Not sure how I feel about Orense’s Thursday offering.
Most of this puzzle was fine, with some good surfaces, my favourite being 15ac.
Unfortunately, some of the surfaces were clumsy (29ac), “starting late” and “starts late” were both used in the same way at 12ac and 28ac, and using “gets rid of” for SLINGS at 24 ac is not different enough from the SLING part of “slingshot”.
I’m not sure of the parsing of 3dn, as UPSET seems to be defined twice (or is it three times with “advantage and fix” leading to UP and SET?).
I’m also unsure about “planned” as an anagram indicator at 1ac.
Maybe I’m just in a grumpy mood this morning (in which case, I apologise), but I do feel that the puzzle could have benefitted from some editing.
| Across | ||
| 1 | INSOUCIANCE | Carefree air of one before Unesco planned to include Inca ruins? (11) |
| I (“one”) “before” *(unesco) “to include” *(inca), so I-NSOU(CIAN)CE
Planned as an anagrind? |
||
| 7 | GAP | Area covered by doctor opening? (3) |
| A(rea) “covered by” G.P. (“doctor”) | ||
| 9 | VIBES | Struggles to take in Belgium’s atmosphere (5) |
| VIES (“struggles”) “to take in” B(elgium) | ||
| 10 | INVECTIVE | Abusive language from creative undergoing change of heart (9) |
| INVENTIVE (“creative”) with its middle letter (“heart”) changed. | ||
| 11 | SPORTSMAN | Athlete upsetting patrons about stadium’s surroundings (9) |
| *(patrons) “about” S(tadiu)M | ||
| 12 | UPPER | Part of Oxford where dinner starts late? (5) |
| (s)UPPER | ||
| 13 | VENISON | Meat that’s so covered by toxin? (7) |
| SO “covered by” VENIN (“toxin”) | ||
| 15 | SATE | Fill in forms at election? (4) |
| Hidden in “formS AT Election” | ||
| 18 | OILS | Taking time off from works and paints (4) |
| (t)OILS | ||
| 20 | GARNISH | Fancy pinching new dress (7) |
| GARISH (“fancy”) “pinching” N(ew) | ||
| 23 | ADULT | A fool drops love for university, getting mature (5) |
| A D(o)(U)LT | ||
| 24 | SLINGSHOT | Gets rid of popular catapult (9) |
| SLINGS (“gets rid of”) + HOT (“popular”) | ||
| 26 | MALIGNANT | Evil glint – and a man goes to pieces (9) |
| *(glint a man) | ||
| 27 | LARCH | Tree that’s essential to classical architecture (5) |
| Hidden in (“essential to”) “classicaL ARCHitecture” | ||
| 28 | HOP | Store opening late in spring (3) |
| (s)HOP | ||
| 29 | TENTERHOOKS | On which one is anxious playing the snooker on top of this (11) |
| *(the snooker) “on” T(his) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | INVASIVE | Encroaching where flowers may be covering naked diva (8) |
| IN VASES (“where flowers may be”) “covering” (d)IV(a) | ||
| 2 | SUBPOENA | This may be officially served in a pub – one’s ordered (8) |
| *(a pub ones) | ||
| 3 | UPSET | Overturn advantage and fix bug (5) |
| 4 | IDI AMIN | This dictator and I would have one in the morning at home (3,4) |
| I’D (“I would”) + I (“one”) + A.M. (“in the morning”) + IN (“at home”) | ||
| 5 | NOVENAS | Flipping healthy after thirty days prayers! (7) |
| <=SANE (“healthy”, flipping) “after” Nov. (“thirty days”) | ||
| 6 | ENCOUNTER | Meeting in French bar (9) |
| EN (“in” in French) + COUNTER (“bar”) | ||
| 7 | GRIPPE | Complaint about onset of Parisian flu (6) |
| GRIPE (“complaint”) “about” P(arisian) | ||
| 8 | POETRY | Literature form that’s prose oddly on test (6) |
| P(r)O(s)E + TRY (“test”) | ||
| 14 | SKIN-TIGHT | Second family? Mean with money and clingy (4-5) |
| S(econd) + KIN (“family”) + TIGHT (“mean with money”) | ||
| 16 | HITHERTO | Success – the girl’s almost top up to now (8) |
| HIT (“success”) + HER (“the girl’s”) + TO(p) | ||
| 17 | THATCHES | First of the broods fixes roofs (8) |
| T(he) + HATCHES (“broods”) | ||
| 19 | SUSTAIN | Mark of dishonour, accepting American support (7) |
| STAIN (“mark of dishnour”) “accepting” U.S. (“American”) | ||
| 20 | GRISTLE | What’s left on the plate set girl off! (7) |
| *(set girl) | ||
| 21 | WARMTH | Conflict on the borders of Muscat helps initially generating heat (6) |
| WAR (“conflict”) + M(usca)T + H(elps) | ||
| 22 | PULL-UP | Either way, this might mean arrest (4-2) |
| Palindrome | ||
| 25 | GULCH | Defile church after 22’s instruction (5) |
| CH(urch) “after” <=LUG (“pull” up, see 22dn) | ||
*anagram
3d has two definitions: ‘overturn’ and ‘bug’; and wordplay UP=advantage + SET=fix.
Agree with Andrew@1. A quick solve. My dictionary lists grippe as archaic but it was simple to get, so no complaint. Not keen on supper for dinner but that’s probably just me.
La grippe is the usual French word for flu, so maybe “Parisian” is doing double duty.
Not over-challenging but beautifully clued.Very enjoyable.
Thanks Orestes and loonapick
A pleasant crossword that was mostly done over a lunchtime bowl of soup in a very wintry day down under. No real holdups and no real gripes – although the GRIPPE feels like it is starting to make headway on this victim!!!
Oh …. just saw that there was a problem – I’d finished with SITS which took a little while to get my head around (‘fill in forms’ (as the backless bench that one sits in) and what one does after the election) – oh dear !!!
I can see what you mean about the editing, as for me too there are a number of niggles that could have been sorted out. Most of it is the usual, i.e. the confusion arising between the surface readings and what’s actually needed at the cryptic level.
UPSET
I think this is definition/ wordplay/ definition.
First def is ‘overturn’, then we have ‘up’ = advantage (another mistake, as ‘having advantage’ is what he means), then ‘fix’ = set, then the 2nd def ‘bug’.
Thanks for the comments re UPSET – I saw it as definition/wordplay/definition, and meant to write that in the body of the blog, but forgot. It did cause me some confusion while solving though.
Thanks Orestes & Loonapick.
I knew (la) grippe from Adelaide’s lament in Guys & Dolls.
Yet another interpretation of 3 down is U =advantage (in the sense of U and non-U) + PSET = *(PEST = bug) with fix as the anagrind.
Although it was one of my last ones in, GRIPPE (7d) was one of those clues (that every now and then turn up) being easier for me, as a ‘foreigner’, than for the average Brit.
In the Netherlands ‘griep’ is an extremely common word meaning, indeed, flu.
Making the link with ‘grippe’ was obvious to me.
Ain’t language a funny thing?