A Puzzle by Gazza
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
I was very pleased to learn of the setter of today's alternative exercise in lateral thinking and the puzzle certainly didn't disappoint so thanks to Gazza
Across
1a Australian boy exploits perverts ... (6)
ABUSES: Abbreviations for Australian and Boy precede a synonym of exploits. The solution is a verb.
5a ... conceivably caned for suggestive act (3,5)
FAN DANCE: A reverse anagram (conceivably is an indication of such) in which part of the solution is the anagrind. Very nice.
9a Popular official relaxed (8)
INFORMAL: The usual popular plus a synonym of official as an adjective
10a Food that hurts one standing up? (2-4)
NO-SHOW: An informal word for food and an exclamation indicating pain. Nothing to do with being upright.
11a Rely on nerve where dead men may be abandoned (6,4)
BOTTLE BANK: A synonym of rely or depend after an informal one of nerve. The “dead men” is a mainly US reference.
12a Couple pairing up in sixties regularly married (4)
ITEM: Regular letters of sIxTiEs plus abbreviation for Married
13a Bungled a raid? Yes, that's quite likely (1,4,3)
I DARE SAY: Anagram (bungled) of the following three words
16a Colourful bird beside river hit player (6)
DEEJAY: A colourful (often blue) bird follows an English/Welsh river
17a Excels occasionally with puff pastry (6)
ECLAIR: Occasional letters of ExCeLs plus a synonym of puff, I'm not quite sure in which sense.
19a Lively repartee that bears fruit (4,4)
PEAR TREE: Anagram (lively) of REPARTEE.
21a Past leader's tweets appear totally vacuous (4)
TSAR: Outside letters (totally vacuous) of TweetS AppeaR.
22a Possibly sees friend in Dutch capital (10)
PALINDROME: A charade of an informal friend, in from the clue, the abbreviation for Dutch and a European capital
25a Attract boot attack (4,2)
TURN ON: Triple definition, the second and least obvious often preceded by “re”.
26a Most treacherous former PM is in Paris hotel forced out by King ... (8)
RISKIEST: Start with the given name of the last Tory prime minister and follow it with the French word for “is”. Replace the abbreviation for Hotel with one for King. Very nice.
27a ... what's more Lady Eden ends numb, completely naked (8)
ADDENDUM: A kind of opposite to 21a where we need the inside letters (completely naked) of the preceding four words. An amusing link
28a Defers earnings (6)
YIELDS: Double definition
Down
2d Giant duck circling new house (5)
BINGO: A synonym of giant contains the abbreviation for New. Append the letter representing a duck in cricket.
3d Explosive sound emanating from neutron star in the ascendant (5)
SNORT: Hidden and reversed (emanating from/in the ascendant)
4d Politician at first easily taken in by gentleman's coy smiles (7)
SIMPERS: The usual politician plus the initial letter of Easy sit inside a reference for a gentleman and possessive S
5d Female colleague swallows a Conservative myth (7)
FALLACY: The abbreviation for Female plus a colleague or associate containing A from the clue plus the abbreviation for Conservative
6d No essentially disconsolate child can resist a slide? (3-4)
NON-SKID: No from the clue plus essential letters of disconsolate and an informal child. A nice surface read. The definition is somewhat whimsical hence the ?.
7d At heart setter is so reluctant to indulge (9)
ABSTINENT: The heart of the word seTTer is the abbreviation for teetotal. Very smart.
8d After hesitation worried intern's first to play ball (2-7)
CO-OPERATE: The usual expression indicating hesitation plus a synonym of worried follow a synonym of intern or imprison, usually used with “up”
14d Father skirts church to avoid dog (9)
DACHSHUND: An informal father around an abbreviation for church and a synonym of avoid or ignore
15d Adjust bottom oven (9)
REARRANGE: A synonym of bottom or behind and a type of oven. This ticked me.
18d Soused in wine current writer's mellowed (7)
RIPENED: An abbreviation for current plus a writing implement sit inside one of the usual wines.
19d Traveller's gloomy, depressed by endless lager (7)
PILGRIM: A synonym of gloomy below (depressed in a down clue) a lager minus its last letter
20d Many set out in spirit of forgiveness (7)
AMNESTY: Anagram of MANY SET
23d Rebel without a cause (5)
RAISE: A synonym of rebel as a verb placed around (without) A from the clue. Great surface read.
24d Reflected that old Queen wasn't missing crown (5)
MUSED: The “old Queen” here is Victoria. Take the first letter (missing crown) from something she was said not to be! A good one to finish with.
It’s a sad day when even my knight in shining armour stoops to using that frightful word for food and I doubt that our resident rabbit will be particularly pleased with 16a but I guess we’ll just have to live with them.
