I think this was my first Gila ‘regular’ cryptic solve, although I have come across his/her thematic/barred offerings in the Inquisitor and EV series, and my first Gila blog…
I found this a fairly steady and not too challenging solve, with one new (to me) word – 17D EPEDAPHIC – and a couple of esoteric words – 4D LATITAT and 5D TWOCCER – that I have come across for the first time in recent puzzles, so interesting to see them again so soon!
Quite a few pop references, which might have caused people problems if they weren’t familiar with those particular bands/people. For example I am not overly familiar with 11A THOM YORKE, of Radiohead, but it had to be that from the anagram and crossing letters I had, so a little Wiki-oogle put me right. Conversely, I was familiar with (Michael) STIPE of REM, at 13A, but might have struggled if I wasn’t.
A couple of minor niggles – REELECT (7) at 14A should probably have been enumerated as RE-ELECT (2-5)? And invigilators (at 1A) don’t always just ‘supervise kids’, as adults can take exams as well, but I guess a large proportion of invigilation is school/college/university exams, so we can probably give Gila that one.
(I will be being invigilated myself next Saturday, at the Times National Crossword Championships – hope to see a few fellow bloggers, solvers and setters there, and in the George on Borough High Street, as advertised elsewhere in these pages…)
Favourite clue was probably for 23A EXPAT – evoking an image of the retired Postman Pat (played by Ray Winstone, in his budgie smugglers) spending his retirement in a villa on the Costa del Sol, sipping G&Ts by the pool with Mrs Goggins (Alison Steadman?)…!
So thanks, to Gila for a pleasant solve – no themes or Ninas that I could see, apart from maybe all those pop references?…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | INVIGILATE | Ask me inside to supervise kids (10) | to supervise kids (who are sitting exams) / INVI_TE (ask) with GILA (me, the setter) inside |
|
| 6A | EMOS | A few reflective, brooding music fans (4) | brooding music fans (i.e. fans of brooding music, although the fans themselves might be brooding as well…) / EMOS = SOME, a few, reflected |
|
| 10A | SOLAR | Lead characters in sitcoms often laugh at readers of The Sun (5) | of the sun / first letters of ‘Sitcoms Often Laugh At Readers’ |
|
| 11A | THOM YORKE | Rock band’s front man took rhyme for recomposition (4,5) | rock band’s (Radiohead’s, a popular beat combo, m’lud) front man / anag, i.e. recomposition, of TOOK RHYME |
|
| 12A | APATHETIC | A way to refer to being upset without showing emotion (9) | without showing emotion / A + PATH (way) + ETIC (cite, or refer to, upset) |
|
| 13A | STIPE | Lead singer of band missing last part of tour (5) | lead singer (Michael Stipe, of REM, another popular beat combo, m’lud) / ST(R)IPE – band – missing last letter of touR |
|
| 14A | RE-ELECT | Choose another time to take part in degree lectures (7) | choose (elect, for) another time (in office) / hidden word within, i.e.to take part in – ‘degREE LECTures’ (should enumeration be hyphenated (2-5)? |
|
| 16A | RAGTIME | Music newspaper and a news magazine (7) | music (genre) / RAG (newspaper) + TIME (US news magazine) |
|
| 18A | METHANE | Gas meter almost broken by workman…almost (7) | gas / MET_E(R) (meter, almost) around (broken by) HAN(D) (workman, almost) |
|
| 21A | ARTISTE | Entertainer performing satire about Tory leader (7) | entertainer / anag, i.e. performing, of SATIRE, around T (leading letter of Tory) |
|
| 23A | EXPAT | Former postman living abroad (5) | living abroad / Children’s story character Postman Pat could be an ‘ex-Pat’ when he retires! |
|
| 24A | ENCHILADA | Spicy food – a nice dhal, perhaps (9) | spicy (Mexican) food / anag, i.e perhaps, of A NICE DHAL |
|
| 26A | GREENGAGE | Fruit is good to hold once more (9) | fruit / G (good) + RE-ENGAGE (hold once more) |
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| 27A | IRISH | Personal assistant returns with husband from Dublin perhaps (5) | from Dublin, perhaps / IRIS (Siri, the iPhone ‘voice recognition software’, or personal assistant, returned) + H (husband) |
|
| 28A | SORT | Kind person (4) | double defn. / a SORT can (informally) refer to a person; or a kind/type of something. |
|
| 29A | PHOTOGENIC | Attractive doctor got nice Vietnamese dish as a starter (10) | attractive / PHO (Vietnamese dish) + TOGENIC (anag, i.e. doctor, of GOT NICE) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | Networking site where popular snappers primarily tag stuff (9) | networking site / IN (popular) + S (first, or primary, etter of Snappers) + TAG + RAM (stuff) |
||
| 2D | VILLAGE | Girl is upset when stationed in horrible little place (7) | little place / VIL_E (horrible) around LAG (girl, upset) |
|
