The Observer crossword from November 25, 2018
No news from the Western frontier – Everyman as we all know him. That said, no pushover …
… as (for me) the North was significantly harder than the Lower Part. As always, many many charades and envelopes – but all very well and precisely clued. Indeed, no news from the Western frontier. And yes, there is a Q but no pangram, folks!
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CLINCH | Decide length, cutting piece of cake (6) |
| L (length) inside CINCH (piece of cake, an easy thing to do) | ||
| 4 | MODICUM | Dash about, beset by mass hatred (7) |
| C (about) inside {M (mass) + ODIUM (hatred)} | ||
| 9 | PEPPERMINT CREAM | Sweet temper a prince abandoned, interrupting head of government (10,5) |
| Anagram [abandoned] of TEMPER A PRINCE, going inside PM (head of government) Dunno but it doesn’t sound ‘lekker’ to me! |
||
| 10 | CASSOCK | Clerical garment found with odd items of classy clobber (7) |
| The odd letters of CLASSY, followed by SOCK (clobber) | ||
| 11 | AQUARIA | Article as broadcast about tanks (7) |
| A (article) + QUA (as) + reversal [about] of AIR (broadcast) | ||
| 12 | TREAD | Step inside theatre, admitted (5) |
| Hidden answer [inside]: thea tre admitted | ||
| 14 | DRIFTING | Living without purpose? Find grit to reform (8) |
| Anagram [to reform] of FIND GRIT | ||
| 16 | STILETTO | Fight, protecting rear, without a dagger (8) |
| SET-TO (fight) around TAIL (rear), minus A | ||
| 18 | ROMEO | See me in love repeatedly faced by resistance (5) |
| ME inside O,O (love, twice), preceded by R (resistance) Definition is the clue as a whole, &lit (that is, if you think the surface tells it all). |
||
| 21 | ELEGIAC | Soldier in middle of foreign field, cold and mournful (7) |
| GI (soldier) inside {[for]E[ign] + LEA (field) + C (cold)} It took me too long to explain the first E as I tried to make ‘foreign’ work as an anagram indicator. After 4ac another one that made the brain cells work. |
||
| 22 | ADDENDA | Lawyer after anger discounting thousand extra items (7) |
| DA (lawyer) coming after MADDEN (anger, as a verb), minus M (thousand) | ||
| 24 | TAKEN FOR GRANTED | Impressed, raved about fake, endlessly accepted without question (5,3,7) |
| TAKEN (impressed) + RANTED (raved), together going around FORG[e] (fake, without the last letter) | ||
| 25 | REDRESS | Communists keeping resolution? Correct (7) |
| REDS (communists) around RES (resolution, abbreviated) | ||
| 26 | ENERGY | Vitality needed by keener gymnasts (6) |
| Hidden answer [needed by]: keener gymnasts | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CAPACITY | Limit a large town’s power (8) |
| CAP (limit) + A + CITY (large town) | ||
| 2 | IMPASSE | Demon with strength having no time for deadlock (7) |
| IMP (demon, little devil) + ASSET (strength), minus T (time) | ||
| 3 | CREDO | Belief about party led by Conservative (5) |
| RE (about) + DO (party), together preceded by C (Conservative) | ||
| 4 | MANDARIN ORANGE | Citrus fruit supplied by chap, bold European, around North African port (8,6) |
| MAN (chap) + DARING (bold) + E (European), the latter two going around ORAN (North African port, in Algeria) | ||
| 5 | DECLUTTER | Remove unnecessary items left, say, after December (9) |
| L (left) + UTTER (say), together coming after DEC (December) | ||
| 6 | CHEVRON | Sign of sharp bend in road in Switzerland, twisting over mountain finally (7) |
| CH (Switzerland, IVR abrreviation) + anagram [twisting] of OVER + [mountai]N No quibbles about the definition yet for me ‘chevrons’ are those V-shaped things on the road that tell you to keep enough distance. |
||
| 7 | MAMMAL | Animal in line following mother (6) |
| MAMMA (mother) + L (line) To be clear, ‘in’ is just a link word here. |
||
| 8 | SMOKE DETECTORS | Demo kept moving, not quietly in parts, creating alarms (5,9) |
