This turned out to be an easier solve than we had expected, given Anax’s reputation, and the fact that it’s a Saturday puzzle. We were however held up by a few unusual words and some than were completely new to us – Chambers and Google came to the rescue yet again!
We were a little disappointed by the rather clunky surfaces in some clues, but were quite relieved that there were none of Anax’s signature long multi-word anagrams this time – we always seem to end up solving those with a few crossers and the enumeration rather than analysing the anagram fodder. We did like 26ac though!
We’re still 7 hours out-of sync with the UK, so responses to any comments may be a little delayed.
| Across | ||
| 1 | Old lady’s car without dipstick for oil (8) | |
| MACASSAR | MA (old lady) CAR round or ‘without’ ASS (dipstick) | |
| 6 | Riding behind, guards stop! (6) | |
| AHORSE | ARSE (behind) round or ‘guarding’ HO (stop) – not a word we hear much of these days! | |
| 9 | Juliet and, ultimately, Romeo, on way of working charm (4) | |
| MOJO | J (Juliet in the phonetic alphabet) O (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of Romeo) after or ‘on’ MO (modus operandi – way of working) | |
| 10 | Returned parcel, held forth, was amplifier (10) | |
| ELABOARATED | BALE (parcel) reversed or ‘returned’ ORATED (‘held forth’) | |
| 11 | Saw wheels on black floor (6) | |
| BOTTOM | MOTTO (saw) reversed or ‘wheeling’ after B (black) | |
| 12 | I’ll be topless, just fantastic (8) | |
| MYTHICAL | MY (‘I’ll be…’) |
|
| 13 | Old Conservative misfit, one moving far left (2-6) | |
| CI-DEVANT | C (Conservative) DEVIANT (misfit) with the ‘i’ (one) moving to the front or ‘far left’ – not phrase we’d come across before, and it seems to mean ‘formerly’ rather than ‘old’ – a rather loose synonym, in our humble opinion | |
| 15 | Jewish sectarian‘s contribution to limitless energy (6) | |
| ESSENE | Hidden in or ‘contributing to’ limitlESS ENErgy | |
| 17 | Withstand – apparently – traitor (6) | |
| WEASEL | W (with) EASEL (stand) | |
| 19 | Reclines with fantasy book in bed (4,4) | |
| LIES BACK | LIE (fantasy) + B (book) in SACK (bed) | |
| 21 | Drinker who primarily binges on no good bubbly? (4,4) | |
| WINE SNOB | W (first or ‘primary’ letter of ‘who’) + an anagram of BIN |
|
| 23 | Mineral that is cut by reversing plough (6) | |
| ILLITE | IE (that is) round or ‘cut by’ TILL (plough) reversed | |
| 24 | Collection points on ring roads? (10) | |
| TOLLBOOTHS | A play on two meanings of TOLL – the payment to use a road or bridge and the ‘ring’ of a bell | |
| 25 | Nurse, a non-professional, in retirement (4) | |
| AMAH | A + HAM (non-professional) reversed or ‘in retirement’ | |
| 26 | Self-employed joiner (6) | |
| HYPHEN | The HYPHEN is ‘employed’ to ‘join’ ‘self’ and ‘employed’ | |
| 27 | Bits of dry grass line choppy waters (3-5) | |
| RYE-STRAW | RY (railway – ‘line’) + an anagram of WATERS – anagrind is ‘choppy’ | |
| Down | ||
| 2 | After game, soldiers in A&E say sorry (9) | |
| APOLOGISE | POLO (game) GIS (soldiers) in A and E | |
| 3 | Minor charge a result of naughty videotape (no sex) (7) | |
| ADOPTEE | An anagram of |
|
| 4 | “The Last Of Us” company’s gaming platform (5) | |
| STEAM | S (last letter of ‘us’) TEAM (company) – we’d never heard of the ‘Steam’ gaming platform before | |
| 5 | Again accept orders to collect plug (7) | |
| READMIT | REMIT (‘orders’) round or ‘collecting’ AD (plug – advertisement) | |
| 6 | A greeting, one they – or he – exchanged (4,5) | |
| AHOY THERE | A (one) + an anagram of THEY OR HE – anagrind is ‘exchanged’ | |
| 7 | Where eggs are produced, everything’s the same (7) | |
| OVARIES | If everything’s the same, O (nothing) VARIES | |
| 8 | Why don’t we put up a standing stone? (5) | |
| STELA | LET’S (‘why don’t we’) reversed or ‘put up’ + A | |
| 14 | US state given private industrial city (9) | |
| ALLENTOWN | AL (Alabama – US State) LENT (given) OWN (private) – our last one in – we had to check that this is an industrial city | |
| 16 | I contain a fresh flower (9) | |
| NICOTIANA | An anagram of I CONTAIN A – anagrind is ‘fresh’ | |
| 18 | Secrecy the last resort? (7) | |
| STEALTH | An anagram of THE LAST – anagrind is ‘resort’ | |
| 19 | One presumably involved in throwing seafood (7) | |
| LOBSTER | If someone who provides tips can be called a ‘tipster’ then someone who lobs (throws) might conceivably be called a LOBSTER | |
| 20 | Put on weight after party, a stone (7) | |
| BALLAST | BALL (party) A ST (stone) | |
| 22 | Cream cakes yellow with poisonous growth (5) | |
| IVORY | OR (yellow) in or ‘caked by’ IVY (poisonous growth) | |
| 23 | Young ones mostly fat (5) | |
| ISSUE | I S (ones) SUE |
|
Easy? I think not. Excellent? Absolutely.
