Quite a tricky production from Scorpion today, but what does one expect? Everything (apart from one or two about which I’m not quite certain) seemed to be easy enough to explain after the event and there were some nice clues.
Fairly early on I became aware of what I initially thought was an inelegance of style, in that ‘run’ had been invoked twice. But I soon realised that this was in fact the intention, and — so far as I can see, although I may have missed some — ‘run’ has been used in some way fifteen times. I suspect it is a coincidence that the site is called fifteensquared, but there is surely something else going on.
Definitions are in italics and I have underlined the words in the clues that are synonyms of ‘run’
Oh yes, and it’s also a pangram, which helped when I was solving.
| Across | ||
| 7 | BRUNEI |
Country stream close to cottage in British Isles (6)
(run {cottag}e) in BI |
| 8 | REORDAIN |
Again invest in road being rebuilt on banks of Rhine (8)
(in road)* after R{hin}e — invest in the clerical sense |
| 10 | UNFASTEN |
Open University flying course latterly in news (8)
u n(fast {cours}e)n — news being a double dose of n |
| 11 | TRUNKS |
Clothing career in periphery of Kent repelled son (6)
run [= career] in (K{en}t)rev. s |
| 12 | ZAPATA |
Before joining a volunteer group, get rid of facial hair (6)
zap a TA — the Zapata moustache |
| 14 | PLANK BED |
Detainee here goes off commander probing another contingency scheme? (5,3)
I’m not quite sure of this: it seems to be KBE [Knight Commander of the British Empire] in Plan D, although I should have thought that Plan B was more likely — haven’t really heard of Plan D; perhaps it’s a bit like E-list for celebrities — a plank bed is what you might find in a prison cell, so a detainee might drop off to sleep here |
| 16 | JEER |
Mock off-road vehicle that’s right for Prince (4)
jeep with the p replaced by r |
| 17 | GRUNT |
Race dominated by car, a fuel-guzzler producing this noise? (5)
G(run)T — presumably a fuel-guzzler is a pig |
| 18 | ROUX |
In auditorium, regret element of dressing (4)
“rue” — roux is an element of dressing in that it is a part of various sauces |
| 20 | BRUNETTE |
Punter briefly circles course seeing chestnut filly? (8)
batte{r} round run — some would object to the use of the word ‘filly’ on sexist grounds, but in crosswordland its use is perhaps akin to that of ‘cutie’ |
| 22 | RUSKIN |
Art critic wanting to go off-piste in print? (6)
ru(ski)n — but why is ‘to go off piste’ to ski? One can perfectly well ski on piste. |
| 23 | OYSTER |
Greyish-beige ferrets you held back (6)
Hidden rev. in ferRETS YOu |
| 25 | UNSPRUNG |
After pressure, hunt stops misuse of guns, like 14 Across? (8)
(p run) in (guns)* — 14 Across being PLANK BED, which is unsprung |
| 27 | QUAD BIKE |
Tremble when catching daughter swinging vehicle (4,4)
qua(d bi)ke — bi = swinging both ways |
| 28 | ERNEST |
Chap finds home of East End woman? (6)
“her nest” as it would be said in the East End, without the initial h |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TRUNCATE |
Make shorter drive with jazz fan into heart of Ostend (8)
(run cat) in {Os}te{nd} |
| 2 | INCA |
Accepted that, in French language (4)
in [= accepted] ca [‘that’ in French] — “he has been accepted by Oxford”/”he has got in to Oxford”, “he is accepted”/”he is in” |
| 3 | DISTRAUGHT |
Frantic swallow perhaps claims highest spot (10)
d(1st)raught |
| 4 | ARUN |
A stand used for flower (4)
a run — the Arun, a river in West Sussex on which is Arundel, a flow-er |
| 5 | MOAT |
Defence system that’s used in wrestling around ring (4)
m(o)at — I think a mat is ‘that’s used in wrestling’ rather than ‘system that’s used in wrestling’ |
| 6 | WINKLE |
It’s a minor problem extracting right shellfish (6)
w{r}inkle |
| 9 | DRUNKARDS |
Dick consumes roll with dark nuts – they’re usually pickled (9)
DS [= Detective Sergeant, dick] round (run (dark)*) |
| 13 | AYR UNITED |
Football team agreed to continue on special diet (3,6)
Ay run (diet)* |
| 14 | PRUNE |
1 to perform during training (5)
P(run)E — 1 is TRUNCATE |
| 15 | ASTERISKED |
Reviewing satire, most of Sky edition showed highlights? (10)
(satire)* sk{y} ed. |
| 19 | UNIONIST |
Left-winger perhaps with foot swelling, heading off first (8)
{b}union 1st |
| 21 | RAY GUN |
Arm stretch embraces adult and young, abandoned (3,3)
r(A y{oun}g)un — in this case ‘abandoned’ means ‘with the centre missing’ |
| 24 | RUIN |
Operate while concealing current bankruptcy (4)
ru(I)n |
| 25 | UVEA |
Luvvie regularly wiped a part of his eye (4)
{L}u{v}v{i}e a |
| 26 | RUNT |
Weakest Link to be broadcast on time (4)
run t — in a sense a runt is the weakest link |
This was tricky, giving me quite a run-around. (Sorry.) The only clue I failed on was 12A Zapata, not a word I knew. I didn’t understand quite a lot of the wordplay here but my guesses turned out to be right. 4D Arun I found hardest. Why is “run” synonymous with “stand” in 4D? And I did not recall the River Arun, having last been to Arundel in about 1960. So to guess Arun as the answer was a wild, although correct, stab in the dark. Favourite: 27A Quad Bike for all the misdirection. So many “run”s could have made this puzzle too easy, but Scorpion managed to make it tough. Thanks, and well done to John for explaining the complex details. Sorry, John, I am as mystified as you on 14A and 22A.
