A witty and educational puzzle from Shed with just the right degree of difficulty for a prize.
This took Timon, Mrs B and I almost exactly an hour, although parsing one or two of the answers came later. There were the usual witty story-telling surfaces that Shed normally provides as well as some obscurities (e.g. at 17a and 14d) which required some research. No quibbles and no guesses! Thanks, Shed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ADROIT | Deft men retreating into mine entrance (6) |
| OR (other ranks – reversed) in ADIT (a mine entrance). | ||
| 5 | REDRAW | Prison officer coming back to pick another ticket (6) |
| WARDER (rev). | ||
| 8 | IMAGIST | Poet putting priests in first (7) |
| MAGI in 1ST. | ||
| 9 | SEARING | Supply information about organ that’s hot (7) |
| EAR in SING. | ||
| 11 | TEN COMMANDMENTS | Religious code of Butterfly State gets guys encamped (3,12) |
| COMMA, ND (North Dakota), MEN in TENTS. The comma butterfly is so called because it has a white comma-shaped mark on the underside of the hind wing. | ||
| 12 | OLID | Getting on, secured one’s rank (4) |
| 1 in OLD. This was the last one in and an unfamiliar word; thanks to Timon for working out how to parse it. | ||
| 13 | COAT HANGER | Something in the wardrobe provoking fury after child’s first expletive (4,6) |
| C(hild) OATH ANGER. A delightful surface. | ||
| 17 | EPENTHESES | Insertions into headless French right-winger’s works of scholarship (10) |
| (Marine L)E PEN, THESES. Another unfamiliar word: it means the insertion of a sound within a word. | ||
| 18 | YAWN | Veer to north and look ready for bed (4) |
| YAW N. | ||
| 20 | TOTALITARIANISM | Revolutionary 1 24 or not, Mao and Stalin engaged in it (15) |
| It’s almost an anagram of MAO STALIN TRAIT(OR) but you need an extra I. I think that this is provided by the 1 in the clue, in which case it does work, with “revolutionary” serving as the anagram indicator. Very subtle. | ||
| 23 | DESPAIR | Turned free to shroud recess in gloom (7) |
| APSE in RID (all rev). | ||
| 24 | TRAITOR | Characteristic yellow rat (7) |
| TRAIT OR (heraldic yellow). | ||
| 25 | KETTLE | Drum that may contain seafood? (6) |
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 26 | CHEERS | Toast, or something to put on it, mostly containing trace of rennet (6) |
| R(ennet) in CHEES(e). | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | DRAINPIPE | Waist’s let out, reportedly, by one sort of trousers (9) |
| Sounds like the outlet, or let out, of a waste, e.g. under a bath. | ||
| 3 | ORISON | Prayer for star eclipsing sun (6) |
| S in ORION. | ||
| 4 | TOTEM POLE | Religious structure presented to another, with nothing inside (5,4) |
| 0 in TO TEMPLE. | ||
| 5 | RESIN | Product of sap to go wrong again? (5) |
| RE-SIN. | ||
| 6 | DEAD MEAT | Date made off with purchase from shambles (4,4) |
| *(DATE MADE). | ||
| 7 | AVIAN | Like a winger, one in a vehicle (5) |
| 1 in A VAN. | ||
| 8 | INTROVERTED | Shy dog races round, having eaten topless outside (11) |
| ROVER in TT in (d)INED. The Tourist Trophy motorbike races in the Isle of Man used to be a crossword staple. | ||
| 10 | GASTRONOMER | Bon vivant given introduction to Galileo Galilei, maybe (11) |
| G(alileo) ASTRONOMER. GASTRONOME is the more usual term. | ||
| 14 | THEORETIC | Heavy drinker snaffling Scandinavian funds on time? It’s not proven (9) |
| ORE T(ime) in THEIC. To our surprise, THEIC means someone who drinks too much tea. | ||
| 15 | GLADIATOR | Rubbish opera, La Gioconda, initially upset combatant (9) |
| ROT AIDA L(a) G(ioconda) (all rev). | ||
| 16 | STALWART | Dependable cooking salt applied to growth (8) |
| *SALT, WART. | ||
| 19 | DAMAGE | Cost of performer in panto receiving silver (6) |
| AG in DAME. | ||
| 21 | TASTE | Suspicion of discrimination (5) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 22 | TERSE | Clipped end of secret language (5) |
| (secre)T ERSE. | ||
*anagram
A first as a first to comment – I’m feeling the pressure!
I felt there were lots of nice clues but it somehow missed the wow factor after the midweek Picaroon and last week’s Brendan. However there were three new words (as highlighted by Bridgesong) that were well clued and could be solved first and then looked up – always much more rewarding than the other way round.