Took ages then saw a likely mistake as the connection between the across clues provide names.
SARAH,JOEL,TOMMY,TESS.ELLIE,BILL-then a gap then HENRY.
I had NICOTINIA instead of NICOTIANA(not the first time on that)
Then I saw SAM and just had to find that last H to complete.
Fantastic puzzle. well worth the effort.
Thanks B&J and the excellent Anax.(The Dean?)
Those names all being characters from the game referenced in 4d. Our setter’s been playing quite a lot of it of late I believe 😉
Excellent stuff. It’s great to have Anax back!
There’s an interesting post from Anax on twitter:
“That was the task; not just main characters, but in same order as we meet them. Sam/Henry appear together, but Henry seen first.”
I don’t know the game, but that’s some achievement!
I did enjoy macassar, which I got from a favourite word, antimacassar. I presume that Allentown was included to fit the themed intersecting words, but it’s a very vague and, to me, unsatisfactory clue. I didn’t know it as an industrial city at all, but from the war of independence. I wasn’t keen on the clue for tollbooths either, unless there’s some equivalence between booths and roads that I’ve missed.
I was OK with ci-devant, though. It means former, rather than formerly, so “old” isn’t much of a stretch at all.
I don’t think I’d call it excellent, because of the niggles, but it was pretty good all the same.
Enjoyed this and did well solve-wise in relation to my past Anax performances. I was pretty sure there was a theme because of the uncommon words in the grid, but didn’t spot it when I solved last night (well done Copmus @1!). Lots to like here as always so thanks to The Dean for the puzzle and to B&J for the blog.
Well done Anax – all is forgiven!
Thanks copmus for uncovering the theme – it definitely passed us by.
Out of interest we are on our way to Jackson Hole for the solar eclipse – along with thousands of others!
Nimrod last Saturday; then we saw it was Anax today and thought ‘uh-oh’. Well, we made a better start before grinding to a halt and needing rest and refreshment to continue. Finally had to confirm STEAM by googling and resort to a wordfinder for TOLLBOOTHS, ALLENTOWN and our LOI (we kicked ourselves on this one), WEASEL.
The theme passed us by and if we had spotted the hidden names they wouldn’t have meant anything to us.
The few obscurities were outweighed by some brilliant clues.
Thanks, Anax and B&J
Hope you have better luck, B&J, with the eclipse than we did in Luxembourg in 1999 – it was completely overcast!
Good to welcome back (again), Anax.
I found this quite a difficult puzzle but I finished it – not without ‘resources’ though.
I know that Anax is a fervent gamer and, therefore, didn’t object to the definition at 4d (STEAM).
The names, however, cleverly hidden in a Brendan way, were wasted on me.
That these characters were ordered in the way Simon S @3 told us is a remarkable achievement.
That said, if this were a Guardian crossword some commenters would have accused Anax of self-indulgence, GK nonsense, and whatever more.
Even worse, some would perhaps have qualified this puzzle as ‘poor’ (I am friendly here).
Not me, though.
I think this was lovely and I also think setters have the right to enjoy what they are doing.
Yesterday, Puck (known at this place as …) made a comment that had a similar feel.
Thanks B&J wherever you are (you seem to be everywhere nowadays, except in the UK 🙂 )
Greetings all, and thank you B&J for another terrific blog.
Thanks too to Sil for raising the subject of self-indulgence. I know I’ve mentioned it before but the blog always has new visitors so it’s worth repeating. It’s easy to regard thematic trickery, clue gimmicks etc as self-indulgent. In a way it is, but only to the extent that we have to indulge the need to occasionally stretch ourselves.
I consider myself extremely lucky to be working for myself, doing the thing I dreamed of doing since I was a kid. I’m also very lucky to be busy, but even the best job in the world can feel stale if you repeat the same task day after day. Once in a while you have to make other bits of brain do some work – not just for the sake of variety, but to keep yourself sharp.
As for the theme itself, it only came about because I noticed the number of the game’s good characters (the only other main one, Marlene, isn’t so nice) matched the number of alternate rows, so it had to be done, albeit with a few dozen grid iterations before they slotted into place.
And the game? Let me start by saying I don’t see myself as a gamer – or at least that I’m very fussy about the games I’ll play. Forget swords and sorcery, futuristic nonsense and childish stuff like Pokemon. Even survival horror games (the genre of The Last Of Us) like Resident Evil are of no interest. TLOU is something different; a magnificently natural script and voice acting to rival anything from Hollywood. It’s a five-star film with a great game bolted onto it. Oh, and the music. It’s composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, the chap who scored Brokeback Mountain.
If you want to treat yourself to a few hours of intense emotional drama, the first of a seven-part cinematic playthrough is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRqnZzmAg4w&spfreload=10