Serpent is a new setter to me, certainly as far as blogging is concerned, and a quick search of this site shows a handful of Indy cryptics, plus an Inquisitor and an EV…most of them this year…so a bit of a new-ish kid on the block, but with a fairly varied range? Most of those cryptics turned out to have a theme/Nina…what does this one have in store?…
…well, a bit of hard graft from your correspondent – after a steady start to get to about half way, I seized up like a long-distance runner hitting the wall, and had to knuckle down to grind my way to the finish…no Mo Farah-style kick at the end either, more like Derek Redmond being carried to the line by his Dad, or that Olympic marathon runner being carried almost drunkenly to the finish!
This was a fairly mixed bag, from my solving experience – clues like 6D SACKS, 6A SHADE, 26D CHUM and 22D THETA were pretty much write-ins…bit of a sprint start – but there were some hurdles in there too…devious stuff such as an ‘indirect Spoonerism’ – maybe referring to the Rev as an ‘Oxford historian’ is a standard device, but I hadn’t tripped across it before. 25A and 27A were amongst the last to fall – clever linkage on ‘gravy train’, and a DOH moment each when I worked them out.
Two words needed looking up – KEHUA and DUPPY, although both had to be correct from the wordplay – and the LOI was SPIRIT as, even after looking up those two and having SHADE, UMBRA and SHADOW, I didn’t spot the Nina itself, and hence the parsing of SPIRIT, until I typed the grid out for the blog and realised we have ‘GHOST THEME’ across the top and bottom rows!…
Along with KEHUA and DUPPY, GRACKLE was new to me…and just a slight quibble with OSIER being the ‘content’ of a basket?
All good fun, and the Serpent Nina run continues – looking forward to more mental jousting in the future!…
Correction to 23D as per comments below – INURE, not ENURE – but life is too short to go to the effort of fixing the animated grid!…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 6A | SHADE | Colour that woman goes around Bill (5) | colour / SH_E (that woman) around AD (advert, bill, poster) |
|
| 7A | SHORT-HAUL | Meagre spoils that won’t get you very far (5-4) | that (this mode of travel) won’t get you very far / SHORT (meagre) + HAUL (spoils) |
|
| 10A | CONFLUENT | Articulate argument against leading banker meeting another (9) | banker (river) meeting another / CON (argument against) before (leading) FLUENT (articulate) |
|
| 11A | DUPPY | West Indian bogeyman buttoned up pyjama trousers (5) | West Indian bogeyman (ghost) / hidden word, i.e. trousered by, in ‘buttoneD UP PYjamas’ |
|
| 12A | SHADOW | Follow programme about modern times (6) | follow / SH_OW (programme) around AD (Anno Domini, modern times) |
|
| 14A | MARGINAL | Unimportant constituency in The Borders (8) | triple definition? / triple definition – MARGINAL can mean unimportant; an electoral constituency; or ‘in the borders’ |
|
| 16A | GO DUTCH | Split the cost of work with mate (2,5) | split the cost of / GO (work) + DUTCH (mate, wife, from rhyming slang: ‘Duchess of Fife’ = wife!) |
|
| 17A | DOORWAY | Opening 24 hours of hostilities as described by Oxford historian? (7) | opening / Spoonerism – The Rev Spooner (Oxford historian) might say DOORWAY as WAR DAY – 24 hours of hostilities! |
|
| 19A | AMATEURS | Mature actors heartlessly teased hams (8) | hams / anag, i.e. teased, of MATURE + AS (ActorS, heartlessly) |
|
| 21A | SPIRIT | Vitality seen in the most elevated of characters here (6) | vitality / the ‘most elevated’ characters ‘here’, i.e. in this puzzle, spell out GHOST, or spirit, which can also mean vitality |
|
| 24A | KEHUA | Seabird’s return conveys what unearthly vision to Wellington? (5) | unearthly vision in Wellington (Maori ghosts/spirits) / K_UA (AUK, seabird, returned) around (conveying) EH (what? Questioning interjection) |
|
| 25A | SINE CURVE | Wave off five boarding gravy train (4,5) | (graphical/mathematical) wave / SINECUR_E (gravy train, guaranteed job) around (boarded by) V (five, Roman numeral) |
|
| 27A | EASY CHAIR | Place to park rear end of university gravy train? (4,5) | place to park (one’s) rear end / following on from previous clue – a guaranteed job at a university might be an easy ‘chair’…? |
