A Puzzle by Starhorse
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
Starhorse makes his first appearance since July 24 with a very entertaining puzzle, though there did seem to be a slight overuse of single letter deletions. Thanks to him.
Across
1a Scrooge's good deal on fish? (10)
CHEAPSKATE: Cryptic/double definition
6a Needlewoman loses son's bottle (4)
EWER: Someone skilled in embroidery without the abbreviation for Son. More a jug than a bottle
10a Make public company amend and remove result (7)
OUTCOME: A word that could mean make public, the usual COmpany plus amend from the clue once “and” has been removed. Not sure the cryptic grammar quite works here.
11a Note to allow journey to go ahead (7)
TRIPLET: A synonym of allow with one of journey placed ahead of it. Smart.
12a Reliable Conservative? (4)
SAFE: Double definition, Conservative here being falsely capitalised
13a Place of entertainment, and converted church building (5,4)
DANCE HALL: AND* (converted) plus CE (church) plus a type of building/room
15a It's required for tea and a pickle (3,5)
HOT WATER: Cryptic/double definition, the less obvious one in the sense of trouble
16a Influence of a very loud leaderless cult (6)
AFFECT: A from the clue, the musical “very loud” and a cult without its first letter.
19a Turned out love duets randomly (6)
OUSTED: The usual single-letter abbreviated love plus DUETS* (randomly)
21a Joke briefly about one accountant's bloomer (8)
JAPONICA: A joke or trick without its last letter, a preposition that could mean about/regarding, the single-letter abbreviation for one and an abbreviated Chartered Accountant.
24a Elderly Spice Girl with a talent not fully exploited (9)
GERIATRIC: Ginger Spice (I think!) plus A plus a rather stretched synonym of talent without its last letter
26a Stampede to find jam Charlie's abandoned (4)
RUSH: Jam in the sense of squash without C (Charlie's abandoned)
28a Burn off hydrogen in gorge (7)
OVEREAT: A synonym of burn without the chemical symbol for Hydrogen. Another where I'm not entirely sure the cryptic grammar entirely works.
29a Cheer Deleware match (7)
DELIGHT: The state abbreviation for DElaware plus a synonym of match as a noun. Ignore the typo!!
30a Don't start track, say (4)
TALK: A synonym of track as a verb without its first letter
31a Father reporting duck's on the loose (10)
PROGENITOR: REPORTING+O* (on the loose)
Down
1d Prepare to study, get double first (4)
COOK: A questionable synonym of study with the initial L changed to C (in Roman numerals C is twice L). Ten out of ten for ingenuity here
2d Recover from being caught in added time (7)
EXTRACT: The abbreviation for Caught splits a synonym of added and the abbreviation for Time.
3d Terrace by Barking Post Office renamed (9)
PROMENADE: PO RENAMED* (Barking)
4d Heavily involved with part of castle holding Miss (4-4)
KNEE-DEEP: A fortified tower in a castle goes around a synonym of miss. Another false cap here
5d Carrying can in garment (6)
TOTING: A (food perhaps) can inside an item of clothing usually used in the plural
7d Comfort food by pool in short supply (7)
WELFARE: A pool minus its last letter plus a range of food
8d Shake up section of dodgy vehicle (10)
RATTLETRAP: A synonym of shake plus a section reversed (up in a down clue)
9d Part of New England lacking a colliery (4)
MINE: A state in New England minus A from the clue
14d Broadcast rejected from start to finish (10)
THROUGHOUT: A homophone (broadcast) of a two-word synonym of rejected
17d Layout of large roof rebuilt to schedule (5,4)
FLOOR PLAN: L ROOF* (rebuilt) plus a synonym of schedule.
18d Guardian's duty on boat swapped (8)
WATCHDOG: A nautical duty with the second word swapped with the first. Nice.
20d A Ruler's bent - 'tis weird (7)
SURREAL: A RULER’S*
22d Audibly encourage vision (7)
INSIGHT: A homophone of a synonym of encourage or make happen
23d It rubs in Viagra terribly (6)
GRATER: Hidden
25d Old impressionist almost retired (4)
AGED: A reversal of an old artist without the last letter.