| Anagram of DEMO KEPT, minus P, going inside SECTORS (parts) | ||
| 13 | DALLIANCE | Flirtation beginning to damage partnership (9) |
| D[amage] + ALLIANCE (partnership) I don’t think I’ve ever seen this word clued in a different way. |
||
| 15 | COWARDLY | Firm route including road, large and yellow (8) |
| CO (firm, company) + WAY (route), which includes RD (road) L (large) | ||
| 17 | TWEAKED | Modified material for jacket perhaps worn by a king (7) |
| TWEED (material, possibly for a jacket) going around A K (king) | ||
| 19 | MONITOR | Supervise fool in dock (7) |
| NIT (fool) inside MOOR (dock) | ||
| 20 | BESTIR | Rouse scattered tribes (6) |
| Anagram [scattered] of TRIBES | ||
| 23 | DRAWN | Like match won by neither side, tense (5) |
| Double definition | ||
No news from the Western frontier? Things may be quiet in the Netherlands, but it’s all go here in France and Belgium with les gilets jaunes (the yellow vests) – some words that apply in the clues, ‘yellow’, ‘demo’, ‘dash about’, ‘mass hatred’, ‘interrupting head of government’ (Macron in Argentina), ‘fight’, ‘resistance’, ‘power’,’ deadlock’ … thankfully no ‘soldiers’ or ‘tanks’ yet but a state of emergency might be declared…
I found this harder going than usual and really needed the blog for help with some parsing. Tanger first came to mind for the North African port which did not help…
Thanks to Everyman and Sil.
The NE corner was a little tricky, wasn’t it? QUA for “as” felt a little un-Everyman to me…
For 21a I always thought the word was elegaic which sounds much better but apparently not. Enjoyable puzzle as ever and my last one was TWEAKED. No particular favourites today.
Thanks to Sil and Everyman.
I also found the NE corner challenging. Modicum for dash just did not make it into my mind. 18ac bothered me with no apparent definition.
Now, as for ‘dalliance ‘, I came across this while practising with old online Everymans: ‘Playing field’s end marriage’.
Thanks Sil and Everyman.
P.S. I note that in many news items les gilets jaunes are called the yellow jackets – so ‘jacket’ in clue 17d also qualifies…
Couldn’t parse many of these and needed the blog to understand. Even so I felt some were stretching it a bit. E.g. 4ac, 9ac, 11 ac.
Tricky indeed. Might have given up had I not had little else to do today.
Happy Christmas one and all.
Needed a bit of help today. Never heard of qua for as and elegiac was a new word for me. I never seem to get the themes either so thanks for pointing out. Thanks Sil and Everyman.
same same for me, Top right hand corner a struggle for me largely. I didn’t understand the explanation of Chevron at all,
although I get the CH and the meaning of Chevron. Was a bit too hard but I enjoyed the rest of it, apart from that top
corner = aquaria totally out of my league
FOI Taken for granted though at the time I couldn’t parse it! aquaria and chevron totally went over my head. Favourite was tweaked though it took far longer than it should have done! A good SUnday afternoon for me while the thunder rolls and the rain comes down.
Hmm, this was tricky. Didn’t get AQUARIA and a bit ho hum about the parsing. Guessed MODICUM and ELEGIAC but could not parse either. For the latter I couldn’t get the starting E but the explanation made this a very nice clue.
Enjoyed TWEAKED, MANDARIN ORANGE, IMPASSE and a few others.
Wow, that NE corner was tough! Committed to ‘madness’ for 4ac early on ( I still think that fits the clue well – ‘end for dash’ backwards inside mass). That eliminated mammal and chevron as possibilities so looked at it for a couple of days getting nowhere. Even when I concluded that Chevron and Mammal must have been correct I couldn’t get those two crosses. A most frutrating pre xmas unsolve! Have to acknowledge both these clues – Modicum and Aquaria were well constructed though. Also loved Romeo ( and Juliet) and Elegiac as clues. Thanks to all.