Some very clever clues as we would expect from such an expert, a couple of bits of parsing which are still eluding me and a definite favourite in 11a. 17a also produced a smile, far superior clue for that answer then I’ve previously seen, and such a shame that 13a popped up recently in another puzzle.
Many thanks for a great NTSPP Gazza – I’ll keep wrestling with those tricky parsings!
What a joy to find a puzzle from Gazza in the NTSPP slot. I found this more towards the easier end of his spectrum but it was great fun all the way (and, courtesy of Jane, I don’t need to mention my loathing of the answer to 16a – oops, I just did).
For 1a, I couldn’t find any reference to “boy” = B in either Chambers or Collins.
I did like the story generated by the linking of 26a & 27a, and my other top picks were 22a, 25a & 23d.
Many thanks to Gazza for such splendid entertainment.
A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle. With regard to “that” word for food I suppose language changes so we may have to accept it. That doesn’t mean to say I have to like it anymore than I dislike “If I was” instead of “If I were” or “Less” in place “Fewer”. Plenty of clues to like with smiles along the way. I did like the naked lady at 27a and that takes the podium.
Thank you, Gazza for the fun.
This was lovely, as expected. Super surfaces and clever wordplay. 22a and 14d both read beautifully. 23d’s wonderfully neat and 24d tickled me. Huge thanks, Gazza.
Caffeine required to finish in the NE but generally straightforward and enjoyable. I think I managed to winkle out all the parsings.
Smiles for 11a, 16a, 22a, 18d, and 24d.
Thanks Gazza and thanks to Stephen L(?).
Lots to like in this very entertaining puzzle from Gazza. Both … linked clues provided good ‘stories’, as RD put it; I also enjoyed the smooth triple definition, the misleading “intern” and the phrasing of “that old Queen wasn’t”. However, my podium places were awarded to 10, 17 & 21 in the across clues and 7, 15 and 23 in the down clues. 17a may be a straightforward clue, but it has a lovely juxtaposition of contrasting pastries between wordplay and solution!
Thank you, Gazza, and my thanks in advance to our reviewer.
Nice one, Gazza!
A bit of a struggle in the NE but finally managed to parse 5a (reverse anagram?) and the very clever 7d (from a very clever “setter”)
Other contenders for podium places go to 22a, 26a and 27a.
Thanks, Gazza, for a very entertaining puzzle.
Thanks for the puzzle Gazza, very nice.
I’ll pick 10a and 16a as my favourites, since they seem to have irked a few people.
Lovely puzzle with loads to like. Have a suspicion that if this was someone else’s work Gazza would list 5a in his picks & it’d be one of mine too along with 21,22&27a + 2,6&15d. Think I have 7d parsed correctly but wouldn’t bet money on it.
Many thanks Gazza
What more could one ask for on a beautiful fine Sunday morning than a Gazza puzzle to solve. It certainly lived up to our expectations and we can set off for our estuary and beach walk with smiles all over our faces. The triple def in 25a gets our vote for favourite.
Thanks Gazza.
Very enjoyable, thank you Gazza, but we did struggle somewhat in the NE corner and still need to parse a couple there. Favourites were 22a, 26a, 27a, 14d and 15d. We look forward to your next one and in advance thank the reviewer.
An enjoyable puzzle to pass a wet & dreary Saturday morning.
Favourites 11a, 16a, 22a, 14d & 19d
22a made me laugh when the penny dropped & I thought 14d was a good lego clue
Thanks to Gazza
All gettable and an enjoyable puzzle. I simply took 5ac to be a straight anagram with ‘conceivably’ as the anagram indicator.
Thanks, Gazza and StephenL
If it were a straight anagram Exit how are you accounting for the first word of the solution?
Oops! I obviously didn’t look too closely at the anagram fodder; a case o0f seeing what one wants to see.
Many thanks to all who commented and especially to StephenL for the excellent review (although the illustrated fan dance looks fairly tame!).
I’m sorry about the abbreviation for boy. My first port of call for abbreviations is the LYB (Little Yellow Book, Chambers XWD dictionary of crossword abbreviations) which sits permanently on my desk. That has b and g for boy/girl, but I should have checked further.
Thanks for the review Stephen. Re the 7d why – of course (d’oh) I’m too embarrassed to ‘fess up to how I parsed it.
Many thanks for the review, Stephen, a great opportunity to revisit Gazza’s most enjoyable NTSPP.
Very late to this after a busy weekend but had to add my congratulations for a masterpiece by one of our gurus. I really enjoyed this for it’s great variety of clues and some enjoyable penny drop moments. Of course we even had a reverse anagram! My top three clues were 22 and 26a and, my last one in when the penny dropped, 7down, Many others received ticks from me. Thank you Gazza for the entertainment and to Stephen L for the well illustrated review.