The puzzle can be found here.
Alberich is one of my favourite compilers, as he uses a diverse range of devices to confound us, and you need to be able to think laterally to solve his puzzles.
Unfortunately, this morning I failed to complete this one, or at least I failed to satisfactorily parse it, as I don’t know how to parse 10ac.
A little general knowledge was required to get a few, especially 1dn, but I quite like some general knowledge as you learn something as you solve.
Thanks, Alberich.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ROBOTICS | First of cosmonauts in orbit so developed branch of technology (8) |
| C(osmonauts) in *(orbit so) | ||
| 5 | MERCIA | Thanks to Nancy, amateur discovers old kingdom (6) |
| MERCI (“Thanks” in French, so to those living in “Nancy”) + A(mateur) | ||
| 9 | EGOMANIA | Abnomal self-concern, say, shown by leaderless country (8) |
| E.G. (“say”) shown by (r)OMANIA (leaderless “country”) | ||
| 10 | POMPOM | Jerry Maguire’s principal twice gets decoration (6) |
| POM twice? | ||
| 12 | ZADOK | Priest from South Africa died all right (5) |
| ZA (international car registration letters for “South Africa”) + D(ied) + OK (“all right”)
Zadok was on Old Testament priest, and “Zadok the Priest” was an anthem written by George Frideric Handel for the coronation of King George II in 1727. |
||
| 13 | PROFUSION | In favour of joining riot (9) |
| PRO (“in favour of”) + FUSION (“joining”) | ||
| 14 | FITTER | One installs machinery relatively well (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | OVIDUCT | Old bridge not a means of transporting eggs? (7) |
| O(ld) + VI(a)DUCT (“bridge”, not A) | ||
| 19 | ELEGANT | Polished and returned jade in the box (7) |
| <=T(NAG)ELE (“jade” in “the box”, where “jade” = NAG and “the box” = TELE(vision)) | ||
| 21 | GANDHI | German leads with greeting for non-violent freedom fighter (6) |
| G(erman) + AND (“with”) + HI (“greeting”) | ||
| 23 | CRACK A CAN | Hiding strain, accountant is able to open some beer (5,1,3) |
| CA (chartered “accountant”) hiding RACK (“strain”) + CAN (“is able to”) | ||
| 25 | CELLO | Passage in Purcell originally for this instrument (5) |
| Hidden in “PurCELL Originally” | ||
| 26 | FALTER | Alert fellow waving flag (6) |
| *(alert f) | ||
| 27 | TALENTED | With gift of story books, extremely elated (8) |
| TALE (“story”) + N.T. (“books”) + E(late)D | ||
| 28 | LATEST | Article seized by large river’s current (6) |
| A (“article”) seized by L(arge) TEST (“river”) | ||
| 29 | RECOURSE | Resort in York perhaps cancelling bill (8) |
| R(ac)ECOURSE (“York, perhaps”) with AC (“bill”) removed (cancelled) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RIENZI | Wagner opera in France’s nothing unknown, I added (6) |
| RIEN (“in France, nothing”) + Z (“unknown”) with I added.
