I haven’t tackled many Peter puzzles. As is often the case with a relatively unfamiliar setter, a tentative start meant it took me a while to get going.
Things soon fell into place though. Plenty to like in there, and nothing that struck me as controversial or questionable. Just a good, enjoyable Sunday solve, so many thanks to Peter.
| Across | ||
| 9 | HUMDINGER | Fine example of smell associated with campanologist? (9) |
| HUM + DINGER. A campanologist is a bellringer. | ||
| 10 | ABELE | American insect seen round large tree… (5) |
| L in (A + BEE). A tree also known as silver poplar, the internet tells me. | ||
| 11 | PROBING | …searching for quiet bird close to clearing (7) |
| P + ROBIN + [hearin]G. | ||
| 12 | DISTAFF | Stick found by officers next to river (7) |
| DIS + the river TAFF. | ||
| 13 | TITCH | Tour leader getting skin problem from shrimp (5) |
| T[our] + ITCH. | ||
| 14 | DOWNRIGHT | Entitlement to drink is absolute! (9) |
| DOWN + RIGHT. Whimsically, one’s right to “down” e.g. a pint. | ||
| 16 | CORDON SANITAIRE | Doctor carried son into a protective environment (6,9) |
| Anagram of (CARRIED SON INTO A). A new term for me, but fairly easy to deduce once as few checking letters were in place. | ||
| 19 | SPLINTER | Little pieces of fibre blocking malfunctioning press (9) |
| LINT in PRESS*. | ||
| 21 | GAFFE | Mistake involving hook at end of line (5) |
| GAFF + [lin]E. A “gaff” is a hook used for landing large fish, it turns out. | ||
| 22 | EMPEROR | Space used by South American president restricted by Republican ruler (7) |
| EM + PERO[n] + R. | ||
| 23 | AQUARIA | Song about Queen attending animal’s debut in part of zoo (7) |
| (QU + A[nimal]) in ARIA. | ||
| 24 | ROMAN | Old person following recipe in Italian (5) |
| R + O + MAN. | ||
| 25 | ECTOPLASM | Mysterious substance emanating from a cop smelt terrible (9) |
| Anagram of (A COP SMELT). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHOPSTICKS | Piece of meat adheres to kitchen utensils (10) |
| CHOP + STICKS. | ||
| 2 | IMPOSTER | Quack is briefly married to Bill (8) |
| I[s] + M + POSTER. | ||
| 3 | FINISH | Dress made by name-dropping European… (6) |
| FIN[n]ISH. | ||
| 4 | AGOG | …on tenterhooks since meeting head of Givenchy (4) |
| AGO + G[ivenchy]. | ||
| 5 | TRADE WINDS | Rough tides drawn by tropical airflow (5,5) |
| Anagram of (TIDES DRAWN). Nice surface here, I thought. | ||
| 6 | SANSKRIT | Holy woman taking a new risk translated ancient language (8) |
| (A + N + RISK*) in ST. | ||
| 7 | PENANG | Write to government about uninhabited Aegean island (6) |
| A[egea]N in (PEN + G). | ||
| 8 | BEEF | Muscle complaint (4) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 14 | DISHEARTEN | Cast down to hell? Try to get close to Styx! (10) |
| DIS + HEAR + [sty]X. | ||
| 15 | THE RED ARMY | Other people holding roubles dare supply money to Soviet soldiers (3,3,4) |
| (R + DARE* + M) in THEY. | ||
| 17 | OWN BRAND | Cereal product included in downbeat range of supermarket goods (3,5) |
| BRAN in DOWN*. You have to separate “down” and “beat” to find the anagram indicator. I think some people don’t like that sort of thing, but it’s rather fun if you ask me. | ||
| 18 | INFERNAL | Conclude with penalty – essentially outrageous (8) |
| INFER + [pe]NAL[ty]. | ||
| 20 | LIPOMA | Doctored mail about cocked-up surgery for tumour (6) |
| OP< in MAIL*. | ||
| 21 | GRUMPY | Dwarf‘s bottom stuck between edges of gateway (6) |
| RUMP in G[atewa]Y. | ||
| 22 | ECRU | Start to embroider vintage fabric (4) |
| E[mbroider] + CRU. | ||
| 23 | ACTS | Book of information having missing folio (4) |
| [f]ACTS. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
Have thought previous Peter puzzles a little too simple even for Sunday, but this was an excellent workout and I thought well above average difficulty for IoS. Some really good clues with amusing surfaces – 25, 18, 21D, 24A, 14D (which I didn’t parse) etc.
