Daedalus has featured a few times in the Independent or Independent on Sunday over the past two years but I think this is the first time I have blogged one of his / her puzzles.
There was a bit of lateral thinking required with some of the definitions, but that’s fair enough. I don’t think setters should just lift definitions out of the dictionary in daily broadsheet puzzles.
I wasn’t sure what the word ‘fence’ was doing in the clue for SCAB at 26 down.
It took me a long time to parse 1 across MNEMONIC. It was only when I saw NEMO that the penny dropped.
This is my last blog before 25th December, so I wish you all a Merry Christmas.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Wild lost fish used for a reminder (8)
|
MANIC (wild) with NEMO [reference the film Finding NEMO which focuses on finding NEMO the lost young clown fish) replacing (used for) A M (NEMO) NIC |
MNEMONIC (a device, e.g. a short verse, to help memory; reminder)
|
|
5
|
I expect the cab will get lost (6)
|
Anagram of (will get lost) THE CAB BETCHA* |
BETCHA (slang for BET YOU [.. that will happen; I expect])
|
|
10
|
Great crossword setters provided Daedalus with answer first (7)
|
A [answer] in first position [first] + WE [crossword setters] + SO [provided] + ME (Daedalus, the setter)
|
AWESOME (amazing; great)
|
|
11
|
Exterminate mice running rampant (7)
|
END (destroy; exterminate) + an anagram of (running) MICE END EMIC* |
ENDEMIC (prevalent; rampant)
|
|
12
|
Kind chap among forty people giving input (4)
|
TYPE (hidden word in [among] FORTY PEOPLE)
|
TYPE (sort; kind)
|
|
13
|
Criminal’s crime (7)
|
OF (indicating possession) + FENCE (receiver of stolen property; criminal) taken together could be expressed as criminal’s
|
OFFENCE (crime)
|
|
16
|
Setter’s quiet spirit (3)
|
I’M (I am; setter is) + P (piano; quiet)
|
IMP (little devil or wicked spirit)
|
|
18
|
Without justification, king assumed not enough is done to such people (11)
|
UNDESERVED (without justification) containing (assumed) R (Rex; king) UNDE (R) SERVED |
UNDERSERVED (descriptive of people inadequately provided with services; people who do not have enough done for them)
|
|
19
|
Giving affection in bed (4,2,5)
|
HANDING (giving) + LOVE (affection)
|
HAND IN GLOVE (on very intimate terms; in close co-operation. IN BED [together] can be defined as helping someone)
|
|
22
|
Fasten without a zip (3)
|
NAIL (fasten) excluding (without) A
|
NIL (zero; nothing; zip)
|
|
23
|
Garland fashioned of stone (7)
|
Anagram of (fashioned) OF STONE FESTOON* |
FESTOON (garland suspended between two points)
|
|
24
|
Realise guard protects us (4)
|
SS (Schutzstaffel , Nazi elite corps; guard corps) containing (protects) US S (US) S |
SUSS (discover; realise)
|
|
28
|
French gentleman bolting sandwich before start of the game (7)
|
CROQUE-MONSIEUR (a type of toasted sandwich filled with ham and cheese) excluding (bolting) MONSIEUR (French gentleman) + T (first letter of [start of] THE)
|
CROQUET (game, played on a lawn, in which wooden balls are driven by means of long-handled mallets through a series of hoops)
|
|
29
|
Performing animal interrupts joke (7)
|
STAG (animal) contained in (interrupts) ONE (joke, as in the ONE about … ) ON (STAG) E |
ON-STAGE (ON a part of the STAGE visible to the audience; performing)
|
|
30
|
Could it be Reg you’ve got to hassle? (6)
|
BADGER (a word that could be clued as ‘REG you’ve got to hassle [form an anagram of]) Also BAD GER could be an anagram type clue for REG |
BADGER (pester; hassle)
|
|
31
|
French novelist‘s babbling stream and brook’ (8)
|
FLAU (sounds like [babbling] FLOW [stream]) + BERT (in this case, pronounced [babbling] BEAR [brook])
|
FLAUBERT (reference Gustave FLAUBERT [1821 – 1880], French novelist)
|
| Down | |||
|
1
|
This tarmac melted in Dutch city (10)
|
Anagram of (melted) THIS TARMAC MAASTRICHT* |
MAASTRICHT (city in The Netherlands)
|
|
2
|
Leer at – or look at? (3,2)
|
EYE (look) + UP (at [school or college]) or it may simply be EYE UP (look at)
|
EYE UP (consider the [especially sexual] attractiveness of; leer at)
|
|
3
|
One in the orchestra regularly on booze (4)
|
OBOE (letters 1, 3, 5 and 7 [regularly] of ON BOOZE)
|
OBOE (instrument played in an orchestra)
|
|
4
|
I nag loudly, being frigid (3-4)
|
ICE-COLD (sounds like [loudly] I SCOLD [I nag])
|
ICE-COLD (frigid)
|
|
6
|
Vulnerable gran needed fluid (10)
