Tuesady toughie – one I couldn’t complete, so thanks to Eileen for parsing 16dn.
I struggled with this one, partly because I didn’t have the knowledge of science required for the clue I haven’t been able to solve, and partly because some of the wordplay was challenging.
Enjoyable, although time-consuming.
| Across | ||
| 1 | GNOSTIC |
Learned one tune to counter uncontrolled movement (7)
<=SONG + TIC
|
| 5 | SAPIENT |
Wise to get panties off (7)
*(panties) |
| 9 | ARGON |
Element in legalese judge denied (5)
(j)ARGON |
| 10 | EMOTIONAL |
Schmaltzy book returned by student on Hebridean island (9)
<=TOME + IONA-L |
| 11 | MUNICIPAL |
One friend replaces husband in German city or town (9)
MUNIC(h)-1 PAL |
| 12 | ABEAM |
A second pair sent from madhouse across centre (5)
A + BE(dl)AM
|
| 13 | SPOOR |
Timeless band’s backing track (5)
<=(t)ROOPS |
| 15 | TRAGEDIAN |
Edward Alleyn and a tiger run wild? (9)
*(and a tiger) Edward Alleyn was a famous actor in Elzabethan England |
| 18 | PATTY-CAKE |
Surprisingly apt study contains chapter on unknown nursery- rhyme (5-4)
(*apt) +T(Y + C)AKE Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can; Roll it up, roll it up; And throw it in a pan! Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man |
| 19 | RHODA |
One female artist carries box of bricks (5)
R(HOD)A R.A. carrying HOD |
| 21 | GROWL |
Snarl from King George hunting bird (5)
G.R. + OWL |
| 23 | BEANSTALK |
Chaps when old discuss Jack’s impulse buy (9)
(old) BEANS + TALK Technically, Jack bought beans… |
| 25 | SCARLATTI |
Mark left by mostly classical composer (9)
SCAR-L-ATTI(c) Scarlatti was an 18th century Italian composer |
| 26 | ANIMA |
Manx beast shows inner personality (5)
ANIMA(L) |
| 27 | SIAMESE |
Some split hairs to update this language (7)
Hidden in “spliT HAIrs” is THAI, which is an update of Siamese.
|
| 28 | ENGINED |
Aim to keep spirit and energy with driving power (7)
EN(GIN-E)D |
| Down | ||
| 1 | GRAMMES |
G&S entertains me with stuff that has some weight (7)
G(RAM-ME)S |
| 2 | ORGAN LOFT |
Church area unkempt for a long time (5,4)
*(for a long t) The organ loft is a gallery in a church where the organ is played. |
| 3 | TONIC |
Put to bed at home, got up after this? (5)
=>C(IN)OT
|
| 4 | CLEOPATRA |
Ruler moved to palace across river (9)
*(to palace + r) |
| 5 | SEOUL |
Asian city European in spirit (5)
S(E)OUL |
| 6 | PRIVATEER |
Ship corroded in stream under pressure (9)
P-RIV(ATE)ER |
| 7 | ERNIE |
Man makes turn in drive-in restaurant (5)
hidden backwards in “drivE-IN REstaurant” |
| 8 | TELAMON |
Ruler at Salamis might be 10 where 10’s unseated (7)
*(emotional – io) Telamon was also one of the Argonauts |
| 14 | ROYAL BLUE |
Ultimately aristocratic blood this colour? (5,4)
The best I can do in parsing this is that aristocrats have blue blood and the ultmiate in aristocracy is royalty, so this is a mildly cryptic definition? |
| 16 | ACETAMIDE |
Area surrounded by badgers outside compound (9)
Sorry – this one had me beat, until Eileen came to the rescue (see Comment 1). |
| 17 | ISOLATION |
Current loan is to supply withdrawal (9)
I + *(loan is to) I is the conventional symbol for electrical current |
| 18 | PEGASUS |
Horse that flew sees winning post the way FT does (7)
PEG + AS US The post you hit at the end of a game of croquet is called the PEG, therefore “winning post” = PEG The “AS US” bit is clumsy, in my opinion. |
| 20 | AWKWARD |
Clumsy wicketkeeper breaks trophy (7)
A(WK)WARD |
| 22 | OSAKA |
Japanese city huge – there’s another name for it (5)
OS (outsize = “huge”) + AKA (also known as = “there’s another name for it”) |
| 23 | BATHE |
Swim where blind flyer loses two- thirds in height? (5)
BAT + HE(ight) |
| 24 | SLANG |
Undignified speech from Spain’s foremost film director (5)
S(Spain’s foremost) + (Fritz) LANG, German director who went on to be a Hollywood great. |
Hi loonapick
I haven’t had time to do this puzzle but I usually have a quick look at the preamble, at least, of the blogs.
16dn appears to be ACETAMIDE [don’t you just hate it when all the crossers are vowels?!] – a compound: A [area] + AMID [surrounded by] with CETE [a group of badgers] outside.
Agree quite a challenge, but enjoyable nonetheless, with a wide range of GK required from Greek mythology to Renaissance drama to classical musicians to chemical compounds.
NINA is Market Forces.
Thanks Steven
Didn’t spot the NINA
Grr couldn’t get paper or printer to work, one for tomorrow as I like pb crosswords.
Thanks loonapick and all present.
The ROYAL BLUE idea is that as you can’t get more aristocratic than royalty (I presume?) then Royal blue blood would be the ultimate. If you see what I mean. But yeah, it is a CD of sorts, even though you can argue that ‘colour’ is a definition all of its own.
Thanks indeed and
Cheers
Neo
Oh boy! Tough or what?
I got to the end but with an uncomfortable number of unparsed:
12ac – obvious now but couldn’t see it before coming here;
18ac – I’d concluded that ‘TAKE’ must = ‘Study’ but C for Chapter and Y for unknown seem to be the wrong way round
25ac – I’d forgotten that ATTIC also means (Greek) Classical
16dn – new word for me is Cete. I had at least heard of Acetamines.
I share your qualms about 23ac. Jack brought beans, not the beanstalk.
I was really enjoying this till the parsing got too hard, and then ended up irritated – but that’s my problem (impatience).?
So:
Thanks loonapick and Neo.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
A back-logger that I picked up last night hoping for an easy to medium standard. It wasn’t !!! Lots of new things that needed to be looked up … and if one isn’t deterred with using references, then this was a lot of fun as well !!!
Lots of interesting devices going on with it – liked the hidden definition for SIAMESE, the clever charade with PRIVATEER, the bluish surface for SAPIENT and the complex composition, including the new term CETE, in another new term ACETAMIDE.
Only had the one that I couldn’t parse – the BE(DL)AM part of ABEAM – but should have been able to. Also missed the nina, which this fellow is pre-disposed to inserting in to his crosswords.
A good challenge overall.