Thanks to Scorpion I have a good challenge for my first blog of 2017
The puzzle is a pangram. For a while I thought it was going to be a double pangram but I think we are four letters short of that.
There is one clue that I can’t parse – RHINO at 14 down. I look forward to having it explained to me. The ones I can’t parse are usually obvious to many other solvers.
It was only a I completed the puzzle that I noticed the theme. All but two of the across entries are the names of cocktails. You can buy cocktails in many places on BALI [22 across] but I can’t find a specific BALI cocktail. Perhaps not surprisingly I can’t find a cocktail called ASIAN FLU [12 across]. I note that there is a RHINO cocktail. Elsewhere in the down entries you can use a LIQUIDISER (9 down) to prepare many cocktails.
As I have proved you didn’t need to know the theme to solve the puzzle. I thought the clues were quite complex but fair. I am sure that I will find the clue for RHINO fair once I understand it. There were only a small number of anagrams.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
7
|
Some trace distance, having returned vehicle (7)
|
SIDECAR (hidden word [some] reversed [having returned] in TRACE DISTANCE) SIDECAR< |
SIDECAR (jaunting car [low-set, two-wheeled, open vehicle, used in Ireland, with side-seats either back to back or facing each other]) I have previously only understood SIDECAR to be an attachment to a motorcycle |
|
8 / 19
|
Actress‘s quiet line delivered in Irish place of worship (7,6)
|
SH (quiet!) + (LEY [any of the straight lines between features of the landscape, possibly pathways, or perhaps having scientific or magical significance in prehistoric times] contained in [delivered in] [IR {Irish} + TEMPLE {place of worship}]) SH IR (LEY) TEMPLE |
SHIRLEY TEMPLE (reference SHIRLEY TEMPLE [1928 – 2014], American actress, business woman and diplomat, perhaps best known as a child star)
|
|
10
|
Eurovision band – 4 vocalised with brass accompaniment (5,4)
|
BUCKS (dollars; money; brass) + FIZZ (sounds like [vocalised] PHIZ [entry at 4 down])
|
BUCKS FIZZ (pop group who represented the United Kingdom at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest. They won the competition with the song ‘Making Your Mind Up’)
|
|
11
|
Love uniform when in senior rank (4)
|
(O [zero; love score in tennis] + U [‘uniform’ the international radio communication code word for the letter U]) contained in (in) SR (senior) S (O U) R |
SOUR (rancid; rank)
|
|
12
|
Infection appears when rusty nail catches fellow at university (5,3)
|
AS (when) + (an anagram of [rusty] NAIL containing F [fellow]) + U (university) AS IAN (F) L* U |
ASIAN FLU (viral infection)
|
|
14
|
Outlaw keeping old relative in line (3,3)
|
RY (railway) containing (keeping) (O [old] + BRO [brother; relative]) R (O B RO) Y |
ROB ROY (reference ROB ROY Macgregor [1671 – 1734], Scottish outlaw)
|
|
15
|
Guard software tool (11)
|
SCREW (slang term for a prison guard) + DRIVER (piece of computer software that controls the operation of a device [printer, scanner, sound card etc])
|
SCREWDRIVER (tool)
|
|
19
|
See 8 across
|
|
|
| 20 |
Missile regularly sent that hurt delicate part of body (8)
|
SN (letters 1 and 3 [regularly] of SENT) + OW (expression indicating that something hurt) + BALL (informal term for a testicle [delicate part of the male body])
|
SNOWBALL ([frozen] missile)
|
|
22
|
I haul mimosa shrub latterly around island (4)
|
BALI ([last letters of {latterly} I HAD MIMOSA SHRUB] all reversed [around]) BALI< |
BALI (Indonesian island)
|
|
23
|
Staff cover function that incorporates Times Square (9)
|
MAN ([provide[ staff) + HAT (cover) + TAN (trigonometric function)
|
MANHATTAN (area of New York where Times Square is located)
|
| 25 | Composer ill in bed, endlessly sick (7) |
Anagram of (sick) ILL IN and (BED excluding the last letter [endlessly] D) BELLINI* |
BELLINI (reference Vincenzo BELLINI [1801 – 1835], Italian opera composer)
|
|
26
|
Scorpion’s weapon, reversing say, fools solver ultimately (7)
|
(EG [for example; say] + NITS [fools]) reversed (reversing) + R (last letter of [ultimately] SOLVER) (STIN GE)< R |
STINGER (a scorpion has a tail with a venomous STINGER which acts as its means of attack [weapon])
|
| Down | |||
|
1
|
HQ for high-fliers in capital concerned with recruiting graduates (7)
|
AI (excellent; capital) + (RE [concerned with] containing [recruiting] BAS [Bachelors of Arts; graduates]) AI R (BAS) E |
AIRBASE (BASE of operations for pilots; HQ for high-fliers)
|
|
2
|
Parisian appreciated a piece of England, as it were (6)
|
MERCI (French [Parisian] for thank you’; appreciated) + A
|
MERCIA (one of the Kingdoms of Anglo Saxon England [in time gone by; as it were]; piece of England)
|
|
3
