Enjoyable, but a bit of a struggle…
| Across | ||
| 9 | ROUGE |
Dissolute chap drinks good French red (5)
ROUÉ=”Dissolute chap”, around G[ood] |
| 10 | VERTEBRAE |
Bony bits in ear — wager about five all round (9)
Reversal (all round) of EAR plus BET=”wager” plus RE=”about” plus V=roman numeral for “five” |
| 11 | SLATTERNS |
Untidy women mislaid Len’s tarts (9)
(Len’s tarts)* |
| 12 | MEANT |
Note to social worker’s intended (5)
ME=musical “Note”, plus ANT=”social worker” |
| 13 | LION CUB |
Some Mother’s Pride? Worried about one slice having no crusts (4,3)
Edit thanks to Peter Green – ([a]bou[t] [o]n[e] [s]lic[e])* |
| 15 | NON-STOP |
Constant snot supply in nose often picked at first (3-4)
(snot)* – “supply” as in supple – inside N[ose] O[ften] P[icked] |
| 17 | ARYAN |
Virgin, topless and bottomless, to show not Jewish? (5)
[M]ARY=”Virgin, topless”, plus AN[d]=”and bottomless” |
| 18 | TEA |
With starter finally replaced, consumed meal (3)
ATE=”consumed”, with the starter A moved to the end |
| 20 | TERSE |
Short time before eating seconds (5)
T[ime] plus ERE=”before” around S[econds] |
| 22 | OPAQUER |
Drop a query somewhat less easy to understand (7)
Hidden in [Dr]OP A QUE[ry] |
| 25 | INSISTS |
Demands this month’s cover for One Direction (7)
INST’S=”this month’s”, around I=”One” plus S[outh]=”direction” |
| 26 | PIG IT |
Greek character, soldier and model live in squalor (3,2)
PI=”Greek character”, GI=”soldier”, and the Ford car “model” T |
| 27 | GIANT STAR |
Volunteers to wear a G-string mostly designed for a heavenly body (5,4)
T[erritorial] A[rmy]=”Volunteers”, inside (a G-strin[g])* |
| 30 | PLAINSMEN |
Simple writing about space for flat dwellers? (9)
PLAIN=”Simple”, plus MS=manuscript=”writing” reversed/about, plus EN=a “space” in typography |
| 31 | ALLAH |
A large computer returned name of God (5)
A plus L[arge], plus HAL=”computer” from Space Odyssey [wiki] reversed/returned |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ARMS |
Arsenal’s content members … (4)
Double def |
| 2 | NUGATORY |
… one of which is flipping politician of no value (8)
A GUN=”one of [the contents of an arsenal]”, reversed/flipping; plus TORY=”politician” |
| 3 | TEAT |
Oops, freshly out of potatoes newly dug (4)
dug=”a nipple or udder”=TEAT. (potatoes)*, with the letters of Oops removed. |
| 4 | EVERY BIT |
All parts of computer memory that can be on or off to the same degree (5,3)
Double def – bits are the binary units of computer memory. |
| 5 | ARISEN |
“Up the Gunners!” ringing around one lost away leg, initially (6)
ARSEN[al]=”the Gunners”, around I=”one” and losing A[way] L[eg] |
| 6 | TERMINATES |
Stops white ants covering new area (10)
TERMITES=”white ants”, around N[ew] A[rea] |
| 7 | ERRANT |
Straying partner, topless, putting it about (6)
([p]artner)* |
| 8 | RENT |
Let rip (4)
Double def. |
| 13 | LLANO |
Motherless animal raised on plain (5)
a South American steppe or plain. LLA[ma]=”animal” without a MA=”Mother/less”, plus ON reversed/raised |
| 14 | CONSULTANT |
Doctor, you said, left wearing uniform (10)
U=”you said” aloud, plus L[eft], both inside CONSTANT=”uniform” |
| 16 | PRESS |
Closely packed crowd in lift (5)
Double def – for “lift” think of bench presses in weight lifting |
| 19 | AVIFAUNA |
Puck, lusty creature, into female birds in the area (8)
I=”Puck”, plus FAUN=”lusty creature”, inside AVA=”female” |
| 21 | RESETTLE |
Make new home right above East Yorkshire town (8)
R[ight] plus E[ast] plus SETTLE in Yorkshire [wiki] |
| 23 | AFGHAN |
Dog given a name after a series of letters (6)
A plus N[ame], after A, plus FGH=alphabetical “series of letters” |
| 24 | REGIME |
Cook starts to explain echidna’s grim diet? (6)
(e[xplain] e[chidna] grim)* |
| 26 | PUPA |
Immature creature — ant’s first stage as insect (4)
PUP=”Immature creature”, plus A[nt’s] first letter. |
| 28 | TEAT |
Stimulate a tart’s nipple (4)
Hidden in [Stimula]TE A T[art] |
| 29 | RUHR |
Builder hurriedly erected housing area in Germany (4)
Hidden reversed (erected housing) in [Builde]R HUR[riedly] |
I took 13ac to be an anagram (worried) of aBOUt, sLICe and oNe – crusts being 1st & last letters.
