A cobweb-clearer for me
It took me a while to get going on this one, but once I had worked out the lower of the two long answers across the middle of the grid, the answers fell into place fairly quickly, although some of the parsings took a while to work out.
Some of the terminology in the puzzle is a bit vague, (“strip shouds” for example), but it was all “gettable” in the end.
Thanks, Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | NO-TRUMP | Democratic slogan for bridge contract? (2-5) |
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Double defintition. The Democrats (as well as most sane people around the world) certainly won’t want Trump to be around after November, and no-trump is a term in bridge. I know nothing about bridge, so I copied this from the Internet – In bridge, you have wild cards, too, called trump cards. However, in bridge, the trump cards are really wild because they change from hand to hand, depending on the bidding. The bidding determines whether a hand will be played with trump cards or in a notrump contract (a hand that has no trump cards). If the final bid names a trump suit, that suit is the wild suit for the hand. For example, suppose that the final bid is 4♠ — this bid determines that spades are trump (or wild) for the entire hand. |
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| 5 | TIMPANI | They’re set back in a pit, keeping tempo essentially (7) |
| <=IN A PIT keeping (te)M(po) &lit. | ||
| 9 | CHOIR | Fibre protects hard area in front of altar (5) |
| COIR (“fibre”) protects H(ard)
Coir is a fibre made from the outer hisk of coconuts. |
||
| 10 | OVERNIGHT | Completed complex thing suddenly (9) |
| OVER (“completed”) + *(thing) | ||
| 11 | ENLIGHTEN | Put in the picture about Holland, 18 bypassed Spain (9) |
| NL (“Holland”) in EIGHTE(e)N (“18” with E (“Spain”) bypassed)
Not satisfied with NL for Holland, as technically speaking, Holland is part of the Netherlands, although Holland is often used loosely to mean all of the Netherlands. There was no reason why Redshank couldn’t have used Netherlands in the clue. |
||
| 12 | FORUM | Build over university assembly (5) |
| FORM (“build”) over U(niversity) | ||
| 13 | SPECTATOR SPORT | Right magazine’s left? Many watch it (9,5) |
| SPECTATOR (“Right magazine”) + PORT (“left”) | ||
| 18 | UNPROFESSIONAL | Disreputable state splits coalition almost completely (14) |
| PROFESS (“state”) splits UNION (“coalition”) + AL(l) (“almost completely”) | ||
| 20 | OASIS | Less ignorant organisations arranged refreshing place (5) |
| *(organisations – ignorant) | ||
| 22 | NORMALISE | Return to typical state, African one Norwegian seized (9) |
| MALI (“African one”) seized by NORSE (“Norwegian”) | ||
| 24 | IN WRITING | At home with gang, eating it on paper (2,7) |
| IN (“at home”) + W(ith) + RING (“gang”) eating IT | ||
| 25 | PIQUE | F1 driver finishes early, creating resentment (5) |
| (Nelson) PIQUE(t), who won the F1 championship three times between 1981 and 1987. | ||
| 26 | LARCENY | Crime nearly solved after drug seized (7) |
| *(nearly) with C(ocaine) seized | ||
| 27 | NUNNERY | Sprinter losing lead in city’s superior quarters? (7) |
| (r)UNNER in N.Y.
