One for those who like a bit of general knowledge in their puzzles…
…and I’m one of them.
There was nothing overly obscure in terms of general knowledge, so I think this one is fair game for anyone.
I particularly like ISOLDE, PRAM and ROBINSON.
Depsite all of the proper names, I don’t think there’s a theme, but would be happy to be corrected, as I often miss themes and NINAs.
Thanks, Neo.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DUMBWAITER | Thick liquid drowning one in hotel lift (10) |
| DUMB (“thick”) + WATER (“liquid”) drowning I (“one”) | ||
| 7 | PRAM | Vehicle used by mum takes dad to Paris – not the centre (4) |
| PR(i)AM (“Paris’s dad”, not the centre) | ||
| 9 | HARM | Injury brings member to hospital (4) |
| H(ospital) + ARM (“member”) | ||
| 10 | LITERATURE | Valued works deconstructing tree ritual (10) |
| *(tree ritual) | ||
| 11 | ADDING | Including two old pennies in silver cases (6) |
| DD (“two old pennies”) + IN cased by AG (“silver”) | ||
| 12 | SATANISM | Blasphemous worship involving anti-Mass? (8) |
| *(anti-Mass) | ||
| 13 | ON THE RUN | Fugitive ahead perplexed hunter (2,3,3) |
| ON (“ahead”) + *(hunter) | ||
| 15 | AXLE | Cutter crossing lake seen in Turner (4) |
| AXE (“cutter’) crossing L(ake) | ||
| 17 | BLAG | Somehow obtain pounds kept in purse (4) |
| L (“pounds”) kept in BAG (“purse”) | ||
| 19 | ROSIE LEE | Healthy-sounding vegetable chopped for tea (5,3) |
| Homophone of ROSY (“healthy” sounding) + LEE(k) (“vegetable”, chopped) | ||
| 22 | ROBINSON | Marooned family runs round, about to collect scraps (8) |
| R(uns) + O (“round”) + ON (“about”) to collect BINS (“scraps”), so R-O(BINS)ON Refers to The Swiss Family Robinson, a book by Johann David Wyss. | ||
| 23 | AMANDA | Female graduate rejected an American barman (6) |
| <=MA (“graduate”, rejected) + AN + D(istrict) A(ttorney) (“American” lawyer, so “barman”) | ||
| 25 | GOLDILOCKS | Valuable metal one keeps secure for blonde (10) |
| GOLD (“valuable metal”) + I (“one”) + LOCKS (“keeps secure”) | ||
| 26 | ADAM | Notice alpha male – that’s first man (4) |
| AD (“notice”) + A(lpha) + M(ale) | ||
| 27 | ODIN | Supreme creator’s party over at home (4) |
| <=OD (“party”, over) + IN (“at home”) | ||
| 28 | EISENHOWER | Where one is distressed in general (10) |
| *(where one is) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | UGANDAN | Climbing mount in African country – not South African (7) |
| <=NAG (climbing “mount”) in (s)UDAN (“African country”, not (S)outh) | ||
| 3 | BAMBI | Fawn in tropical grass loves leaving island (5) |
| BAMB(oo) (“tropical grass”, with “loves” leaving) + I(sland) | ||
| 4 | ALLEGORY | Completely grisly setting for end of Poe story (8) |
| ALL (“completely”) + (Po)E + GORY (“grisly”) | ||
| 5 | TITUS ANDRONICUS | Grating sounds ruin Attic drama (5,10) |
| *(sounds ruin attic) | ||
| 6 | RARITY | Find hint about slowing in music (6) |
| RAY (“hint”, meaning slight indication, as in “a ray of hope”) about RIT(artando) (“slowing” in musical notation) | ||
| 7 | POTENTATE | Ruler from east, in main Bible parts, depicted in crown (9) |
| E(ast) in OT and NT (“main Bible parts”) depicted in PATE (“crown”), so P(OT(E)NT)ATE | ||
| 8 | AEROSOL | Mister Solo shot after a little hesitation (7) |
| *(solo) after A ER (“little hesitation”)
For “mister”, think “that which creates a mist”. |
||
| 14 | HAGRIDDEN | Obscure milieu for a Greek tormented by nightmares (9) |
| HIDDEN “(obscure”) milieu for A GR(eek) | ||
| 16 | ASSASSIN | Killer shows when to commit offence with donkey (8) |
| AS (“when”) + SIN (“to commit offence”) with ASS (“donkey”) | ||
| 18 | LEOPOLD | Say Mr Bloom takes poodle out by lake (7) |
| *(poodle) by L(ake)
Leopold Bloom is the protagonist in James Joyce’s Ulysses. |
||
| 20 | ENDGAME | Close match leading to drama (7) |
| END (“close”) + GAME (“match”)
Endgame is a play by Samuel Beckett. |
||
| 21 | ISOLDE | Princess is no spring chicken – last in line (6) |
| IS OLD (“no spring chicken”) + (lin)E Isolde was a princess in Arthurian legend. | ||
| 24 | ALAMO | Couple that’s last to abandon fashionable mission (5) |
| A LA MO(de) (“fashionable” with last couple abandoned) | ||
*anagram
Wonderful! I couldn’t finish without a bit of cheating though. Used a word fit to get HAGRIDDEN and UGANDAN, both tough but fair. Loved PRAM & AEROSOL when the penny dropped. ‘Mister’ for a definition was superbly misleading – no Han or Napoleon in sight. Neo is also in his Tees disguise in today’s Independent.
Thanks to Neo and loonapick.
What Hovis said (with knobs on!).
Excellent. Looked impossible for a start but persistence was rewarded as the answers gradually went in. In the end the only one I wasn’t familiar with was ROSIE LEE as CRS for ‘tea’.
Lots to pick from but I thought RARITY and my last in, PRAM were especially good.
Thanks to Neo (second one today) and loonapick.
Wonder if anyone was trying to get ALUMNA to fit 23a. That held me up for some time. Couldn’t find an American composer called MULA to make it work.
Thanks to Neo and loonapick. I too got off to a slow start but did finish and managed to parse everything, though I had to check that ROSIE LEE was indeed slang for tea. I’ve come across “mister” before as an AEROSOL but not “ray” as a hint in RARITY. My LOI was ALAMO because for a while I did not get de = last couple. For once the GK (e.g., LEOPOLD, ISOLDE, ENDGAME) was in my ballpark though BLAG was new to me. Very enjoyable.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Think that this is one of Neo’s best puzzles. He is one of those setters who I enjoy better as he ratchets up the degree of difficulty. He’s precision with clue structure, his clever misdirection and the retention of sensible surfaces provides a lot of satisfaction when the answer suddenly (or finally) dawns on the solver. The PRAM clue was a great example of that here. It reminds me of the style of Io, with slightly less trepidation.
Like Hovis, I used similar ‘cheats’ on the same two clues. Was similarly sidetracked with ALUMNA and initially thinking HAIRCUTTER at 28.
Finished in the SW corner with ISOLDE (a clue where I pieced all the bits together and went “ah, that princess!), ROBINSON (that had to be resurrected from an earlier wrong entry) and HAGRIDDEN (that was new and would have remained unknown without a word-finder).