A straightforward puzzle from Shed that gave everyone the chance to enter the prize draw this week. Thanks Shed.
| Across | ||
| 7 | CATALAN | A “thank you” in tribe’s language (7) |
| A TA (thank you) in CLAN (tribe) | ||
| 8 | BELATED | Born 14 part 1, though overdue (7) |
| B (born ) and ELATED (happy, 14 part 1) | ||
| 10 | REPAST | Beginning to snuff candle, having turned round meal (6) |
| Snuff (beginning letter of) inside (…round) TAPER (candle) reversed (turned) | ||
| 11 | ROUNDLET | Drinks hired out by circle (8) |
| ROUND (drinks) LET (hired out) | ||
| 12 | STOA | Apostasy, oddly, rejected in colonnade (4) |
| ApOsTaSy (odd letters of) reversed (rejected) | ||
| 13 | AUDIBILITY | Buy one Dali — it’s surreal — having potential to be picked up (10) |
| anagram (is surreal) of BUY I (one) DALI IT | ||
| 14 | HAPPY-CLAPPY | Evangelical dwarf, given potter’s material, keeping very quiet (5-6) |
| HAPPY (dwarf, in Snow White) with CLAY (potter’s material) containing PP (very quiet) | ||
| 19 | COUNTRYMAN | Barmy Army entering number and name of fellow citizen (10) |
| ARMY* anagram=barmy in COUNT (number) and N (name) | ||
| 22 | REEF | Arbiter securing Spain’s chain (4) |
| REF (arbiter) containing E (Espana, Spain) – a chain of rocks near the surface of the sea | ||
| 23 | UNBURDEN | Relieve outrageously rude bunny, almost (8) |
| anagram (outrageously) of RUDE BUNNy | ||
| 24 | MEASLY | Setter: one sneaky and skimpy? (6) |
| ME (the setter) A (one) and SLY (sneaky) | ||
| 25 | LOZENGE | Pill box containing philosophy (7) |
| LOGE (box, at the theatre) contains ZEN (philosophy) | ||
| 26 | FORLORN | Far from 14 part 1 choice between France, Luxembourg and Norway? (7) |
| F (France) OR L (Luxembourg) OR N (Norway) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PALETTE | Spread round permitted colour range (7) |
| PATE (spread) containing LET (pemitted) | ||
| 2 | BABA YAGA | Graduate’s tree: commander’s witch (4,4) |
| BA (graduate) has BAY (tree) and AGA (commander) | ||
| 3 | MANTRA | Tool up, receiving insect’s incantation (6) |
| ARM (tool, a weapon) reversed (up) contains ANT (insect) | ||
| 4 | PENUMBRA | Insensitive, entering pear-shaped partial shadow (8) |
| NUMB (insensetive) inside PEAR* anagram=shaped | ||
| 5 | VANDAL | Wrecker of vehicle boy overturned (6) |
| VAN (vehicle) and LAD (boy) reversed | ||
| 6 | SEVENTY | Happening to interrupt Shirley’s heartless number (7) |
| EVENT (happening) inside ShirleY (heartless, no middle letters) | ||
| 9 | PREDICAMENT | Quandary generated by last word in forecast (11) |
| AMEN (last word) in PREDICT (forecast) | ||
| 15 | PARADIGM | Prototype map with a grid redesigned (8) |
| anagram (redesigned) of MAP with A GRID | ||
| 16 | PORTABLE | Lightweight boxer’s last to enter, fit for consumption (8) |
| boxeR (last letter of) inside POTABLE (fit for consumption) | ||
| 17 | CORNCOB | Cowboy’s head, squashed by bucking bronco, reveals inside of ear (7) |
| Cowboy (head, first letter of) inside (squashed by) BRONCO* anagram=bucking | ||
| 18 | DECLARE | Assert period was first to keep 100 up (7) |
| ERA (period) LED (was first) contains C (100) all reversed (up) | ||
| 20 | NAUSEA | Sodium securing a purpose — disgust? (6) |
| NA (sodium, chem symbol) contains A USE (purpose) | ||
| 21 | NIMROD | Hunter to beat troops up, on reflection (6) |
| DO RM IN (do Royal Marines in, beat up troops) reversed (on reflection) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Thanks PeeDee. I agree, pretty straightforward but still enjoyable. I had to look up BABA YAGA and for some reason I struggled to explain 21d , my LOI.
