I enjoyed this, a fun puzzle. Thank you Chalmie.
This puzzle is styled around cross-references. I think this type of puzzle exaggerates the level of difficulty: it gets progressively easier or harder depending on your solving ability.
If you start off solving the clues comfortably then the cross-reverenced clues become even easier as you have all the information to hand. If you start off struggling to solve the clues then the cross-referenced clues become very hard as you have limited information. It is an upward or downward spiral.
This isn’t intended as a criticism, just me musing on the situation.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RENOUNCE | Some require no uncertainty to recant (8) |
| found inside (some of) requiRE NO UNCErtainty | ||
| 5 | WOLFED | US agent possibly backing down before getting gobbled (6) |
| FED (US agent possibly) followed by (with…before) LOW (down) reversed (backing) | ||
| 9 | CAST DOWN | Make sad actors have to restrain director (4,4) |
| CAST (sad) OWN (have) contains (to restrict) D (director) | ||
| 10 | SECRET | City about to block street, leaving no space between 3 and 12 (6) |
| EC (City of London, from postcode) RE (regarding, about) inside (to block) ST (street) – the definition is UNDERCOVER, solutions to 3 and 12 with no space between them | ||
| 12 | See 3 | |
| 13 | INFERIORS | Those 3 conclude 10 ruffians cleared out (9) |
| INFER (conclude) IO (10) then RuffianS (cleared out, no middle letters) | ||
| 14 | FLYING | Insect – one no good on the wing (6) |
| FLY (insect) I (one) NG (no good) | ||
| 16 | STATURE | Eminence, yes, includes rubbish (7) |
| SURE (yes) contains TAT (rubbish) | ||
| 19 | SPENSER | Writes series about poet (7) |
| PENS (writes) inside (with…about) SR (series) | ||
| 21 | BUTTER | Fat one voicing objections? (6) |
| definition/cryptic definition | ||
| 23 | EIDERDOWN | I wondered about 12 (9) |
| anagram (about) of I WONDERED | ||
| 25 | CORAL | Right to stop fossil fuel being pink (5) |
| R (right) inside (to stop, like a cork) COAL (fuel) | ||
| 26 | SIZING | Measuring using weak glue (6) |
| double definition | ||
| 27 | WATERHEN | 3 chewed up and swallowed by pallid bird (8) |
| anagram (chewed up) of THREE (3) inside (swallowed by) WAN (pallid) | ||
| 28 | SONNET | Issue 10 is about poetry (6) |
| SON (issue) TEN (10) reversed (is about) | ||
| 29 | SHIELDED | Lied about being in outbuilding, having protective 12 (8) |
| anagram (about) of LIED inside SHED (outbuilding) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ROCOCO | Reporters often cultivated old Chinese opposition leaders in extravagant style (6) |
| leading letters of Reporters Often Cultivated Old Chinese Opposition | ||
| 2 | NASHVILLE | Remains against Jill ditching Jack in north-eastern city (9) |
| ASH (remains) V (against) jILL (missing J, jack) in NE (north-eastern) | ||
| 3, 12 | UNDERCOVER | Foreign articles about more than description of spy (10) |
| UN DER (a and the, articles in French and German) C (circa, about) OVER (more than) | ||
| 4 | COWLING | 12 for engine to frighten fish (7) |
| COW (frighten) LING (fish) | ||
| 6 | OVERREACT | Make mountain of molehill and rate 12 badly (9) |
| anagram (badly) of RATE and COVER | ||
| 7 | FORGO | German caught in ruined 20 to give up (5) |
| G (German) inside (caught in) anagram (ruined) of ROOF | ||
| 8 | DETESTED | Hated criterion being included in Act (8) |
| TEST (criterion) inside DEED (act) | ||
| 11 | UFOS | 14 saucers have following over in America (4) |
| F (following) O (over) in US (America) | ||
| 15 | INSURANCE | Nurse, can I somehow get 12? (9) |
| anagram (somehow) of NURSE CAN I | ||
| 17 | UNEARTHED | Dug up the 3a when ordered (9) |
| anagram (when ordered) of THE with UNDER (3 down) and A (a) | ||
| 18 | ASSESSES | Evaluates fools repeating final 3 (8) |
| ASSES (fools) with SES (final three letters) repeated | ||
| 20 | ROOF | Run out of 12 (4) |
| RO (run out) then OF | ||
| 21 | BENEATH | 3 city hosts space base (7) |
| BATH (city) contains (hosts) EN (space, in printing) and E (base, of the natural logarithm) | ||
| 22 | CLONED | Duplicated number between 150 and 500 (6) |
| ONE (a number) inside (seen between) CL and D (150 and 500 in Roman numerals) | ||
| 24 | DOZEN | 12 sleep before noon (5) |
| DOZE (sleep) before N (noon) | ||
| 25 | CRETE | Island seen in 10 23 (5) |
| found inside seCRET Eiderdown | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
Great fun as you say. Had no problems solving this but really enjoyed the clever, different uses of 3, 12 and also 10 in the various clues. Thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee.
Most enertaining! Penny-dropping fun all the way..
Yes, clever use of 3, 12 (and 10) to cross-refer – or not – to those clues. I haven’t counted up, but it seemed that only about half of them actually referenced UNDER and COVER. I thought BUTTER was excellent as it’s the first time I’ve seen it, but it feels as though it will have been used before – similarly with COWLING. INFERIORS was neat and I failed to parse BENEATH – I forgot about the printers’ space again. Has anyone seen a word hidden between two clues before like CRETE? A nice inventive puzzle where the use of devices didn’t make it too hard – thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee.
For 21d I was convinced the city was NEATH and could only get the BE by putting a space in “BasE” ! Thanks both. A lot of fun.
The clue device used for CRETE is excellent. It sits well in this puzzle full of cross references. If we use it in a puzzle with no other cross references, it may be a dead giveaway.
This device of the solution as part of two words in the grid is most likely to be original. Let us give credit to Chalmie, unless any earlier citation crops up.
I vaguely remember having seen in a printed crossword a clue whose solution was part of another single answer in the grid.
I do like it when the inter-referential clues aren’t necessarily all they seem.
I actually mis-read one and was looking at the NO between 3 & 4 down in the grid: another trick in waiting?
Nice puzzle. Thanks to PeeDee & Chalmie.
Thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee. I wasn’t sure about the second definition of SIZING but I much enjoyed the numbers game in all its variations.
Thanks everyone. I’m not going to claim the device used for CRETE as my own: I’m pretty sure that I saw it done in one or more of Araucaria/Cinephile’s.
But as Rishi says, in the context of this particular puzzle, it seemed to fit. With a puzzle like this, there are a bunch of words which you want/need to put in with the intention of using the gateway-clue number(s), and then there are the words which get slotted into fit, of which CRETE was one. And after I’d clued SECRET, it dawned on me that I could do a hidden clue using cross-references, and frantically looked round the grid for a word begiining with E. And ended up with the clue you see.
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee
Found a bunch of puzzles that I hand’s done when I was travelling earlier in the year and this was the first of them. A little hidden gem that I’m glad to have found whilst on holidays again.
Did twig to the UNDER COVER clue quite early on, but thanks to incorrect initial answers at 6d and 13a, it stretched the puzzle solve out to about the average time. Like others, thought that the use of the cross references and the misdirection in using those same numbers in other clues was terrific.
Finished in the SW corner with the tricky BENEATH and WATERHEN (which I saw much earlier but took a while to see the trick with the use of THREE).