“This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius … ”
When I saw the references to 7 in so many clues I immediately made a special effort to crack it (failed).
But when I looked down all the clues mentioning 7 I spotted what was to me a giveaway clue in 9D – small bricks can only mean Lego so 7 came from Leo, which is in turn a bit of a giveaway for a (4,2,3,6) answer.
So a flying start to an Anax – what a turn up for the books.
I truth after a while I wrote down all the signs and was driven to trying them where might fit on the grid, and wondering if there were other Signs hidden elsewhere. I cannot see all 12, indeed only those directly referenced by “7” in the clue.
I have tackled more tricky puzzles from Mr A, but those who know his work realise that doesn’t mean it was particularly easy.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GRIP | 1000 letters for dead person in bag (4) G (1000) R.I.P |
| 3 | SUBSIDISED | Given money, am on the street? Collapsed outside (10) SUBSIDED (collapsed) around IS – not sure how Street gives that <update> ‘IS’ is from ‘am on the street?’ See Comment #1 from Anax, and #7 from Phil |
| 10 | ON THE WAY OUT | ‘Old hat’ anagrammed to ‘new hat’ – that entertains solver (2,3,3,3) (TO NEW HAT)* anagrammed (most helpful anagram indicator) around (entertains) YOU (solver) |
| 11 | GEM | Half of 7’s treasure (3) GEM[ini] |
| 12 | VIRGO | Battle-axe not fitted with a 7 (5) VIR[a]GO |
| 13 | CAPRICORN | 7‘s headgear, pointy hat with no tip (9) CAP (headgear) [t]RICORN (pointy hat) |
| 14 | SCALES | 7 representative is a climber (6) DD noun and verb, a climber scales a mountain/rockface/ladder |
| 16 | DOMESTIC | Row of houses? (8) CD referring to the argument that may occur within the walls of a family home – these days being treated more seriously |
| 17 | SCALLOPS | Seafood given as gifts around market (8) It was the only seafood that fitted when I got it. I presume the wordplay is : SOPS (gifts) around CALL (market?) Can some one explain how Call=Market. I can see lots of financial meanings of Call, e.g. as “call option”, but I’m still unclear as to how any of them equate to a Market <update> See Comment #1 from Anax where he gives a clear example where Call and Market are synonymous |
| 19 | ATHENS | Couple ordered to start assessing capital (6) A then S at the start of ASSESSING |
| 22 | EN FAMILLE | Casually having taken my place, you might say (2,7) I suppose this is a Double Def. En famille (literally “amongst family”) implies an event occurring in the family home (“my place”) and it certainly implies a non-formal affair. Not explaining this very well. Must be because in some measure I still don’t understand it. <update> See Comment #1 from Anax: Def. Casually. Wordplay Homophone (Indicator: you might say) of “On for me” (taken my place) |
| 23 | RIOJA | Wine character revolves around orange juice (5) AIR (character) reversed (revolves) and around O[range] J[uice] |
| 24 | PHI | 7 is neutral in this newspaper letter (3) Aaaargh! He did it. He slung in a 7 that was not a reference to answer 7. I was totally misled only thinking about star signs for “7” so this was my last answer entered.PH 7 is neutral; I is this newspaper I[ndependent] (except this crossword was in the Independent itself rather than the i but we know what he means). Def. letter. |
| 25 | SAGITTARIUS | Christian band’s guitarist playing 7 (11) SA (Christian band – Salvation Army) GUITARIST* AInd: Playing |
| 26 | RESEARCHER | I investigate recipe and see cooking by 7 representative (10) R[ecipe] SES* AInd cooking, ARCHER (a 7) |
| 27 | ICKY | Polar bears ultimately look horrid (4) ICY (polar) around (bears) [loo]K Beautiful misdirection |
| Down | ||
| 1 | GROOVES | Enjoys dance tracks (7) DD |
| 2 | INTERNAL AFFAIRS | They investigate misconduct wearing casual trainers – in that ‘fun’ appears casual (8,7) (TRAINERS IN)* outside (wearing) A LAFF (fun casually, a laugh) Who investigates misconduct in the Internal Affairs department? |
| 4 | USANCE | States one will adopt new/old custom (6) US (states) ACE (one) around N[ew] an old word for Usage/customer |
| 5 | SCORPIO | 7 thus describes my sermonising? (7) SO (thus) around (describes) COR (My! as an exclamation of surprise or wonder) PI (sermonising – like a goody goody) |
| 6 | DETRIMENT | Damage earth’s condition in crater (9) E[arth] TRIM (condition) inside DENT (crater) |
| 7 | SIGN OF THE ZODIAC | Good citizen has moved out of fine house (4,2,3,6) (GOOD CITIZEN HAS F[ine])* AInd: moved |
