A pleasant challenge from Wanderer this Friday. Clean cluing meant a steady solve, and also one new word that I learnt today.
There is a nina (or two!?) running on the sides with HANNIBAL on the left and ELEPHANT on the right, perhaps referring to Hannibal’s Elephant army that the Carthaginian general somehow managed to cross the Alps with. As a subtle touch, HANNIBAL also ends with the beginning of LECTOR, a a reference to HANNIBAL LECT(E)R from the movie ‘ The Silence of the Lambs’.
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | HIERATIC | Relating to priests saying “Rent Room At The Top” (8) |
| sounds like HIRE (rent) ATTIC (room at the top) | ||
| 6 | VISAGE | Face rival without backchat (6) |
| VIE (rival) outside SAG (chat = GAS, backchat indicates reverse) | ||
| 9 | ALLURE | Note about bait used in seduction (6) |
| AL (note = LA, reversed) LURE (bait) | ||
| 10 | PLAY BALL | Co-operate with small change to set dance (4,4) |
| P (small change) LAY (set) BALL (dance) | ||
| 11 | NUTHATCHES | Greek character, tenor, breeds birds (10) |
| NU (greek character) T (tenor) HATCHES (breeds) – didnt know this one. | ||
| 12 | EDGE | Side United generally give a hiding to? (4) |
| hidden in “..unitED GEnerally..” – Clever clue !!! | ||
| 13 | NONFAT | Sort of milk got from working farm, starting a short time after noon (6) |
| [ ON (working) F (Farm, starting) A T (short Time) ] after N (noon) | ||
| 15 | PORK CHOP | Father eats surprisingly rock hard bit of meat (4,4) |
| POP (father) containing [ ROCK H* (hard)] | ||
| 18 | IRONWORK | Press “play’” perhaps, for heavy metal piece? (8) |
| IRON (press) WORK (play) | ||
| 20 | LENGTH | Duration of lunch a guest regularly cooked (6) |
| anagram (~cooked) of regular characters of “..LuNcH a GuEsT..” | ||
| 21 | BUMP | Bottom pincher, primarily a jerk (4) |
| BUM (bottom) P (Pincher, primarily) | ||
| 23 | CANDELABRA | Settings for light, balanced output by artist (10) |
| BALANCED* followed by RA (artist) | ||
| 25 | ACTINIUM | Radioactive element in core of reactor – in minutia, fancifully (8) |
| C (core of reaCtor) in MINUTIA* | ||
| 26 | MADMAN | Daughter tucked into French mum’s fruitcake (6) |
| D (daughter) into MAMAN (french for mum) | ||
| 27 | LECTOR | Reader “requires some intellect” (Orwell) (6) |
| hidden in “..intelLECT (ORwell)”. | ||
| 28 | NEPOTIST | One undeservedly showing preference for PAL, say, in set-top arrangement (8) |
| IN SET TOP* | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ILL HUMOUR | Sick jokes? (3,6) |
| &lit; ILL (sick) HUMOUR (jokes) | ||
| 3 | ROUGH | Severe unlimited water shortage (5) |
| dROUGHt (water shortage, without limits i.e. without end characters) | ||
| 4 | TWENTY TWO | Score Tottenham’s first, with header over number of players on both sides (6-3) |
| TWENTY (score) T (Tottenham’s first) W (with) O (over) | ||
| 5 | COP SHOP | Hard work follows arrests in police station (3,4) |
| [ H (hard) OP (work) ] after COPS (arrests) | ||
| 6 | VIALS | A lager originally found in six small bottles (5) |
| [ A L (Lager, originally)] in [VI (six) S (small) ] | ||
| 7 | SUBDEACON | Clergyman foully abused by prisoner (9) |
| ABUSED* followed by CON (prisoner) | ||
| 8 | GULAG | Joke about uniform left in prison (5) |
| GAG (joke) about [ U (uniform) L (left) ] | ||
| 14 | FINE PRINT | Important details are often concealed in this beautiful picture (4,5) |
| cryptic clue [ beautiful ~ fine, picture ~ print ] | ||
| 16 | RELIEF MAP | Help politician without a plan in relation to the country’s ups and downs? (6,3) |
| RELIEF (help) ] MP (politician) outside A ] | ||
| 17 | OUTBREAKS | Occurrences of disease beginning in South Korea, but spreading (9) |
| S (south) KOREA BUT* | ||
| 19 | KINSMAN | Relative from Minsk with a foreign name (7) |
| MINSK* followed by A N (name) – “foreign” is the anagrind, but the ‘A’ is in place even with just MINSK as anagram fodder. | ||
| 22 | UNCLE | Going round Sri Lanka with a foreign relative (5) |
| UNE (french for one) going round CL (Ceylon, Sri Lanka in the past) – I am not too sure about this, just my best shot. | ||
| 23 | CRIER | Public announcer given credit by current queen (5) |
| CR (credit) I (current) ER (queen) | ||
| 24 | AUDIT | Car tyre’s first inspection (5) |
| AUDI (car) T (Tyre’s first) | ||
*anagram
An enjoyable puzzle with some really nice surfaces. Too many good clues to list, but I liked 16d particularly. Didn’t spot the Nina but, as usual, didn’t think to look for one!
Thank you Wanderer & Turbolegs.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs.
CL at 22dn is the international car registration for Sri Lanka apparently. I assume that this predates the country’s change of name from Ceylon.
HIERATIC – relating to priests – was new to me but clearly clued.
Interesting combination of alternating letters and an anagram at 20ac. I don’t recall seeing that device before.
Missed the Nina but usually forget to look.
Thanks again.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
A bit of a challenge as is usual with this setter, where I got all of it except for MADMAN in the first sitting. Wasn’t aware of the less formal MAMAN and was completely thrown off the fruit cake track!
Missed the nina down the sides – nothing too unusual with that though !
Lost count how many times that AUDI has featured in puzzles over the past few months.
New terms were HIERETIC and ACTINIUM.