Following the Bank Holiday, a colourful puzzle from Radian is exactly what I needed to get the working week off to a positive start.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle, in that I worked steadily through it but at no point did I dash off a string of a dozen clues in quick succession. Indeed, at the end I was left with 20, which kept me guessing for a good half hour after the other solutions had been filled in.
There is a ghost theme today around colours and the rainbow, and I have used a bigger font to highlight the themed entries in the solution column below. Incidentally, it was recognising this theme that allowed me to solve 5, since I realised that “violet” had not yet appeared in the grid. Like them or not, such themes have their uses!
My favourites today are 20 for ingenuity; and 25D and especially 29, both for the misdirection in their surface readings.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | |||
| 01 | OBITUARY | Passing comments about faulty lines I put in
I in [*(ABOUT) + RY (=lines, i.e. railway)]; “faulty” is anagram indicator; cryptically, an obituary is a set of “passing” comments, i.e. comments made when someone passes away |
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| 05 | VIOLET | Unnamed wild flower
VIOLE<n>T (=wild); “unnamed” means letter “n” (=name) is dropped |
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| 09 | AB INITIO | I obtain wound around eye, say, from scratch
Homophone (“say”) of “eye” in *(I OBTAIN); “wound” is anagram indicator |
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| 10 | INDIGO | Pea plant‘s doing badly, I gathered
I in *(DOING); “badly” is anagram indicator; indigo is a tropical plant of the pea genus |
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| 12 | GREEN | Ecofriendly engineers accessing data
RE (=engineers, i.e. Royal Engineers) in GEN (=data) |
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| 13 | BELVEDERE | Bred nearly 11 bananas in gazebo
*(BRED + ELEVE<n>); “nearly” means last letter dropped; “bananas” is anagram indicator |
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| 14 | HAYMOW | The way to keep fresh yam crop piled up in barn
*(YAM) in HOW (=the way to); a haymow is a mass of hay stored in a barn |
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| 16 | EMPIRIC | Houseman, one in Morecambe, relying on experience
[MP (=”houseman”, cryptically, i.e. member of House of Commons) + I (=one)] in ERIC (=Morecambe, i.e. English comedian) |
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| 19 | PETUNIA | Plant barrel, one hidden by vegetable
[TUN (=barrel) + I (=one)] in PEA (=vegetable) |
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| 21 | PIRACY | Hijacking plot to free prisoners
<cons>PIRACY (=plot); “to free prisoners (=cons)” means letters “cons” are dropped |
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| 23 | COMMODORE | Senior officer on board or in relief unit
OR in COMMODE (=relief unit, cryptically, i.e. toilet) |
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| 25 | APPLE | Fruit drink 8 swallowed
PP (=twopence, entry at 8, i.e. 2 x P=pence) in ALE (=drink) |
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| 26 | RECOIL | Sports ground approaches crude shrink
REC (=sports ground) + OIL (=crude) |
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| 27 | BINOMIAL | Discard old mail originally bearing two names
BIN (=discard) + O (=old) + *(MAIL); “originally” is anagram indicator |
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| 28 | MOORED | Tied up low tomato, for instance
MOO (=low, of cattle) + RED (=tomato, for instance, i.e. colour) |
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| 29 | BRAND-NEW | Mint concoction with last of gin thrown in
[AND (=with) + <gi>N (“last of” means last letter only)] in BREW (=concoction) |
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| Down | |||
| 01 | ORANGE | African port, say, raised fruit
ORAN (=African port, in Algeria) + G.E. (E.G.=say; “raised” indicates vertical reversal) |
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| 02 | ITINERANT | One can spout about European traveller
E (=European) in [I (=one) + TIN (=can) + RANT (=spout)] |
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| 03 | UNION | College about to form alliance
UNI (=college, i.e. university) + ON (=about, regarding) |
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| 04 | RAINBOW | Iris drops Bob
RAIN (=drops) + BOW (=bob (down)) |
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| 06 | INNKEEPER | Popular goalie entertains northern host
N (=northern) in [IN (=popular) + KEEPER (=goalie)] |
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| 07 | LOIRE | River left mineral deposit skirting island
L (=left) + [I (=island) in ORE (=mineral deposit)] |
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| 08 | TWOPENCE | Coin made from copper core
The core (=middle letters) of “co-PP-er” is “pp” (=twopence) |
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| 11 | BLUE | Squander ball user in odd positions
B<a>L<e> U<s>E<r>; “in odd positions” means odd letters only are used |
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| 15 | MANDOLINE | Staff work out course for cutter
STAFF (=man, as verb) + DO (=work out, e.g. a sum) + LINE (=course); a mandoline is a kitchen utensil for slicing vegetables, hence “cutter” |
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| 17 | RECEPTION | Wedding party // check in here
Double definition: people check in to a hotel in reception |
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| 18 | SPECTRUM | Small pick lacking length and range
S (=small) + P<l>ECTRUM (=pick, “lacking length (=L)” means letter “l” is dropped) |
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| 20 | ATOM | Bread supplier stocks nothing, or almost nothing
O (=nothing) in ATM (=”bread” supplier, cryptically, i.e. hole-in-the-wall, cashpoint) |
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| 21 | PREMIER | Top rock group blocks promenade
R.E.M. (=rock group, from US) in PIER (=promenade) |
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| 22 | YELLOW | What papers eventually do // for chicken
Double definition: papers eventually yellow with age AND yellow is cowardly, chicken |
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| 24 | MICRO | Miniature painter Joan tours clubs
C (=clubs, in cards) in MIRÓ (=painter Joan, i.e. the Spaniard) |
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| 25 | ACORN | American sailors grip firm piece of mast
CO (=firm, company) in [A (=American) + RN (=sailors, i.e. Royal Navy)]; mast is acorns, beechnuts that are fed to pigs |
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Very enjoyable puzzle from Radian. My experience was v similar to yours, RR, inasmuch as I solved VIOLET more through thematic suggestion than wordplay.
I wondered if COMMODORE (APPLE, even) was added to complement SPECTRUM (hazy memory of early computing gadgets)
Many thanks to both
Thanks Radian and RR
baerchen @ 1: I think you may be onto something. There was also an early domestic MICRO computer called the ACORN ATOM.
And who can forget the catchphrase from Captain Scarlet, “SPECTRUM IS GREEN”?
Got there without help, for the first time in a few days. Held up, though in the NW corner as I couldn’t remember any African ports with only 4 letters for 1dn, and was trying to justify ‘raillery’ (‘banter’, hence ‘passing comments’) for 1ac (‘lines’ could have been ‘ll’ or ‘ry’). Had I seen the theme, which was obvious enough, I might have got ORANGE a bit sooner. I did wonder where RED had got to out of the RAINBOW/SPECTRUM but of course it’s half the answer to 28ac.
CoD has to be AB INITIO for its surface misdirection, with BRAND-NEW a close second.
Thanks, Radian and RatkojaRiku
I found this quite a slog but I did finish it, even if I couldn’t parse several, so thanks for the explanations.
I totally failed to spot both themes. I had a Sinclair Spectrum.