27d Come to prison (4)
STIR: Double definition
It seems to be quite a while since we last had a crossword from Star horse.
This was a nice lunchtime diversion with a mix of the friendly and the what on earth is he on about. I don’t think the solution to 6a is a bottle
Thanks Star horse and, in advance, to Stephen
Thanks Starhorse – I enjoyed this though there’s one clue (31) which I can’t parse at all though there can only be one answer from the checkers.
There’s a typo in 29a.
My ticks went to 1a, 1d, 4d, 14d and 18d.
31a It’s an anagram “on the loose”.
But I have no idea how to parse 1d. Any help gratefully received.
Thanks, Starhorse, for a very entertaining puzzle.
1d A synonym of study with the Roman numeral for fifty changed to that for one hundred
Thnks for clarifying 31a, Jepi. An anagram never occurred to me.
This was very much a curate’s egg for me. The majority of the clues were excellent, and the degree of difficulty ranged from straightforward to very challenging which is fine by me. Sadly though I had a few hmms:
– 6a. As CS says, the answer is not a bottle.
– 12a. Unless I’m missing something the two definitions are same-sidey.
– 29a. Typo.
– 1d. For me, “study” means “look at”. It is not synonymous with “look”.
– 7d. I’m not sure that “comfort” actually defines the answer, and it looks to me as if “supply” is surface padding.
– 18d. “Swapped” seems a bit inadequate to suggest reversing the order of two syllables.
I did however have plenty of ticks with 1a, 24a & 4d my top picks.
Thanks to Starhorse for a nice lunchtime diversion. Back out to the garden now.
Welcome back, Starhorse, with a puzzle that certainly had me scratching my head on occasions.
I had the wrong answer for 31a until I read the comment from Jepi which alerted me to the anagram – I was quite happy with what I’d written but couldn’t sort out the parsing.
Top of my pile were 1a plus 4&8d.
Thanks for an enjoyable NTSPP, Starhorse.
Thank you Starhorse. We struggled to parse 1d and a couple of others so we shall pleased to read the review tomorrow although we think we have the correct answers. Thanks in advance to StephenL.
1d, not 1a!
Rather more than a lunchtime diversion but I got it all in the end. As noted in the blog I thought of 6ac as more a jug than a bottle.
This may seem a trivial point but, as Gazza and Rabbit Dave have pointed out, there’s a typo in the clue for 29ac; the state should be spelt DelAware. I only mention this because mis-spellings in clues can sometimes be deliberate although admittedly the clue should then include some indication of this. (And I did wonder very briefly if ‘Deleware’ was some software I’d never heard of, possibly for permanently deleting files.)
Thanks, Starhorse and StephenL.
Many thanks for the review, Stephen, and thanks again to Starhorse – hope it isn’t quite as long until we see you again!
A very enjoyable puzzle to end my Saturday, with a good spectrum of difficulty and only 1d remaining to be determined overnight. Morning tea came and went, the Sunday Toughie was printed off, came and went; and 1d still remained to be determined!!! My thanks to StephenL for putting my mind at rest – it is the answer I preferred (‘chop’ was my reserve answer for the definition ‘prepare’) but I completely missed the possibility of Latin arithmetic, and I hadn’t considered ‘look’ as a synonym for ‘study’. Oh, well…
Along the way, I particularly enjoyed 10a, 13a, 15a, 29a (apart from the typo) and 14d, with the biggest smile being for 15a.
My thanks to Starhorse and, once again, to StephenL.
Good evening. Been in Norwich for a few days so wasn’t able to respond yesterday.
Thank you Stephen for the report and others for the comments. I’ve not done much setting for several months so apologies for a little rustiness. Point taken on Ewer – both that and bottle appear under flagon, but fair enough, in this case it doesn’t make them synonymous. Maybe a test setter would have queried that and spotted the Deleware typo (although the latter must have passed Malcolm by and I believe he lives in the US!). I’ll be back – must do better. Yours humbly, Starhorse
Good to have you back Starhorse. Enjoyed the puzzle, as always.
Thanks too to Stephen for the review.