“Rienzi” is an early Richard Wagner opera, first performed in 1842 and considered his first “hit”. |
||
| 2 | BROADSIDE | Bachelor’s on the verge of highway attack (9) |
| B(achelor) on ROADSIDE (“verge of highway”) | ||
| 3 | TRACK | Dog food? That’s about right (5) |
| TACK (“food”) about R(ight) | ||
| 4 | CHIPPER | Well, it’s a kitchen device (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | EVOLUTION | Unionist has to live on new housing development (9) |
| U(nionist) in (i.e housed by) *(to live on) | ||
| 7 | CAPRI | Island’s not half fantastic (5) |
| CAPRI(cious) (“fantastic”, halved) | ||
| 8 | AMMONITE | A small child needed about a day to find fossil (8) |
| A MITE (“small child”) about Mon. (“a day”) | ||
| 11 | TOGO | A state not for eating in? (4) |
| TO GO (“not for eating in”) | ||
| 15 | THANKLESS | Unrewarding time without Marvin? (9) |
| T(ime) + HANKLESS (“without (Hank) Marvin”) | ||
| 17 | UPHOLSTER | Cushion to support back (not bottoms) (9) |
| UPHOL(d) (“cushion”) + STER(n) (“back”), both without bottoms | ||
| 18 | PEACEFUL | Penny off fuel keeps one quiet (8) |
| P(enny) + *(fuel) keeps ACE (“one”) | ||
| 20 | TACT | Turned up at court, showing discretion (4) |
| TA (“at”, turned up) + Ct. (abbreviation of “court”) | ||
| 21 | GUNWALE | Part of ship’s unit’s heading north-west in strong wind (7) |
| U(nit) + NW (abbreviation of “north-west”) in GALE (“strong wind”) | ||
| 22 | FONDUE | Female performing expected cheesy dish (6) |
| F(emale) + ON (“performing”) + DUE (“expected”) | ||
| 24 | ALLOT | Often nurses left parcel out (5) |
| A LOT (“often”) nurses L(eft) | ||
| 25 | CREDO | Holding socialist’s firm belief (5) |
| Co. (“firm”) holding RED (“socialist”) | ||
*anagram
hi @loonapick
Jerry=chamberpot=po +M(aguire) twice
ps.. forgot to say thanks to you and Alberich; sorry
I always remember Alberich for his ‘purling’ &lit from a few years back – still one of the best ever clues imo. Struggled with this but was ok with 10a. The GK answers at 1d and 12a were unknown to me but easy to get. I also didn’t know OVIDUCT and this was one of my cheat-using-wordfit answers. I also had to use similar cheats to get UPHOLSTER and TOGO. Not sure I’ve met ‘jade’ for ‘nag’ in the equine sense but it does seem to ring a bell.
So, roundly beaten but a super cryptic with no complaints from me. Thanks to Alberich and loonapick.
I only saw TOGO later in the day-what a tea tray.
Thanks loonapick and Alberich-lovely stuff.
Lovely puzzle.
Took this with me on a train journey but needed to finish it when I got back. RIENZI, ZADOK and CELLO were no problem but I took a while to get and parse EVOLUTION and UPHOLSTER, but the parsing of POMPOM was obvious once I got it. 15dn held me up for a bit, thinking of Lee rather than Hank. Favourites included ROBOTICS and OVIDUCT.
For what it’s worth, and almost totally off-topic, Handel’s anthem Zadok the Priest has been used at every coronation since George II’s. Before that, William Lawes composed a setting for the coronation of Charles II – Lawes’s setting takes less time in total than Handel’s introduction!
Thanks, Alberich and loonapick.
Thanks Alberich and loonapick
Also found this quite difficult with the unusual words (RIENZI and ZADIK), the unusual meanings of other words (‘jade’, ‘riot’, CAPRICIOUS) and some tough parsing assignments (10a, 19a, 29a, 6d, 17d). Most enjoyable when they were able to be worked out though !
Finished in the NE corner with the tricky EVOLUTION, OVIDUCT and TOGO (which I needed a word finder to get) as the last few in.
This just made me grumpier than usual.
Tack=food?
Fantastic = Capricious?
Z=unknown? X or Y fine. Not Z.
Jerry=Po?
Whilst I was trying to complete this in my local pub, the landlady came over and said “I’m determined to solve at least one clue”. I explained to her how 1dn & 5ac are parsed. She sighed and commented that crosswords like this simply discourage her from learning how to enjoy cryptic crosswords. I felt the need to apologise to her.
Thanks Alberich & loonapick
Grumpy @ 8
tack = food is ages old, with specific reference to ‘hard tack’ = ship’s biscuits in the days of sail
Chambers eThesaurus has capricious = fantastic, so no problem, it’s supported…
X Y Z and N are all equally valid for unknowns – you can’t express a quadratic equation conceptually without at least three. a b & c also fulfill the same function
Jerry = chamberpot = po. No problem there either!