I have had a few mental tussles with Serpent/Jack puzzles recently – regular and Genius/barred thematics – so approached this with some trepidation…
…but it turned out to be a fairly straightforward solve, with no obvious theme or nina, just a nice mix of clues.
I enjoyed the ‘ANIMAL MAGNETISM’ between the Beauty and the Beast, and the concatenation of DurBAN and JO’burg in 27A – to give BANJO. And also the image in 15A of an INVESTor losing their shirt and ending up IN VEST!
I didn’t get the homophone at 5D at first, as I have always thought LOGGIA was pronounced with a hard GG, but Chambers has it as ‘loj/y/a’, which is a close enough match to LODGER…
LOI was NOISOME at 2D – had to be from the wordplay but I couldn’t really justify the definition as ‘terribly’, with OM as a ‘high honour’ in NOISE. But again a check in Chambers gives NOISOME as ‘disgusting or offensive to sight or smell‘, so ‘high’ is part of the definition, and it all makes sense again…!
So, no complaints from your blogger – an enjoyable and reasonably challenging solve… Thanks, Serpent, and apo-loggia-s if I have missed any deeper subtleties or themes/ninas.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | INTERPOL | Organisation helping forces put Underground staff out of terminal (8) | Organisation helping (international police) forces / INTER (put under ground, bury) + POL(E) (staff, without terminal letter) |
|
| 6A | LYING | Prone to begin fast late (5) | prone / ( |
|
| 10A | ANIMAL MAGNETISM | What could have attracted Beauty to the Beast? (6,9) | &lit-ish/cryptic definition / the Beauty could have been attracted to the Beast by his/its ANIMAL MAGNETISM |
|
| 11A | BRONCHITIS | Related to Conservative leader involved in reform of British disease (10) | disease / BR_HITIS (anag, i.e. reform, of BRITISH) around (involving) ON (related to) + C (leading letter of Conservative) |
|
| 12A | PAWN | Man describing lewd acts to the audience (4) | man (chess piece) / homophone, i.e. to the audience – PAWN sounds like ‘porn’ – lewd acts |
|
| 14A | SHEEPDOG | Followers pursue trialist perhaps (8) | trialist, perhaps / SHEEP (followers) + DOG (pursue) |
|
| 15A | INVEST | Pour resources into state having lost one’s shirt? (6) | pour resources into / if one had lost one’s shirt, one might be IN one’s VEST |
|
| 18A | ENMITY | It fed into heartless opposition and hatred (6) | hatred / EN( |
|
| 20A | DILIGENT | Conscientious editing changed round novel’s ending (8) | conscientious / DI_IGENT (anag, i.e. changed, of EDITING), around L (last letter of noveL) |
|
| 23A | COIF | Company provided cover for head (4) | cover for head (hairstyle) / CO (company) + IF (provided) |
|
| 24A | SCOTCH TAPE | Put a stop to record sticking with this (6,4) | (achieve) sticking, with this / SCOTCH (put a stop to) + TAPE (record) |
|
| 26A | IN THE NICK OF TIME | Being held captive by spell at the critical moment (2,3,4,2,4) | at the critical moment / IN THE NICK OF (being held captive by something or someone) + TIME (spell) |
|
| 27A | BANJO | One picks this east of Durban and west of Johannesburg, to some extent (5) | one picks (at/on) this / BAN (eastern, or rightmost, end of durBAN) + JO (western, or leftmost, end of JOhannesburg) – ‘to some extent’ indicating it is part of each word) |
|
| 28A | NESTLING | Immature tit perhaps taking up comfortable position (8) | double defn / an immature tit, or bird, could be a NESTLING; and someone getting comfortable could be NESTLING up to something or someone) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 2D | NOISOME | Terribly high honour invested in undesirable element of broadcast media (7) | terribly high (smelly)/ NOIS_E (undesirable element of broadcast media – e.g. static/lines on TV display) around OM (Order of Merit, honour) |
|
| 3D | EMANCIPATE | Cooking meat pie can create free radicals? (10) | create free radicals? / anag, i.e. cooking, of MEAT PIE CAN |
|
| 4D | PUMP IRON | Exercise bike accessory made of metal (4,4) | exercise / PUMP (bike accessory) + IRON (made of metal) |
|
| 5D | LOGGIA | Reported one renting room in arcade (6) | arcade / homophone, i.e. reported – LOGGIA (arcade) sounds a bit like ‘lodger’, one renting room |