|
Anagram of (fluid) GRAN NEEDED ENDANGERED* |
ENDANGERED (vulnerable)
|
|
7
|
California weirdo obstructs guy travelling home (6,3)
|
CA (California) + (PERV [pervert; weirdo] contained in [obstructs] MAN [guy]) CA M (PER V) AN |
CAMPER VAN (VAN converted for use as mobile temporary living accommodation; travelling home)
|
| 8 | Chief‘s sly hunch (4) |
ARCH (chief) ARCH (cunning; sly) |
ARCH (curve; bow; hunch) triple definition |
|
9
|
Writhe if erotica features young female (6) |
HEIFER (hidden word in [features] WRITHE IF EROTICA)
|
HEIFER (young female cow)
|
|
14
|
Buck being afflicted with bruise, it twists puzzlingly (6,4)
|
Anagram of (being afflicted) BUCK and BRUISE RUBIK‘S CUBE* |
RUBIK’S CUBE (a cube-shaped puzzle composed of 26 small pieces [cubes or partial cubes] with faces coloured in any of six colours, fixed to a central spindle that allows them to be rotated on three axes, the solved puzzle presenting a uniform colour on each face); it twists puzzlingly
|
|
15
|
Youngster with a cut nose (10)
|
A + DOLE (small portion; a cut of the whole) + SCENT (nose)
|
ADOLESCENT (young person between childhood and adulthood)
|
|
17
|
Tide rose higher, last bit of spray dislodging old band of rock? (4,5)
|
PINK (rose colour) + (FLOOD [rise of the tide]) with Y [final letter of {last bit of} SPRAY] replacing [dislodging] the second O [old]) PINK FLOYD
|
PINK FLOYD (former English rock band)
|
|
20
|
I painted Joe with oil of roses (6)
|
GI (reference GI Joe, American toy soldier) + OTTO (variant spelling of ATTAR [very fragrant essential oil made in Bulgaria and elsewhere, chiefly from the damask rose])
|
GIOTTO (reference GIOTTO di Bondone [166 – 1337], Italian architect and painter)
|
|
21
|
It’s a mistake to admit having ambition (3,4)
|
OWN (admit) + GOAL (ambition)
|
OWN GOAL (self inflicted disadvantage; mistake)
|
|
25
|
What people say in ‘You and me are getting older’ (5)
|
US (you and me) + AGE (get older)
|
USAGE (the normal or acceptable speech patterns, vocabulary, etc of a language or dialect; what people say)
|
| 26 | I ignore picket fence in outskirts of suburb in California? On the contrary! (4) |
CA (California) contained in (in) SB (outside letters of [outskirts of] SUBURB) The container and contents forming the entry are the opposite [on the contrary] way round from that indicated by the early part of the clue S (CA) B |
SCAB (blackleg [worker continuing to work during a strike or one taking a striker’s place]; one who crosses a picket line) I’m not really sure what ‘fence’ is doing in the clue other than to mislead. I don’t think ‘picket fence’ is another term for ‘picket line’ |
|
27
|
Use up a split lentil stew? I swapped my inheritance for it (4)
|
A contained in (split) USE reversed (up) ES (A) U< |
ESAU (reference Genesis 25 verses 29 – 34 where ESAU exchanges his birthright [inheritance] for a pottage of lentil stew)
|
Didn’t think much of 2D.
I took fence as ‘fence in’, i.e. SB fenced in by CA. except of course it was the opposite.
Agree on 2D, a tad weak or I’ve missed the point.
I needed your help parsing FLAUBERT, started at it for ages but lost on me.
Thanks both
I finished with quite a few unparsed, including MNEMONIC. The only thing I’ve ever known about Esau is that he was “an hairy man”, and I hadn’t heard anything about the ‘lentil stew’ bit. I also liked FLAUBERT and CROQUET.
Thanks to Daedalus for a challenging Thursday puzzle and to Duncan – a merry Christmas to you too.
Enjoyed this. A few tricky ones but overall not as difficult as we’ve come to expect from Thursday puzzles. I could have stared at MNEMONIC until next Christmas without parsing it, although the answer was obvious from the clue and crossers.
Thanks to Daedalus for an excellent puzzle and Duncan for a very good blog.
Nice puzzle – I struggled to explain a few – needed you for FLAUBERT, which th ecrossers demanded.
26d I read “fence in” to be an inclusion indicator. You could then argue that one of the INs is spare – but I think you can get past that.
Many thanks to both setter and blogger for a challenging solve.
Thanks Duncan for a very thorough blog, and nice to ‘meet’ you.
2d was supposed to be EYE UP = ‘leer at’ + EYE up/reversed = EYE (it’s a palindrome!) = ‘look at’. I thought it quite neat, but it seems it wasn’t as transparent as I hoped.
Merry Christmas, all!