There is a 6th Nina – go across top row and drop down at second ‘E’
Thanks both manehi & Puck.
Correction – 8 Ninas.
Having a problem posting. Let’s see if this works. Correction – 8 Ninas.
This puzzle seemed to be a mixture of very easy and very difficult. New words for me were DUG = teat, SETTLE (town in Yorkshire), NUGATORY and PIG IT.
I needed help to parse 13a, 5d, SMEN in 30a.
My favourites were NUGATORY, AFGHAN, ALLAH, PUPA & AVIFAUNA (LOI).
I was surprised to see TEAT repeated as an answer 2x @ 3d and 28d – this was the first time I have experienced this in a puzzle. (I totally missed the ninas and theme of ANTEATER so now I know why it was repeated)
Thanks Puck and manehi
Thanks Puck and manehi. It was a thoroughly surreal experience when I got the second TEAT and suddenly found the place absolutely infested with anteaters. Bravo to Puck, I enjoyed it immensely, and it’s instantly become another of my favourites.
You can also get a ninth ANTEATER if you start from the AN in 23d.
Well spotted Cyborg – what an amazing piece of setting.
Thanks for the blog, Manehi.
I can’t believe that Puck has managed to contrive yet another puzzle on this theme, with similar brilliant manipulation of the grid.
See these examples:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2014/09/13/guardian-26358-puck/
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/04/20/guardian-25615-puck/
http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/25615 – if you click on ‘Solution’, you’ll see the armadillo.
Sheer brilliance! Huge thanks, Puck – I absolutely loved it and I’m speechless with admiration.
My last one was 13. Mothers Pride led me to think that C-B “must be” COB and I was ruined.
Didn’t appreciate the full extent of Puck’s ingenuity till I saw manehi’s lovely illustration.
Many thanks to both.
Excellent puzzle, even without spotting the ninas or knowing Puck has done this kind of thing before. Just the right level of difficulty for me, wanting to make steady progress. The only one I didn’t get before reaching for the computer was AVIFAUNA. Favourites were NUGATORY and NON-STOP.
Thanks a lot, Puck and manehi.
Thank you Puck and manehi.
Great fun, especially the ANTEATERS; I get three running down from the top one, the centre one and three running down into the bottom one, that makes nine. I cannot bring up the ‘icon’ manehi has now attached, but before seem to remember the ones he chose were dotted about rather than ‘cursive’.
I could not parse 31a. I did like 3d, TEAT, and luckily knew that meaning of the word ‘dug’.
Thanks Puck, what a great puzzle!
Thanks manehi; once I got the second TEAT I realised something was going on and found the first two anteaters. With the echidna in the clue, that makes ten.
OPAQUER was nicely hidden and I particularly liked LION CUB & ARISEN – somebody seems to like Arsenal here.
Ingenious! Constructing such an intricate grid must have been aardvark! (I’m sorry)
One question: what is “in the area” doing in AVIFAUNA? I can’t see what that adds to the clue.
Thanks Puck for a great puzzle and manehi for the blog.
Schroduck @ 12: avifauna refers to the bird life of a particular region, so ‘in the area’ is a necessary part of the definition.
hth
Thanks Puck and manehi
A work of art !!!
I spotted the two at the top and the bottom, but had no idea of the population explosion of them throughout the grid.
Enjoyable enough crossword in it’s own right … with the curious repetition of TEAT. Some lovely clues, although I missed the parsing of both LION CUB and ARISEN which were both too good for me.
Last few in were the cleverly hidden OPAQUER, the tricky AFGHAN and the difficult ALLAH.
Be interested to know what is behind Puck’s mini-obsession with these ant eating creatures … they’ve featured regularly.
Well there should not be two TEATs here, however difficult the setting. An oversight I presume.
The clues are pretty good all round, very little to vex, and I rather like the LION CUB.
HH
Ahem, Eileen @7! Puck’s not the only one with a hang-up.
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2007/07/27/independent-6478-21-07-07nimrod-ant-sy/
J
Does anyody know why Puck seems so obsessed with anteaters – as Eileen says he has used similar themes several times before. All quite enjoyable, but not easy. Liked the misdirection in RESETTLE. hh @15 – I’m sure it was quite deliberate, as far as I am aware he is not breaking any rule. There is a sort of precedent – Crucible had two REDs in his snooker themed puzzle number 24379 (back in 2008) but neither of those was clued.
Thanks to Puck and manehi
Thanks Puck and manehi, and Eilen and others – I thought I had seen an anteater themed puzzle before.
Enjoyable, with LLANO my favourite.
Two quibbles:
I don’t think “topless” and “bottomless” in 17a work in an across clue; would be perfectly OK in a down, though
The musical note is MI, not ME, as it derives from this Latin hymn:
Ut queant lax?s
REson?re f?br?s
MIra gestõrum
FAmul? tuõrum,
SOlve poll?t?
