A characteristically challenging and inventive Tees puzzle, that was far too hard for me to complete in the time available. It feels like there’s a theme here, goddesses perhaps, though I can’t quite put my finger on it.
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | MANNERIST – (ANNE + R) in MIST. |
| 10 | NEIGH – not sure here, this reads as a homophone, perhaps of “nay”, but I’m not sure how that’s “yet more”. |
| 11 | TREACLE – ELECTRA*. |
| 12 | ABIGAIL – A BIG + AIL. |
| 13 | WASTE – WAS T.E. (Lawrence). |
| 14 | PUNCHBOWL – PUNCH + BLOW*. |
| 16 | RENEWABLE ENERGY – (WE LEARN + E[co] + GREEN)*. |
| 19 | SHORT-LIST – L in SHORTIST, I guess. |
| 21 | ANGER – [b]ANGER. |
| 22 | DEBORAH – (ROBE in HAD)<. The Internet tells me that Deborah was the only woman to be a Judge of Israel. |
| 23 | COAL TIT – CO + (L in AT IT). |
| 24 | RATIO – (OI + TAR)<. |
| 25 | NORTH POLE – (HELP OR NOT)*. |
| Down | |
| 1 | EMPTY WORDS – the “WS” in the clue is therefore W[ord]S. |
| 2 | ANDERSEN – AND + ERSE + [catala]N. Hans Christian, no doubt. |
| 3 | RESCUE – SECURE*. |
| 4 | NIKE – (E + KIN)<. |
| 5 | ATTAINMENT – (IN MEN) in AT + TAT. |
| 6 | ANTIPHON – (PIANO + TH[e])*. |
| 7 | VIRAGO – V + IRA + GO. |
| 8 | THEL – THE + L. The Book of Thel is a poem by William Blake. |
| 14 | PUBLISHING – (I + LB)< in PUSHING. |
| 15 | LAY BROTHER – (HARLOTRY BE)*. |
| 17 | WATERLOO – (ATË + R + L) in WOO. |
| 18 | ROGATION – GO< in RATION. |
| 20 | ORBITS – OR + BITS. Tethys is a moon of Saturn. |
| 21 | APACHE – PA in ACHE. |
| 22 | DART – dd. A tapered seam of fabric/dash or hurry. |
| 23 | CORK – dd. |
“from mine” suggests “from my mouth”. The homophone is ‘nay’ as you have indicated. Chambers gives the meaning “yet more”.
Other meanings: “not only so, but; in point of fact”.
Suppose someone says something and stops. When we think that’s not all and want to add more details, we probably say “Nay, blah blah”.
As you say, Simon, very inventive. Well worth tackling. Thought EMPTY WORDS was particularly good. Thank you Tees, and also thanks to Simon for clearing up a handful of queries. However, in 18 down, whilst I see “ration” for “helping” and “go” for “try”, is it that “heavenly course” means “orbit” and so means “go” round? Can you clarify this? Thanks.
Hi jmac, I read that one in the sense of “ascending to heaven”, thus going upwards, which works with it being a down clue, I think.
Thanks for the excellent blog, Simon, and esp for explaining “shortist” which I did not see and is very good. I also found it quite hard, esp liked RENEWABLE ENERGY, EMPTY WORDS, NORTH POLE, LAY BROTHER (excellent anagram fodder), and RATIO.
Thanks Simon. Some explanations I didn’t know.
Took me ages to get 16a. At one point I was sitting with the R at the front and the Y at the end.
So that’s who Deborah was.
I was quite pleased that I knew the Book of Thel.
An abigail is also a lady’e maid.
The temple of NIKE is a lovely small one on the Acropolis in Athens.
I actually didn’t find this too challenging – or my new method of working Indies is giving fruit. I didn’t bother to look anything up, as words fell into place quite nicely, so thanks, Simon, for the info on 8d and 20d.
I assumed Deborah must appear in the Book of Judges, but was surprised to learn she was one. I must read a little more of the OT.
