Well…. another Thursday toughie from Anax.
As is often the way with Anax, there were several unusual meanings of words that were otherwise familiar, along with several words we’d not come across before – all of which made for a serious challenge to the old grey matter.
The clue for the trademark long entry at 2d/19ac /15d was particularly obscure, although it became a write-in once we had a few checking letters, especially the X and Z! We’re still not totally convinced by the clue, however.
All in all, a great work-out with references to classical music, ballet, heavy metal, and Brit-pop, as well as TV series old and new!
| Across | ||
| 1 | Revolt is fit to follow introduction of democracy | |
| DISGUST | IS GUST (fit – a new meaning for us!!) after D (first letter or ‘introduction’ of democracy) | |
| 5 | Female holding a very colourful stone | |
| GIRASOL | GIRL (female) round or ‘holding’ A SO (very) | |
| 9 | Assorted nibbles. Next, dim sum, not quite cooked | |
| MIXED NUTS | An anagram of NEXT DIM SU |
|
| 10 | Cut grass | |
| SPLIT | Double definition | |
| 11 | Point left and right | |
| REFER | A palindrome – indicated by ‘left and right’ | |
| 12 | ‘A Team’ member’s run through fair | |
| BALANCED | BA (B A Baracus, the actor who played Mr T in the ‘A Team’) + LANCED (ran through). We only know of Mr T thanks to our dear son, who was just the right age for the series when it was on TV in the mid-80s! | |
| 13 | Great piece of script, one in ‘Shameless’, lost | |
| HANDEL’S MESSIAH | HAND (script) + I (one) in an anagram of SHAMELESS (anagrind is ‘lost’) | |
| 16 | Dreaming a dream about change – handy? | |
| WALTER MITTYISH | WISH (dream) round ALTER (change) MITTY (‘handy’, where mitt = hand) | |
| 19 | See 2 down | |
| 21 | Massacre’s over after an escape from America | |
| ALAMO | O (over) after A LAM (American slang word for ‘escape’ – another new one for us!) | |
| 23 | Left rake in train | |
| LEARN | L (left) + EARN (rake in) | |
| 24 | All the way home, chasing idiot in this after crash | |
| TO A FINISH | IN (home) after or ‘chasing’ OAF (idiot) in an anagram of THIS (anagrind is ‘after crash’) | |
| 25 | About time damaged fir was cut radially | |
| RIFT SAW | T (time) with an anagram of FIR WAS (anagrind is ‘damaged’) around. Despite years of heavy DIY and contact with carpenters and joiners, Bert had never come across the term ‘rift sawing’ for cutting boards from logs radially! In his defence, it does seem to be an American term. | |
| 26 | One makes a projection: some money will secure love | |
| TENONER | TENNER (some money) around or ‘securing’ O (love) – who’d have thought there would be a name for a person who makes tenons?! | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Move chief into Greek township | |
| DEMARCHE | ARCH (chief) in DEME (Greek township) – we struggled over this one as we had not come across ‘deme’ or ‘demarche’ before! | |
| 2/19/15d | 12 as 14 or 12 as 10? | |
| SIX OF ONE AND HALF A DOZEN OF THE OTHER | This ended up being a write-in from crossing letters, and then we puzzled over the parsing – it seems that the definition is ‘balanced (12ac) as situation’ (14dn) and the wordplay is ‘twelve as split (10ac)’. However, we can’t help thinking that the clue might actually work better if it was just ‘12 14 12 10’ or ‘balanced situation twelve split’? Does anyone have other thoughts about the inclusion of the two ‘as’es? | |
| 3 | One river’s suffered | |
| UNDERWENT | UN (one) + DERWENT (river) | |
| 4 | The ‘Van’ of Van Halen, for example | |
| TOUR BUS | When on TOUR, the BUS used by a rock group may be referred to as the ‘van’ – Van Halen is an American heavy metal band. | |
| 5 | Ballet is featured by German glossy mag | |
| GISELLE | IS after G (German) + ELLE (glossy mag) | |
| 6 | In Paris nothing keeps the sun above the horizon | |
| RISEN | RIEN (French for ‘nothing’) around or ‘keeping’ S (sun) | |
| 7 | Rotten sex life and a man into navel-gazing | |
| SELF-EXAMINATION | An anagram of SEX LIFE and A MAN INTO – anagrind is ‘rotten’ | |
| 8 | Strip of material – a thong | |
| LATH | Hidden in (‘of’) ‘materiaL A THong’ | |
| 14 | Picture post | |
| SITUATION | Double definition (although we had to check Chambers for the ‘picture’ definition!) | |
| 15 | See 2 down | |
| 17 | Naked nurses in great little game | |
| RING TAW | RAW (naked) around or ‘nursing’ IN GT (‘great’ abbreviated or ‘little’) – we had to look this up – a game of marbles | |
| 18 | ‘Break’ actually contains the letter R | |
| INFRACT | IN FACT (actually) round R | |
| 20 | From the south, south east and northern Australian territories | |
| ZONES | SE (south-east) + N (northern) + OZ (Australian) all reversed or ‘from the south’ | |
| 22 | Rock band’s endless publicity material | |
| BLUR | BLUR |
|
Thank you Bert and Joyce for the illumination (and Anax for the work-out). I do think that in 3d the word French should have been included i.e. one french river, or is UN for ONE acceptable? Also, in 26a, a tenoner is a machine that cuts all the surfaces in one pass. Neat!
Thanks B&J, although I filled the grid in there were quite a few where “it must be that but I’ve never heard of it”. @UncleAda don’t think so about 3d, it’s just a “good un” usage.
@Anax, what a stinker! 🙂
A tough challenge from Anax today. I had to trust the wordplay for RING TAW, RIFT SAW, TENONER and DEMARCHE (“deme” was an educated guess from “demos”), and at 1ac I didn’t know the gust/fit synonym but DISGUST seemed to be the obvious answer if “revolt” was going to be the definition. It took me ages to get HANDEL’S MESSIAH and WALTER MITTYISH, and it was only once they were in that I was able to get my last two, SITUATION and ALAMO.
The long answer went in quickly once I had the X checker from 9ac and I didn’t bother to parse it. I thought it would help to open up the puzzle but it didn’t help as much as I thought it would.
@Andy B My experience exactly!
Nice puzzle, as I’d expect from Anax. Just idly wondering if anyone else started with 2/19/15d, as I did, simply from the letter count? I can never resist trying to do this, even though it always seems like cheating.
Quaiteaux @5, yes or nearly so. I was toying with “DIS…” to start 1a so looked to see if anything starting with S leapt to mind, and it did. It still didn’t make the rest of the puzzle a walk in the park, though. Thanks, Anax, and Bert and Joyce for the blog.
Re 12 ac, my take was that “balanced as situation” was the definition and “12 as split” was the word play (i.e. 6+6=12).