|
Rabbits on picture from the 1970s (4)
|
JAWS (talks at excessive length; rabbits on)
|
JAWS (title of 1975 film directed by Steven Spielberg)
|
|
4
|
Face letter from abroad – the last letter (4)
|
PHI (letter of the Greek alphabet; letter from abroad] + Z (last letter of the English alphabet)
|
PHIZ (slang word for the face, also expressed as PHIZOG)
|
|
5
|
Can be wiped off in time with artist’s brush (8)
|
ERA (period of time) + SABLE (artist’s paintbrush made from the hair of the SABLE [an Arctic or sub Arctic marten])
|
ERASABLE (can be wiped off)
|
|
6
|
Attack from sheep in one’s compound (3,4)
|
TUP (ram; sheep) contained in (in) an anagram of (compound) ONE’S SE (T UP) ON* |
SET UPON (attack)
|
|
9
|
Heather, grabbing one pound, is converting into cash (11)
|
LING (heather) containing (grabbing) (I [Roman numeral for one] + QUID [slang for pound sterling] + IS) L (I QUID IS) ING |
LIQUIDISING (converting assets into cash)
|
|
13
|
Father’s seen before brother (5)
|
FR (father) + ERE (before)
|
FRÈRE (brother)
|
| 14 | Short animal welcome on rug? In principle, not at all (5) |
Sorry but I can’t see how the wordplay works here. I’ve got NO for ‘not at all’ and that leaves me the with RHI at the beginning, but I can’t relate those three letters to ‘welcome on rug? In principle’ I am sure someone will point out what I am missing |
RHINO (short version of RHINOceros; short animal) |
|
16
|
Ballerina’s leap better. as one’s in character (8)
|
CAP (better) + (I [Roman numeral for one] contained in [in] ROLE [part played by an actor representing a character]) CAP R (I) OLE |
CAPRIOLE (high leap made from bent knees in ballet; ballerina’s leap)
|
|
17
|
Couple who oppose lay spiritualist of late (3,4)
|
(N [North] + E [East] in a game of Bridge, North and East would be on opposing teams [NS v EW]; couple who oppose) + WAGER (lay [a bet]))
|
NEW AGER (person involved with a cultural trend that emerged in the late 1980s, concerned with the union of mind, body and spirit, expressed through popular interest in a variety of beliefs and disciplines, including mysticism, meditation, astrology and holistic medicine;spiritualist of late)
|
|
18
|
Perhaps sharks, from tail to head, of narrow build (7)
|
LENDERS (people who supply money and expect repayment with interest. Sometimes described as sharks if the required interest is punitive) with the final letter [tail] S moved to [from … to] the front of the word [head] SLENDER |
SLENDER (of thin or narrow build)
|
|
21
|
Scottish island conceals a new fuel (6)
|
BUTE (Scottish island in the Firth of Clyde) containing (conceals) (A + N [new]) BUT (A N) E |
BUTANE (hydrocarbon widely used as a gas fuel)
|
|
23
|
Chap used wrong sign language (4)
|
MAN (chap) + X (a letter commonly used to show that something is wrong; wrong sign)
|
MANX (language of the Isle of MAN)
|
|
24
|
Singer books US city for comeback (4)
|
(OT [Old Testament; books] + LA [Los Angeles; US city]) all reversed (comeback) (AL TO)< |
ALTO (singer)
|
Thanks Duncan and Scorpion.
For RHINO I had welcome=Hi (on) rug in principle=r.
My only query was with “liquidise” which I didn’t think was interchangeable with “liquidate” in a financial sense.
Re ASIAN FLU, some enterprising barman is probably inventing a cocktail using Night Nurse, lemon juice, scotch and grated paracetomol as we speak!
er, which is obviously rubbish, sorry – principal not principle derp!
Good fun, helped by spotting the cocktail theme early on, but ended up missing a few non-themed clues such as JAWS (anyone else heard of a couple of 1970’s films called “Gabs” and “Yaks”?) and ASIAN FLU. SOUR was also possibly a themed clue but no ‘whisky’ or ‘Pisco’ to be seen.
Sorry, can’t help with RHINO, which I just bunged in. Anything to do with the use of the word as slang for ‘money’?
Thanks to Scorpion and Duncan.
In the two missing across cocktails, they appear in the clues: Rusty Nail and Mimosa.
Quite excellent.I had two unsolved but when I saw “panagram” in the opening to the blog a bulb lit up for JAWS
But I was middle stumped on NEW AGER-or maybe it was a deadly spin caught by second slip
And thanks to@baerchen for alerting me to this fine work-its made me thirsty.
Google informs me that getting a red face from too much drink is commonly referred to as Asian Flush.
Missed the theme (must have been half asleep) as well as JAWS, and NEW AGER was completely beyond me.
But for RHINO I think baerchen may be right after all. In that ‘in principle’ can mean ‘basically’ it could just about indicate the R of ‘rug’. Though I’m not entirely convinced.
Thanks, Scorpion and Duncan
For RHINO I have a feeling that an old spelling of ‘principal’ is ‘principle’. Scorpion may just be using the old spelling to fit the surface.