It seems that Eimi wants to make a point to all us pedants who endlessly carp on about less than 50% checking: more than 57% of the answers are of this type, which is clearly of no concern to him.
Two other things struck me about this offering from Eimi: the apparently large number of full anagrams (seven I think), and what Brian Greer once referred to in his excellent crossword articles in the Times of the late 90s as something whose exact name I can’t remember, but it was typically apposite and referred to anagrams which hit you in the face and can be nothing but anagrams (‘Paint Lucy’, ‘Canopus’, ‘Dench loafs’). Which is not to say that I found it easy: as you’d expect Eimi has included various references to a world that is less well-known to me than to him, and occasionally some rather good clues (I’d have liked the RSC one if it had been printed properly).
Despite the large number of unchecked letters all over the place but especially around the outside, you’d expect something, but if there is then I can’t see it.
| Across | ||
| 7 | LITIGATOR | Tailor unfortunately leaving tag in for one in a suit (9) |
| tig in (tailor)* — it looked as if Eimi had got his letters mixed up, but I now discover that tig is a variant spelling of tag | ||
| 8 | DITTO | Do the longer form of Beth (5) |
| ‘Ditto’ is the longer version of ‘do’, and I think this refers to Beth Ditto, a singer-songwriter of whom I’d never heard until I googled Beth Ditto | ||
| 10 | BERTHA | A girl who’s out of breath (6) |
| (breath)* | ||
| 11 | PERSIAN | There’s a cat for every Welsh girl (7) |
| per [= for every] Sian | ||
| 12 | ISÈRE | River featured in Paradise Regained (5) |
| Hidden in ParadISE REgained | ||
| 14 | CAMERA-SHY | Approached spots at back of infantry, not wanting to be shot (6-3) |
| came rash {infantr}y | ||
| 16 | SCYTHER | One making sweeping cuts in the Royal Shakespeare company with impunity at last when recycling (7) |
| the RSC {impunit}y with the letters after R moved to the front [recycling] — I found this clue difficult because we are given ‘company’ and in the RSC it’s ‘Company’, so I thought there was something significant in that — I can’t see a reason for the lower-case and wonder if it’s a mistake | ||
| 18 | SEA KING | Said to be looking for a helicopter (3,4) |
| “seeking” | ||
| 20 | UNTYPICAL | Paint Lucy tripping, which is not what you’d expect (9) |
| (Paint Lucy)* | ||
| 21 | GOLEM | Animated creature producing cry of encouragement in empty gym (5) |
| olé in g{y}m | ||
| 24 | HAUNTER | Somehow unearth a frequent visitor (7) |
| (unearth)* | ||
| 25 | ODDISH | Over-cook part of meal which is sort of weird (6) |
| OD [= overdose = over-cook] dish | ||
| 27 | GLOOM | Lack of optimism partly affecting loo manufacturers (5) |
| Hidden in affectinG LOO Manufacturers | ||
| 28 | ELECTRODE | Conductor replacing final part of Carmen with opening of song from Beethoven’s Ninth (9) |
| The song in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is the Ode to Joy, so ode is the opening of this song and it replaces something. But what? The a in Electra? The ic in electric? Goodness knows. (After Googling, I suspect it’s this one. Not someone I knew, but no doubt well-known to most.) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MIME | Act out the same note twice, but differently (4) |
| mi me — mi and me are two spellings of the same note | ||
| 2 | MISTER | Man that’s useful with houseplants (6) |
| 2 defs — the second one I didn’t know, but the word demister exists and it’s easy enough to think what a mister does | ||
| 3 | PARAS | Standard antisubmarine troops (5) |
| par AS | ||
| 4 | SOUP CAN | Canopus at sea, as featured as part of a famous Andy Warhol work? (4,3) |
| (Canopus)* — this work | ||
| 5 | CITIBANK | Slyly nick a bit from financial institution (8) |
| (nick a bit)* | ||
| 6 | STONEHENGE | Monument gets rebuilt without a single layer (10) |
| (one hen) in (gets)* | ||
| 9 | BRIEFED | Brought up to date, as French cheese-lovers may be (7) |
| brie-fed — French cheese-lovers may be fed on brie | ||
| 13 | SECOND HALF | Dench loafs around in period after the interval (6,4) |
| (Dench loafs)* | ||
| 15 | GENISTA | Seating tidied up with broom (7) |
| (Seating)* — that use of ‘with’ as a link-word that I dislike, perhaps irrationally | ||
| 17 | TU YOUYOU | First woman in China to win a Nobel prize – second person in France and in GB (twice) (2,6) |
| tu (second person singular in French) you (s p s in English) you — I had never heard of Tu Youyou, but perhaps I should have done | ||
| 19 | CARROLL | Writer of song on the radio (7) |
| “carol” — ref Lewis Carroll | ||
| 22 | ORDERS | Arranges Carnivora and Coleoptera, for example (6) |
| Carnivora and Coleoptera are examples of orders (in biology, ranks between class and family) | ||
| 23 | POUCH | Bag first of Pokémon – that hurt! (5) |
| P{okémon} ouch! | ||
| 26 | SIDE | Team expressed regret audibly (4) |
| “sighed” | ||
*anagram
The world of Pokemon is something of a closed book to me, although I once worked for Citibank (and remember it when it was called First National City Bank of New York).