| 8 | DOMINIC | Priest‘s dress found among bones (7) MINI (dress) inside DOC (bones – as in doctor) Dominic founded the Dominicans aka Blackfrairs |
| 9 | LEGO | Small bricks good in 7 (4) G[ood] inside LEO (One of the 7) I see Lego have now opened their own school (link) – very appealing |
| 15 | ECLAPSIA | City lights over one area expecting trouble? (9) EC (City) LAMPS (lights) I (one) A[rea] Trouble? Trouble? That’s what I call trouble, mate. <update> Definition underlining to include “expecting”. Eclampsia an acute and life-threatening complication of pregnancy (wiki link) |
| 17 | SWEEPER | Second go for a footballer (7) S[econd] GO (wee – “Do you want to go?”) PER (for a) |
| 18 | PELAGIC | Sea breeze? Much more than that turns up in photo (7) GALE (more than a breeze) reversed (up) inside PIC (photo) relating to the parts of the ocean that are far from land |
| 20 | STARSKY | 7 to send up fictional cop (7) STAR (7 – Sign of the Zodiac) SKY (to send up – as in Skying a ball) Maybe 7 should be STARS – but then how could KY be the result of “send up” ? <update> See Comment #1 from Anax: Confirmation that wordplay STAR/SKY is intended |
| 21 | METTLE | Character let off when supporting police (6) MET (police) LET* AInd: off |
| 23 | REAM | Representative of 7 carrying English paper (4) E[nglish] inside RAM |
Thanks for a super blog beermagnet. Just to clear up:
3a – “Is it because I is black?” ;o)
17a – as in “There’s no call for this product”.
22a – “Having taken my place” rough homophone “On for me”. Ouch!
24a – “7 is neutral in this” = PH
15d – more specifically “expecting trouble” (trouble while expecting a baby).
20d – ‘star’ is a bit loose.
17Ac: call, market = demand, as in “There’s no call for it”.
22Dn I think is meant to be a (slightly iffy) homophone of “on for me”.
Thanks for the pre-emptive confirmation, Anax!
I solved 7d via 23d REAM, and then did the same as beermagnet, looking out for the other signs of the zodiac.
I found this puzzle quite difficult, and failed to solve 21d. All in all it was “easier” to solve than to parse. I needed help from this blog to parse 19a, 10a, 2d, 22a, 27a, 20a, 17d, 24a, 3a.
New word for me was ECLAMPSIA.
My favourite clues were 7d, 18d, 17a.
I still don’t understand the parsing of 3a & 19a – I must be particularly dim-witted today!
Thanks for the blog, beermagnet.
I now understand 19a (although I would never have been able to parse it on my own), but I still don’t get 3a apart from SUBSIDED. How to parse the inserted IS?
Many thanks for a great blog beermagnet. It helped clear up the parsing of a couple of clues for me, notably 22a and 5d. The answer which helped reveal 7 for me was ‘researcher’. Though the light bulb moment took quite some time. I was *really* struggling until that point. The last clue I got was 1a; a kick-yourself moment.
Thanks Anax for a highly enjoyable puzzle.
Michelle, I parsed it as ‘street talk’ for I am. ‘I is’ can be heard by Ali G talk-alikes.
I’m on holiday at the moment so I don’t have last week’s paper to hand. Fairly sure I didn’t finish it. In fact, for 24ac I was toying with “ini” which I didn’t know as a word, but did complete 11ac. I was thinking 17dn might be the name of a footballer I’d never heard off – there are a lot of those.
Curious that in my comments last week on the prize puzzle, I mentioned I’d at first thought one of the answers was “Starsky” and he turns up this week – and I failed to get it!
Phil@8
thanks, guess I better brush up on street talk!
Thanks everyone for the comments , particularly Anax “hisself” for his speedy clarifications.
I have added a few corrections to the blog.
That 22A homophone is a “Double-Aaaargh!” from me. When writing this blog you would have found me saying “en famille” out loud in numerous garbled Franglais versions: “onfammy”, “N-familly”, “N-fameeay”. In the end I convinced myself it can’t possibly be a homophone.
I have just done this one online, and although I managed to complete it correctly without aids I must confess that I didn’t parse some of them, such PHI, EN FAMILLE, and INTERNAL AFFAIRS. I thought it was as tricky as you would expect an Anax puzzle to be, especially a prize one. I did the same as Michelle and got 7dn via REAM.
An enjoyable puzzle (by which I probably mean: “we managed to complete it”). Once we saw it, phi was good, and while I think we missed it, “A then S” for Athens also works nicely.
But “market” seems like a flaky synonym for “call”: in the example you give “demand” would be a synonym, but while market can fit in the sentence it doesn’t have quite the same meaning, does it?