I wonder what’s lined up for tomorrow, since the Crosophile puzzle which would normally appear on the last Wednesday of the month is a day early. No point in trying to guess, since it’s probably a significant anniversary of some football club or of the formation of some group.
Nothing to get very excited about today, but a good solid performance from Crosophile. In one or two places I have my doubts but I expect that someone will put me right. As for a Nina, the two words along the top suggest that there are things to be found in the puzzle but my knowledge of them is rather shaky.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Communication system trainee’s out of this world (8)
INTERNET
intern ET — the US junior doctor and extra-terrestrial (not the film I think, just the abbreviation)
5 A sort of truncated diamond sphere (6)
DOMAIN
(diamon{d})*
10 Managed to infiltrate soccer side for a bit once in Europe (5)
FRANC
F(ran)C — the old French currency
11 Metallic element radium and three rocks containing argon (4,5)
RARE EARTH
Ra (three)* around Ar — Ra is radium and Ar is argon
12 Distances at sea represented with line? (9)
ALIENATES
(at sea line)* — nicely misleading since one expects distances like leagues or miles
13 Perfect mission statement for a businessman? (5)
IDEAL
I deal — which is what a businessman might say
14 Maybe Gavin and Stacey and rest arrive shortly (6)
SITCOM
sit com{e} — sit = rest, come = arrive
15 Cuts back and cues badly going after low-scoring ball (7)
REDUCES
red (cues)* — the red ball in snooker is worth only 1 point
18 Info on Morecambe perhaps is not specific (7)
GENERIC
gen Eric — Eric Morecambe of Morecambe and Wise — however long his comedy will last, and that’ll probably be for ever, his name will continue in crosswords because ‘…eric’ ends so many words
20 Grinder and Parisian grain (6)
MILLET
mill et — ‘and Parisian’ is ‘and in France’ or ‘et’ — I’m glad Crosophile didn’t say ’23’ rather than ‘grain’
22 Decadent Italian family held these licentious parties (5)
ORGIA
Hidden in Borgia — orgia is the plural of orgy — with an &littish quality since the Borgias held orgia
24 Incoming information? (3,6)
TAX RETURN
CD — and unless I’m missing something, rather a weak one
25 Rational sporting daughter – such gets carried away but shouldn’t go off the rails (9)
TRAINLOAD
(rational)* d — a trainload gets carried away safely one hopes
26 Cannon commander holds a river (5)
CAROM
c(a r)om — a carom is a cannon in billiards or just a ricochet
27 Rabbits longing to get back among the lettuce (6)
CONEYS
(yen)rev. in cos — the type of lettuce
28 In noteworthy incident caustic chemical penetrates pile in meltdown (8)
EPISODAL
soda in (pile)* so far as I can see, although I was unaware that soda was particularly caustic (perhaps the clue is referring to caustic soda) and also I didn’t know that an episode was noteworthy, but the fact that Chambers calls it an ‘interesting or distinctive incident or occurrence’ may justify this
Down
1 Dope Alan’s expecting (2-4)
IN-FOAL
info Al — a pregnant horse is in-foal
2 Old values change after Germany ousts the Poles (9)
TRADITION
transition with D instead of NS
3 Incite Cary Grant to change characters? Sure thing (6,9)
RACING CERTAINTY
(Incite Cary Grant)*
4 Eastern spirit drinks sailor knocked back a mistake (7)
ERRATUM
(tar)rev. in E rum
6 Such excess verges on cloud nine perhaps, though it’s not on (15)
OVERINDULGENCES
(verges cloud nine)* — but two things bother me about this clue: I haven’t a copy of the dictionary they use on Countdown but my bet is that ‘overindulgence’ is a mass noun and can’t be pluralised and Susie Dent would disallow the word, not that it could be offered on Countdown; and what is the reason for ‘though it’s not on’? ‘verges on cloud nine’ gives ‘cloud nine verges’ and that’s the anagram material — surely there is no need to remove the ‘on’. Also, if I was being particularly fussy I’d object to the use of ‘perhaps’ as an anagram indicator, which I know is not universally acknowledged.
7 A new cut suit (5)
AGREE
a gree{n}
8 I instil Harry’s head with muddle and nothing I believe in (8)
NIHILIST
(I instil H{arry})*
9 A bit of pink – yet more pink I omitted and I don’t do purple patches (6)
PROSER
p{ink} ros{I}er — not sure about the definition, since many purple patches of writing are in prose
16 Inconsistent order to pay – what could be madder? (9)
CHEQUERED
cheque red — referring to the colour madder
17 Coasting around with no definite view (8)
AGNOSTIC
(Coasting)*
19 Textile in study is too much (6)
COTTON
c(OTT)on
20 Thrown mud pie covers unidentified character in confusion (5-2)
MIXED-UP
x in (mud pie)*
21 Shock over Del losing top part of tooth (6)
ENAMEL
(mane)rev. {D}el
23 It’s corny when Nana hugs Crosophile (5)
GRAIN
Gra(I)n
*anagram
John, I took the “soda” in EPISODAL to refer to caustic soda as you did. For a minute, and before I had any checkers, I was trying to work “acid” into the answer. The plural OVERINDULGENCES didn’t worry me too much.
I found the LHS easier to complete than the RHS, and I finished in the NE with DOMAIN. PROSER was new to me and I had to tease it out from the wordplay.
John, I think “on” has to be removed because otherwise all the letters of the consecutive words “verges on cloud nine” would have to be included in the anagram fodder. Don’t see a problem with “perhaps”.
Thanks to Crosophile and John.
The paper version has ‘verge on cloud nine’ (instead of verges) for 6d, which doesn’t provide the correct answer but is perhaps a Freudian acknowledgment of the blogger’s concern about pluralising ‘overindulgence’.
Thanks Crosophile and John.
COM, ORG, and EDU (all Internet domains) can be found in the answers – there may be others too.
Thanks John and Crosophile. There’s also net, mil probably a few more and country codes most of which are purely coincidental.
Another fine puzzle from Crosophile. Did I spot the theme? Don’t be daft.
Weren’t the Borgias Spanish, not Italian? Wikipedia tells me that both Borgia popes were born in Valencia.
Lucrezia Borgia, Spanish! I don’t think so!
Thanks for the blog, John, and for all other comments. Yes, the nina was GENERIC INTERNET DOMAINs,so NET MIL COM EDU (twice) ORG CO and NAME (and I’ve probably missed some too!).
Re PROSER, I had in mind prose as matter-of-fact writing.
#3 spb, the overindulgences clue was rewritten as the paper version but should have ended in “son” to give the final S. I’ve only seen the online version today though.
#7 dormouse: I see what you mean but in Valencia they were still Borjas and in their pomp I’d argue they are more closely associated with Italy, just as the Windsors are now more British than German?
Hey, I’m just basing this on the HBO series The Borgias (with Jeremy Irons enjoying himself too much as the pope, as one TV critic put it), where the Borgias were considered outsiders in Rome because they were Spaniards.
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear, gwep @2: A on B is BA, so (verges) on (cloud nine) is (cloud nine verges).