An interesting and somewhat special puzzle from Gozo. Sorry the blog is a little later than usual but it is holiday time, snowing heavily and the usual schedule has gone to pot.
Here we have an impressive grid-fill with a mix of easy and tricky clues.
The grid contains a triple pangram, each letter of the alphabet included three times. Moreover it is only one letter Q short of a quadruple pangram. This is very impressive. I think this is the third triple pagnram I have blogged while at fifteensquared, but probably my favourite in that there were no obscure words here. There is some general knowledge required: Shakespeare, Dickens, Nefertiti and Zola but I wouldn’t describe them as obscure. Well done Gozo!
UPDATE: this is two letters short of a quadruple pangram: G and Q.
| Across | ||
| 1 | JAQUES | James embracing that French character in AYLI (6) |
| JAS (James, book of Bible) containing (embracing) QUE (that, in French) – a melancholy character in Shakespeare’s As You Like It | ||
| 4 | SQUAWKED | Small wife trembled outside and complained loudly (8) |
| S (small) then W (wife) inside (with…outside) QUAKED (trembled) | ||
| 10 | MAILBOX | 9lb wrecked for private letter container (7) |
| anagram (wrecked) of AXION (clue number 9) and LB – very nice! | ||
| 11 | IMPROVE | Make things better for one member having turned over (7) |
| I (one) MP (member, of parliament) having anagram (turned) of OVER | ||
| 12 | JAZZ | Apple providing music (4) |
| double definition – a variety of apple | ||
| 13 | JOCKEY CLUB | Scotsman confused by clue for commercial horse-racing group (6,4) |
| JOCK (Scotsman) with anagram (confused) of BY CLUE | ||
| 15 | TYCOON | Magnate from outskirts of Torbay gets company working (6) |
| TorbaY (outskirts of) with CO (company) and ON (working) | ||
| 16 | FIJIANS | Provided backward judge is covering an island race (7) |
| IF (provided) reversed (backward) J (judge) then IS containing (covering) AN – the people of Fiji | ||
| 20 | PLUMBER | One fruit and some others for workman (7) |
| PLUM (one fruit) and BERries (other fruit, some of) | ||
| 21 | STAFFA | All the employees by a Hebridean isle (6) |
| STAFF (all the employees) with A | ||
| 24 | EDWIN DROOD | Novel making editor turn cross (5,5) |
| ED (editor) WIND (turn) and ROOD (cross) – a novel by Dickens, unfinished at the time of his death | ||
| 26 | URGE | Party leader’s inner strong desire (4) |
| I can’t explain this. Possibly _URGE_ is the name of the leader of a political party? UPDATE: Nicola stURGEon, leader of the Scottish National Party | ||
| 28 | ANTIQUE | Auction item – one that’s quite odd (7) |
| AN (one) with anagram (that’s odd) of QUITE | ||
| 29 | EXOTICA | “Kiss and Love” in a quote about strange things (7) |
| X (a kiss) and O (love) in A CITE (quote) reversed (about) | ||
| 30 | SHRIEKED | Screamed “Quiet!” and “It smelt bad”, we’re told (8) |
| SH (quiet!) and RIEKED sounds like (we are told) “reeked” (it smelled bad) | ||
| 31 | VARIES | Differs showing V-sign (6) |
| V and ARIES (sign, of the zodiac) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | JUMP JETS | Harriers bound to fountains (4,4) |
| JUMP (bound) with JETS (fountains) | ||
| 2 | QUIZZICAL | Mildly amused Jack left jacuzzi with half the liquor spilt (9) |
| anagram (split) of jACUZZI missing J (jack) with LIQuor (half of) | ||
| 3 | EBBS | Declines, as Stanley and Beatrice lose their head (4) |
| Stanley and Beatrice Webb losing their head would be ‘EBBS (two Webbs). I can find Beatrice and Sidney Webb, economists and social reformers, but I can’t find any Stanley Webb who would be well enough known to appear in a puzzle. Is this just a typo or is there a Stanley Webb that I don’t know about? | ||
| 5 | QUICK FIX | Tenderest feelings shot as temporary solution (5,3) |
| QUICK (tenerest feelings, eg cut to the quick) with FIX (shot, of drugs) | ||
| 6 | ASPHYXIATE | Wrecked taxi, he pays for throttle (10) |
| anagram (wrecked) of TAXI HE PAYS – words like this must be a pangramist’s dream | ||
| 7 | KNOLL | Hillock appearing when returning from stroll on Kerrera (5) |
| found reversed inside stroLL ON Kerrera | ||
| 8 | DWEEBS | Fools society girls around half the week (6) |
| DEBS (society girls) containing (around) WEek (half of) | ||
| 9 | AXIOM | An accepted truth that amateur team receives award (5) |
| A (amateur) XI (eleven, a team in cricket or football for example) with OM (Order of Merit, award) | ||
| 14 | COMMUNIQUE | Official bulletin about love with gents in France. That’s a one-off (10) |
| C (circa, about) O (zero, love in tennis) M M (gents in France, two monsieurs) with (that’s, that has) UNIQUE (one off) | ||
| 17 | NEFERTITI | First lieutenant drops sultan for Pharaoh queen (9) |
| anagram (implied, not indicated) of FIRst lIEuTENanT missing SULTAN | ||
| 18 | REPRIEVE | Delay execution of agent, always up about one (8) |
| REP (agent) then EVER (always) reversed (up) containing I (one) | ||
| 19 | GATEWAYS | Imposing portals off-stage – way in (8) |
| anagram (off) of STAGE containing (with…in) WAY | ||
| 22 | VEGANS | Strict consumers putting half the eggs in vehicles (6) |
| EGgs (half of) in VANS (vehicles) | ||
| 23 | Over-sentimental Cockney song and dance. Not half! (5) | |
| 25 | WATER | Restaurant employee drops one drink (5) |
| WAiTER (restaurant employee) missing I (one) | ||
| 27 | ZOLA | Half a lozenge upset French novelist (4) |
| A LOZenge (half of) reversed (upset) | ||
*anagram
Gozo, thanks for the puzzle. To answer your query re:26 Across, Nicola StURGEon is the Leader of the SNP.
