As one always gets from Quixote, an utterly satisfactory, fairly easy but finally tricky, challenge. I went steadily and smoothly through this and then took a long time to finish it off with HABILIMENT, VICE and STELAE my last ones in.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | ||
| 6 | YETI |
To this point one is only an imaginary beast? (4)
yet 1 |
| 7 | CUSTARD PIE |
Drunk is captured in something of a pantomime act (7,3)
(is captured)* |
| 10 | CAPSULE |
Finally you may get left in space flying in this? (7)
({yo}u l) in (space)*, &littish |
| 11 | LISTEN |
Learner will soon be leaving primary school to pay attention (6)
If L is ten, then L is nearly eleven, the age at which L will leave primary school |
| 12 | ANNE |
Woman setting about some men nastily (4)
Hidden reversed in mEN NAstily — ‘some’ the hidden indicator, ‘setting about’ the reversal indicator |
| 13 | FLASHLIGHT |
Switch in plane trip to give source of illumination (10)
f(lash)light |
| 16 | INBRED |
Home food, it’s said, is natural (6)
in “bread” |
| 18 | ZAGREB |
City engineers in South Africa and Britain (6)
RE in (ZA [Zuid-Afrika] GB) |
| 20 | DEPARTMENT |
Ardent temp working in part of the firm (10)
(Ardent temp)* |
| 21 | SOLI |
Pieces for one not quite secure? (4)
soli{d} — I wasn’t quite sure what the definition was — at first I thought it was ‘Pieces’ and soli was the plural of sol, the monetary unit of Peru or the old coin, but I now see that soli isn’t the plural; soli is the plural of solo, a piece for one. I had wondered why Quixote said ‘for one’. |
| 22 | HERNIA |
Hearing not good? It’s awful — a medical condition (6)
(Hearing – g)* |
| 25 | ATHEISM |
Unbelief is conveyed in article by those people (7)
a the(is)m |
| 26 | TICKETY-BOO |
Permit unknown character to show disapproval? Fine! (7-3)
ticket y boo |
| 27 | CANE |
Stick designation of drug on container (4)
can E — I think by designation Quixote simply means ‘name for’ rather than designation as in A-list etc |
| Down | ||
| 1 | MERCANTILE |
Commercial centre with mail being sent out (10)
(centre mail)* |
| 2 | YIPPEE |
You must restrain little kid, not the first or last to give shout of excitement (6)
{n}ippe{r} in ye |
| 3 | SCRUFFIEST |
Most worn-out stuff Eric’s chucked (10)
(stuff Eric)* |
| 4 | EARL |
Noble king who went mad, with head sinking down maximally (4)
Lear with the head, L, moved as far as it will go downwards |
| 5 | VICE |
Wrong piece of equipment for workshop (4)
2 defs — for some reason this was my last one in and it took me ages; I resorted to lists of synonyms for wrong etc, but, goodness knows why, vice isn’t in the Chambers list for wrong — perhaps because the word is more often used for wrong generally rather than a particular wrong |
| 8 | STELAE |
Birds that are little, not grand, rising from stones (6)
(ea{g}lets)rev. — I can’t understand why ‘from’ is there: it seems to confuse the issue, since stelae are rising stones — otherwise it looks like [wordplay] from [def] but surely it shold be [def] from [wordplay] |
| 9 | DOSSIER |
Tramp sleeping rough maybe has collected one set of papers (7)
doss(1)er |
| 14 | HEART-THROB |
Superstar idol? Time to get into hard world, little fellow! (5-5)
h eart(t)h Rob |
| 15 | HABILIMENT |
Clothes receptacle that’s green inside — bit of headgear kept outside it (10)
ha(bi(lime)n)t — is hat ‘bit of headgear’? This looks like gratuitous misleading, since it could just have been ‘headgear’ and ‘bit of headgear’ suggests ‘h’ — but it took me ages to parse this, since ‘habit’ came into it, also ‘bit’, so I may well have it wrong |
| 17 | BEATNIK |
Young rebel defeated prominent LibDem but not Conservative (7)
beat Ni{C}k — referring to Nicholas Clegg, who seems to be the only Nick around the LibDems |
| 19 | BEDAUB |
Splatter item of furniture with gold and black (6)
bed au b |
| 21 | STITCH |
Good person with something irritating, a sort of pain (6)
st itch |
| 23 | EMIR |
Ruler from East on edge after revolution (4)
E (rim)rev. |
| 24 | ASTI |
Very loudly disposed of a strong drink (4)
a sti{ff} — the fact that one talks about a stiff drink is I think irrelevant, stiff and strong being the synonyms |
A curious sense of deja va as the on-line crossword is a repeat of Don’s 2nd June 70th birthday crossword. There must be a gremlin in the system somewhere or Don is following the Queen’s example of two birthdays a year!
