Oh my – a duel with Bannsider – now there’s a challenge. And a high density grid too!
And quite a battle it was. Over the years Bannsider generally gets the better of me – he always manages to use some device that I don’t quite see. Usually the answer is obvious but the wordplay can elude me.
Some innovative devices are certainly in use in this puzzle. 12ac, 18ac, 21ac, 6dn, 14dn, 17dn to list a few.
I did like 26ac – but I was probably swayed by the fact I saw the cleverness in his clueing of Homer.
Well I completed it and all but one clue I can explain so pretty good for my history with Bannsider puzzles. Thanks for quite a work out but maybe not quite as hard as usual.
Key:
Rev. reverse, * Anagram, Underline – definition
ACROSS
1 Nice new Gareth bale replacement making no difference when transferred?
(nice n Gareth Bale)* = INTERCHANGEABLE (15)
9 For sport, upset a doctor order female about (3-3-3)
tip (upset) + a + dr (doctor) in nun (order female) = TIP-AND-RUN
10 Ring of metal malign alchemist holds back (5)
Rev. hidden maliGN ALChemist = CLANG
11 Gift given to extraordinarily grasping individual (3)
ESP as in extra sensory perception – don’t quite get the clue though
12 Send out for editor to render children’s book less intersting? (7,4)
Watership down (children’s book) – ship (send out) + ed (editor) = WATERED DOWN
13 Under the table at home: singles trophies (2,4,4)
in (at home) + ones singles) + cups (trophies) = IN ONES CUPS
15 Cones etc. essential for traffic especially (3)
Hidden traffIC Especially = ICE
18 Tutu (small variety) removed from end pocket (4)
destiny (end) – des (as in Desmond Tutu) = TINY
19 Bridge players can move a top card so cunningly (10)
(a top card so)* = CAPO DASTRO
21 Gross fellow takes off in this state? Hardly (11)
Opposites of gross he and takes off = Net, her, lands = NETHERLANDS
24 It’s not quite all over for topless girls in The Sun (3)
Cryptic definition = TAN (i.e. if someone is topless their tan won’t be all over)
25 Suggestion or tip for wedding present (5)
g (tip of wedding) + host (present) = GHOST
26 Briefly, one who might be Homer Simpson’s last lawyer making decisions for people (9)
Refere (referee – one might be a homer as in favour the home side) + n (simpson’s last) + da (lawyer) = REFERENDA
27 What’s Luis Suarez torn, with initially much pain etc? (9,6)
(whats Luis Suarez+ mpetc)* = TRAPEZIUS MUSCLE
DOWN
1 A number of Collins books he put on display in it (nothing dark) (2,3,3,7)
nt (books) + he + air (display in it + o (nothing) + night (dark) = IN THE AIR TONIGHT (Phil Collins’ song)
2 Further advance in surgery filling out plan after treatment (3-2,4)
op (surgery) in (outplan)* = TOP-UP LOAN
3 RIP private English lines celebrated (8)
own (private) + e (english) in rend (rip) = RENOWNED
4 A few ashes maybe coming from Mars when temperature’s lower (5)
hurts (mars) lowering temperature = HURST (a wood)
5 Moving on pronto – pressure not over for players (3,6)
(on pronto p)* = NON TROPPO
6 Wingers have come off bench now; idea to transform with substitutions? (6)
bench – bh + now – nw + idea – ia (wingers as in fisrt and last) = ENCODE
7 What’s in snowball alongside whiskey is good for you (5)
b (next to w in snowball – bravo in phonetic alphabet) = BRAVO
8 Say grace outside etc, keeping quiet in the event (3-3-5,4)
eg (say) + grace around and so on (etc) around p (quiet) = EGG-AND-SPOON RACE
14 Periodically patrol’s very brave cycling around Belgian city (9)
pAtRoL in Heroic (very brave) cycling to cheroi = CHARLEROI
16 Unable to move about thanks to half inch cut (9)
ca(about) + ta (thanks) + to + nick (half inch as in steal) – k = CATATONIC
17 Hot au pair eclipsing small French wife at home (8)
h (hot) + au + au around s(small) + fr (french) = HAUSFRAU
20 Cut champers from diet finally and mostly laugh about it (6)
t (diet finally) inside Tee Hee (laugh) – e = TEETHE
22 Claps supremo a lady (5)
Thor (God of thunder as in claps supremo) + a = THORA
23 Honks very loudly in anger perhaps when reversing (5)
ff (very loudly) in Rev. (sin – anger perhaps) = NIFFS
My favourite here was the use of “au pair” to indicate AU AU in HAUSFRAU.
I saw 11ac as being a kind of cryptic definition, as one with ESP might be able to look inside someone’s head to learn (ie grasp) things – which would be grasping things in an extraordinary way.
Too tough for me, I’m afraid. Got about half a dozen answers all week.
