We don’t see this setter very often so it is something of a coincidence that I was standing in for someone who was away, as I am today, when his last puzzle appeared. Not that I mind because I always find his puzzles enjoyable and today was no exception, though I do have a couple of reservations.
Let’s get these out of the way first. I have difficulty in equating the answer with the definition in 14ac, one of the words in the definition for 2dn doesn’t seem quite right to me and I am unable to determine a valid definition in 24ac. Of course, these problems might be down to me rather than any fault of the setter.
On the plus side, for those that like that sort of thing, which I do from time to time, Rorschach continues to take lessons from Paul/Punk with the likes of 16dn and 24dn.
It’s time to move on to the theme which centres around the number three. In the grid we have directly trio, triumviri and tricycles. Then there are the three 3dn, the three 10ac, the three 22ac, three 1dn, three 26ac, 25dn and finally, unless I’ve missed something, Goldilocks and the three 13dn.
Just to add to the cleverness of this puzzle, Rorschach has included The Trinity – 4dn, 19ac and Holy 22dn.
Across
9 Well-informed in French but mistranslating ‘Un autocar’ (2,7)
AU COURANT – an anagram (mistranslating) of UN AUTOCAR
10 Men on board of university (5)
KINGS – double def. – the first referring to chess
11 Panic as bugger’s returned to take 1 of 10 (5)
SPOOK – OOPS (bugger) reversed (returned) K (1 of 10 {Kings})
12 Bits stored here / that’ll help you on golf course? (4,5)
HARD DRIVE – double/cryptic def.
13 Annoying person who’s not as famous as they might hope? (7)
BLISTER – B-LISTER (person who’s not as famous as they might hope)
14 Peacekeepers searched for mines in corrupt state (7)
UNSWEPT – UN (peacekeepers) SWEPT (searched for mines) – though I thought of this early on, I didn’t enter it until I had all the checked letters because I find it difficult to equate the answer with the definition.
17 Singer has change of heart once going back to puzzle (5)
ADDLE – AdeLE (singer) with the centre moved back by one letter (has change of heart once going back)
19 This Kent outfit has connection to 4? (3)
SON – S ON ‘this Kent outfit has’ needs to be read as ‘Kent outfit has this’ – Clark Kent’s alter ego, Superman, wears a red shield on his chest which has a large yellow S on it – this one took me a while to parse even though I thought of the correct ‘Kent’ quite quickly.
20 Second 1 of 13 down going around in circles (5)
HOOPS – S (second) POOH (1 of 13 down {bears}) reversed (going around)
21 Increases amount of degrees at university (5,2)
STEPS UP – STEPS (degrees) UP (at university)
22 Curly goes to States initially to form this comedy 24 down? (7)
STOOGES – an anagram (curly) of GOES TO S[tates] – this comedy trio
24 1 of ancient 24 down set to cross over Scottish moorland to Irish island (9)
TRIUMVIRI – TV (set) around (to cross) MUIR (Scottish moorland) reversed (over) IR (Irish) I (island) – I have not been able to determine the intended definition. If it is ‘one of ancient trio’ then the answer would be ‘triumvir’. Triumviri is plural and refers to the three triumvirs. If ‘1’ is referring to the answer at 1dn {laws} then I can find no reference to confirm that the ‘laws of ancient trio’ are/were called triumviri.
26 Swear and swear about Labour (5)
BLIND – BIND (swear {as in oath}) around (about) L (labour)
28 Investment account for he of 24 down of 1 (5)
ISAAC – ISA (investment) AC (account) – Isaac Newton is noted for, among many other things, his three laws of motion.
29 Celtic and Rangers extremely worried about unknown vehicles (9)
TRICYCLES – an anagram (worried) of CELTIC R[anger]S around (about) Y (unknown)
Down
1 Fluid was left in Fiats (4)
LAWS – an anagram (fluid) of WAS L
2 Postdoc to pipette samples of marine creatures incorrectly collected (6)
OCTOPI – hidden in ‘postdOC TO PIpette’ – Chambers specifically states that the plural of octopus is octopuses or (archaic) octopodes and that octopi is wrong – I’m not sure that ‘collected’ is the right term to use in the definition.
3 Soldiers in USSR meet KGB’s first English suspect (10)
MUSKETEERS – an anagram (suspect) of USSR MEET K[gb] (KGB’s first) E (English)
4 Handsome woman’s old man (6)
FATHER – FAT (handsome) HER (woman’s)
5 Possibly legendary performer who could produce rats … (4,4)
STAR TURN – an anagram (TURN) of STAR could produce rats
6 …ultimately relocated children in slippery manoeuvre (4)
SKID – KIDS (children) with the last letter moved to the front (ultimately relocated)
7 One with no heart in novel form? (8)
ANTIHERO – an anagram (in novel form) of I (one) NO HEART – &lit
8 Joined together Harris and Lewis comprise this (4)
ISLE – hidden in ‘harrIS LEwis’
13 One means of picking up rubbish around stands (5)
BEARS – BS (rubbish {bull shit}) around EAR (one means of picking up)
15 Those in Westminster, perhaps, caught up in class system? (10)
SCHOOLBOYS – cryptic def. – Westminster School, which actually has schoolboys, rather than the Houses of Parliament where the occupants often seem to behave like them.
