My first attempt at a themed crossword – the theme is cryptically alluded to in the introductory line but is otherwise not made explicit in the puzzle.
“MacGuffin” is the name Alfred Hitchcock gave to the device in any film that drives the story along without being itself of any special significance (eg the statue in The Maltese Falcon). Here it’s a group of words around which the grid is based. Although the words are thematically linked, they stand alone and no knowledge of the theme is required to solve the puzzle – they were simply the first words I put into the grid; the rest were filled in around them.
Specifically, the words are all titles of films directed by Alfred Hitchcock – there are seven in the grid, all marked with asterisks below.
Across
1. STRAND – S + TRAD (folk music), insert N
4. *I CONFESS – ICON + FESS (heraldic term for a broad horizontal band on an escutcheon)
10. *BON VOYAGE – insert [C]ONVOY (procession with no “leader”) in BAG (Gladstone) + E
11. *TOPAZ – TOP + AZ (middle letters of “brazen”)
12. THREE – anag of ETHER
13. IMPARTIAL – “I’m partial!”
14. UNAWARE – UNA + WARE (Dorset town)
16. ROOD – DOOR (opener) reversed (flipping). A rood is a cross that usually stands on a screen in church. The surface is meant to make you think of cricket.
19. OPUS – OP (middle letters of Chopin) + US
21. CASCADE – insert CAD in CASE
24. *SUSPICION – U’S (University’s) + PI (an irrational number) inserted into SCION
25. TINGE – [S]TINGE[R]
26. CHINA – CHIN (punch) + A. “China plate” is Cockney rhyming slang for “mate”, hence “friend in East London”
27. PUNCTUATE – cryptic definition. Another one that got a favourable mention from the Guardian’s Paul (www.cryptica.co.uk). I seem to have a strike rate of one per puzzle, though I only submit my personal favourites for his consideration, not the whole lot.
28. OVERTURN – OVERT (seeming) + URN (pot)
29. *FRENZY – FRENCH swapping CH (companion) for Z,Y (two “unknowns”)
Down
1. *SABOTEUR – anag of ASBO TRUE
2. RING ROAD – RING (cabal) + homophone of “rode” (cycled)
3. NO ONE – a fairly cheesy cryptic definition
5. CREEPER – CREE (Native American) + PER (by)
6. *NOTORIOUS – anag of ORTON + IOUS (debts)
7. ESPRIT – anag of PRIEST. Rufus in the Guardian recently used the same anagram, though his clue had “turbulent priest”, evoking Henry II’s famous line about Thomas Becket. I wrote my clue before I saw the Rufus puzzle but wished I’d thought of that one. I’m quite happy with my version, though.
8. SIZZLE – EL (“the” in Spanish, hence Madrileno) + ZZ (snores) + [H]IS, all reversed. A fairly elaborate bit of wordplay but I think it just about works.
9. RAVINE – insert IN (fashionable) in RAVE (enthuse)
15. APPLICANT – anag of PLAIN PACT
17. MAINTAIN – AINT (“isn’t” as commonly spoken) inserted in MAIN (ocean)
18. SEVERELY – anag of EVE’S LYRE
20. SLIPPER – REP + PILS reversed
21. CANING – CAREENING (running amok) less RE and E (English)
22. *PSYCHO – hidden answer
23. ASPIRE – cryptic definition, “a spire” being what you see on top of a church
25. TUTOR – anag of TROUT
