Today’s tribute puzzle has been provided by Serpent.
Today sees the hundredth anniversary of the birth of former South African President Nelson R (=Rolihlahla) Mandela. His name is spelt out across the top and bottom rows of the grid. The centenary of the birth is alluded to in 16, while the solutions at 7 and 11 as well as the clue at 12 also appear to refer to Mandela. There may indeed be other references here that I haven’t spotted.
I thoroughly enjoyed solving this puzzle, which I found rather challenging, and was somewhat helped out as a solver by a news item on the BBC that featured this anniversary, which I then identified as the ghost theme in today’s grid.
21D was new to be, but I could confirm it easily on Google. My favourite clue by far today was 9, for ingenuity and topicality – doubtless Serpent had compiled this puzzle long before Germany had crashed out of the World Cup prior to any encounter with France! This clue and 1 both included figures, but the solver couldn’t rely on these all referring to other grid entries. On a more negative note, it was disappointing to find the entry at 5 repeating a word used in its clue.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 08 | TURNPIKE | Jack-knife on bend in motorway around New York?
TURN (=jack-knife, of lorry) + PIKE (=bend, in e.g. diving); a turnpike is a toll road in the US |
| 09 | FROZEN | Germany lost to France 12-1
FR (=France) + <d>OZEN (=12; “Germany (=D, in IVR) lost” means letter “d” is dropped); frozen is without sensation, numb (=entry at 1) |
| 10 | IBERIA | One in 20 going naked in part of Europe
<l>IBERIA<n> (=one in Africa, i.e. entry at 20); “going naked” means “covers”, i.e. first and last letters, are dropped |
| 11 | PRISONER | Con‘s apparently more likely to claim lives
IS (=lives, as verb) in PRONER (=more likely) |
| 12 | EMANCIPATE | Cape inmate struggles free
*(CAPE INMATE); “struggles” is anagram indicator; Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island, just outside Cape Town |
| 15 | DEBT | Start, after leaving university, with this?
DEB<u>T (=start); “after leaving university (=U)” means letter “u” is dropped; many modern-day students leave university with a great deal of debt |
| 16/21 | ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE | Work no company endured for a long time
Cien años de soledad is a 1967 novel (“work”) by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez; cryptically, “one hundred years of solitude” is “a long time” to have “no company”!! |
| 19 | ARIA | Song, one from West Side Story needing no introduction?
<m>ARIA (=one from West Side Story); “needing no introduction” means first letter is dropped |
| 22 | SHORTAGE | Lack support to control children’s game
TAG (=children’s game) in SHORE (=support) |
| 24 | MARTYR | Revolutionary army recruits right person to ready to die for the cause
RT (=right) in *(ARMY), “revolutionary” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | PSYCHE | Tipsy cheerleader maintains consciousness
Hidden (“maintains”) in “tiPSY CHEerleader” |
| 27 | ESTRANGE | Isolate mutant rat genes
*(RAT GENES); “mutant” is anagram indicator |
| DOWN | ||
| 01 | NUMB | Head of state leaves 19 for dead
NUMB<er> (=19, i.e. a figure); “head of state (=ER, i.e. Elizabeth Regina) leaves” means letters “er” are dropped |
| 02 | ENTRENCH | Development of new hospital centre firmly put in place
*(N (=new) + H (=hospital) + CENTRE); “development of” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | LIBATION | Drink to celebrate release after indecisive statement is withdrawn
LIB<er>ATION (=release); “after indecisive statement (=er, um)” means letters “er” are dropped |
| 04 | SEEP | Well has a leak after being overhauled
PEES (=has a leak, urinates); “after being overhauled” indicates vertical reversal |
| 05 | OFFICE | Backing European Commission provided Foreign Office post
EC (=European Commission) + IF (=provided) + FO (=Foreign Office); “backing” indicates reversal |
| 06 | NO-GOOD | Indicate it’s okay to accept what’s sentimental and worthless
GOO (=what’s sentimental) in NOD (=indicate it’s okay) |
| 07 | REMEMBERED | Celebrated engineers honour fellow traveller
REME (=engineers) + MBE (=honour, i.e. Member of British Empire) + RED (=fellow traveller, i.e. communist) |
| 13 | MONARCHISM | Basis perhaps of Queen’s popularity is playing harmonic playing scales primarily
*(HARMONIC + P<laying> S<cales>); “primarily” means first letters only are needed in anagram, indicated by “playing”; the “Queen” of the definition is Elizabeth Regina and not the British rock band! |
| 14 | ARRAS | Artist reviewed another artist’s piece hanging on wall
AR (RA=artist, i.e. Royal Academician; “reviewed” indicates reversal) + RA’S (=artist’s); an arras is a wall-hung tapestry |
| 17 | DOLOMITE | Triumph of the 1970s? Securing drop in state benefit
OMIT (=drop, leave out) in DOLE (=state benefit); the Dolomite was a popular 1970s saloon car, produced by the Triumph Motor Company |
| 18 | EXTERNAL | Surface from swimming extra length’s first half
*(EXTRA + LEN<gth>); “first half” means first 3 of 6 letters only are used; “swimming” is anagram indicator; “surface” as an attributive adjective means “external”, superficial |
| 20 | AFRICA | Where to find the origins of all foolish racists in Canada and America!