Most enjoyable, thanks to Peter and to Simon Harding for the blog.
Having ripped through today’s Everyman in record time, I got straight into this with 1dn then very quickly slowed to a frustrating crawl. I seemed to tune in and out of the setter’s wavelength.
I liked HUMDINGER, ECTOPLASM and GRUMPY. Had to look up ABELE (but did figure it out at least), and needed all the crossers to get CORDON SANITAIRE. ECRU was my LOI because I’d discounted it earlier as being a colour, not a fabric.
Still not sure with 14dn how DIS = to hell.
Apart from that, all perfectly fair in retrospect.
19A is SPLINTERS. I’m pretty new to cryptic. I try to solve them all but usually get just 1/3 or so, then I look here to understand the ones I could not decipher.
Couldn’t finish this. Quite a few unknown words. Like swatty@2, I only know ECRU as a colour not a fabric and cannot find any reference to the contrary. Perhaps others can? Thought 14d was an imaginative clue. I think you need to take ‘to’ as a link word in this since DIS refers to hell (an alternative to hades) in reply to swatty’s comment. Although not a criticism as such, I would prefer ‘briefly’ in 2d to be replaced by ‘initially’ since ‘is briefly’ usually refers to the letter s as in ‘s. Thanks to all.
I didn’t have a problem finishing this but I found it remarkable for 1. the seemingly large variety of single letter indicators (head of Givenchy, end of line, start to embroider, tour leader etc.) 2. the lift-and-separate of “downbeat” and, especially, 3. the use of the derivative “end of Styx =x =ten”.
Thanks to Peter and SimonH
When I saw Peter’s name I thought, ‘ah, just what I need after yesterday’s trouncing’ as I’ve found him usually easy end with a few tougher ones thrown in on occasion in the past.
How wrong I was on the difficulty front! Definitely a step up in toughness of a shedload of gears and the puzzle beat me by a fair few in the end. I think some of this was due to the setter going harder and some was to do with 6 new words for me here, but I’m also a solver who relies a lot on crossers so if I don’t get enough in the grid then I miss the crucial letter that’ll help with an answer and open up more.
Anyhoo, enjoyed what I did do with my honours today going to some amusing surfaces that kept me going whilst what passes for my brain tried to solve the rest. Thanks to Peter for the puzz and to SH for the enlightenment.
Really enjoyed this one and didn’t find it too hard despite having to verify my answers for 10&16a.
Like Hovis@6 I wasn’t sure about ECRU being anything other than a colour but ‘unbleached linen’ is the first definition given in Chambers.
My only query is over 1d – I wouldn’t refer to CHOPSTICKS as kitchen utensils – more eating utensils.
Top clues for me were 9a plus 5,17&21d.
Thanks to Peter (do I detect a likeness to Warbler here?) and to Simon for the review.
A challenge but one met comfortable with just the occasional reference to Chambers to confirm what i was pretty certain of already. Quite a few humdingers of clues, including HUMDINGER itself, as well as DISHEARTEN and OWN BRAND.
jane@7: My Chinese daughter-in-law uses chopsticks as kitchen utensils, for example in beating eggs.
Thanks, Peter and Simon.
‘comfortably’ rather than ‘comfortable’
Hoskins @6 – A little bird tells me that Peter is a she not a he, you idiot. Apologies to Peter.
Makfan @3 – Welcome to the Indy threads, good to have you here. 🙂
Thanks Hovis @6. If I’d looked DIS up, I would have discovered it’s where the lower circles of hell are to be found.