It is the third time in recent months that I have blogged a Tuesday puzzle by Radian, but I am certainly not complaining!
I suppose there simply had to be a puzzle during the course of this fortnight to mark the Winter Olympics in Sochi, and Radian has provided one, with words associated with winter and sport peppering both the clues and their solutions. How fitting it was for me both to solve and to blog this puzzle while watching coverage of the games!
Not knowing much about winter sport, I was a tad apprehensive about the subject matter, although there was only one unknown term for me, at 20, which could be worked out from the wordplay. Incidentally, I didn’t find p=poise and l=lost in Chambers, and would thus appreciate confirmation or otherwise of my parsing of these elements of wordplay. Furthermore, I assume that Radian meant 24D in 2, while my version mentions only 24.
My favourite clues today are 14, for its surface reading and misleading definition, and 17, for its topicality tinged with sauciness.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 08 | GOAL KICK | Aim to give up attempt to score at Murrayfield
GOAL (=aim) + KICK (=to give up, e.g. a habit) |
| 09 | LEAGUE | Each entrant in luge wobbled for about three miles
EA (=each) in *(LUGE); “wobbled” is anagram indicator |
| 10 | SNOW | Broadcast covers American’s last fall
<america>N (“last” means last letter only) in SOW (=broadcast) |
| 11 | ULTIMATUMS | Union left at 7, barking final demands
U (=union) + L (=left) + *(AT + SUMMIT (=entry at 7)); “barking” is anagram indicator |
| 12 | TISSUE | Web primarily teaches children
T<eaches> (“primarily” means first letter only) + ISSUE (=children) |
| 14 | RAIMENTS | Old habits end in tears
AIM (=end) in RENTS (=tears, i.e. rips); raiments is an archaic word for clothing, hence “old” habits |
| 15 | PLUMMET | Ran into tree first in fall
PLUM (=tree) + MET (=ran into) |
| 17 | OSTRICH | Bird in Sochi ordered to entertain top Russian leaders
T<op> R<ussian> (“leaders” means first letters only) in *(SOCHI); “ordered” is anagram indicator |
| 20 | HALF-PIPE | He tackles a complex flip with poise in snowboarding event
[A + *(FLIP) + P (=poise, i.e. unit of dynamic viscosity)] in HE; “complex” is anagram indicator |
| 22 | WADDLE | Women go off rock sideways
W (=woman) + ADDLE (=go off, i.e. rot) |
| 23 | ROUND ROBIN | Run indoor trips taking in start of bobsleigh tournament
B<obsleigh> (“start of” means first letter only) in *(RUN INDOOR) |
| 24 | PUCK | Pick out laptop and hard disk used in event?
P<l>UCK (=pick); “out lap –top”, i.e. first letter, means letter “l” is dropped |
| 25 | SLALOM | Skiing event all fancy entering, some backing off
*(ALL) in SOM<e> (“backing off” means last letter dropped); “fancy” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | STEM CELL | Check battery in genetic unit
STEM (=check, e.g. flow of) + CELL (=battery) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | DOWNHILL | Depressed and unwell after his first skiing event
DOWN (=depressed) + H<is> (“first” means first letter only) + ILL (=unwell) |
| 02 | FLOW | Rise lifts one in 24
Vertical reversal (“lifts”) of WOLF (=one in 24D, i.e. pack); to flow is to rise or come in, of the tide |
| 03/04 | FIGURE SKATERS | Guy cut in after skiers set off – they score heavily
GU<y> (“cut” means last letter dropped) in *(AFTER SKIERS); “set off” is anagram indicator; figure skaters score a groove in the ice as they skate over it |
| 06 | CATTLE GRID | Act oddly on stage in rising mud – steer to avoid it?
*(ACT) + [LEG (=stage, i.e. of competition) in TRID (DIRT=mud; “rising” indicates vertical reversal)]; “oddly” is anagram indicator; “steer” is to be read as young ox |
| 07 | SUMMIT | Top 2000 in 1 of 4 in 24D
MM (=2000, i.e. in Roman numerals) in SUIT (=1 of 4 in pack (of cards), i.e. entry at 24D) |
| 13 | SEMIFINALS | Fan is miles away for penultimate games
*(FAN IS MILES); “away” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | EPIGRAMS | Oscar’s specialities – mince pies filled with good stuff
[G (=good) + RAM (=stuff, i.e. cram)] in *(PIES); “mince” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Irish writer Oscar Wilde and his epigrams |
| 18 | COLD CALL | Rep makes it 150, securing date in local ground
[D (=date) in *(LOCAL)] in CL (=150, i.e. in Roman numerals); “ground” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | VERBOSE | Long-winded first half of book’s boring poetry
BO<ok> (“first half of” means first 2 of 4 letters only) in VERSE (=poetry) |
| 21 | APOLLO | One of many capsules lost in a swimming pool
L (=lost, as in P W L D in sports results) in [A + *(POOL)]; “swimming” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the many Apollo space capsules |
| 22/05 | WINTER OLYMPICS | Typical snow flurries with rime not absent here?