| 3D | GARTH | Old courtyard protected by King Arthur (5) | old courtyard / hidden worn within, i.e. protected by, ‘kinG ARTHur’ |
|
| 4D | LATITAT | It takes a time to follow most of recent court summons (7) | court summons / LAT(E) (most of late, or recent) + IT + A + T (time) |
|
| 5D | TWOCCER | Joyrider wrote the fronts of classic cars off (7) | joyrider (someone who ‘twocs’, takes – cars – without consent) / anag, i.e. off, of WROTE + CC (the first letters, of fronts, of Classic Cars) |
|
| 7D | MARTINI | Drink obtained from a market in Italy (7) | drink / MART (a market) + IN + I (Italy) |
|
| 8D | SUEDE | British band rocked on the radio (5) | British band (yet another popular beat combo, m’lud) / homophone, i.e. on the radio, of SWAYED, rocked. (I initially put SLADE – homophone of |
|
| 9D | EYESIGHT | Cardinal has rather restricted vision (8) | vision / E_IGHT (cardinal number) around (having) YES (rather) |
|
| 15D | EXACTING | Demanding old partner putting on a performance (8) | demanding / EX (old partner) + ACTING (putting on a perfomance) |
|
| 17D | EPEDAPHIC | Eastern Portugal had epic bursts of weather (9) | of (the) weather / E (Eastern) + P (Portugal) + EDAPHIC (anag, i.e. bursts, of HAD EPIC) |
|
| 19D | TOP GEAR | Place from which to get good speed and better drugs (3,4) | Place from which to get good speed (in ‘top gear’ in a car or on a bike, is a ‘place?’ to get good speed) / TOP (better) + GEAR (drugs) |
|
| 20D | EYEWASH | Rubbish mince pie was hard (7) | rubbish / EYE (Cockney rhyming slang – mince pie = eye) + WAS + H (hard) |
|
| 21D | ANCIENT | Last piece of pineapple in crushed tin can is well out-of-date (7) | well out of date / anag, i.e. crushed, of TIN CAN, around E (last letter of pineapplE) |
|
| 22D | STATION | Stop bringing up endless row about things that are of little value (7) | stop (e.g. on a train line) / (E)S_ION (noise, or row, endless and brought up) around TAT (things that are of little value) |
|
| 23D | EDGES | The limits of a rock guitarist? (5) | the limits (of) / EDGE (The Edge, U2 rock guitarist – yes, another beat combo…!) + S (possessive, from ‘of’, doing double duty, indicating belonging to him!) |
|
| 25D | ICING | Cake decoration made from infused cream is no good at first (5) | cake decoration / first letters of ‘Infused Cream Is No Good’ |
|
Got snagged by 1a as it was a new setter and didnt occur to incorporate the name which gave me INVIGORATE(pay more attention!) and making4d out of the question-never heard of LATITATE
Otherwise didnt do too bad with new setter, considering I’m an old fogey who listened to Woody Guthrie before hearing of the new Nobel Prize winner!
Quite a nice change.
Thanks Gila and mcr
My first Gila too, and I enjoyed it. To the list of musical references you can add 3D, GARTH Hudson of The Band (a previously popular beat combo m’lud).
I don’t know if Eimi has had his car nicked but there seems to be a whole lotta twoccin’ goin’ on suddenly.
Very fine puzzle though which had me reaching for LATITAT and EPEDAPHIC – no complaints, very gettable.
Thanks to Gila and mc_r
(ps where do they hold the Times champs these days? I remember going to Ally Pally in the early 90s; bit quieter than the darts, as I recall)
Thanks for the various feedback and comments – of course there are some more musical references in there – ragtime, emos. And a smattering of modern life with Instagram and Siri (neither of which I have ever used, but am aware of…)
And I guess 23 across is simply EX (former) and PAT (postman) – Postman Pat wouldn’t really be an ‘ex-Pat’ until he expires, rather than retires…but as a fictional character, that may never happen.
baerchen – the Times champs are on Sat 22nd, first heat at 11.00, then 13.00 and final at 15.00 – at the Times building right next to London Bridge Station, SE1. And people will be adjourning to The George on Borough High Street throughout the late morning/afternoon…
Late to the party as I didn’t start this till late last night and had to finish it this morning. LATITAT and EPEDAPHIC were new to me but gettable and confirmed in Chambers; also I guessed IRISH but couldn’t parse it since Chambers (1998) merely has ‘siri’ as ‘betel’. The pop references held me up a bit but again were gettable and once I got them I vaguely remembered hearing of them before.
Liked the surfaces of ENCHILADA, EYEWASH and ANCIENT.
Thanks, Gila and mc_rapper67.
Many thanks to mc_r for the detailed write-up and to everyone else for the comments.
There was no intended theme here, but yes there were rather a few pop culture references, and a few lesser known words. This puzzle was intended to be harder than my previous ones. I’m still finding my range!
As for the car nicking, you wait for one and two-c ome along at once! I had to smile when I saw that one on Friday.
Cheers
Ali/Gila