All very pleasing from Alchemi today. Some of the clues were nice and there seem to be no problems with any of them.
There are many astronomical references here. I think that’s all it is, but perhaps they link together in some clever way that I’ve not noticed. If they do I’m sure someone will tell us how.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BLACK HOLES |
Most hockey balls become very dense objects (5,5)
(hocke{y} balls)* — ‘most’ = ‘mostly’ |
| 6 | JOLT |
Write note about lecturer’s shock (4)
jo(l)t |
| 10 | RADIO |
Republican Bill Moon seen in sort of telescope (5)
R ad Io — Io is one of the moons of Jupiter |
| 11 | SATELLITE |
Excellent archer in place one is going round (9)
s(A Tell)ite — ref William Tell |
| 12 | ABNEGATE |
Deny scandal of sailor from Tyneside? (8)
AB NEgate — to add ‘gate’ to the end of something is to talk of it as being a scandal, ever since Watergate |
| 13 | CANAL |
Part of an ear found in oilcan alarming (5)
Hidden in oilCAN ALarming |
| 15 | MERCURY |
Copper intervenes amid drunken element (7)
mer(Cu)ry — merry = drunken |
| 17 | TRIES ON |
Trouble in store tests dress (5,2) (in store)*. the anagram indicated by ‘Trouble’ |
| 19 | AUNTIES |
Relatives use it and drop down in a heap (7)
(use it an{d})*, the d coming from ‘down’, which is dropped |
| 21 | PIGMENT |
Colour is of little weight while in prison (7)
p(1 gm)ent — I don’t quite get this: ‘pent’ is a verb meaning ‘shut up’, but the way the clue is written, ‘pent’ = ‘prison’ — oh yes I see, Chambers gives ‘prison’ as a poetic verb meaning ‘imprison’ so I think that’s what’s happening |
| 22 | SABRE |
Cutter put back in wicker basket (5)
Hidden reversed in wickER BASket |
| 24 | MOONWALK |
Dance performed by Alan Bean and Pete Conrad (8)
Alan Bean and Pete Conrad walked on the Moon |
| 27 | DEEP SPACE |
Limit velocity returning to Earth from out here (4,5)
(cap speed)rev. E |
| 28 | DIRGE |
Good to stop awful song (5)
dir(g)e |
| 29 | RHEA |
Man showing artist round 11 (4)
11 being SATELLITE that’s the definition (Rhea is a moon of Saturn) — R(he)A |
| 30 | ASTRONOMER |
One watching Sky on stream or off (10)
(on stream or)* — Sky being a legally misleading version of sky |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BORE |
Stood and gave birth (4)
2 defs |
| 2 | ALDEBARAN |
Academy has large study featuring rising tribal star (9)
A l de(bara)n, the bara being (Arab)rev. — Arab and tribal are adjectives |
| 3 | KRONE |
Money found in Camden or Kensington to be given back (5)
Another hidden reversed, in CamdEN OR Kensington |
| 4 | OSSUARY |
Not against a hint of salt in savoury recipe that contains bones (7)
s{alt} in (sa{v}oury)* — recipe the anagram indicator — v = against — an ossuary is a chest etc that holds skeletal remains |
| 5 | ENTREAT |
Plead with nurse to carry out doctor’s orders (7)
EN treat |
| 7 | ORION |
Gold particle hunter (5)
or ion — Orion the hunter is also a constellation |
| 8 | THE PLANETS |
Races across fashionable street with intro for short piece of music (3,7)
T(hep lane)T s{hort} — ref The Planets by Holst |
| 9 | FLICKING |
Going on and off loudly using tongue (8)
f licking |
| 14 | AMBASSADOR |
Welsh politician low on gas receives note from diplomat (10) AM bass [= low] A(do)r — AM stands for Assembly Member (I had to Google this), the Welsh equivalent of MP so far as I can see, the gas is argon and the note is do |
| 16 | UNIVERSE |
Academic poetry is everything (8)
uni verse — uni = university, which somehow = academic — perhaps it’s uni-verse, the verse that gets written at uni |
| 18 | STEEL DRUM |
Horse crossing line shown by odd instrument (5,4)
stee(l)d rum |
| 20 | SAMPANS |
Dave’s mate looks for gold boats (7) Sam pans — I don’t think Sam refers to Mrs Cameron but to these people |
| 21 | PIONEER |
One unit in a space probe (7)
p(1 one)er — per = a as in two tablets per/a day |
| 23 | BREVE |
Reverse echo misses right note (5)
({r}everb)rev. |
| 25 | WIDEN |
Extend directions for preserving fish (5)
W(ide)N |
| 26 | PEER |
One going to be equal (4)
2 defs, one of them being ‘pee-er’, one who has a pee |
I didn’t find this too difficult but couldn’t work out all the parsing. Thanks for explaining the AM in 14, the PENT for ‘prison’ in 21a and the SAM in 20 who I’d never heard of – I’m more familiar with ‘Dad’ as Dave’s mate. I also didn’t know RHEA was a satellite. Who knows, maybe there’s a moon yet to be named ’emu’ out there in a solar system somewhere? Sorry but I’ m not clever enough to identify the link between the astronomical references.
Thank you to John and Alchemi.
Thanks John and Alchemi. Enjoyed this one. Like WordPlodder, I struggled with a few of the parsings. Anyone else wonder about the definition in 9 – isn’t “going on and off” flickering (rather than FLICKING)?
A remarkably quick solve today, but then I was very keen on astronomy when younger. In the end, I needed a word search to get 25dn and there were several I couldn’t parse so thank for the explanations. At 24dn I remembered AM but usually spell the note Doh so I couldn’t see the parsing.
20dn surely does refer to Mrs Cameron. That was the obvious parsing when I got it.
Incidentally, I’m sure I learned that technically, a satellite was something that orbited a planet and the Moon was the Earth’s (natural) satellite, its name having the same root as “month”, so you can’t have moons orbiting other planets, just satellites. I think I read that in a Patrick Moore book, but nobody else seems to think this way now.
Thanks, John.
I had SamCam in mind when I wrote the clue, but it also works if you think of Sam & Dave. More than one route to the same answer, which can’t be bad.
FLICKING as “going on and off” – think switches.
I’m not aware of a connection between the various astronomical items (other than that they are astronomical), so if there is one, it’s accidental.
Well, the Indy’s got its act back together after yesterday’s aberration – credit where it’s due! And a very pleasant solve today, though I had a mental block on AMBASSADOR as I was trying to think of the name of a well-known Welsh politician rather than the term AM.
Thanks, Alchemi and John
allan c @ 5 –
I don’t understand your comment. Today’s took 5 mins; yesterday’s 10mins. Both very easy. What’s the aberration?
allan c @ 5 –
I don’t understand your comment. Today’s took 5 mins; yesterday’s Hob 10mins. Both very easy. What’s the aberration?
William F P @6/7: The aberration was with the Indy’s on-line puzzle site – which I had a rant about on Monday’s blog – not the puzzle itself. Instead of Hob’s puzzle there appeared a ridiculous 13×13 puzzle that was scarcely cryptic and took about 2 minutes to solve. Since then the correct puzzle has been posted and there’ve been no other problems.