16 Ball’s dropped initially in the Ashes? (5)
TESTS – TEST[i]S (ball) with i[n] (initially in) dropped
18 Disraeli’s changing line for English rewrite of part of Mass (4,4)
DIES IRAE – an anagram (rewrite) of DISRAE[L]EI – ‘changing line for English’ indicates replacing the L in Disraeli with an E
19 Sophie’s Choice ultimately amended by a couple of stuck-up pedants? (8)
SOPHISTS – SOPHI[e]’S with the [choic]E (choice ultimately) replaced by (amended by) ST[uck] (a couple of stuck) reversed (up)
22 Fantastic creature‘s cleavage’s elevating sex appeal (6)
SPIRIT – RIPS (cleavages) reversed (elevating) IT (sex appeal)
23 Questions 1 of 13 down, you might say? (6)
GRILLS – a homophone (you might say) of [Bear] Grylls (1 of 13 down {bears})
24 In orgy, time to go on top in threesome (4)
TRIO – RIOT (orgy) with the T (time) moved to the front (to go on top)
25 EMI dealt with copyright infringement pests (4)
MICE – an anagram (dealt) of EMI around (with … infringement) C (copyright)
27 Barrel of Scotch? (4)
DASH – double def. – ‘barrel’ being a North American term meaning “to travel or move very quickly” (Chambers)
Thanks for the blog Gaufrid! Seeing as there are some points of debate I thought I’d wade in early. Re. OCTOPI -Mike (rightly, as you do) pointed out that it is a grammatically incorrect plural and therefore needs acknowledgment as such – I thought incorrectly collected signified this adequately. Re. UNSWEPT – I suppose what you’re suggesting is that not sweeping does not nec. result in dirtiness? There could be a hint of two-step logic here I guess for which I apologise. As for TRIUMVIRI, the fault is completely mine. I actually checked on the pluralisation a number of times online but was scotched by the fact that Google threw up a lot of definitions to TRIUMVIRI but these linked to TRIUMVIR hence my confusion. I should have gone with my knowledge of Latin pluralisation… Especially in light of bloody OCTOPI! Apologies for this – entirely my own stupidity!
Thanks Gaufrid. Spot on throughout and I think you found all the theme words!
I really must start printing Thursday puzzles.
Thanks Gaufrid for the untanglings and Rorschach for the tangles.
If you read 24a as you would a parts list, 1 of [ancient 24 down], it just about works.
Thanks, Gaufrid.
I managed to spot all the threes – except the Trinity! [Doh.]
We don’t see nearly enough of Rorschach, so I was really glad to see his name on this puzzle. On a busy morning, I’m particularly pleased that he weighed / waded in early and saved me writing a dissertation on TRIUMVIRI – the best explanation I could come up with was something like what sidey suggested but I wasn’t at all happy. [All the clue needs is the deletion of ‘1 of’.]
Otherwise, a super puzzle, as always – many thanks to Rorschach. [Come back soon!]
Hi Rorschach
Thanks for dropping by. It was the ‘collected’ that I couldn’t quite see in 2dn. However, I’m struggling to think of an alternative.
I certainly agree that UNSWEPT could easily indicate a dirty state but the clue was ‘in corrupt state’ and personally I don’t think that corrupt and dirty are synonymous.
Haha thanks sidey and Eileen – you’ve got my back! I did think of that explanation but it would have been lying. Mea culpa sed non felix culpa.
Wasn’t Curly the bald one of the Three Stooges? Makes the clue even better.
Even more convoluted than I originally thought: there are several answers containing a double O; double O is of course a gauge for model railways (I nearly said “toy” there), hence the trade name Hornby Dublo, which later became TRI-ang Hornby for some years. If that isn’t close enough to qualify as another variant of three, there’s also in the jazz world a Hornby Trio.
I think the nurse might have forgotten to bring me my medication this morning…….
I struggled with a lot of the definitions: addle for puzzle, unswept for in a corrupt state, fat for handsome and rips for cleavages all seem to be trying to be as obscure as possible. Blind I can really only think of being used in the “effing and blinding” – hard to imagine anyone using it on its own. Still, the theme made it a little more accessible and 27 was the only one I was completely lost on.
A number of quibbles which have all been pointed out or apologised for. I’m just not sure that L can be Labour in 26A – I thought L was always Liberal (Lab is labour)
We struggled with this yesterday, and had to leave it overnight and return to it with fresh minds this morning. Our problems were very similar to those of NealH@8 – some rather obscure definitions. In our haste to come here once we had completed it, we missed a few of the groups of three, including ‘blind mice’ and the Trinity. We were also puzzled by ‘triumviri’, so thanks to Rorschach for the confession!
However, thanks also for another tour de force with so many thematic entries – respect!
Thanks to Gaufrid – good to see you on the blog again.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and echo Gaufrid’s analysis to the letter. I marked UNSWEPT (and SOPHISTS – too close to Sophie?) as weak. And TRIUMVIRI irritated me, in such an otherwise excellent puzzle, by it’s wrong plurality as I couldn’t stop the itch of feeling I’d missed something about Roman laws! (And Rorschach’s explanation baffles me…)
Having said this, there were some outstanding, and fun clues – SPOOK, TESTS, SON, BEARS and MICE all ticked…. and it’s been a while since a puzzle has received so many.
Yes indeed, a wonderful crossword that gave much pleasure.
A big thank you to Rorschach. And, of course, to the seemingly indefatigable Gaufrid!
2019, we do not see Rorschach very much , thank god for that, what the majority of this offering was on about, l do not know, even after looking at 15 squared l still could not see how some of the answers were arrived at. I keep a record of all compilers & I give them a rating of ?, ??, ??, ??. According to my reckoning of suitability for general readership of the i, ( not the Independent) 5 years ago, this one is a??. Probably not many ,if any ,will ever read my ramblings, but my hero Victor Meldrew & myself feel better by getting it off our shell.
Above ratings of ?,which should have come out as emojis, of thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs up & down. Thumbs down & down, Rorschach came out as a thumbs down & down.
Ha ha Tortoise, in my book this was a pile of pants!! Too smart ar***d by half. I am glad I had some grouting that needed bleaching!