A puzzle from Peto that perhaps could have done with a bit of editing.
(apologies for late blog)
There wasn’t a lot wrong with this puzzle, if you’re OK with the occasional obscure reference (15a, 3d eg), and a few superfluous small words like “a” and “the” and “of” littered across the clues, most of which were unnecessary, and could have been edited out, along with the possibly redundant “German” in 9d. Many solvers will be perfecty OK with the inclusion of these, but they may raise the hackles of some of the more Ximenean amongst us.
Many of the clues were excellent, 1a, 13a and 8d being my favourites.
Thanks, Peto.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SISYPHUS | Legendary king’s son is terribly pushy (8) |
| S(on) IS + *(pushy)
Sisyphuys was a mythical king of Corinth, punished for his conceit by the gods. His punishment was to roll a boulder to the top of a hill every day, only to watch it roll back down again and hit him, so that he had to repeat the feat every day. |
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| 5 | THRIFT | Most of the Irish coming around to a measure of frugality (6) |
| TH(e) + <=Ir.(ish) + ft. (foot, therefore a measure) | ||
| 10 | FOR FREE | In favour of release without charge (3,4) |
| FOR in favour of) + FREE (relaease) | ||
| 11 | GO-AHEAD | Enterprising leader of Indian state (2-5) |
| The leader of Goa (an Indian state on the South West coast) could be described as the GOA HEAD. | ||
| 12 | SANDPIPER | Praised Pep’s initial resolve to include new winger (9) |
| *(praised p) where the P is the initial of Pep “to include” N(ew)
In this clue, Pep is Pep Guardiola, manager of Manchester City and “winger” refers not to a footballer, but to a bird. |
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| 13 | HOVER | Remain undecided about joining Hearts (5) |
| OVER (“about”) “joining” H(earts)
Two football-related clues in a row, there. |
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| 15 | ABBAS | Fleischer film disregarding obstruction of Algerian nationalist leader (5) |
| (bar)ABBAS
This was a doubly obscure clue in that neither Barabbas, the 1961 Richard Fleischer biblical movie, nor Ferhat Abbas, the provisional leader of the not-yet independent Algeria (1958-61), is particularly well-known, it could be argued. |
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| 16 | OVERKILL | Weaken on account of earlier excessive use (8) |
| KILL (weaken) with OVER (on account of) “earlier” | ||
| 19 | EXCUSE ME | Former copper to consider accepting member’s apology for slight impropriety (6,2) |
| EX (former) + Cu (copper) + SEE (consider) “accepting M(ember) | ||
| 20 | OMANI | Somewhat womanish fellow from the Middle East (5) |
| Hidden in “wOMANIsh” | ||
| 21 | PASSE | Disappear with earl’s old hat (5) |
| PASS + E(arl) | ||
| 23 | BLACK FLAG | Spooner’s US publicity agent to steal banner of anarchism (5,4) |
| FLACK (American word for a publicity agent) + BLAG (steal), which to the Reverend Spooner would be BLACK FLAG, rather than FLACK BLAG | ||
| 25 | PANNIER | Girl stuffing mole into basket (7) |
| ANN (girl) “stuffing” PIER (mole) | ||
| 27 | BOOSTER | Something to increase the effectiveness of electromagnets originally installed in flying robots (7) |
| E(lectromagnets) “installed in” *(robots) | ||
| 28 | SABLES | Animals from leading breeders entered in auctions (6) |
| B(reeders) “entered in” SALES (auctions) | ||
| 29 | ORDNANCE | Cannon formerly protecting road near the centre of Monaco (8) |
| ONCE (formerly) “protecting” Rd. (road) “near” (mo)NA(co), so O(RD NA)NCE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SOFT SOAP | Misconstrued as spot of persuasive flattery (4-4) |
| *(as spot of) | ||
| 2 | STRONGBOXES | Powerful Chinese nationalists rule out getting security devices (11) |
