A Puzzle by Madcap
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
Madcap provides this week's alternative exercise in lateral thinking with a far more conventional puzzle than his last offering and a very enjoyable one at that so thanks to him
Across
7a Essentially very right or it’s wrong (5)
ERROR: Put together the essential letters of vERy plus the abbreviation for Right plus OR from the clue
9a Is introducing old language good or alienating? (9)
ISOLATING: A charade of IS from the clue, abbreviation for Old, an “old” language and the abbreviation for Good.
11a Penny’s fallen out of weakness for charm (7)
ENCHANT: A synonym for weakness or liking loses the abbreviation for Penny
12a See Spooner’s farewell to everyone (7)
EYEBALL: The solution given the Spooner treatment would become the last three words of the clue (lol)
13a Madcap’s out-of-date jam (7)
IMPASSE: A contracted first person singular of the verb TO BE plus a word meaning tired or out of date.
15a Madcap in debt and crying like a puss (7)
MEOWING: A first person object pronoun and a word meaning in debt
16a Nothing extreme in flirtation and curiously age-old (11)
TRADITIONAL: fLIRTATIIOn AND* (nothing extreme/curiously)
21a A powerful attraction is sex with a saucy edge (7)
GRAVITY: Crosswordland's favourite 2-letter sex inside a sauce served with meat
23a Drink in Cardigans’ exceptional lost CD (7)
SANGRIA: cARdIGANS* (exceptional/lost CD)
25a Trim dog-end (7)
CURTAIL: An aggressive or unkempt dog and a synonym of end.
27a You can't drive straight there in Monaco, smart ass (7)
CHICANE: French (in Monaco) words for smart and ass
28a Prepares cold espresso shot (9)
PROCESSES: C plus ESPRESSO* (shot)
29a See 22a
SENNA:
Down
1d Gamble nets awfully fine profit (7)
BENEFIT: A synonym of gamble around (nets) FINE*
2d Madcap has one drug after another (8)
CRACKPOT: Nothing to do with the setter, put together two informal names for drugs. Lol
3d Mat’s in for a fortune (4)
MINT: Replace the A in Mat with IN. If we take the ‘s as meaning “has” the cryptic wordplay works fine
4d Clean as opposed to cleanse smell? (4)
NOSE: If we split the solution 2-2 we can see how the wordplay works
5d Kill and remove feathers? (4,4)
TAKE DOWN: Whimsically the solution (a synonym of kill in the sense of remove) could mean remove feathers
6d Judge had filling eyes, cried and committed Muslim (6)
JIHADI: The abbreviation for Judge then an insertion of HAD from the clue into two letters that sound like (cried) eyes.
8d Ends in debt without a rupee (5)
REARS: A synonym of debt without A from the clue and an abbreviation for Rupee
10d Sludge reported to be covering trails in horrendous camps (6)
GULAGS: A homophone of a three -letter synonym of sludge and a synonym of trails as a verb. Very smart
14d Enlighten daughter lapsing in worship (5)
EDIFY: Move the abbreviation for Daughter one place (lapsing) down in a synonym of worship
15d Male helps - hardly! (5)
MAIDS: The abbreviation for Male plus a synonym of helps as a verb or noun. Lol. The whole clue could serve as the definition.
17d One and one possibly made three in a Mickey Mouse way (8)
ANIMATED: An indefinite article plus the letter representing one (one and one) plus a word that could mean produced another (made three). Very smart
18d She puts on a show of knowledge about bad weather (8)
LORRAINE: Some knowledge (perhaps passed down) around (about) some bad weather that we seem to get a lot of. Great clue, though a show I'd rather watch paint dry than view.
19d Big supporter under the last government is one laid to rest here (6)
EGGCUP: The big supporter here is the large size of a bra! It goes below the final letter of thE plus an abbreviation for Government. Can “the last” indicate E? I'm not convinced but super clue.