D’oh! Living in Scotland myself how could I not have seen that! Thank you John.
I have HOKEY at 23d, although I toyed with gooey too. I am embarrassed to say I had Jiquem at 1a.
Thanks PeeDee
I think 23ac is HOKEY – half of hokey cokey (Cockney song and dance).
Your parsing of 19dn needs a little revision. 😉
The only Stanley I could find for 3dn was Stanley Webb Davies.
I also had Hokey for 23d – half of Hokey Cokey. So close to a quadruple without obscure clues and words – a real achievement. Thanks to S&B.
Muffyword and Gaufrid – yes, I think HOKEY is better. I thought of it at the time but didn’t realise it was a real word.
I put in GOOEY because it supplied a G missing from the quadruple pangram; I mistakenly thought there were plenty of Hs in the grid already. At this point I was still hoping to find the remaining Q in my last unsolved entry.
By the way, I can only see 3 H’s, including the one in ‘hokey’, so at least a Q and an H short of a quadruple.
PeeDee@6. We crossed. So a G short as well. Are you seeing H’s that I am not? One in 6d, one in 30a and the one in Hokey. Where else?
Hovis – yes, we have been crossing. I mistakenly thought there were enough Hs in the grid already. I must have corrected my comment as you were typing.
How nice to have a triple pangram without having to search the memory banks for obscurities. Well done and thank you to Gozo, and thank you to PeeDee too
Agree with Sue, it’s very important, I suppose, not to have clunky clues when multiple alphabets are deployed. I think we have now had at least three triples, and one quadruple, and I think I remember all being very good on the clueing side.
Congratulations Gozo, and thanks to PD.
Dropped by on this one, started a desultory sole & spotted the multiple pangram almost straightaway & became engrossed with the mechanics of it. Great fun and a very elegant waste of time. Thanks to Gozo & PeeDee.
Well done Gozo. Enjoyed this one.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee. I was stumped by HOKEY and could not parse URGE or NEFERTITI – and, not surprisingly, I missed the triple pangram.
After entering ASPHYXIATE I knew that we were in pangram territory. Most solvers will find it a treat to have a triple pangram but if I’m honest it leaves me cold as ice.
While I enjoyed the crossword, I do not think it was fully up to Gozo’s standard. Perhaps, I missed the usual theme.
In 30ac (SHRIEKED), for me ‘reeked’ and ‘it smelt bad’ are not the same [because of ‘it’].
And 17ac: PeeDee, you say it’s an anagram that is implied and not indicated. Well, not indicated, yes. But implied? By using ‘for’? Not my cup of tea, I’m afraid. Also, the subtraction of ‘sultan’ comes before the intended anagram and should have been signposted by an additional anagram indicator. Nobody seems to be bothered today, so blame it once more on me.
Sil, you have a lot of rules that the setter must follow. I can’t help noticing that these rules don’t bring you much happiness. When you say “nobody seems bothered” the question that immediately springs to my mind is why on earth would we be? There seem to be a lot of happy solvers here: if we only followed your advice then instead of being happy we could all be left as “ice cold” as you were.
Seriously: why would we want to spoil the enjoyment so that some some arbitrary “rules” are obeyed?
PeeDee, it’s not me who has ‘a lot of rules that the setter must follow’, it’s the world of setting crosswords in general that has certain basic rules.
Don’t worry, I am a very happy person. Solving shedloads of crosswords week-in week-out and seeing what setters do and don’t has shaped (and is still shaping) my view on what I think good crossword setting is. I did not say that this was a ‘bad’ crossword and I have nothing against Gozo – far from that. But the two clues (only two!) I mentioned were just a bit iffy, in my opinion. When I flag things like that up, it seems indeed that most solvers cannot be bothered. You say: the question that immediately springs to my mind is why on earth would we be? OK, fine by me, although it comes across as ‘why should we think somewhat deeper about things’. It’s just like politics in this country. For me, a huge part of the fun of solving crosswords is tackling clues in which precision goes hand in hand with good surface readings. Think of Arachne, Picaroon, Nutmeg, Hoskins, Serpent, Everyman, Falcon, Anax/Loroso, Wanderer. I’ve become more and more convinced that for a lot of solvers, perhaps the vast majority, the setter is allowed to apply some dubious ‘rules’ to enhance the surface of a clue and/or to raise more smiles. I have a different opinion and, apparently, telling the world what I think stands in the way of the happiness of others. So be it then.
As to pangrams, a compiler who also writes for the FT once called it a form of the self-indulgence. Another one made clear that spotting a pangram can be helpful to finish the last bits of a puzzle. I agree. A pangram is fine. Multiple pangrams are, in my opinion, pointless things. They give me no extra pleasure but if others get excited, enjoy!
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Really entertaining crossword with a pangram that was pretty obvious early on … and then a double pangram. I knew with no third H that I was in trouble if there was a triple in the making … and so it was with GOOEY needing to be HOKEY.
Apart from the pangram, the clues in themselves were interesting and varied.
With regard to the conversation above, it just goes to show the different enjoyment / irritation that each of us get out of solving these things. Personally, as long as I can confidently complete a grid from the clues, I’m not particularly fussed about the grammatical correctness of the clue construction. In fact, I quite like the occasional quirky puzzles that come along from time to time.