LAbi? re?tum,
Sancte Iõhann?s.
“Ut” later became “do”, “Sancte Iohannes gave “SI”, later changed to “ti” so that each started with a different letter.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge
I can understand people being obsessed by ants, but ANTEATERS? When you live in a hot country ants can be a real problem in the home, a daily enemy. One of my sons when a toddler was given a ginger biscuit to eat, a few minutes later he was covered in ants. Luckily they were more interested in the biscuit crumbs than in him, but neighbours who went out for the day leaving their dog chained up returned to find just a skeleton.
I guess if Puck has had some simliar experience ant eaters of any sort would be his favourites.
It really was a fantastic puzzle, and I have only just realised that the central entry is in the plural, ANTEATERS.
Wonderful. But where are the highlighted As Manehi refers to. I can count seven anteater(s). From the top left A there are four. There is the Anteater across the centre, an anteater across the bottom, and I can see one anteater feeding into the bottom. Where are the other three as claimed above?
Oh I’ve just seen another anteater feeding in to the bottom. That makes 8.
And another one into the bottom that makes 9
Now I get robis comment about the loose echidna in the clue. Sorry, I’ve answered my own question.
I concur with everyone else; like a disused abacus, I have nothing to add.
The lion cub and the llano were BIFD for me, so thanks for the parsing on those.
I’m always glad to see unusual words that I’d half-forgotten, such as NUGATORY, SLATTERNS, LLANO, and AVIFAUNA. It’s nice to be reminded of the nether reaches of one’s vocabulary. The cluing here was pretty uniformly clever but fair. The puzzle was decidedly on the difficult end, but I finished it all.
Thanks to Puck and manehi. I was slowed down by the second TEAT (could this be correct?) but then enjoyed the theme. I needed help parsing LION CUB and especially AVIFAUNA (“faun” as “lusty” eluded me). Lots of f[a]un.
Hi John H @16 [I’ve been out.]
I’m so sorry – that was just before I found 15² and I only used to do the Guardian puzzle then. [Curiouser and curiouser – what is it with you guys?]
Thanks Puck and manehi. I enjoyed this despite completely missing the number of anteaters.
Unfortunately 1 and 5dn reminded me of the “grim diet” we Gooners were served up last night (Arsenal formed part of a Qaos clue on Saturday too – not giving anything away as it was part of the wordplay).
Good puzzle. Random, though, in a Puckish kind of way. I’m going out to our regular Wednesday village quiz in a bit and they always ask me how I got on with my crossword today. ‘Good, thanks – it had an anteater theme.’ My reputation around these parts is already sufficiently left-field, thank you.
As usual, I missed the Ninas. I couldn’t get 3d, so getting the theme might have been helpful, but even seeing the T there I don’t think I’d have believed there was a duplicate answer(and I don’t like the duplication now I’ve seen it). I needed a bit of online help to get AVIFAUNA.
Favourites were VERTEBRAE and LION CUB, which I did eventually get but only after I spent a long time trying to find an answer with COB (for the same reason as MickinEly @8).
Thanks to Puck and manehi.
is it because anteaters have two pairs of teats?
No doubt this was ingenious and my dislike of it is a personal failing -I didn’t spot the Ninas- but I didn’t enjoy this one bit. I’m with Hedgehoggy about the TEATs.
Tomorrow is another day.
Thanks puck a lovely solve after a lovely day out celebrating another year. Didn’t see all the anteaters thanks to those with more patience 🙂
I saw the top and bottom ANTEATERs but not the rest.
Oddly, I managed to complete the puzzle without noticing that there was a duplicate answer. I must have solved the two TEAT clues far enough apart in time that I’d forgotten about the first by the time I got the second.
In general, having a duplicated answer would seem inelegant, but in making this ingenious construction possible, all is forgiven, as far as I’m concerned.
A bit of a struggle for me, and there was such a lot of Pauline rudeness that I almost convinced myself (I had a couple of crossers) that LION CUB should be BOOB JOB (“Some Mother’s Pride?”)!! Oh dear. Didn’t spot the ninas of course. Many thanks to Puck and manehi.
Didn’t see the nina. (I suppose it makes the chore of filling in an empty grid less tedious for the setter but why it is of interest to the solver defeats me. Seen one nina seen ’em all)
Didn’t like the two teats! 😉
It all felt a bit contrived and now I see why. Too much effort expended on squeezing in the echidnas perhaps
But obviously our esteemed editor thought it all tickety-boo 😉
Thanks to manehi and Puck
This was ridiculously clever!!! I completed the whole puzzle and *never noticed* the theme! Sad.
Thanks manehi and Puck.
Much to like here. Proud to have parsed LION CUB correctly.
Missed the Nina.
Doh!
Maybe Puck just wants to make AARDVARK out of the puzzle?