| STRONG (powerful) + BOXE(r)S (Chinese nationalists with R(ule) “out”)
The Boxer Rebellion was a rebellion by Chinese nationalists known as Yihetuan, who became known as Boxers in English due to the martial arts they used. |
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| 3 | PARI PASSU | Norm and I go through university together (4,5) |
| PAR (norm) + I + PASS (go through) + U(niversity)
In law, pari passu means “side by side” or “together”. |
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| 4 | USE UP | Wear out of habit at college (3,2) |
| USE (habit) + UP (at college)
“Up”, meaning “at university” or “at college” is an old-fashioned term nowadays. |
||
| 6 | HEATH | Johnnie needs no introduction as a former PM (5) |
| (s)HEATH (Johnnie = “condom”)
Refers to Ted Heath, Tory PM from 1970 to 1974. |
||
| 7 | IRE | Disastrous to ignore daughter’s anger (3) |
| (d)IRE (diastrous “ignoring” D(aughter)) | ||
| 8 | TUDOR | House party held in ancient city at conclusion of fast (5) |
| DO (party) “held in” UR (ancient city) “at” (fas)T, so T-U(DO)R | ||
| 9 | AGGRIEVE | Injure German through a piece of armour by the sound of it (8) |
| Homophone of A GREAVE.
It could be argued that the “German” in the clue is superfluous. A greave was a piece of armour protecting the shin. |
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| 14 | VULGAR LATIN | Colloquial dialect of unrefined Spaniard perhaps (6,5) |
| VULGAR (unrefined) LATIN (Spaniard, perhaps) | ||
| 16 | OVERBORE | Dominated by Eve, Rob or Dicky (8) |
| *(eve rob or), with “dicky” as the anagrind. | ||
| 17 | KNOCK DOWN | Reduce the price of pink feathers (5,4) |
| KNOCK (pink, as in the noise made by a failing or “knocking” engine), + DOWN (feathers) | ||
| 18 | LINGERIE | Row about Ms Halliwell’s underwear (8) |
| LINE (row) “about” GERI (Halliwell, member of the Spice Girls (Ginger Spice)) | ||
| 21 | PEPYS | Record year covered by extremely pompous diarist (5) |
| E.P. (record) + Y(ear) “covered by” P(ompou)S, so P(EP Y)S , referring of course to Samuel Pepys | ||
| 22 | ELIDE | Suppress some novel ideas (5) |
| Hidden in “novEL IDEas” | ||
| 24 | AMBER | Colour of Balding’s top mare is unusual (5) |
| *(mare b), where the B is top of B(alding) | ||
| 26 | NUB | Roll back a small piece (3) |
| <=BUN (roll) | ||
*anagram
In 9dn doesn’t German need to be inserted to make up the second G?
Possibly, but I think the clue works without it – I have slightly amended the blog to allow for it being possible that the “German” is required.
Didn’t care much for this one. Well, you can’t win them all and I’m sure many will like it. I’m ok with 3d, simply because it was so easy to guess and then look up. 15a is too obscure for my liking. Spoonerisms often cause some dissension amongst solvers and I wasn’t keen on 23a. Never heard that meaning of FLACK and it’s not in my dictionary. I always thought blag meant cadge rather than steal but a check showed it can mean either.
A most unchuckleworthy spoonerism.
Thanks Peto and loonapick
Thought that this was a very good puzzle which only got better when I re-read the clues afterwards to appreciate the silky smooth and storytelling surfaces after it was finished.
Clues such as 1a where I’d knew enough of Greek legends to remember the name of SISYPHUS, and then to be reminded on looking him up, that he was condemned to eternally ‘push’ the rock up a hill. Although the depth of the football references in 12a and 13a passed me by, the same applies.
Even the obscure PARI PASSU and ABBAS have these similarly smooth surfaces. With the latter, and without knowing of the film, I knew of the biblical character and was able to deduce the answer. I wonder if the surface refers to Ari Fleischer in his role of White House Press Secretary under George Bush and Algeria?
Anyway, I enjoyed solving it.