Phi has as usual produced a very pleasing crossword, perhaps on the easier side — at any rate I found it to be so, although whether or not a crossword is easy seems to be something that varies for different people at different times. Which is not to say that the Goodliffes and Biddlecombes of this world don’t whizz through, simply that it tends to be difficult to predict their precise time. As Carol Vorderman used to say of the numbers game on Countdown with four from the top, it depends which way you go.
It seems that many of the recent grids in the Indy have had unchecked letters at the top and the bottom, and this usually indicates some message to be found there. But I can’t see anything.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | VEAL — E in (lav)rev. — the second time recently that I’ve seen my rather unfortunate name used in this sense |
| 8 | DE BEAUVOIR — (oeuvre bad I)* |
| 10 | CIVET CAT — c I’ve (tact)rev. — not a term that was familiar, but the wordplay made it fairly likely |
| 11 | CAN K{ill} E{very} R{ose} |
| 12 | ADVENT — (Da)rev. vent |
| 13 | LEONARDO — Leo (ran)rev. do |
| 15 | AFTER A FASHION — 2 defs |
| 18 | ADVOCAAT — voca{l} in (data)* |
| 20 | AR(M)IES |
| 22 | SA(VAN)T |
| 24 | GRE{{intestin}e}N ACHE — a Grenache, of which I was only vaguely aware, is a Spanish grape |
| 25 | TELENOVELA — el in (vet alone)* — a telenovela is what you’d think it was, but is Spanish or Portuguese or Latin American |
| 26 | W(O)AD |
| Down | |
| 1 | BE(HI)ND HAND |
| 2 | AL(LEG)E |
| 3 | E(DUC)AT OR |
| 4 | GAUCH{E} 0 |
| 5 | SVENGALI — s (leaving)* |
| 6 | A{s}IDE |
| 9 | BATTLE FATIGUE — (beat fate guilt)* |
| 14 | D(UNDER HE)AD |
| 16 | T(WO(FAC{t})E)D — it took me some while to work out what was going on, not being aware that an Irish MP was a TD: fact is the information, woe is sadness |
| 17 | SPACE-BAR — spa (caber)* |
| 19 | {f}ACTION |
| 21 | MIAOWS — (aim)rev. o{n} w{inning} s{ide} |
| 23 | {w}AVER |
Thanks, John, for the prompt blog – always appreciated by early birds like me.
A straightforward, pleasing puzzle from Phi today. TELENOVELA was the only unusual word, but it was clearly flagged up. I liked CIVET CAT and SAVANT today. I took 23dn to be [H]AVER, which I think is closer to ‘doubt’.
I thought the outer letters might all be three-letter abbreviations, but I can’t make them all work.
There is something for you to find…
Thanks Phi for a pleasant crossword and John for the blog.
K’s Dad @1: I took 23dn as [w]AVER, but [h]AVER works just as well.
Generally nice cluing, with just one grumble:
24ac: I cannot and never will accept “no end of intestine” as a correct instruction to remove one of two Es from a word.
Phi @2: A in every answer?
That looks like it, Pelham @4, tho I’ll have to admit that I did not spot it. Good puzzle, thanks, Phi and John. My favourites were ALLEGE and SVENGALI.
I suspect that Phi is probably in bed by now (or out clubbing), but I can confirm that Pelham is correct @4. Not out clubbing tonight, but I’m planning to meet Nimrod for an informal pre-Times Crossword Championship drink and chewing of the cruciverbal fat at the Doric Arch in Euston tonight at about 7.30 to 8 and all setters, bloggers, commenters and lurkers are welcome to join us.
Thank you Phi and John.
I failed to notice the A in every word, but was struck by the frequency with which V occurred. VEAL/BEAUVOIR/CIVET/ADVENT/ADVOCAAT/SAVANT/TELENOVELA/AVER/SVENGALI. I wondered if this was significant or just a coincidence? 9xV=45 and I wondered if this was a reference to a birthday or some such? At any event I enjoyed the puzzle.
I got about half out but I owuld never have got 24 & 25 out.
I thought that 24a would be something like gastroentritis.
I can’t say I like the idea of having foreign authors (8a)-I knew I looking for an anagram but absent any crossing letters, I thought it must be Ed somebody. Never heard of de beauvoir and while I could google him, I can’t imagine he ranks as famous.
I thought 18a was hard having to spot largely opinionated =vocal.
10a also an unknown
Thanks for the clear blog
I don’t think Simone de Beauvoir would be happy to be called a him – in fact, it’s probably the sort of assumption that would rile her fans as, to quote from Wikipedia, she’s famous “for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women’s oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism”.
At the same time SdB would be happy to be an ‘author’ not an ‘authoress’…and she did acquire a measure of fame for being Mrs Sartre (not that she would have wanted that as a reason for fame, but I do wonder whether she’d be as prominent otherwise).
The As came about late on in the process – I was looking at clueing AFTER A FASHION and noted how many As it had, and glanced around the rest of the grid whereupon I found only three words without an A, all of which could be brought into line easily. A sort of anti-pangram. I doubt it’ll happen accidentally that way with Q. Or even V.
Great Fun, Thanks Phi and John for concise explanations.
25a stumped me, even though I had the anagram and we do have Latin American channels on our local (New England) cable TV.
2a took a while to sink in, despite being a cricket and CAMRA fan. Weird.
Further to above, 8a was first in!
Does anyone know how to retrieve Indy’s archived puzzles? I’d like to tackle Thursday’s Anarche.
Kathryn’s Dad @1 Re: unchecked perimeter letters.
From NW corner
Clockwise: BA (British Airways), EG, SA (South Africa), RR, OS, ED (Editor)
Anti-Clockwise: VC, AA, ST (Street), RD (Road), NR(Near), SD (San Diego)
Just kidding…
@stumped #11 Make a comment on my yesterday’s blog and I’ll help on that.