|
| 28A | UMBRA | 12 like being upset and avoiding offence (5) | 12 (12A – shadow) / UMBRA(GE) – offence, avoiding GE, e.g., or ‘like’, returned) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | GAINSAID | Denied assistance to raise profits (8) | denied / GAINS (profits) on (‘raised’ by) AID (assistance) |
|
| 2D | HEEL | List that man will read out (4) | list (lean over) / homophone – HEEL, to list, or lean, sounds like HE’LL (that man will) |
|
| 3D | OSIER | Contents of basket perhaps cut overhead for stocking shop (5) | contents of basket, perhaps / (H)OSIER (stocking shop, with top letter, ‘overhead’, cut). Technically speaking an osier (twig used in basket weaving) is a consituent part of a basket, rather than the content?… |
|
| 4D | STUDY GROUP | Learners collectively set watch beforehand (5,5) | learners, collectively / STUDY (watch) + GROUP (set) |
|
| 5D | TARPON | Lake is home to river fish (6) | fish / TAR_N (lake) around (home to) PO (Italian river) |
|
| 6D | SACKS | Dismisses report of something in the wind (5) | dismisses / homophone – SACKS, dismisses, sounds like SAX, saxophone, something in the wind instrument family |
|
| 8D | OUTWARDS | Naked young man charges for the exit? (8) | (heading) for the exit / (Y)OUT(H) (young man, youth, ‘naked’, i.e. with outer letters removed) + WARDS (charges) |
|
| 9D | LOYALTY | Allegiance changing sides in The King’s Head? (7) | allegiance / (R)OYALTY (the king) with head (first letter) changing sides – Right to Left) |
|
| 13D | ON THE MARCH | Making United advance upset other half of Manchester (2,3,5) | making united advance / anag, i.e. upset, of OTHER + MANCH (half of Manchester) |
|
| 15D | CHARISMA | It’s found in allure and attraction initially (8) | ‘it’ – cryptic definition? / CHAR_M (allure) + A (attraction, initially) around IS (is, from contraction ‘s in the clue) |
|
| 16D | GRACKLE | American flapper with broken leg clutching stretcher (7) | American flapper (bird) / G_LE (anag, i.e. broken, of LEG) around (clutching) RACK (stretcher) |
|
| 18D | WARDROBE | Archbishop’s big attraction? Looking up players’ kit! (8) | players’ (actors’) kit / EBOR (Archbishop, of York) + DRAW (big attraction) – all reversed, or ‘looking up’ |
|
| 20D | AGHAST | Shocked by a nameless author having a heart transplant (6) | shocked / A + GH(O)(A)ST (ghost writer, nameless author, changing O for A – having a heart transplant!) |
|
| 22D | THETA | Article beginning to translate Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians (5) | letter, to the Thessalonians (i.e. Greek letter) / THE (definite article) + T (beginning to Translate) + A (second letter of pAul) |
|
| 23D | INURE | Get used to guarantee not having succeeded (5) | get used to / IN(S)URE – guarantee, without S – succeeded) |
|
| 26D | CHUM | Friend quietly abandons idiot (4) | friend / CHUM(P) – idiot, abandoned by P – piano, quiet (music) |
|
Thanks Serpent and mc_rapper67.
How lovely to get a ghost theme that does what it says on the tin!
BTW if ‘kehua’ is in the BRB, I can’t find it, so it remains written out next to the puzzle but not written in.
Anyone curious about Serpent can find him here http://www.bestforpuzzles.com/people/c.html#Jason-Crampton
Saturday’s are getting harder I reckon. The OFF in 25ac makes for a nice surface but it also put me OFF, looking for an anagram. Not sure where it fits.
Thanks to S& B
Very hard for me. Was on the point of giving up after a couple of hours of frustration but then saw WARDROBE and the rest began steadily falling into place. Spotting the Nina helped finish things off. Still, I ended up with 3 not completely parsed and another 3 new words, 2 of which were thematic. Definitely better appreciated once solved, but there were some very amusing clues including the 2 ‘…gravy train’ ones. My favourites were the ‘hidden’ def for CHARISMA and the wordplay for SPIRIT.
Thanks to Serpent and mc_rapper67
Conrad at #1 – you are right, DUPPY is in Chambers, KEHUA isn’t, so when I say ‘looked up’, I mean e-researched!
Paul at #2 – don’t think I noticed the ‘off’ in 25A – I guess it could mean ‘from’ in this context?…
And for anyone wanting another mental joust with Serpent, he has provided this week’s Inquisitor 1455 in the ‘i’ newspaper.
