A new (to me, at least) setter this week – were you driven ’round the bend’ by Bend?…
I have to admit I am a prize-puzzle-tart, and don’t solve during the week, but I haven’t seen Bend before, and a quick search of the 15×15 archive didn’t throw up anything in the last year or so. In which case, welcome to Bend, if you are new…and well done for getting a prize puzzle as your first gig – unless you are one of those occasional celebrity ‘supergroups’ of existing setters?!…
After a brisk start I seemed to have most of the NE and SW quadrants reasonably well filled…and then ground to a bit of a halt. Some slightly more intense brainwork and head scratching ensued, over a couple of visits, before I could get this properly cracked.
Last couple in were ANCIENT (I hadn’t encountered the second meaning of ancient as just a flag) and STRANGE (needed to Wiki-oogle the relationship between quarks and hadrons).
I had solved on a copy of the puzzle, and it was only on transcribing to the newspaper original, for prize entry submission, that I spotted a possible Nina – the words DIAGONAL MAPPING down the NW-SE diagonal. My 30-year-old Maths degree included a bit of game theory by John von NEUMANN, and I had already noticed EUCLID as another mathematician. These items, combined with the ‘FROM ALL ANGLES’ down the middle, and the XY axes of XYLEM – and those STRANGE quarks – all came together to give this a bit of a mathematical/’nerdy’ feel – does ‘Bend’ have a bit of a mathematical/science bent?!…
Overall an enjoyable puzzle with some nice clueing – I enjoyed the BEANSTALK as an ‘impulse buy’ for Jack, ONAN’s ‘separation anxiety’, and the DREADING of Reading! (Other Berkshire towns may also be as dreadful!)
A bit more work (for me) than the average Saturday prize, and a bit of a Nina as a bonus. I’m sure commenters below may have seen more hidden stuff, or may have more background information…are CLARK and BENNETT also mathematicians?…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | DAYSTAR | Sun always gets riotous darts coverage (7) | Sun / D_STAR (anag, i.e. ridiculous, of DARTS) around AY (always) |
|
| 5A | VERBOSE | Wordy stanza Diddley penned? (7) | Wordy / VER_SE (stanza) around (penning) BO (Bo Diddley, R&B musician) |
|
| 10A | ONAN | Some separation anxiety for Judah’s second son (4) | Judah’s second son / hidden word in ‘separatiON ANxiety’ |
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| 11A | CARICATURE | Parody scripture in accurate representation? (10) | Parody / CA_CATURE (anag, i.e. re-presentation, of ACCURATE) around RI (Religious Instruction, scripture) |
|
| 12A | CRUSOE | One stranded sailors thus hailed (6) | One stranded / homophone (i.e. hailed) – CRUSOE sounds like CREW (sailors) + SO (thus) |
|
| 13A | MAIN LINE | Route zero comes west through American state (4,4) | Route / MAIN_E (American State) around LIN (NIL, or zero, backwards, or ‘coming west’) |
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| 14A | BEANSTALK | Chaps when old discuss Jack’s impulse buy (9) | Jack’s impulse buy / BEANS (affectionate, ‘old beans’ meaning ‘old chaps’) + TALK (discuss) |
|
| 16A | XYLEM | Axes chopped up elm’s woody tissue (5) | woody tissue / X + Y (axes, of a graph) + LEM (anag, i.e. chopped up, of ELM) |
|
| 17A | CLARK | Songbird at maximum speed in Kent? (5) | Kent? (Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego) / C (speed of light, i.e. maximum theoretical speed possible…discuss?!) + LARK (songbird) |
|
| 19A | HAMMERING | Third-rate actor and writer encompass Mjölnir’s work (9) | Mjolnir’s (Norse god Thor’s hammer’s) work / HAM (third-rate actor) + ME (the writer) + RING (encompass) |
|
| 23A | DREADING | Apprehensive about many a Berkshire town (8) | Apprehensive / D (500, or many, in Roman numerals) + READING (a Berkshire town) |
|
| 24A | SPUTUM | Something expressed or deposited in some amount (6) | Something expressed / S_UM (some amount) around PUT (deposited) |
|
| 26A | OMNIPOTENT | God’s ‘power in unbridled emotion’ [NT] (10) | God / OMNI_OTENT (anag, i.e. unbridled, of EMOTION + NT) around P (power) |
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| 27A | SIAN | Devil’s daughter inspires a Welsh name (4) | Welsh name / SI_N (?the devil’s daughter?) around (inspiring) A |
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| 28A | BENNETT | Catcher stops crooked playwright (7) | playwright (Alan) / BEN_T (crooked) around (stopped by) NET (catcher) |
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| 29A | UNITING | Uranium, nickel and tin good, becoming one (7) | becoming one / U (Uranium) + NI (Nickel) + TIN + G (good) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | AINTREE | Here they run from arboreal apes’ leader? (7) | Here they (i.e. horses) run / A (first letter, or leader, of Apes) + IN TREE (arboreal) |
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| 3D | SONGS | Arias from G&S supporting one from Trinity (5) | Arias / SON (one third of the Holy Trinity) + GS (G&S) |
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| 4D | ANCIENT | Greek, Roman or Hebrew flag (7) | double defn. / A Greek, Roman or Hebrew could be an Ancient (in the historical sense); and an ANCIENT can also be a flag (obsolete, or ancient!, definition) |