Yes the one in the paper (as blogged above) has the 70th birthday message around the outside. I thought it must have been a mistake too when I saw the birthday theme.
Well no doubt I did this one in June but there was no sense of deja vu I’m afraid. All apparently quite new.
I did see MYSEV along the top but assumed that the first four letters were a mere coincidence and didn’t continue with it because Quixote doesn’t usually do Ninas.
John, you seem to have an extra a in your parsing of 15d and you obviously had not spotted the Nina, if Vice was your LOI.
An enjoyable puzzle, which I too did not remember doing previously.
Thanks to both.
Congratulations, Don. I recently found your Crossword Guide in a charity shop, and it was well worth the 60p, so thank you for helping me to solve more speedily, as I did this time. Thanks, too, John, as always a clear and sraightforward blog.
By Jove, you’re right, Kairos! But, like John I had completely forgotten doing this in June – I must have done as I commented on the blog. No wonder I never remember the 2010 puzzles being recycled in the i.
And I too struggled for ages with 5dn. I was convinced that the final E was the ‘piece of equipment’ and the definition therefore ‘workshop’. ‘Sin’ for ‘wrong’ would have given ‘sine’ but whilst a workshop may possess a sine bar, ‘sine’ cannot be a workshop. A facepalm moment when I finally twigged it was VICE. 22ac was nicely misleading; the surface suggested the answer might be ‘otitis’ till crossing letters proved otherwise.
Thanks John and (for the 2nd time) Quixote.
I am abroad without my editor’s emai
L address so have no idea how this has happened!
But maybe I should worry less about recycling clues!
Thanks one and all
I guess it is because of a mistake in the system.
Such a thing would hardly have happened in hot metal press days.
In these computer days each item, each image is given an ID that usually has a multi-digit number.
While recalling that if there is a typo in the number, the wrong item would come and sit in the text box.
The editorial staff must have failed to.check.
Was the solution grid of the previous puzzle OK? I guess so as they must have used the correct string for that.
We setters would hesitate to recycle clues. Would we not at least effect a little change here and there? The English language with its plethora of synonyms is so amenable!
I am amazed that most solvers don’t suspect even when an entire puzzle is repeated.
Once, by way of an experiment I took a puzzle of mine that had been first used some five years earlier and – no, I didn’t offer the same puzzle – I changed some five lights in slots that allowed alternative entries and wrote clues for just those even as I used a previously published puzzle in the same publication.
The day’s blog on the puzzle had a Comment that cited the puzzle’s previous appearance. Solvers are too clever!
The paper’s entire archives are available for free and Google ‘mama’ (Tamil for uncle) is there to help you.
I have the foggiest notion of what in the non-thematic puzzle triggered that solver’s suspicion.
I was VERY disappointed – and not a little angry. I forked out £1.60 for the paper (which I only bought for the crossword) and as soon as I had TICKETY BOO (early – I entered the LHS across clues first) I realised it was a repeat.
I was, and feel, singularly RIPPED OFF.
Thanks Rullytully@4, blog corrected