|
| 6D | LIEU | Place setting I’m about to leave (4) | place / ( |
|
| 7D | IMITATE | Aim it at earth’s interior to take off (7) | to take off (impersonate) / hidden word in, i.e.interior, ‘aIM IT AT Earth’ |
|
| 8D | GAMIN | Boyish dictator supporting the introduction of genocide (5) | boyish / G (first letter of genocide) + AMIN (Idi Amin, dictator) |
|
| 9D | LAMBASTE | Slam and beat badly (8) | cryptic definition – whole clue / anag, i.e. badly, of SLAM and BEAT |
|
| 13D | INSIGHTFUL | Perceptive view almost entirely welcomed (10) | perceptive / INSIGHT (view) + FUL( |
|
| 16D | TETHERED | Thailand’s first king, apparently ill-prepared to leave capital of Laos secured (8) | secured / T (first letter of Thailand) + ETHE( |
|
| 17D | MISTAKES | Slips first to be found in nets (8) | slips / M_AKES (nets, or earns) around IST (first, or 1ST) |
|
| 19D | MOISTEN | Damp mist one disperses (7) | damp(en) / anag, i.e. disperses, of MIST ONE |
|
| 21D | ELATION | Epiphany diminished by clergyman’s joy (7) | joy / ( |
|
| 22D | ACTION | Fighting proceedings in court (6) | double defn / ACTION can be fighting in battle; ACTION can be preoceedings in court. |
|
| 23D | CLIMB | Rise of member-supported clubs (5) | rise / C (clubs) on (supported by) LIMB (member) |
|
| 25D | HERO | This star gets into bed to have cigar (4) | (this) star / if a HERO gets in a bed, or COT, this could make a C-HERO-OT, or cigar |
|
I always enjoy Serpent’s puzzles. I also looked for something lurking within but apart from a potential dedication to POLLY JONES hidden in the top and bottom rows nada..
Thanks to S&B
Thanks Serpent
I parsed 26 slightly differently: IN THE NICK (Being held captive) plus OF (by, eg ‘a play of Wilde’s/a play by Wilde) plus TIME (spell).
It seems too much to be coincidental: there are numerous words or acronyms split across the ends/beginnings of all the adjacent clues:
1/6: POLL
11/12: ISP
14/15 : GIN
18/20: TYDI (nearly!)
23/24: FSC
27/28: JONES
9/23: TEC
2/19: MEMO
3/25: EH
4/22: RONA (a name)
5/17: AMIS
6/13: EUIN (another name)
7/21: TEE
8/16: MINT
Any takers?
Sorry, omitted to say thanks to mc_rapper67 too. Apologies
Definitely easier than your common or garden Serpent, but still challenging for me and still very enjoyable. I fell short by about 5 or 6 clues – not helping myself by forcing a misspelling of gosling (don’t ask!) in instead of nestling. Loads of nice clues, surfaces and misdirection with my picks of the bunch being the cleverly-constructed 27a and 25d so thanks to The Snake for the puzzle and to The MC for the blog.
I had a feeling something might be going on when I saw the unusual symmetry of the grid, but apart from what’s already been mentioned I can’t see anything. (Incidentally, Simon@2, 11/12ac can give SPA as well as ISP).
Some brilliant clues, such as NOISOME and LOGGIA – which I only got with e-help, although the parsing was apparent as soon as I got them. But my CoD has to be BANJO.
A topical reference with ANIMAL MAGNETISM; actually that was my first one in as the same phrase was in the recycled Morph in the i two days ago – with a totally different clue, of course.
Thanks, Serpent and mc_rapper67.
Thanks for the various comments/feedback – I’d be interested to know who ‘Polly Jones’ is…maybe this was a personal tribute from Serpent – is she a diligent, insightful, gamin, banjo-playing sheepdog owner who has suffered from bronchitis and is currently being hunted by Interpol? I think we should be told…
Simon S – your parsing of 26A probably makes more sense, but I think your list of possible ‘connections’ is a bit far-fetched!
allan_c – yes, I did consider mentioning the topicality of the release of the new ‘Beauty & the Beast’ film, in relation to 10A, but thought it was probably just a fortunate coincidence?…
Glad I popped back to have another look at the comments. OK, maybe a bit far-fetched, but Serpent often has something up his sleeve (remember the one that had SERPENT in, I think, 5 places.
POLLY JONES is a solver who organises regular Saturday lunchtime gatherings of solvers in the London area, who meet at a different pub each week. They also come to the graun-based gatherings at the Parcel Yard in King’s Cross.