As it is a Thursday, we were expecting a challenge. However, we found this to be less tricky than your average Thursday indy puzzle. We did need to resort to an electronic search for a couple of the clues.
As expected from Nestor, there was some really inventive cluing particularly at 8D, and two new words which had us scratching our heads for a while!
We are on a different time zone at the moment so if there are any queries, omissions or errors we will not be able to respond until we have had our shut-eye!
| Across | ||
| 1 | A couple of staff writers canned | |
| BRAHMS AND LISZT | Composers could be described as ‘staff writers’, and these two constitute the Cockney rhyming slang for ‘inebriated’ | |
| 9 | Source of electric shock holds interest | |
| APPEAL | E (first letter or ‘source’ of ‘electric’) in or ‘held by’ APPAL (shock) | |
| 10 | Second person being dishonest about reversing train | |
| MONORAIL | MO (second) + LIAR (person being dishonest) ON (about) reversed | |
| 11 | Canoodler suggesting the last five of 10? | |
| LOVEBIRD | This refers to the last five letters of 10 across: LOVE (O) + BIRD (rail) | |
| 13 | Taken to court to seize billion, getting back tanner | |
| SUNBED | SUED (taken to court) around or ‘seizing’ BN (billion) reversed or ‘getting back’ | |
| 14 | Oddly absent, if mummies are angry | |
| FUME | Even letters (‘oddly absent’) of iF mUmMiEs | |
| 15 | Did glance twist a smidgen when speaking? | |
| RICOCHETED | Homophone (‘when speaking’) of RICK A SHADE (‘twist a smidgen’) | |
| 18 | Message perhaps seeking romance for each boy, for each boy | |
| PERSONAL AD | PER (for each) SON (boy) A (for each, as in ‘ten-a-penny’) LAD (boy) | |
| 20 | Polo maybe having start kicked off with a bow for players | |
| ARCO | ||
| 21 | First-class return of traveller aboard public transport | |
| SUPERB | REP (traveller) in or ‘aboard’ BUS, all reversed, or ‘returned’ | |
| 24 | Believing jerk gets round hold-up | |
| THEISTIC | TIC (jerk) round HEIST (hold-up) | |
| 25 | Protective cloth securing end of divan in one’s place | |
| MATERNAL | MATERiAL (cloth) with N (last letter or ‘end’ of divan) in place of ‘I’ (one) | |
| 26 | Power of some base to preserve deadlock | |
| LOGJAM | LOG (logarithm – the power of a base in maths) + JAM (preserve) | |
| 28 | Understand surrealist article containing small joke expressed cumbersomely | |
| SESQUIPEDALIAN | SEE (understand) + DALI (the surrealist artist) + AN (article) round or ‘containing’ S (small) QUIP (joke). Another new word for us, and one that describes itself! | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | Complicated procedure to achieve propagation | |
| REPRODUCE | Anagram of PROCEDURE (anagrind is ‘complicated’) | |
| 3 | Monumental but not grand appearance | |
| HUE | HUgE (monumental) without G (grand) | |
| 4 | Attach with molten alloy, keeping current plug away | |
| SOLDIER ON | SOLDER ON (attach with molten alloy) round or ‘keeping’ I (current) | |
| 5 | Racket involving island barricade set up for migrant | |
| NOMADIC | CON (racket) around or ‘involving’ I (island) DAM (barricade), all reversed or ‘set up’. We were a bit puzzled for a while by the parsing, we were both fixated on din for racket. It was one of those occasions when you felt as if you ‘had all the right letters but not necessarily in the right order’! | |
| 6 | Air bags suspended, keeping the head well down | |
| LUNGS | SLUNG (suspended) with the first letter moved to the end, or ‘keeping the head well down’ | |
| 7 | Old Nick’s peculiar behaviour | |
| STRANGEWAYS | STRANGE (peculiar) WAYS (behaviour). Thanks gwep! | |
| 8 | Breed cow’s stomach with an extra loop near the bottom | |
| TRIBE | We pondered over this for a while, as the wordplay is certainly original (in our experience) – it must be: TRIPE (cow’s stomach) with the P turned into a B by the addition of an extra loop! | |
| 12 | Tied sporting contests repeated, ignoring first time and promoting the next | |
| EVEN-STEVENS | EVENTS (sporting contests) repeated, firstly with the T (time) omitted making EVENS, and secondly with the T moved to the front or ‘promoted’, making TEVENS | |
| 16 | Pierced by dagger in odd places, selectively slain or whacked | |
| CUDGELLED | D |
|
| 17 | A nice dhal could be a spicy dish | |
| ENCHILADA | Anagram of A NICE DHAL (anagrind is ‘could be’) | |
| 19 | Spill mistakenly around limits of earshot | |
| LET SLIP | Cryptic definition – An anagram of SPILL and E |
|
| 22 | Range of Banksy works, for example, defaced | |
| URALS | ||
| 23 | Half-forgotten retired South African bishop supporting veto of local languages | |
| BANTU | Half of TUtu (retired South African bishop) under or ‘supporting’ BAN (veto) | |
| 27 | Set side for cricket over | |
| GEL | LEG (side in cricket) reversed or ‘over’ | |
I really struggled to get on Nestor’s wavelength today but I managed to finish it without resort to aids.
In retrospect I don’t know why I struggled to see so many of the answers, such as SOLDIER ON, STRANGEWAYS, ENCHILADA, PERSONAL AD, EVEN-STEVENS and a few others. The problem was definitely with me and not the cluing. ARCO was my LOI from the definition because I didn’t think of Marco Polo, which probably just shows how slowly my mind was working.
I had come across SESQUIPEDALIAN before but wouldn’t have been certain of how to spell it without the clear wordplay.
Just about got there – was on the verge of cheating for 25ac when it came to me in a ‘D’oh’ moment. Can someone help me with ‘bird’ for ‘rail’ at 11ac?
spb@2 – “rail” is a bird family that includes the coot, moorhen and corncrake.
Brilliant stuff, had to cheat on MATERNAL to get it finished (it’s late over here). Thought RICOCHETED one of the best (most outrageous?) homophones I’ve come across. Pretty clever stuff to make a decent clue for SESQUIPEDALIAN.
Minor points: at 20A I think “with” should be underlined as part of the definition, as it is an instruction to play “with the bow” (after a period of pizzicato ie plucking with the fingers) and the definition in 7D is “Old Nick”, I think, rather than “Old Nick’s”.
Many thanks to Nestor and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks gwep for your careful reading of the blog!
This is very goood. Very correct in technique, and lots o f fun
A lot of the difficulty probably hinged on how quickly you got 1 across. Unfortunately, “canned” for drunk is not really an expression which is on my radar, so it took me a long time to get to that one. However, when I’d finally finished, I found it a quite a satisfying puzzle – one of those where you’ve laboured for a long time but by the end you’ve understood all the answers and they all seemed fair.
Thanks B&J and Nestor. A fine challenge (s), well met (b). Very accurate clueing, so even ARCO emerged from the fog!