Yep, that’s how to do a ghost theme … bravo, Jason!
Thanks Serpent and mc_r
According to both wikipedia & the Woodland Trust, one name for the osier is basket willow, so I think 3 works, especially if you see the branches as the ‘contents’ of the tree.
Very enjoyable and quite a challenge. I had INURE at 23; is that not a plausible alternative? INSURE also means to guarantee and INURE is an alternative spelling. Pity the first letter had no crosser.
Tremendous puzzle. Lovely theme and always interesting surfaces.
Crikey, this was hard….but I don’t mind losing to Serpent; fantastic surfaces as always.
Thanks to S&B
Like London buses, you wait and wait for a Serpent and then several of them turn up at once. Nice one, even for ophiophobes.
Thanks, mc_rapper67.
What a lovely GHOST THEME – and what a lovely puzzle!
I loved the two ‘gravy train’ clues and the construction and surface of THETA, particularly.
[I had INURE at 23, too: obviously insure and ensure are alternatives but I’d never come across ENURE. Chambers gives it, as an alternative to inure, not vice versa, and Collins doesn’t give it at all.]
Many thanks, Serpent – I really enjoyed it.
Well, I got all the thematic answers and spotted the nina, but needed e-help with some of the other words, even with assistance from the nina. Who said, a week or two back, that Saturdays were getting easier?
Great stuff, all the same.
I liked the indication of a spoonerism without the giveaway of the eponymous gentleman’s name; I suppose he was a historian – after all, he allegedly said of a student that he had hissed all his mystery lectures.
Conrad @1: KEHUA is in Collins (2006).
Thanks, Serpent and mc_rapper67
Thanks for all the comments and feedback – all seems generally positive about a well-received and enjoyed puzzle…
To put an end to the ENURE/INURE mystery – I have just checked and the ‘reveal’ on the website (it isn’t a prize puzzle anymore, so this is available straight off) gives this as INURE, so apologies for my error, or rather oversight, as the I option didn’t even occur to me…
Hi mc_rapper67
It wasn’t an error or an oversight, so no apology needed: either entry was justifiable and I was simply making a comment. Thsnks again for a great blog, 😉
Synchronistically bizarrely, an article has just appeared on the graun about dozens of birds falling dead from the sky in Boston (Mass) – they are, or were, grackles…I wonder when the third appearance will be…
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 for the excellent blog. (I’m glad I’m not the only who misses ninas when solving!) And thanks to all those who commented. I’m delighted the puzzle seems to have been enjoyed by everyone, even if it was a bit on the tough side.
I’m sorry about the ambiguity in INURE/ENURE – wish I’d used SNORE now. mc_rapper67 @4 was exactly right about ‘off’ being interpreted as ‘from’, thereby providing a link between definition and wordplay. (I agree it is unusual to see ‘off’ being used in this way, but the editor was happy with my justification for its use and it obviously helps the surface reading no end.)
Hope to be back soon!
Jason
23d’s INURE/ENURE didn’t bother me that much – I had INURE, by the way.
But I cannot see why Serpent didn’t write ‘It is found in allure and attraction initially’ in 15d.
For the surface it doesn’t make any difference while it avoids the iffiness of ‘s.
I liked this puzzle, one that is 100% built on (sometimes intricate) constructions – no cd in sight.
However, I must also admit that, to me, the overall feel of the puzzles Serpent thus far produced is a bit ‘earnest’.
While everything’s absolutely fine, I miss some twinkle, some lightness of touch and also something like ‘today is 2016’.
But that’s just me and should not be taken as real criticism.
Thanks to both setter and blogger.
A bit too good for me-felt like Chris Froome having to carry his bike to the finish,As baerchen says-dont mind losing to Sepent-GREAT use of ghost theme.Must remember duppy and kehur-looking at them afterwards-should have got them but I started to skid when I had a rather unparsed Gladye instead of the neatly clued Glacken(another onme for the book.
Thanks setter and blogger.And I’ve still got three to go ion this chap’s Genius.
Thanks for the updates/background, Serpent at #16.
And all other comments – much appreciated.
copmus at #18 – I hadn’t twigged the Jack/Serpent connection, but he does seem ubiquitous at the moment – as well as this puzzle, I am currently working on yesterday’s ‘i’ Inquisitor, todays’s Sunday Telegraph EV (which is my turn to blog as well!) AND the current Grauniad Genius, as Jack. He certainly gets around, this boy…