*(TYPIC<a>L SNOW + RIME); “not absent (=A)” means letter “a” is dropped from anagram; & lit.-ish |
| 24 | PACK | Wolves, say, originally played against Cork or not?
P<layed> A<gainst> (“originally” means first letters only) + C<or>K (“or not” means letters “or” are dropped) |
Many thanks for the great blog, RR.
I go along with every word of your preamble [including favourite clues]. I enjoyed this puzzle more than I expected to [for lack of knowledge only – I always expect to enjoy Radian’s puzzles!] when I saw the theme.
P = Poise is in Collins. L = lost isn’t but I’ve seen it lots of times in crosswords. You see it in football tables, where I suppose it’s self-evident. [I don’t remember ever seeing W = won or D = drawn, though.]
Thanks, as ever, to Radian, for the enjoyment and the education.
PS: I meant to say that it was nice to see EPIGRAMS clued without reference to even one farm animal. 😉
Thanks very much to setter & blogger,
I know it’s not quite right and I’m sure your answer is the correct one, but for 26 I had SEED CELL – SEE (=check) + D CELL (=type of battery). I also put in DROP GOAL FOR 8 initially, thinking “attempt” might mean word reversal (yes, pretty weak I know) until the penny dropped. Thank goodness we weren’t expected to know the names of any Winter Olympians. Eddie the Eagle is about the only one I remember!
Good choice of theme today – something contemporary and not requiring too much specialist knowledge.
I was another who mistakenly entered DROP KICK before realising that it wouldn’t work. And I was intent on entering BASE PAIR at 26ac but couldn’t justify that either. I liked OSTRICH especially – wasn’t Putin’s latest love interest involved in the opening ceremony?
Bit annoyed at the typo in 4dn – since it didn’t refer to 24dn I was thinking it must be something to do with 24 hours in a day. But a small niggle in an excellent crossword. Thanks to S&B.
WordPlodder@3 – I do the puzzle online and STEM CELL is indeed the correct answer for 26ac.
I’m not a huge fan of the Winter Olympics so I also thought I would struggle with the puzzle once I realised what its theme was, but the cluing was spot-on so I didn’t have any problems. Count me as another who didn’t know p=poise, but I vaguely remembered seeing an article about the HALF-PIPE event so it seemed logical.
GOAL KICK was my LOI after FIGURE SKATERS, and I needed the checkers from the latter even though it wasn’t the most difficult of clues. Early in the solve I knew 8ac wasn’t “drop goal” when I saw that 1dn had to be DOWNHILL. I was then thinking that maybe it was a bizarre “goal drop” but was reluctant to enter it, and it was a huge “D’oh!” moment when I got the final checkers and realised that “give up” was “kick” rather than “drop”.
Intentional or not, can I be the only one to notice the word “gay” in the unches, third row down?
Mystified that I didn’t get the congratulations message on line and had to come here to find out my error, which turned out to be HALF-PIPE for which I had entered HALF-PIKE, thinking of the gymnastics term and that skiers perform aerial manoeuvres. Didn’t think to check the fodder further; lesson learned. Still, had also not come across p for poise.
24A had to be PUCK but couldn’t see why, I understand those who are not mad about such elements as “l” for “laptop”.
Enjoyed the puzzle, though didn’t expect to, not being into winter sports (of the Olympic variety).
Thanks to Radian and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks R and RR. I enjoyed this one!
Thanks, Radian and RatkojaRiku
If anyone’s puzzled why ‘p’ is an abbreviation for ‘Poise’, it refers to the unit of viscosity (named after the French physicist, Poiseuille). Chambers indicates the French pronunciation but I guess that in English it is most often pronounced in the same way as poise (= balance, etc).
Thanks to Radian and RatkojaRiku. Lots of fun and quite clever.
Thanks allan_c for the information about poise. Bert had some recollection of it from school Physics but that was so long ago ………
We enjoyed this – we’re also enjoying the highlights each day.
Thanks Radian and RR.
re Kathryn’s Dad at 4
Not sure if it really was Putin’s love interest in the opening ceremony but she was certainly carrying a torch for him!