Plan D was the Plan Dalet (fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet) worked out by the Haganah in Mandatory Palestine in March 1948…
Can’t help with 22A, but in 4D I assume ‘run’ is synonymous with ‘stand for election’ as in ‘run for president’.
Ah, thank you, Polly. That could be it.
Got pretty well trounced here- was not even familiar with plank bed. I suspected a pangram but had not hard of quad bike. One day I’ll perhaps complete a Scorpion unaided.
Happy to oblige, Emrys. I also meant to say that ZAPATA is engraved in my memory on account of my having seen the biopic ‘Viva Zapata!’ circa 1970; I remember it as the most boring film of my entire life, and at this late stage I’m not prepared to give it a second chance…
Very tricky indeed, and I was surprised I managed to finish correctly without recourse to aids. ZAPATA and ROUX were my last two in. I had the same thought as John after I saw the first two appearances of “run” but once I got another one it seemed apparent that this was a theme and it certainly helped me with some of the answers.
In 14ac I saw Plan D as simply a variant of Plan B and it doesn’t need to be anywhere near as obscure an explanation as Cookie suggested, although the history lesson was welcome.
In 22ac skiing can be done both off-piste and on-piste and I honestly don’t see a problem with the way ski is clued here.
Andy B @7, Plan D is subject to much controversy, but it ultimately led to the creation of Israel and the dispossession of the Palestinians.
For 17, I had ‘this noise’ as the def and parsed as follows: ‘Race (RUN) dominated by car, a fuel guzzler (GT) producing this noise’ = GRUNT, ie ‘dominated by’ as containment indicator and a GT car usually is more powerful and has a high fuel consumption. I dipped out on 18 (geddit) – new word of the day for me.
I liked the ‘run’ theme. If only we’d scored as many last week in Cardiff!
Thanks to S&B.
Thank you for the blog, John and thanks to Scorpion who gave us a good run. 🙂
I, too, wondered about, “off-piste”, but then decided that it was an efficient way to make sure we knew the word that we wanted was “ski”, although I thought it gave a poor surface reading.
Pretty much impenetrable for me today. I gave up. I know that Tuesday for us Indy obsessives is meant to be ‘the themed one’, but this was just a step too far, for this solver at least. I’ve not got all day …
Thanks to both.
Thanks Scorpion and John.
The RUN ‘theme’ was fun. Are there not only 14 ‘run’ clues, can 10a UNFASTEN count? It is the 14th of July, Bastille Day, but I see nothing else in the grid.
I think Ruskin might have gone ‘off-piste’ in several ways, for instance, he backed the controversial artist J.M.W. Turner.
Thinking about it, if the RUN theme was to exhort the prisoners to escape, they did not want to. There were only seven old men inside and they were annoyed by the disturbance; the Marquis de Sade had been transferred more than a week before.
I agree with WordPlodder that “this noise” is the definition in 17ac.
I have to disagree with other commenters as I didn’t find this tricky in the slightest but a total delight (though I felt it wise to check UVEA post-solve). Like John, I initially thought the use of ‘run’ was weak, but by the third encounter I realised what was happening. When the possibility of a program arose I thought “Surely not? This setter can’t be so accomplished as to manage both tricks at once”. But I was wrong – Scorpion had managed both and I was so impressed I was still relishing the puzzle as I dozed off (I ‘did’ the crossword in bed last thing). Pure joy…
Like cookie, I also found but 14 uses of ‘run’.
I agree with AndyB that both PLANK BED and RUSKIN were perfectly fine, any possible ‘quibbles’ thwarted by use of question marks. Also, I didn’t consider BRUNETTE sexist; after all a male is a brunet and “chestnut filly” made for a great surface (have seen something similar before when I think it was roundly praised).
All in all, in my opinion, an absolutely first class crossword. Ta both!
….for ‘program’ please read ‘pangram’ – I stood on my reading glasses (and not for the first time!)