling husband (8)
SHETLAND: A plot as a noun follows a synonym of plonk as a verb into which the abbreviation for Husband is inserted. Strictly speaking “plot guzzling” should be hyphenated which would render the cryptic grammar incorrect
20d Plunges through broken trampolines torn hopelessly apart (7)
IMPALES: trAMPoLInES * (torn hopelessly apart) Very smart.
22d Initially shows bravery repelling a tormentor (7)
SCOURGE: The initial letter of Shows plus a synonym of bravery from which (repelling) A is removed
23d Ship going about Welsh river supplies crooks? (6)
STAFFS: The usual abbreviated steamship around a Welsh river. Nothing to do with villains! Very nice.
24d According to rumour X-Factor finder's a hood! (4)
COWL: A homophone (according to rumour) of the surname of a panelist on a distinctly second-rate show.
26d Spill blue drink (4)
DOWN: A nice triple definition to finish with.
Very enjoyable – thanks to Jeemz.
Ticks for 9a, 16a, 4d and 26d.
Caffeine definitely required and primed for a pangram which didn’t materialise, thanks Jeemz.
I think, a dangerous habit, I detected a theme, does Jeemz do themes, some abbreviated, some Irish, and some that don’t exist any longer(?) – nine, perhaps ten, in total.
Smiles for 16a, 28a, 4d, 5d, 14d, and 23d.
Thanks again Jeemz and thanks in advance to Stephen L.
Well spotted, Senf. As usual the theme passed me by until I saw your post. I’ve counted 9.
Thanks Senf. Yes, 11 in total – including the historical one of 18d.
Thanks Jeemz – I did get the historic 18d with some e-confirmation, that was my ‘perhaps ten’, but I missed the, what should have been very obvious, where ‘many young ladies’ might be ‘eulogised’ in five lines! So I now have 11.
Jeemz, thanks for a very entertaining puzzle. But … I can still only find 10 elements of the theme. Help!
Jepi, glad you found it entertaining. These are the ones you should be looking for 10,12,19, 25 and 27 across, 3, 4, 5, 18, 23, and 26 down. Three Irish, one Scottish, one Welsh and the rest English. Of course, as has been pointed out, some are historical and no longer recognized as separate counties in their own right.
I thought this was very enjoyable. I found parts of it quite tough, with a particular struggle in the SE corner before getting a completed grid.
I can’t see anything at all cryptic about 9a. It’s a combination of GK (knowing they speak French in Tahiti) and being able to translate from French to English.
If I am parsing 13a correctly, this requires “free” and “off” to be synonymous, which I don’t think they are even at a stretch.
I had ticks aplenty with 16a, 21a, 27a & 26d making up my podium.
Many thanks to Jeemz for the lunchtime fun.
RD thanks for the feed back. Glad you enjoyed it. If it helps, I parsed 13a as e.g “I’ll be free/off this weekend” – i.e. not at work.
A lot of fun to solve with some tricky bits along the way.
Thanks Jeemz.
Thanks for the puzzle Jeems, I found it tricky but fair.
Favourites were 15a, 16a and 28a.
Definitely a few tricky moments during this solve and now, having given myself a pat on the back, I see that I need to go back and hunt out all the themers. Ah well, I’m enjoying myself so why not!
Thanks for the Saturday challenge, Jeemz.
I found this quite chewy in places but got it all in the end. I saw a possible theme about half way through and then other answers confirmed that it was indeed the theme, and that helped with 5dn where I was thinking of the five lines of the music stave (probably because I’m currently reading “Five Straight Lines – a History of Music”. As for the theme, 19dn isn’t the only historic one; 10ac and 12ac no longer exist as such although their names survive as other entities.
Like RD I didn’t think 9ac was particularly cryptic, but that’s only a minor grumble; th rest was fine. Favourite was 28ac.
Thanks, Jeemz and SL.
Well, I didn’t spot the theme until prompted by the comments, but what’s new! An enjoyable puzzle from Jeemz, with my ticks awarded to 10, 25, 27 & 28 across and 4, 20, 22 & 23 down. I wasn’t familar with the ‘crime series’ so needed e-help to check that out, and although I had plumped for the correct answer to the 21a ‘deep water’, I didn’t understand the ‘Tittle tattle’ bit; so thanks to StephenL for clarifying that. I did twig 26d as a triple definition from words two and three, but couldn’t find a satisfactory link for word one..?
My thanks to both Jeemz and StephenL
The slip fielder spilled the ball ?
Thanks, Gazza. That’s along the lines I was thinking, but I wasn’t totally sold on it. Maybe I’m being too pernickety! I guess I have heard the answer used as a verb in that sense, but it’s not something I would say (as opposed to “He’s put it xxxx!”). And if it was off my bowling I might have said something else entirely :-)
Being something I wouldn’t say doesn’t rule it out of use in a crossword, though!
Many thanks Stephen for the comprehensive review and to all those who’ve kindly giving feed back and to any others who’ve given it a go. Hopefully the theme helped someone at least a little!