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| 6D | EUCLID | Suggestion upset top mathematician (6) | mathematician / EUC (CUE, or suggestion, upset) + LID (top) |
|
| 7D | BIT PLAYER | Blair type to play Hamlet? Hardly (3,6) | Hamlet? Hardly (as Hamlet is a starring role) / anag, i.e. to play, of BLAIR TYPE |
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| 8D | STRANGE | Weird as quarks in certain hadrons (7) | Weird / strange quarks are found in hadrons |
|
| 9D | FROM ALL ANGLES | Bad for everyone in butcher’s whichever way we look (4,3,6) | whichever way we look / FRO (anag, i.e. bad, of FOR) + M_ANGLES (butchers) around ALL (everyone) |
|
| 15D | NARRATION | Managed to get raise with share account (9) | account / NAR (RAN, or managed, raised) + RATION (share) |
|
| 18D | LARAMIE | Wyoming place keeps top grade butter in lounge (7) | Wyoming place / L_IE (lounge, around), around A (top grade) + RAM (male sheep, or ‘butter’) |
|
| 20D | MASH-TUN | Mum on floor lags hot brewing vessel (4-3) | brewing vessel / MA (Mum) + S_TUN (floor, knock down) around (lagging) H (hot) |
|
| 21D | NEUMANN | EU bloke in news is architect (7) | architect / N_N (new, twice, so ‘new’s), around EU + MAN (chap) |
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| 22D | HIT OUT | Make verbal attack greeting racecourse spy (3,3) | make verbal attack / HI (greeting) + TOUT (racecourse spy) |
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| 25D | UPSET | Having advantage over storm god produces surprise result (5) | surprise result / UP (having advantage) + SET (or Seth, Egyptian storm god) |
|
Because of time constraints during the week I don’t drop into the site much any more, but I had to make an exception today to congratulate Bend on a superb puzzle. I found it very inventive and a lot of fun once the pennies started to drop. ANCIENT was my LOI after BEANSTALK. I thought the misdirection at 17ac where I had initially been fooled into looking for the more usual Kent=SE as part of the wordplay was excellent.
Also, well done to mc-r for spotting the nina, because it had passed me by completely.
An excellent debut from Bend (does he/she have other aliases elsewhere?) I certainly had to bend (groan!) my mind to solving it. Didn’t spot the nina, though; not sure if it would have helped, anyway. The NE corner held me up at the end, particularly 8dn and 13ac till a wordfinder suggested STRANGE and I remembered that quarks have strangeness, even then it took me a while to realise that the definition in 13ac was at the beginning, not the end.
Liked the mathematical/scientific references.
Thanks, Bend and mc_rapper67
Superb stuff, and very well-written.
The surfaces are all strong, a good idea in each clue, and nice to see some mathematics in a puzzle too.
Thanks Bend and mc_rapper67 for the entertainment.
One final thought, on the Nina. In heraldry, of which I know a little, a ‘bend’ is a diagonal. Is that what’s ‘mapped’ here?
The theme and Nina were way beyond me and a few of the answers went unparsed, eg STRANGE, but I still enjoyed this within the limits of my understanding. In a challenging puzzle, LOI’s were ANCIENT and BEANSTALK, the latter in particular I thought being an excellent and original clue.
Thanks and welcome to the ? new setter Bend, and thanks and well done to mc_rapper67 for spotting the theme and Nina and for such an excellent blog.
I found this a mixed bag. Zoomed through half the clues, then almost ground to a total halt and only limped over the finish line halfway through the week.
I thought there were a few questionable clues: STRANGE seemed too obvious, or at least uncryptic; LARAMIE too obscure (or is it famous for something that I haven’t heard of); hadn’t come across devil’s daughter meaning sin in 27A and couldn’t find any reference to it, though it is surely how the clue is intended; and wasn’t Jack’s impulse buy beans rather than a beanstalk?
On the other hand, there were some superb clues – CLARK at 17A, as mentioned by Andy B, and AINTREE at 2D, which I was stuck on for a looong time before realisation finally dawned, were two particular favourites.
On balance a welcome challenge, so thanks to Bend – and I must remember to look for Ninas.
Sin, as the Devil’s daughter, comes from Paradise Lost. Thanks mc_rapper67 for explaining STRANGE, and thanks to Bend for an entertaining challenge.
Ah, thank you jmac – she sounds a real charmer.
The Man from Laramie is a 1955 film starring James Stewart. I don’t think Laramie has any other particular claim to fame.
Thanks MCR for his lovely blog, and to all here.
I thought it might be fun to have some maths refs here and there with this, to fit alongside the Nina idea which, obviously, had to go in first. The ‘angles’ one was a happy accident, but irresistible of course. Euclid was unproblematic, whilst John von Neumann – and only because he is a von – had to give way to Balthasar, the architect. ‘Bend’ is indeed a reference to heraldry, so well done for spotting that somewhat arcane device.
Very many thanks, I’m really glad you enjoyed this one.
Echo all congratulations above, splendidly entertaining and in places challenging puzzle. Nina passed me by. Last one in BEANSTALK.
There was also a long-running TV series called Laramie, 124 episodes running on television from 1959-62.
Many thanks to Bend and mc_rapper 67.