Quite a number of the little bludgers hidden in the grid, apparently (Google tells me).
Thanks to Eimi and John
Beth Ditto, Carmen Electra (I hadn’t heard of either of them – thanks for enlightening me) and the first Chinese woman Nobel laureate – now there’s an interesting trio. Apart from these unknown women there wasn’t too much obscure or contentious here though I didn’t pick up on the Pokemons. I also missed some of the subtlety of the SCYTHER anagram (don’t know why ‘company’ was in lower case either) and took a bit of guess with MISTER which was new to me too in that sense. I thought BRIEFED was excellent.
Thanks to John and Eimi.
Thanks Eimi and John.
Good setting to get in all the Pokes – I’ve counted 11 but there may be more – and good cluing. The unches did make for a slightly tricky solve.
I vaguely knew Carmen Electra but not Beth Ditto. I particularly enjoyed STONEHENGE and CAMERA-SHY.
16A If capitalising the initial letter of a word to make the clue trickier is permitted, why not the reverse (or is it converse?) The surface was so contrived that I didn’t really notice the lower case company, simply filled in the answer after a couple of crossers.
Know nothing and care less about Pokemon.
25A is surely just <DO (I'll do the roast) + DISH.
Thanks to Eimi and John.
Thanks John and Eimi. I totally agree with you on the subject of unchecked letters. It has been a bugbear of mine for some time. I know nothing about Pokemon so the theme passed me by.
Well, knowledge of the theme wasn’t necessary for solving, which was just as well. Now that Carmen Electra’s been mentioned I do vaguely remember hearing of her; needless to say I didn’t understand the parsing of 28ac till now. I had heard of Ms Ditto, though, but it was only as I was about to admit defeat that I suddenly remembered her and got 8ac as my LOI.
A moot point, I think about the need for ‘company’ to be capitalised (no pun intended); in some contexts lower case might be allowable. Or it could just be a typo; I know I often have to correct missing capitals in something I’ve typed simply because I didn’t hold down the shift key properly.
Overall, some very nice clues, but nothing leaps out as a CoD.
Thanks, Eimi and John
I did enjoy this eimi puzzle, and as usual came away with some knowledge that I didn’t have before. I wasn’t mad about the grid either; but it’s frankly only John and me who ever whinge about less than 50% crossing, so I think I’d just better get over myself and leave John and Bracoman on their own to fight the good fight.
Pokemon? Naah.
Fave today was CAMERA-SHY.
Thanks, both.
Well, I’d heard of both Carmen Electra and Beth Ditto and still failed to get either answer. In fact, only got about half of this
Sorry I’m late to this but on holiday for a week. I thought Pokemon was such a big news story for a while that I couldn’t let it pass without a ghost thematic – I think I’ve included all the Pokemon in the game that are proper words. To do so I needed to use a nonstandard grid. My rule is that a theme or Nina justifies less than 50 per cent checking. I hadn’t realised that I’d done so many anagrams, but perhaps I was using Vigo’s quota from Monday.