Author   ZabadakPosted on 17th April 2014 at 3:07 AM12 May 2022Categories Daily Cryptic
And just who is Roy Maer (line 6)? My time for sorting all the letters (it is apangram this time, I’ve checked and checked!) was 24′ 47″, with determined knocking off of the wordplay on the way. It will be interesting to see how many known unknowns there are for our regular readers in this collection. For me, there are a few words I know without necessarily being able to draw a picture of what they represent, but that should never be seen as a handicap to the seasoned solver. First in was 1d, last was the innocuous but elusive 25ac, even after I knew what the noble was. This is how I reasoned my way to everything in between
Across
1 SNOWBOUND What the redoubtable Ann Bancroft, or come to that the Top Gear Boys could be.
SOUND (thorough) surrounding NOW (current) B(ook)
6 DECAF DEAF, unresponsive as “he was deaf to their plea for mercy” taking C(old) on board for a substance that is almost,
but not quite, entirely unlike coffee. I mean, what is the point of coffee without caffeine?
9 AXILLAE one of those Scrabble™ entriies that players know without having a clue what it is. I looked them up so that you
don’t have to. They are armpits. A football team has XI players until Beckham is sent off. Admit it and ALL “twisted,”
– reversed – into A (&) E (ask Thud ‘n’ Blunder).
10 LACQUER a kindly definition and wordplay, the starts of L(ose) A(t) C(hess) with QUER(y) being without its end.
11 EGO None of the 3-letters were particularly tough today. This Self Confidence is a hidden reverse in imOGEn
12 DISCIPLINED Definition “being strict”, DI plus rejected PICS and LINED with crows feet and such as time’s permanent
markers.
14 HOMAGE the Pig and Whistle pub name needs treatment to separate out the HOG and the last of (whistl)E and wrap them
both around old lady MA. Respect!
15 NEW DELHI The place is well known, the wordplay’s less obvious. Dicky indicates an anagram of WHEN and LIVED short of
V(ery)
17 MAJOLICA Bill=AC(count, see=LO, press=JAM, all reversed to give tin-glazed pottery originally from Italy but nicked by the
Brits and turned into something rather vulgar with a J, not an I
19 FLORAL Lad’s first is L, place inside FOR=for (!) and (s)AL(e) minus its limits. Among other things, “annuals” are generic
flowers.
22 INSEPARABLE How many types of farmland do you know. Yup, ARABLE. Tag it on to an arrangement of PINES and you have
“very close” spelt correctly with an A not an E.
23 DIS the primaries of Druggie Inhabits Shady for the ever useful word for the lower circles of hell and alternate name for
Lucifer.
25 TAIL OFF I got the TOFF for noble but struggled with the AIL for suffer. Don’t know why: perhaps my solving powers are in
decline.
27 RHIZOME another handy Scrabble™word, meaning “rootstock”. ZERO, H(elp) and I’M move around to create.
28 DWELT “stayed”. See Oxford, think shoe and, here, its bonding WELT added to D(aughter)
29 LANCASTER I think a triple definition, (Burt) Lancaster, the county town of Lancashire, and the Wars of the Roses team
that wasn’t York.
Down
1 STAKE Double definition, pole and the monetary component of a bet/punt. Nothing to do with falling in the Cam.
2 OVIFORM Egg-shaped. Decoration gives O(rder of) M(erit), deposit within V(erse) and generic Welshman IFOR, spelt that
way because it just is, look you.
3 BULLDOG CLIP A highly sprung device for keeping office papers together and inflicting injuries you may be able to claim
for. Order from Rome is a (Papal) BULL, follow=DOG.and CLIP is a glancing blow in, say boxing.
4 UNEASY All you actually have to do is take off the Northern (upper when written in the grid) letters of (J)UNE (w)AS (b)Y.
5 DULCIMER A sort of flat harp played with hammers, rather like the cimbalon that does the Harry Lime theme. Judge is LUD
(as in M’) upset and placed before an involvement of CRIME
6 DOC (not necessarily my) COD fish reversed. Think Leonard “he’s dead Jim” McCoy to make the connection with bones.
7 CHUNNEL LUNCHEON with its O(ver) cancelled and realigned for the contracted version of le tunnel sous la Manche,
surprisingly dating back to 1928
8 FIRE DRILL A semi &lit, I venture. IF backwards, then RED=burning and RILL=trench, the solution being what you need to
combat it.
13 LA DOLCE VITA, Federico Fellini’s take on a week in the life of Rome. Not a musical: that honour is taken by EVITA, which
tacked on to LAD=youth and the even letters of pOt LuCk creates the film.
14 HAM-FISTED Our actor is the not necessarily awkward HAM, the IS is gripped by the newspaper boss who is the F(inancial)
T(imes) ED
16 SCORNFUL Sixteen is four fifths of SCORe (geddit?), added to the N(ational) F(armers’) U(nion) and L(eft) “showing
contempt”
18 JASMINE One of my small collection of known plants and an air freshener flavour. Germany’s yes (JA) set over S(mall)
MINE=pit
20 REDCOAT An entertainer at Butlin’s holiday camps and of course the archetypal British soldier. I’ve been trying to find out
whether British soldiers were called redcoats and Tommies at the same time. Today’s debate, perhaps.
21 OBERON King of the fairies in AMSND. Our alumnus, an O(ld) B(oy) picks up the openings of E(xpress) and R(egret) and
ON, as in playing on stage.
24 SHEER Compete as in “sheer nonsense” sounds a lot like SHEAR as in haircut or clip.
26 OUT “Away”. In Corsica, you would say OU for “where” and temperature’s highest (we are still in down clues) is T