I felt the 2 15 letter clues were too easily solved from the definition which rendered the rest of the clue surplus. My favourites were 2d, 5d and 18a for their surfaces and smile moments. And once again I forgot about OR for men and ADIT which appears to be.a word only used in crosswords – can anyone find an example of usage elsewhere?
Overall very enjoyable – thank you Shed and Bridgesong
Thanks bridgesong. I spent about the same amount of time on it as you and quite a lot of it was on working out 17a and 14d. I’m not sure what ‘just the right degree of difficulty for a prize’ is but I would have thought this to be toward the easier end of the range and all over rather too soon.
Thanks to Shed and bridgesong. I gave this puzzle a try last Saturday and got nowhere. I returned to it on Thursday and, for reasons I can’t explain, things fell into place. I even remembered OLID from a previous puzzle and, after getting the crossers, worked out EPENTHESES. Last in was THEORETIC where “theic” made no sense to me so it went unparsed. As often happens, what at first seemed too formidable turned out to be do-able – and much fun.
Thanks Shed for the challenge and bridgesong for the explanations.
I was sure it must have been Le Pen implicated in 17ac but it took a long time to figure out precisely how he was involved.
I have one quibble: Orion is a constellation rather than a single star, a fact which threw me off the scent for a time with 3dn while I kept trying to fit ‘sol’ into the solution.
I’m still not sure why a KETTLE might contain seafood. Any kind of food surely, if it’s referring to the cooking vessel? As for the other kind, it is indispensable in maintaining my status as a THEIC.
> I was sure it must have been Le Pen implicated in 17ac but it took a long time to figure out precisely how he was involved.
Excuses-moi, ‘she’ !
Excusez… bl**dy autocorrect.
Thanls bridgesong. Slight difference with you over 2D: a double definition, split between ‘one’ and ‘sort’ so as to justify the inclusion of both those. Swatty #4: refers to a pretty kettle of fish.
footnote to 17ac and Swatty @4 and @5: Le Pen can be he or she. Jean-Marie, founder of French National Front and estranged father of Marine, is still active in his 80s, and I even now tend to think of him first because of his grim foundational influence.
molonglo @7: of course, now that you mention it, I have heard the expressions ‘a fine/whole new kettle of fish’. I thought of kettle chips but even then didn’t make the connection with fish!
quenbarrow @8: pity the apple didn’t fall a little farther from the tree.
Some nice clues here. Probably liked DRAINPIPE the best. There were a few that I didn’t parse completely, although it was obvious that TOTALITARIANISM was the solution I just assumed that the letters were all in there somewhere for an anagram.
Guessed a few of the “obscure” words: ORISON, OLID and ADIT all seemed like a fair bet from the clues. Amused to find that EPENTHESES is a real word – I just wrote it in at the end as it fit the clue.
Thank you Shed and bridgesong et al.
This took me quite a while, but was very enjoyable even though I failed to fully parse THEORETIC, THEIC being a new word for me, as were OLID and EPENTHESESE. The clue for COAT HANGER was great!
A fish KETTLE is used to steam/boil fish in, it is shaped rather like a bath.
Thanks bridgesong and Shed. Good weekend puzzle, with a bit of research needed on the more obscure words. But as swatty@4 has pointed out, Orion is not a star, not even in common usage. Could this have been a misprint for “stars”, which would still give a readable surface and would be a correct definition?
As in a “pretty kettle of fish”?
Shed is generally a favourite setter but i didn’t think this one of his best. Both kettle and taste were ones we got on a first pass without being sure they were right.
Shy doesn’t mean introverted; introverted doesn’t mean shy
Mary Stewart uses adit in her book The Crystal Cave to describe the entrance to the old mine workings at Vortigern’s doomed building project on Dinas Emrys. A bit obscure I know but it’s the only usage I know
OLID was new, as was EPENTHESES but quite easy to get. Indeed the puzzle as a whole was quite straightforward- although it seemed harder when I first read it through. I did like YAWN which was LOI.
Thanks Shed.
ADIT has long been a staple in US crosswords. I just came across a speech from Roz Chast in presenting awards at a crossword puzzle contest.
I have to tell you that I was not the first choice for being the presenter. Alan Alda was, but he was on vacation, climbing an arête in the Ural Mountains. They tried to get Eero Saarinen, but he had fallen on his épée, and got a stoma. Luckily his amah had some aloe with her in an etui. Erle Stanley Gardner fell down an adit. And Esai Morales broke his ulna and his tibia while he was in China researching the Chen, Qin, Zhou, Ming, Song, Tang, Qing, Qi, Sui, and Yin dynasties for an epic opera in which he’s going to sing an aria.