27 What’s Luis Suarez torn, with initially much pain etc? (9,6)
(whats Luis Suarez+ m)* = TRAPEZIUS MUSCLE
That doesn’t work — where’s the C? I think it must be (Luis Suarez + m p etc)*
kept going on this all week – learning new things all the time and enjoying every minute.
Favourite clue was ” egg and spoon race”
Quite right David – I’ve corrected my post – Thanks
I had one left to get but did enjoy the fight very much, especailly the ‘au pair’. Thanks to Bannsider and twencelas.
A tough workout indeed, and I failed at 18ac, although in retrospect I should have been able to see pocket=tiny, and I would then probably have been able to parse the rest of the clue.
I also resorted to aids to get 21ac (I hadn’t solved 22dn at that point). It seemed obvious that NETHERLANDS had to be the answer so I entered it but I couldn’t parse it. The way it has been parsed in this blog must be what Bannsider intended but it is a bit naughty because “he & her” aren’t opposites, whereas “he & she” and “him & her” are.
That quibble aside there was some excellent cluing here, and I thought the clue for HAUSFRAU stood out.
Thanks all.
Re the NETHERLANDS clue, “he” isn’t one of the opposites , but “fellow”, which I think can plausibly he said to be the opposite of “her”, whereas I agree “he” could not.
Thanks to Bannsider for dropping in. I took the “he” from twenceslas’s blog and I should have read the clue again properly, but I’m not 100% convinced that “fellow” and “her” are opposites either. Still, as I said, it was my only quibble in a fine puzzle.
Never attempted this, so perhaps I shouldn’t be posting here, but isn’t referenda a solecism? Certainly it has been said to me that it is, that it is referendums. The word is a gerund/gerundive (I’m a bit vague about all of that) and not a noun like bellum.
Andy B – Apologies if I misled everyone – I translated fellow to he – should have been him really to make the opposite work. I suspect the connection is a little tenuous but a vey inteersting clue construction nevertheless.
Tremendous puzzle. Very inventive clueing.
In 15A the answer is the four-lettered word ICES. 18A – how does “pocket” = “tiny”? One can have a small, or tiny, pocket (eg of land) left, but not a small tiny. No doubt somebody can enlighten me. 24A presumably “topless” imports “not bottomless”, otherwise the tan would be all over. “Referee” for “homer” is either OTT obscure or another of those tedious references familiar to football fans of which I’m unaware. In 4D I think the word “maybe” should be underlined in the blog.
Probably the most difficult crossword I’ve nearly finished. Looking back over the clues and the blog, most of those I thought somewhat contrived now make more sense.
Thanks to Bannsider for a gruelling 24 hours and to twencelas.
Because referendum is a gerundive form, and not a second declension noun, you cannot have referenda as the plural. Well, not in Latin. But this is England old boy! That plural is in Collins and Chambers, so I don’t really think Bannsider has much to worry about.
Re #13 I ‘pocket = tiny’ query I think it’s ‘small’ i.e. suitable for fitting in a pocket e.g. a pocket edition as adjective (modifier).
Chambers defines pockets as adj for the pocket; of a small size. It is the bible in these things.
This was a real struggle. We had to solve it using Crossword solver on our ipad which doesn’t tell you who the setter is. We wondered who we were up against! We did need a bit of electronic assistance but were pleased to finish it and parse all the answers – as has been said the clueing was somewhat ‘inventive’ at times!
None the less a great challenge – thanks to Bannsider.
Thanks twencelas- you must have had ‘fun’ with this one!
Re referenda
You certainly can have a plural of a Latin gerundive, or of any Latin adjective! The adjective (or gerundive) has to agree with its noun, so if it’s referring to a plural noun it has to be plural. In the case of “referendum” the noun is implied or “understood”; it means “thing to be referred [literally ‘carried back’]”. That’s why it’s in the neuter singular form (“referendus” would mean “man to be referred”). (See wikipedia for more examples of gerundives with understood nouns.) “Referenda” (neuter plural) in Latin means “things to be referred/carried back”. It’s an exact equivalent of “agenda” (“things to be done”). I would never use it in English though.
It seems a bit unfair to accuse people who say “referenda” of getting the Latin wrong. It’s pretentious and pointless, but it’s correct.
Referenda or referendums: you decide.
Re. 11 across.
EP stands for Exceptional Performance in English SATS examinations. However, that would suggest ‘extraordinary’ rather than the clue’s ‘extraordinarily’.
It would be interesting to hear Bannsider’s comment on this clue.
The ESP clue is just an arguably weak cryptic definition. Samuel’s comment at @1 describes my thinking perfectly 🙂
I seem to have slipped the Irish spelling of “WHISKEY” into the BRAVO clue – understandable for an Irishman, perhaps, but I think the official Phonetic Alphabet word is “WHISKY”