A mother superior would be quartered in a nunnery. |
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| Down | ||
| 1 | NUCLEI | Clue in novel’s central parts (6) |
| *(clue in) | ||
| 2 | TOODLE-PIP | See you also left record in depression (6-3) |
| TOO (“also”) + L EP (“left record”) in DIP (“depression”) | ||
| 3 | UNRIG | Strip shrouds and ruin moves by first of galleons (5) |
| *(ruin) + G(alleons)
My nautical knowledge isn’t up to trying to explain “strip shrouds”, but shrouds are ropes, and that’s about as much as I know. |
||
| 4 | PROSTRATE | F1 driver’s speed flat out? (9) |
| (Alain) PROST (“F1 driver”) + RATE (“speed”)
Alain Prost won the F1 championship four times between 1985 and 1993. |
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| 5 | TREEN | Wooden utensils, about 10 boxes (5) |
| RE (“about”) boxed by TEN
TREEN means “made of wood” and in at least one dictionary, this is extended to woodenware. |
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| 6 | MANIFESTO | Obvious hole in platform (9) |
| MANIFEST (“obvious”) + O (“hole”) | ||
| 7 | ANGER | City in France almost supplies incense (5) |
| ANGER(s) is a city in the North West of France. | ||
| 8 | INTIMATE | Suggest prisoner keeps it up (8) |
| INMATE (“prisoner”) keeps <=IT | ||
| 14 | CROSSFIRE | People die caught in this hybrid tree (English) (9) |
| CROSS (“hybrid”) + FIR (“tree”) + E(nglish) | ||
| 15 | OESTROGEN | It’s vital for female genes or to cuckoo (9) |
| *(genes or to) | ||
| 16 | ODALISQUE | Old earl employs squalid perverted slave (9) |
| *(squalid) in O(ld) E(arl)
Don’t remeber having seen “employed” used as a container indicator before? |
||
| 17 | TUTORIAL | Class sort out test cases (8) |
| *(out) cased by TRIAL (“test”) | ||
| 19 | CELERY | Plant’s computer systems removed from dispatch (6) |
| I.T. (“computer systems”) removed from CELERITY (“dispatch”) | ||
| 21 | SEWER | Waste taken away in this small jug (5) |
| S(mall) + EWER (“jug”) | ||
| 22 | NOISY | Top seed, say, lacks gut for making racket (5) |
| No. 1 (“top seed”) + S(a)Y | ||
| 23 | ASPEN | Type of popular non-U winter resort (5) |
| An ASPEN is a type of POPLAR (“popular” without the U) | ||
*anagram
I took a break from Paul to check if it was me or the puzzle being tough and found this a pleasant solve-then went back to Paul with a decent cup of coffee and gradually got to grips with it.
A good puzzle day all round.
Thanks, loonapick.
Well, I couldn’t take a break from the Paul puzzle, since I was blogging it and, as I had to go out quite early, I wasn’t able to finish this lovely puzzle until just now.
I loved the Democratic slogan, the city’s superior quarters and the non-U winter resort.
Re ODALISQUE: I think I have seen ’employ’ as a container indicator and I think I’m comfortable with it. it’s not a dictionary definition but its derivation is the Latin verb implicare, to enfold, which is spot on! [Talking of harems, I blogged a super clue from Redshank’s alter ego, Crucible, for SERAGLIO: Is Elgar distracted by love in rooms for wags? (8) 😉 ]
Many thanks, Redshank, for a most enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Re employing as a containment indicator, two days ago Imogen in the graun had “Veto our side employing a bitch, regularly vulgar (8)” giving BANAUSIC – BAN US containing A plus IC.
hth
Another fine Redshank puzzle in a week in which we were already given some really good crosswords (Hob, Monk (x2), Picaroon, Imogen – in, for me, that order).
This crossword took me half the time of Paul’s but it was double the fun.
[however, I did like Paul’s puzzle more than the average poster on the other side]
As someone from the Netherlands, I have no problem with ‘Holland’ for NL.
‘Holland’ and ‘the Netherlands’ are perhaps not equivalent but there is no such thing as ‘Holland being a part of the Netherlands’.
There are two separate provinces (North Holland and South Holland) but that’s about it.
One of Redshank’s trademark devices returned in 20ac, the subtraction anagram.
Yes, the subtraction itself was quite a bit longer than the final result, indeed.
13d (ASPEN) was clear, being the only possible answer, but took longer to parse.
Very original!
TREEN (5d) was also clear but a word I had to check.
Many thanks, loonapick, for the blog.
ps, I don’t think the excellent 5ac (TIMPANI) is a full-blooded &lit as “They’re” is not part of the wordplay.
Thanks loonapick and Redshank.
18ac was my last in so I had the opposite experience to you loonapick.
ODALISQUE was a new word for me but clearly clued – so another to add to my personal dictionary.
Whether 5ac is an &Lit or whatever you want to call it, I thought it brilliant and my favourite in this puzzle.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
A catch-up puzzle whilst holidaying in Malaysia and a reasonably tough assignment that split into the top and the bottom. The top filled in relatively quickly after the humorous NO TRUMP, but the bottom offered much more resistance !
Interesting to see similar tricks with the numerals in 11a and 5d as well as the use of the two F1 drivers.
Like Hamish, UNPROFESSIONAL was one of my last in along with CROSSFIRE and TUTORIAL.
A very enjoyable crossword.