Even though I wasn’t the first choice, I’m not at all irate, because I get to stand up here and tell you a little bit about myself. I love Nature. Recently I was on safari and I saw an ecru and onyx oryx, although it may have been an eland or an okapi. I’m not sure. I don’t want to err, or I’d have to atone. I also saw an egret, an emu, and an erne who was building an aerie. The food was a little eerie. We had an olio of dal, agar, eel, and taro. An emir on the trip complained because the poi had been in the oast too long, and an imam cried because he missed his esnes. Afterwards, we traveled to the Aral Sea and took a proa to Etna. I wore a boa. The tsar upped the sartorial ante with his Eton collar. It was aces, but by the end, I couldn’t wait to get home, put some Edam on crackers, eat Oreos, and play Atari. Well, I think that’s enough sharing. Please forgive me for any mispronunciations. I’ve never really heard any of these words before. And now I’d like to announce the winners.
Got there in the end, but surely the sun is eclipsing the star(s) in 2d, to be awkward?
ACD @ 17– that’s brilliant.
ADIT is one of the few crosswordese words that I ran into in the wild. (I was a geology major as an undergraduate; in an engineering geology class I took then, we spent some time talking about mines, and thus adits came up.)
I wasn’t going to post as everything I would have said (three new words, “stars” not “star” for 3d and so on) had already been said. However, I need to thank ACD for posting that brilliant speech @17. Thanks too to Shed and bridgesong.
My thanks to ACD @ 17 too – superb!
Regarding the puzzle, could someone please explain how “of” fits into the cryptic reading of 11ac?
Solved it but with gritted teeth as Orion is not a star but a constellation. There’s really no excuse for this sort of sloppiness in a Prize.
poc @22
ORISON has had a bit of a bashing on this page, and ‘star’ for ‘stars’ is clearly mistaken, but fortunately such errors are not too common. [It might have been picked up by a watchful editor.]
Graham @18 had a point too, about ‘eclipse’ working the opposite way to what the setter intended. (The mental image is of the sun eclipsing the stars, so you can’t say the stars eclipse the sun.) However, ‘eclipse’ also means overshadow or surpass, and I think the setter was probably thinking of something akin to that broader, non-technical meaning.
I can’t say too much because I had no time to attempt this crossword, but I know I normally enjoy Shed’s efforts. I always read the blogs, though, and I too must thank ACD (@17) for quoting that superb speech.
Can I add my thanks to ACD for the speech; although it’s clearly aimed at an American audience, it includes a lot of words to be found in crosswords on this side of the Atlantic.
I’m sorry to have missed the error about Orion, although not as sorry as the editor and setter should be.
Goofiest ate @21: “of” is just a linking word, playing no part in either the definition or wordplay.
Sorry (b****y predictive text): that should be gofirstmate @21
I, too, have nothing much to say about the puzzle that hasn’t already been said, but wish to add my thanks to ACD for the highly amusing speech transcript.
graham@18 I agree, but I think this must be poetic licence. After all, Coleridge wrote in the Ancient mariner:
The horned moon with one bright star
Within the nether tip
Coincidence! Just come across epenthesis in the wild, reading about Lojban (of which it’s an optional feature) on Wikipedia. Lojban crossword, anyone?
bridgesong @24
Thanks for your reply. I’ve learnt a lot from this website over the past couple of years but it’s taken me until now to pluck up the courage to post – after reading “Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword” and Don Manley’s “Crossword Manual”. Maybe I’m still out of my depth but I thought there are some guidelines even for linking words. Here, though, even if we accept the “of” in 11ac as shorthand for “[consists] of”, it seems to me the cryptic grammar is kaput: the “gets” would need to be “getting” for it to become acceptable English.
I also think the “into” in 17ac is equally difficult to justify in the cryptic reading.
Gofirstmate @ 29: I see what you mean about 11, but although Azed might be scrupulous enough to avoid that sort of grammatical error, most Guardian setters (but not Pasquale, of course) are more libertarian in their approach and are perhaps more concerned with getting a good surface reading than conforming to Ximenean principles. So far as the “into” in 17 ac is concerned, you could class it as part of the definition.
Oh dear. Sorry about ORISON, which was pretty inexcusable (and I know perfectly well Orion’s a constellation, or at least I did when I was ten).
Re 17ac, it was Marine I had in mind but either of them will do. Thanks for the comments and for not being harder on me about 3dn.
Just thought I’d share a thought on 24 across. My first two solutions were barrel (a drum where one might shoot fish)and then batter (as in to beat). No wonder I couldn’t finish the south west corner. Many thanks to Shed for another challenged week.