I’ve very little experience with Hob’s puzzles, and may not ever have blogged one, though I can’t swear it.
So this should be interesting. In the event I enjoyed the puzzle, and got through it without a great deal of difficulty, despite the best efforts of BrewDog Clapham’s hilariously strong offerings to impair the faculties.
There’s something clever going on, with 13 across being a key clue. Whilst I didn’t actually know what a lipogram is, this did not hinder solving. It turns out that it’s like a pangram, but with one or more letters purposefully completely absent.
And oh look, there’s no E in the grid, which can’t have been easy. There’s also no J, Q, V or X either, for what it’s worth.
But what are we to make of One row leads to another just the same
? It seems that the top row of unchecked squares gives us GADSBY. A quick Google reveals that to be a novel by Ernest Vincent WRIGHT, who appears in the bottom row. The book also does not contain the letter E.
Anyway, an enjoyable Saturday solve and a very well-constructed puzzle, even if I’m not clever or well-read enough to really appreciate the thematic stuff at the time.
| Across | ||
| 7 | CONSORT | Partner going against type (7) |
| CON + SORT. | ||
| 8 | OCTAGON | No cat flaps? In which case, go figure! (7) |
| GO in (NO CAT)*. | ||
| 9 | TOFF | Swell until very loud (4) |
| TO + FF. | ||
| 10 | PLAINTIFF | One starting a suit design outside No. 4 in Savile Row (9) |
| ([sav]I[le] in PLAN) + TIFF. Great clue. | ||
| 12 | DIRTY | Black and blue? (5) |
| Two definitions. Think “blue” as in movies. | ||
| 13 | LIPOGRAM | Girl with a mop edited today’s puzzle? One row leads to another just the same (8) |
| (GIRL + A MOP)*. | ||
| 15 | ABUT | Sit next to a bar (4) |
| A + BUT. As in “all bar one”/”all but one”. | ||
| 16 | ARGOS | Store ship close to docks (5) |
| ARGO + [dock]S. | ||
| 17 | PHAT | Pakistan’s opening bowler, perhaps getting fine (4) |
| P[akistan] + HAT. Not just one from the Urban Dictionary either, it being in Chambers and no doubt elsewhere. | ||
| 18 | DISCOUNT | Daughter to topless peer: “That’s a bit off!” (8) |
| D + [v]ISCOUNT. | ||
| 20 | LOOTS | Rifles motion rejected (5) |
| STOOL<. | ||
| 21 | PILCHARDS | Fish and chips, cooked with lard (9) |
| (CHIPS + LARD)*. Great surface reading. | ||
| 22 | PAWN | Man with soft beard (4) |
| P + AWN. | ||
| 24 | COLUMBA | Detective tailed a saint (7) |
| Lieutenant COLUMB[o] + A. | ||
| 25 | IN COURT | Outcome of ruction, turning up here? (2,5) |
| RUCTION*. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GOZO | Broadcast travels over island (4) |
| Homophone of “goes” + O. I wonder how well known this one is. I had an advantage, having actually been there, but it turns out that if you’ve read your Homer (I haven’t) you’re probably familiar too. | ||
| 2 | ASK FOR IT | To make likely trouble for oneself, demand sex (3,3,2) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 3 | DROPSY | Medic works on variable accumulation of fluid (6) |
| DR + OPS + Y. | ||
| 4 | SCHNAPPS | Strong drink, as second child sleeps soundly (8) |
| S + CH + homophone of “naps”. | ||
| 5 | BARING | Former banker revealing all? (6) |
| Two definitions. I’m sure we all remember Barings. | ||
| 6 | YOOF | Youngsters greeting old fellow (4) |
| YO + O + F. | ||
| 11 | ALLIGATOR | Nameless troll again upset Daisy? (9) |
| (TROLL AGAI[n])*. I had no idea who Daisy was, but that wasn’t an insurmountable obstacle to solving by any means. It turns out that An Alligator Named Daisy is a film dating from 1955. | ||
| 12 | DUBAI | City in Serbia – Budapest’s to the North (5) |
| [serb]IA BUD[apest]<. | ||
| 14 | ADAMS | Posh name for a president (5) |
| Two definitions, kind of. You’d need to know that Posh Spice was once called Victoria Adams, whereby I predict murmurs of dissent, and then you’ve John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams from whom to take your pick. | ||
| 16 | ABU DHABI | Friend wearing a nun’s outfit docked in the capital (3,5) |
| BUD in (A HABI[t]). Capital of the the United Arab Emirates. | ||
| 17 | POOH-POOH | Turn nose up at housework over and over again (4-4) |
| (HO + OP)<, repeated. | ||
| 19 | COLOUR | Short, lofted shot landing 25? Almost blush (6) |
| LO[b] in COUR[t]. | ||
| 20 | LOSING | Down wrong in record (6) |
| SIN in LOG. | ||
| 21 | PROW | Working girl with bit sticking out at front (4) |
| PRO + W. | ||
| 23 | WART | Growth of conflict over time (4) |
| WAR + T. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
Thanks, Simon.
I enjoyed this puzzle from Hob, thinking as I solved it that it was rather easier than some of his previous ones. When I finally realised what was going on, I could see why.
It’s a remarkably clever thing to have constructed such a puzzle [I didn’t know the book, either, although I knew there was such a one] but it seems that Hob was perhaps practically forced into it. By one of those weird coincidences that crop up in Crosswordland from time to time, GOZO [1dn!] had pinched practically all the Es for this puzzle
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2015/01/08/financial-times-no-14823-by-gozo/ just two days before!
Bravissimo, Hob – thanks for the fun. 😉
Back in the sixties, there was a radio programme called Many a Slip, where Roy Plomley read out bits of stuff and the panellists had to spot mistakes. One round was the Many a Slip-o-gram, where they were told a particular letter was missing, and they had to spot occurrences of it. So I knew what a lipogram is and noticed the absence of ‘e’s early on. Failed to spot the Nina, though. Never read the Wright, but I did read A Void, Gilbert Adair’s translation of Georges Perec’s novel on the same lines.
I had vague memories of seeing the film referenced at 11dn. A bit obscure, I thought.
I really enjoyed solving this so thank you to Hob. The question is will I ever remember the word ‘lipogram’ when there’s a chance to use it?
Thanks to Simon too.
I saw GADSBY and WRIGHT on the top and bottom rows, and LIPOGRAM seemed the most obvious answer from the anagram fodder even though I either didn’t know or had forgotten what it meant. When I did some googling post-solve I saw the relevance of all three words, but I still didn’t spot that the puzzle answers didn’t contain an “e”. Muppet. Which does. Even though this wasn’t the most difficult of prize puzzles I found it very enjoyable.
What I found very admirable is that Hob din’t have to resort to any unusual words (with the exception of PHAT which was very well signposted) to perform this feat. Well done Hob and thanks for the entertainment.
Thanks Hob for a brilliant construction and Simon for blogging it. Fortuitously, I did this on a bus on my way to shop at 16ac this morning.
PB @6. Good on you for participating so rigorously in this grid’s spirit. I doff my cap.
G–bs.
Great puzzle and blog.
Dormouse@2, likewise with the Adair translation, but I also read the original Perec in Paris years ago during a trip dedicated to potential literature (oulipo).
CC@8: I failed O-level French nearly fifty years ago, so my chances of ever reading something in French are now slim.
Well……. what great fun this was.
We guessed LIPOGRAM from the wordplay and then checked to see if it was a real word which gave the game away but did not spoil the solve.
Thanks Hob for the puzzle and also thanks to Simon for the blog.
Thanks also to the link to Gozo’s puzzle Eileen – an amazing coincidence.