Re the 10a homophone, this sounds to me like a rhetorical resource:
“In my opinion…, consider…, nay..”
ie. “what’s more..”
Hurrah! First Thursday puzzle I’ve finished for a bit, and like Stella, I didn’t struggle too much with it: seemed to go in nicely with clues falling at the right time. Needed a couple of explanations (NEIGH especially), so thank you Simon.
Was I the only one looking to slap in something about Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame in 1dn?
Re 3. Thanks Simon – that makes sense.
Thanks for the post, Simon. I thought this was very enjoyable – lots of excellent clues, with nice touches like “ascending to heaven”…
I wasn’t sure about “Unproductive” for WASTE – is there a better example than “waste ground” / “unproductive ground”? I’m sure I’m missing something.
WASTE: Chambers has: ” rejected, superfluous; uncultivated, and at most sparsely inhabited; desolate; lying unused; unproductive; devastated, ruinous (obsolete); in a devastated condition (as in lay waste); empty, unoccupied; useless, vain (obsolete).”
So it’s in the list.
NAY: the OED has “Used as an introductory word, without any direct negation.”. And one of the citations is interesting, especially for those who’ve done the Guardian today: “1960 J. BARTH Sot-Weed Factor III. xix. 760 Stir thy stumps, there, Nicholas me ladnay, what is’t, now? “
Think you guys and gals got it bang-on today (except maybe the clue for DART, which was intended as a 3D with dressmaker’s fold, belt and zip as the defs).
Many thanks for great blog and, as mentioned, perceptive comments.
Cheers
Tees.
First this: at times [on this site] Tees is a bit critical about fellow setters when it comes to precision and/or sloppiness, and perhaps some people don’t like that. While I do understand that, there is the other side of me that likes his flamboyance. Because? Well, because Mr B is completely true to his principles in his own crosswords – in the end you can’t fault him.
So, a Rover or a Tees today? Tees.
We ended our Search in the NE today, filling in NEIGH and THEL – only understanding part of it [so thanks, Chambers and SH].
We needed the blog for the explanation of SHORT-LIST, and were a bit uncomfortable with the ‘maybe’ in the clue.
We thought ‘in’ was superfluous in 21ac, and had a ‘discussion’ on 23ac (COAL TIT):
me: “AT IT is ‘up to some criminal behaviour’ ”
she: “usually AT IT means ‘having sex with someone’ ”
me: “that’s criminal … !”
Great puzzle, Paul.
Favourites?
Hard to decide – probably, 6d (ANTIPHON) and 17d (WATERLOO)
Struggled on 5d last one in. Saw strain fiting at the start and wasted ages trying to think of a word to fit. I liked the heavenly bit for reversed a good twist I’d not seen before.
Me to blog tomorrow. Hope it’s a Phi I can understand.
Also Short-list I thought Short was labour not liberal 🙂 Nice clue though.
Thanks Simon.
Excellent puzzle from Tees.
Took me a little while to get going but once a few answers were in place the rest followed without too much of a struggle.
RATIO made me laugh. (BTW isn’t there usually a complaint from mathematicians that it doesn’t mean relationship).
Didn’t know VIRAGO as a heroic woman only as ‘ill-tempered/shrewish’.Might be useful as a back handed compliment!
Didn’t know who DEBORAH was but quite gettable from the excellent wordplay.
Top clues for me 1 and 14 down.
It took me ages to work out how RENEWABLE ENERGY (16ac) worked, and suspected a mistake from Tees because the number of letters was wrong. But of course he didn’t make the mistake: it was in the blog, Simon, I think ‘by’ should be included to make it up to 15, and I missed that eco-source just gave e. Didn’t like WASTE, although it’s just about OK I suppose. Is effort the same as attainment (5dn)? On the other hand very much liked some of these clues, such as 16ac already mentioned, and EMPTY WORDS, MANNERIST and ANTIPHON.
I know it’s common usage, but how does one justify ‘reversible’ when what is meant is ‘reversed’ — 22ac? Reversible suggests to me that it is palindromic.