Serpent fills the Thursday slot this week
We have blogged three of Serpent’s last five puzzles, and this was up to his usual high standard with a few relatively straightforward clues to get us started and several head-scratching moments later on to stir up the grey matter.
We’re out of the country this week, and will not be able to respond to any comments until later in the day.
Across
1 Call round with bullish expression? (6)
BELLOW
BELL (call) + O (round) W (with)
5 Area beneath earth’s crust shifting end of continental shelf (6)
MANTEL
MANTLE (area beneath earth’s crust) with the ‘L’ (last or ‘end’ letter of ‘continental’) shifted to the end
10 Recall hurt followed after man’s blocked presentation of facts (9)
HISTOGRAM
MAR (hurt) GOT (followed, as in following a train of thought) reversed or ‘recalled’ after HIS (man’s)
11 Proportion equal to 5/9 of 6 (5)
RATIO
The letters R A T I O are five of the nine letters in ’narRATIOn’ (6 down)
12 Capital united in misery following evacuation (5)
MONEY
ONE (united) in M Y (‘misery’ without the middle letters or ‘evacuated’)
13 Cut short rude TV chef making comeback (9)
CURTAILED
CURT (rude) + DELIA (Delia Smith, ‘TV chef’) reversed or ‘making a comeback’
14 Diagnostic method with fewest resources (4,4)
SKIN TEST
SKINTEST (most skint or ‘with fewest resources’)
16 Independent article leaving American statesman unblemished (6)
VIRGIN
VIRGINian (’American statesman’) without ‘i’ (independent) and ‘an’ (article)
19 Draw every flower in Yorkshire (6)
ALLURE
ALL (every) URE (river or ‘flower’ in Yorkshire)
20 Moan endlessly about relative visiting often (8)
HAUNTING
wHINGe (moan) without the first and last letters or ‘endlessly’ round or ‘visited by’ AUNT (relative)
23 Victor‘s someone who plays with his nuts we hear? (9)
CONQUEROR
A homophone (‘we hear’) of CONKERER – a fanciful word for someone who plays conkers (with horse chestnuts)
25 Continually losing men in agitated state (5)
FEVER
ForEVER (continually) without or ‘losing’ OR (‘other ranks’ or ‘men’ in the military)
26 Cover in employee’s case is cut off (5)
ELIDE
LID (cover) in E E (first and last letters or ‘case’ of ‘employee’)
27 Clean using self-employed contractor (9)
FREELANCE
A reverse anagram of CLEAN, with FREE as the anagrind
28 Put off by entering on the right-hand side (6)
DEXTER
DETER (put off) with X (by, as in ‘times’ in arithmetic) inside or ‘entering’
29 One feeding flames of coup bringing resistance to an end (6)
STOKER
STROKE (coup) with the ‘r’ (resistance’) moved to the end
Down
2 Renewal of lease isn’t something that’s required (9)
ESSENTIAL
An anagram of LEASE ISN’T – anagrind is ‘renewal’
3 Crazy motions raised within fringes of Labour Party (5)
LOOPY
POO (motions) reversed or ‘raised’ in L Y (first and last letters or ‘fringes’ of Labour Party’)
4 Evidence of underground activity sat around after 24 turned on presenter (8)
WORMCAST
An anagram of SAT (anagrind is ‘around’) after ROW (’noise’ – 24 down) reversed or ‘turned’ and MC (master or ceremonies or ‘presenter’)
5 Recall author’s written about city affected by revolution (6)
MEMORY
MY (author’s) ‘written’ round ROME (city) reversed or ‘affected by revolution’
6 Country divided by a king and queen is telling (9)
NARRATION
NATION (country) round or ‘divided by’ A R (king) R (queen)
7 Former partner has charge reduced to much acclaim (5)
EXTOL
EX (former partner) TOLl (charge) without the last letter or ‘reduced’
8 Sceptic starts to think highly of meaningless arguments, surprisingly (6)
THOMAS
First letters or ‘starts’ of Think Highly Of Meaningless Arguments Surprisingly
9 Capital fellow supporting end to casual working (6)
LONDON
DON (fellow) after or ‘supporting’ (in a down clue) L (last letter or ‘end’ of ‘casual’) ON (working)
15 Factious Labour organisation split over black university lecturer (9)
TURBULENT
TU (Labour organisation) RENT (split) round B (black) U (university) L (lecturer)
17 Sort of care given cause for complaint (9)
GRIEVANCE
An anagram of CARE GIVEN – anagrind is ‘sort of’
18 Without a coat as it’s hot and stuffy (8)
HAIRLESS
H (hot) AIRLESS (stuffy)
19 One aiming to pull strings with striking results (6)
ARCHER
Cryptic definition – an archer ‘pulls strings’ and ‘aims’ to ‘strike‘ the target
21 Glean audience’s perception of African country (6)
GARNER
A homophone (‘audience’s perception’) of GHANA (African country)
22 Promote rule of law in training up whistleblower (6)
PREFER
R (rule – in law) in PE (‘training’) + REF (referee – ‘whistleblower’) reversed or ‘up’
24 Talent for discovery disrupted by one’s interference (5)
NOISE
NOSE (‘talent for discovery’) round or ‘disrupted by’ I (one)
25 Topsoil often covers up leaves (5)
FOLIO
Hidden (‘covered by’) and reversed (‘up’) in ‘topOIL OFten’
as usual with Serpent, we get a lovely crossword with a BOGOF bonus. Another cracker, many thanks to S,B&J
What Baerchen said – thanks to all concerned
Another beauty from Serpent-I’m assuming 8d refers to Dylan.