A<ll> F<oolish> R<acists> I<n> C<anada> + A<merica> |
| 21 | OGADEN | To some extent, uprising ruined a god-forsaken part of the world
Hidden (“to some extent”) and reversed (“uprising”) in “ruiNED A GOd-forsaken”; Ogaden is a drought-ridden and war-torn region of Ethiopia, for which this clue is almost & lit. |
| 23 | EYED | Report writer had studied
Homophone (“report”) of “I’d (=writer, i.e. Serpent, had)” |
| 25 | YOGA | Philosophy’s ultimate goal almost could be path to enlightenment
<philosoph>Y (“ultimate” means last letter only) + *(GOA<l>); “almost” means last letter is dropped; “could be” is anagram indicator |
A lovely puzzle. In the parsing for FROZEN, I took the def to be “-1” ie minus one degree but I’m sure you’re right, dear RR.
Many thanks to both
A tough workout for me with NUMB and TURNPIKE my dnf.
Having said that I still parsed FROZEN to myself at least by using the -1 as the definition being a temperature raher than clue.
Thanks to both setter and blogger.
I parsed FROZEN as in blog but thought ‘19’ in 1d was more likely to be a reference to ARIA as a number in the musical sense. My favourite was DEBT – very cleverly constructed.
Thanks to Serpent and RatkojaRiku.
I not only spotted the Nina, but I did so with much of the top of the grid still to do, so it was a help. Still failed to get 11ac, though.
An hour or so after (nearly) completing this, I pass through 14dn on a train.
All very nice (and good) again but what happened in/to 5d?
Must be some kind of oversight, one that (I’m pretty sure) Serpent will not feel happy about.
Many thanks to RR & Serpent.
Like others I had -1 = Frozen (but your parsing is better) & 19 = Aria = Number. But I also parsed the elements of 1ac the other way around ie Pike = Jackknife (in diving) on Turn = Bend since a pike looks like a jackknife in the air and if a lorry jackknifes it’s not really a turn but a result of an error in making too sharp a turn.
Thanks to both setter and blogger.
A bit of head-scratching today. The grid screamed ‘nina’ but we then forgot about it till almost the end when 7dn gave us the subject’s middle initial. We were held up a while by 16/21, having worked out it was ‘One Hundred -e–s of Solit—‘ but not knowing of the work we thought it might be ‘weeks’ and ‘solitary’; however, Google put us right there and enabled us to get 7dn.
We parsed ‘frozen’ as -1°C and never gave a thought to it being 1dn.
There seems to be a bit of a geographical sub-theme – IBERIA, AFRICA, OGADEN, not to mention France and Germany in the clue to 9ac.
DEBT, SHORTAGE, PSYCHE and LIBATION were our favourites.
Thanks, Serpent and RatkojaRiku.
I’m with Baerchen on 9ac & Hovis on 1dn, and agree with Sil about 5dn – this caused me a bit of a double take, it had to be right but seemed all wrong!. Still, I thought overall it was really good and unlike some puzzles by this setter, was easily accommodated by my train journey – perhaps helped a bit by spotting the nina early on. I thought there was going to be a bit more to 16/21 as my way into it was thinking of “on” for “work” but it just seems to be a cryptic (none the worse for that). In the age of Trump (let’s hope he will be a small trump in the history books) it’s good to be reminded of someone who is a real statesman and has genuine stature. Thanks RR for the blog.
Thanks to RatkojaRiku for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to solve and comment on the puzzle.
I had intended 1 in 9a to refer to NUMB, although I rather like the -1 interpretation. The intention in the clue for NUMB was very much to refer to ARIA as a NUMBER.
Apologies for the use of OFFICE in the clue for, er, OFFICE! I take full responsibility. (Although ithe clue passed through three test solvers and the editor without detection.)
Enjoyed this but please could someone explain what the definition is in 20dn. It looks like an &lit. but the whole clue isn’t so far as I can see a definition of Africa. The only other possibility I can see is that it’s ‘Where to find’, which seems unlikely.
Wil @10
I considered it to be an extended def. (or semi-&lit if you prefer). It is believed that the whole human race originated in Africa, so that would include Americans and Canadians (racist or not).