20d He checks entrants by turning over label (7)
GATEMAN: A reversal of a label (4-3) Very smart.
22d & 29 Anne's not returning to Scottish town for quick old Brazilian (6,5)
AYRTON Start with a 3-letter Scottish town and reverse (returning) ANNE’S NOT. I like this, nothing to do with a delicate shave!
24d Catches one moving slowly by cycling (5)
NAILS: Cycle the first letter to the end in a notoriously slow animal.
26d Concrete solid walls fail in recess (4)
LOSE: Hidden (walls) and reversed (in recess) in the clue. I've not seen the solution given before the reversal indicator before so can't comment on it's validity
27d Die players (4)
CAST: Straightforward double definition.
A really enjoyable puzzle full of humour – many thanks to Madcap.
My ticks went to 21a, 27a, 3d, 19d and 22/29 (I was originally trying to find a different type of Brazilian!).
Thankfully I didn’t find this as tough as Madcap’s previous offerings, and I really enjoyed the solve.
I thought I was going to register a DNF courtesy of 26d but, just as I was about to give up, the penny dropped. Is it OK to have the definition before the reversal indicator?
It was a shame that the otherwise excellent 27a needed American spelling in order to work, and isn’t “it’s” unnecessary in 7a?
I had plenty of ticks on my page, and my favourite is a toss-up between 12a & 19d.
Many thanks to Madcap.
Very pleased with myself for remembering the fast Brazilian and I rather liked the non-namecheck (I assume!) in 2d. Others that appealed were the Spoonerism and the powerful attraction. Still wrestling with the parsing of 4d.
Thanks to Madcap for the Saturday entertainment.
Penny just dropped over 4d!
That had us working hard and somewhat delayed our Sunday morning walk but all sorted now and much enjoyment was had.
We were rather taken with the similarity in 11a and 14d so pick those as joint favourites.
Thanks Madcap
Thanks for the puzzle Madcap, lots of fun.
Big groans (and also smiles) when the penny dropped for 4d. I also liked 13a, 25a and 27d.
Great puzzle Madcap. Haven’t found it straightforward by any means & am currently shy of answers in 2 pesky 4 letter ones (4&26d) but will ponder them again later. Also need to work on a couple of whys. Picks for me would be 9,12,16&21a + 2,6&14d along with 22d/29a. Like Gazza I figured Anne had decided that she wasn’t for going there again.
Many thanks.
Just had another gander & cracked ‘em both. 4d now gets my vote as pick of the bunch. Tucking the definition between the 2 indicators in t’other one was a bit sneaky.
Failed on 8dn and the intersecting 21ac&19dn. As for 8dn I still don’t understand the synonym for ‘debt’ – it’s not in either Chambers or Collins with that meaning and the nearest I could get by googling was an abbreviation for a way of assessing credit which us hardly the same thing.
Thanks, though, to Madcap for the challenge and to SL for the explanations.
Re 8d….how about “they have promised to pay off the debt/arrears next week” It’s certainly in Collins
A very enjoyable puzzle from Madcap which I didn’t finish before dropping off last night as I was held up by 21a, 19d and 26d. Pennies duly dropped this morning and both 21a and 19d were added to my long list of favourites. The pesky 4-letter 26d was my last one in, once I stopped barking up wrong trees! Other favourites in my long list were 7a, 13a, 2d, 8d, 14d, 15d, 20d & 24d.
Thanks, Madcap, for a perfect NTSPP. My thanks also to StephenL for posting the hints.
Many thanks for the review, Stephen, always good to have someone check your homework when a setter like Madcap is on the loose!
Very late as we weren’t able to get the puzzle on Saturday but thoroughly enjoyed the solve yesterday evening and this morning. We struggled with 19d and we weren’t sure which way 20d should be written in as it made no difference to the overlapping letters. Thanks to StephenL for explaining our answer to 4d – great! Many thanks, of course, to Madcap