Thanks all.
We DOUBT that – we thought it was Thomas the Tank Engine!
I presume this was what Baerchen @1 was referring to as a ‘BOGOF’ but it was good to have the usual Serpent theme and associated Nina (x2), including the ? reference to an Australian at 21d. I wondered if 8d might be referring to Leslie, particularly with 16a, but I agree that Dylan seems much more likely.
I’ll go for the ‘Evidence of underground activity’ as my favourite, for originality alone, with LOOPY also very good.
Thanks to Serpent and to B&J
We were joking about Thomas – we understood it to be ‘doubting’ Thomas from the Bible.
We couldn’t see the NINA but have noticed AUTHOR across the middle and the various authors around the perimeter. Thanks to bearchen@1 – we apologise for missing it earlier. Well done Serpent.
Thanks B&J
Re 8dn, what’s all this about ‘Dylan’ , ‘Leslie’ and ‘Tank Engine’? It’s a biblical reference. From Chambers:
doubting Thomas noun
1. A doubter or sceptic
2. Someone who needs proof before believing something (from the doubting of Thomas, in Bible, John 20.25)
OK, the Nina (x2) has been mentioned but what about the associated 8 perimeter entries?
B&J
Sorry, I spent too long typing and didn’t see your comment #6 before I posted mine.
Gaufrid – Apologies, the comment about Thomas was for our grandson. He’s asked Father Christmas for a Thomas the Tank Engine to go on his train set!
Irreligious crowd in today, Gaufrid ?
Thanks Serpent with trademark NINAs alerting me to the authors.
Good blog BJ; like WP @5 I particularly enjoyed the underground sign and also the STOKER.
An enjoyable solve, not as tricky as some of Serpent’s offerings we thought. Failed to spot the theme/ninas but what’s new? Favourites were CURTAILED for misdirection (‘rude chef’ had us thinking of a certain Mr Ramsey) and WORMCAST for ingenuity. HAUNTING was good, too.
Thanks, Serpent and B&J
I entered 1ac and 5ac fairly early and noticed they were both authors, but then failed to follow through. Didn’t spot the Ninas either.
I’m not sure what Wordplodder@5 meant by the Australian at 21dn. I assumed that it referred to Alan Garner from Cheshire. And Thomas could be D.M Thomas, author of Booker-nominated The White Hotel.
Yes, a great crossword (but I can’t remember a bad one from Jason, actually).
When it’s Serpent Time one should be on the lookout for a nina.
Personally, I like non-obtrusive ninas best and this was very good example.
I spotted the ‘theme’ (not the right word) very quickly which helped. Spotting the two centrally placed authors took a lot longer.
And mind you, the 8 authors around the perimeter should be ‘words’ that could be defined in a non-literary way. That’s the challenge for the setter when creating the grid!
Full marks.
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Serpent.
Hello Dormouse @13.
Sorry, I’ve been a bit late in replying. Hope this works – <a href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Garner”>here’s</a> what I mean.
It didn’t work obviously! Sorry about that. Anyway, you can see the link.
So, was it Alan Garner or Helen Garner. I have to admit I’ve never heard of the latter, whereas Alan Garner is someone I’ve heard of most of my life. I think I remember Elidor being done on Jackanory back in the sixties.