Armistice day and a puzzle from Serpent, who is rapidly becoming a favourite setter of mine.
Serpent’s usual high quality clues were in evidence. The physicist in me liked 22dn whilst the humour of 15ac made me laugh. The mathematician in me 21dn. Plenty more to choose from.
It wouldn’t be a Serpent puzzle without something hidden – All the answers contained the letter T. As did the symmetry of the grid.
So let’s take a time out to remember those who died in the war to end all wars which ended 99 years ago today. Never have so many given so much for so little.
Thanks Serpent
Key:
Rev. Reverse DD Double definition * anagram Underline definition
Across
1 Claim actress arranged to have head of casting dismissed (6)
(actress – c (head of casting))* = ASSERT
4 One gets floored in minor road rage incident! (6)
Car pet – minor road rage incicent = CARPET
10 Discipline conservative press (7)
C (Conservative) + hasten (press) = CHASTEN
11 Reveal secrets of company in exile (7)
Out (reveal secrets) + cast (company) = OUTCAST
12/17 One pays for letting American on vacation into camp (6)
An (American on vacation) In tent (camp) = TENANT
13 Perhaps man‘s prudish friend married only once (7)
Prim (prudish) + mate (friend) – m (married only once) = PRIMATE
14 Wreck theatre that’s brought forward start of play during performance (7)
To do (performance) around rep (theatre) moving p (start of play) = TORPEDO
15 Heard speculation about female painter’s future work and building material (6,3,4)
Homonym of What will Anne daub? = WATTLE AND DAUB
18 Upset business heretic het up about question beforehand (5,3,5)
Q (question) beforehand + (heretic het up)* = QUEER THE PITCH
25 Heather wraps books in blue material (7)
Erica (Heather) around OT (books) = EROTICA
26 This could be accidental or innate (7)
DD NATURAL
27 See 16 Down
28 Author’s innate simplicity (7)
I’ve (Author’s) in-nate = NAIVETE
29 Guests beginning to get drunk and intimate (7)
(guests + g)* = SUGGEST
30 Reason fool is taken in for example (6)
Nit (fool) in say (for example) = SANITY
31 Miserable git recounted gag (6)
Homonym of Retch (gag) = WRETCH
Down
1 Welcome legislation enshrining central European parliament’s principal elements (6)
Act (legislation) around CEP (central European Parliament) = ACCEPT
2 Endurance of running man is boosted by cheers (7)
(man is)* around Ta (cheers) = STAMINA
3 Withdraw pamphlet supporting monarch’s return (7)
Rev ER (monarch) + tract (pamphlet) = RETRACT
5 What editor did perhaps is read half of letter out (7)
(read + let (half of letter))* = ALTERED
6 Palate titillated by university’s high table? (7)
(palate)* + u (university) = PLATEAU
7 Military exercises eradicating country’s borders as well (6)
State (country) – borders (Se) + too (as well) = TATTOO
8 Charges for borrowing lead to repossession in properties south of Bury (8,5)
Inter (bury) + estates (properties) around r (lead to repossession) = INTEREST RATES
9 With substance abuse sensed feeling of satisfaction (13)
Content (with substance) + (sensed)* = CONTENTEDNESS
16/27 Article underpinning support for course to develop cutting edge (6)
Tee (support for course) + the (article) = TEETHE
17 See 12 Across
19 Being in ideal place to sort pain out (7)
(pain out)* = UTOPIAN
20 Distinguished artist who stayed in bed starting broadcast late (7)
Emin (artist who stayed in bed) + vent (broadcast) – v (started late) = EMINENT
21 Entering missing name changes nothing? (7)
(entering – n)* = INTEGER
22 It’s something I could stand for now (7)
Cryptic definition I equates to current in Physics = CURRENT
23 Playing this in the second half of June isn’t unusual (6)
(ne + isn’t)* = TENNIS Cryptic definition
24 One’s gripped by this part of transmission (6)
DD CLUTCH
Favourite of mine too. Had to look in Chambers for 18-never heard of it. Thanks twencelas and Serpent.
28ac I parsed as IVE (author’s) in NATE. Not as hard as some recent Saturday fare and of course I didn’t spot the T shapes. Thanks to S&B
Brilliant. Fantastic clue for CURRENT
many thanks to both
Parsed 28a as Paul@2. Spotting the T theme early helped. Actually spotted it in grid before starting, so was expecting it from the get go. Didn’t parse 15a, but answer was clear. Not sure why the blog has a question mark in 12/17 for AmericaN on vacation, I.e. removing all but end letters. Favourites were NAÏVETÉ, SUGGEST, TENNIS and CURRENT.
Thanks Serpent, twencelas
Super clues. I was also looking out, so spotted the Ts which helped it all in quite quickly, along with some generous definitions.
Favourites CURRENT, SUGGEST, CHASTEN, CONTENTEDNESS, TENNIS
Am I missing something obvious that identifies Anne as a female painter in 15a?
TFO@6. Although this was the one I didn’t parse, I take Anne to simply refer to ‘female’ with ‘daub’ giving the painter. I maybe wrong though.
@6,7
As I think twencelas says, the clue is a homophone of “what’ll Anne daub?” ie “what will Anne paint next?”
Baerchen@8. Yes that was what I was attempting to say. That is, Anne isn’t referring to a particular painter, which I think TFO was wondering about, just denoting the gender.
Thanks @PaulA – blog corrected – @Hovis Have remove the stray ‘?’ Certainly my view on the female painter is that Anne is just a generic female (Apologies to any Annes out there who resent being called generic).
Not too taxing for a Saturday. We enjoyed this, particularly the topical allusion in the clue for 1ac. Otoh we didn’t rate the clue for 20dn – not sure that Ms Emin actually stayed in bed, or that ‘vent’ is exactly synonymous with ‘broadcast. CURRENT was brilliant, though, as others have said.
Thanks, Serpent and Twencelas
Good stuff as usual with the popular current being my pick of the day. Thanks to Old Snake Hips for the puzzle and to Twence for the blog.
Cez Anne perhaps? 🙂
I am a huge admirer of Serpent’s crosswords but I’m afraid this one left me relatively cold.
I can’t explain why.
Just like Hovis I saw the T-grid rightaway and knowing what Serpent did on earlier occasions, it was clear what was happening here.
I couldn’t fully explain the homophone in 15ac (and still don’t get it, despite posts above), and was surprised by “nothing?” for INTEGER (21d).
The clue that baerchen and others singled out (CURRENT, 22d) was simply stunning.
So, what happens in 28ac is also accepted in the Independent nowadays?
Many thanks twencelas for blogging a, let’s make no mistake, good but for me slightly underwhelming puzzle.
Probably, one of those days! 🙂
Many thanks to twencelas for the excellent blog and to those who’ve taken the time to solve and comment.
The intended parsing for NAÏVETÉ is indeed I’VE in NATE. (I wouldn’t normally use something like ‘innate’ to indicate ‘in NATE’ but once I’d seen the possibility I seemed unable to see any other way of clueing the word.) One other minor point about parsing is that I had SENT, rather than VENT, in mind for ‘broadcast’.