Thanks to Shed and PeeDee. I too did not know BABA YAGA and had trouble parsing NIMROD, and HAPPY-CLAPPY was new to me. In the blog 24a should be SLY not SHY. Not as difficult as some prizes but lots of fun.
Thanks Shed and PeeDee
I knew BABA YAGA (and her hut on chicken legs) from Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
I knew Baba Yaga from Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Pictures at an Exhibition!
My experience with 21d mirrored that of BigglesA@1 and ACD@2; did not parse it but just put in NIMROD as it fitted the crossers and it sounded like a word I knew (Google today tells me Nimrod was a mighty hunter in the Hebrew Scriptures).
BABA YAGA 2d was familiar to me from ELO as well, Tim Phillips@4.
Favourites were 13a AUDIBILITY where I enjoyed the anagram, 14a HAPPY CLAPPY for the echo words, and 25a LOZENGE for the philosophy.
Thanks to Shed and PeeDee.
Thank you Shed and PeeDee.
An enjoyable puzzle, BABA YAGA was familiar to me from Russian folk tales. The clue for FORLORN was my favourite.
Thanks both!! This was relatively easy as is the trend these Saturdays, but was entertaining nonetheless!! I did not know STOA but it was clear from the wordplay, which is as it should be IMHO. BABA YAGA was in the back of my mind but I needed to google it to be sure. I enjoyed HAPPY CLAPPY, for this has long been my preferred phrase for southern USA 10% religions. For those knocking the Guardian crossword these days, I think it has been a good week!!
I put in CENTURY for 18d which stopped me getting 22a and 24a.
Never heard of BABA YAGA, obviously it was going to be BA-something or MA-something, but not gettable from the wordplay alone.
Enjoyable but perhaps a little too easy for a Prize-cf Vlad earlier this
week. I remembered BABA YAGA from somewhere but it certainly wasn’t from
the awful ELP,of whom the least said the better. I liked HAPPY CLAPPY and
loved NIMROD. My LOI was FORLORN.
Thanks Shed.
Peter Aspinwall @ 9. You must be a musician of exceptional ability and talent!! ELP are not to my taste particularly, but I would be very proud to have a fraction of their musical ability: especially that of keyboard player, the late Keith Emerson!!
Cookie @ 6, I also enjoyed FORLORN, but it took me far too long to get it. I will now look out for this type of clue which seems to be appearing more regularly!!
[S Panza et al
When we had CAMEL defined as “progressive rock group” recently, I did a mental count of how many “progressive rock group” albums I possess. Pink Floyd was way out in front, but I think the only other one which I have more than one of is ELP. The first album in particualr I think is excellent of its type.]
Not much to say about the crossword! I too knew BABA YAGA from “Pictures at an exhibition” (Ravel and ELP realisations), and also from Orson Scott Card’s novel “Enchantment”. Slight question mark over “chain” = “reef”.
muffin – initially I thought the same about chain and reef, but Chambers backed it up so fair enough I think.
PeeDee @12
I did say “slight question mark”. I can picture a chain of reefs, but I would tend to think that a reef was a singular object, wheras a “chain” requires more than one (more than two, in fact).
A reef is a “chain of submerged rocks”, so my take was that reef is definition by example, a reef is an example of a chain.
I’m not so convinced of this now.
I suppose it really depends on one’s interpretation of “reef”.
No, it depends on the dictionary’s definition of ‘reef’, which is ‘chain of rocks’, as PeeDee points out. I rest my case.
Thanks all.
I only got around to this today due a busy couple of weeks, so I was relieved to find that it was less difficult than some earlier this week. I enjoyed it greatly. My only real problem was with NIMROD. It went in fairly early as I knew he was a hunter, but it was the last one I parsed.
Favourites included HAPPY-CLAPPY, FORLORN and SEVENTY.
Thanks, Shed and PeeDee.
BABA JAGA from Mussorgsky, of course, but also NIMROD from Elgar’s Enigma (A.J.Jaeger = hunter)
Thanks Shed and PeeDee
Enjoyable puzzle that was on the easy side except for BABA YAGA, which I hadn’t heard of despite having been an ELP fan in the day, and which took as long to unravel as the rest of the crossword. Ended up piecing it together from the word play when ‘commander’=AGA finally dropped.
Thought that the parsing for FORLORN was quite humorous and very clever.
Had to look up the LOGE word.