A straightforward crossword today from Dogberry, though 1dn was a new word for me. I liked 29 across best, which had me puzzling for a while.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CAPOTE | Old Testament (books of The Bible) inside CAPE |
| 4 | EVIDENCE | Anagram of DECEIVE and Newton (unit of force) |
| 10 | APPERTAIN | PERT (forward, cheeky) inside A PAIN |
| 11 | FEMUR | EM (printer’s measure of space) inside FUR |
| 12 | TORY | pYROTechnical |
| 13 | INFLECTION | L (learner driver) inside INFECTION |
| 15 | GIZZARD | ZIGZAg* (curtailed = shortened) and RD (road) |
| 16 | ALMOST | ALMS around O and Time |
| 19 | SINBAD | Definition and cryptic definition |
| 21 | VINTAGE | V (roman numeral) and EATING* |
| 23 | UNDERSCORE | Cryptic definition (score = 20) |
| 25 | OBOE | O inside OBE (Order of the British Empire = medal = slang ‘gong’) |
| 27 | IMBUE | Incline Mountaineer Braves Up Everest (steep = to soak in something) |
| 28 | DOGMATIST | DOG and IS inside MATT |
| 29 | HERALDRY | HER (lady has) and AL‘s DRY (Alan has a dry sense of humour) |
| 30 | BANGOR | Bishop GROAN* |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHANTAGE | TA (thanks) inside CHANGE (a few copper coins) |
| 2 | PAPARAZZI | A PAR (standard) inside PIZZA* |
| 3 | TURN | Double definition |
| 5 | VANILLA | AN inside VILLA |
| 6 | DEFACEMENT | FACE (front) inside DEMENT (to go mad) |
| 7 | NIMBI | IBM IN reversed – plural of nimbus |
| 8 | ERRANT | Elizabeth Regina’s RANT |
| 9 | MAENAD | MAD about ENA – follower of Bacchus |
| 14 | CAMBERWELL | CAMBER (arching curve) WELL (fit and healthy) |
| 17 | SHAMBLING | SHAM (false) BLING (jewelry) = proceeding inefficiently– ‘sham’ does double duty in this clue |
| 18 | BEGETTER | EG inside BETTER |
| 20 | DECIDER | DE (‘of’ in French) and CIDER – ‘goal’ as in a football match |
| 21 | VIRAGO | A inside VIRGO (house of the Zodiac) |
| 22 | PUNISH | IN reversed inside PUSH |
| 24 | DEBAR | Baby (first letter of) inside DEAR |
| 26 | GAGA | GAG in front of A – The ubiquitius Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, who has been makng regular appearances in crosswords lately. |
*anagram
Hold mouse over clue number to see clue, click a solution to see its definition.
Many thanks, PeeDee, this was a delight.
CHANTAGE was new to me, too, but readily guessable from the clue.
I now see that the setter also travels under the alias of Shed in The Grauniad!
I didn’t know that. He/she’s more of a challenge with the Shed hat on.
Got about half out and had to work hard to get them.
1a The seemingly obligatory literary clue that I couldn’t get
1d Never heard of this and I tried cominations of Cu, CID but failed and don’t regard it as “readily guessable” -but then I didn’t have 10a.
9d Never heard of her and that didn’t help with 21d.
21d Would someone explain how you get from maenad to virago, please?
Hi bamberger,
A Virago is an assertive loud domineering woman, so I guess the Maenads’ behaviour of drunken carousing, sexualy proclivity and eating raw flesh of animals (supposedly including men and children) could qualify them as Viragos.
Apparently chantage come from the french ‘to sing’ (if I don’t get paid to keep my mouth shut). Not a word I hear used often in our neck of the woods.
Thanks, PeeDee, for a good blog of an enjoyable puzzle – as you say, perhaps rather gentler than John Young with his Shed hat on. [See Crossword Who’s Who in ‘Best for Puzzles’ under ‘Links’, above.]
I liked 29ac, too – and also thought 21ac had a very nice surface.
Re 17ac: I’m puzzled by your ‘sham’ does double duty in this clue’?
Eileen, quite right, the sham comment is nonesense, I’ll delete it. Thanks for pointing this out.
Eileen, re. 17; I assume it might be because ‘bling’ could be synonymous with ‘false finery.’
Re identifying pseudonyms with the real people, I quite like not knowing too much about who does what puzzle. It preserves an air of mystery about the whole process.
Correct Robi@8, false finery = bling was the line I set off down on this clue, before backtracking and realising ‘false’ really stood in for ‘sham’. The first idea didn’t get properly erased from my brain and sort of leaked out again as I was writing the blog.
From mysterious Robi; I’m afraid I didn’t do this puzzle – just interested in the discussion. I always think of bling as fairly rubbishy jewelry, so thought I would comment.
Excellent puzzle where the last four clues kept me going for a good while before the copper fell.
Thanks Dogberry and PeeDee. Nice to see MAENAD and GAGA turning up in the same puzzle – perhaps she would approve.
Hi again, PeeDee @8 – and Robi @10
Yes, I see what you mean – but ‘finery’, in itself, has always, to me, sounded artificial [and I’ve just looked up Chambers, which gives ‘showy adornments’]. I have to admit to having been beguiled by a bit of bling myself – it can be fun, especially at my age!
Re your comment 9, PeeDee: that’s interesting – I do like to know! 🙂 . I find it fascinating how all [I think] of the setters who supply puzzles for more than one publication covered by this site manage to present a slightly different persona for each. ‘New’ compilers appear, only to be revealed as old favourites, eg, most recently, Redshank, who burst onto this thread a couple of months ago and was outed as our old friend Crucible / Radian!
And, of course, it was great to be able to put actual faces to eleven of them at our January get-together in Derby! 🙂
Thank you, PeeDee.
As far as I can see in my ‘archive’, this is the first Dogberry puzzle since July 21th last year. His rentree was not as tricky as I had hoped for, but there is still a lot to admire – good variety in devices.
I would call this crossword ‘deceptively easy’ for a Biggle – many words in Round 1, a much slower Round 2 and a final Round in which I had to ask my PinC (for the SW (PUNISH and the splendid HERALDRY).
I have the puzzle right in front of me at the moment, and looking at the clues again, I have to say that the clu(e)ing is so even (and faultless) that it’s hard to select a Clue of the Day. Although VINTAGE (21ac) and MAENAD (9d) come quite near.
I liked it.