Thanks to Quinster and Kitty for standing in for me over the last two weeks whilst I went in search of the Northern Lights on the Norwegian coastal ferry from Bergen to Kirkenes and back.
Today we have a puzzle from Anglio who is a setter I have only blogged once before and that was exactly a year ago.
Overall I enjoyed this. There were some clue constructions I liked very much (e.g. CORNISH PASTIES and ORIFICE) and then there were some cryptic definitions (ELOPE and EMBER) which I’m not keen on. However, I recognise that many solvers do enjoy cryptic definitions and setters are free to select from a wide range of clue types to ensure a good mix of clues. It may be that I have missed some additional well hidden wordplay in ELOPE and EMBER. Please feel free to tell me if you think I have.
I struggled a bit with the parsing of TASER at 2 down as I wasn’t entirely clear how the clue indicated that a R had to be removed from ARREST before forming the anagram. I’ve made a suggestion why the R could be indicated, but I’m interested in solvers views.
There are a few food items in the grid. The two long acrosses are both dishes with meat encrusted in pastry. We have two fish courses, JOHN DORY and TROUT. We can then wash everything down with some ICED TEA. I think though I would prefer the Tango.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Surplus is carried over (2,4) |
PORTED (carried) reversed (over) (DE TROP)< |
DE TROP (superfluous; surplus) |
| 4 | Health worker receives nothing, on average (8) |
(MEDIC [health worker] containing [receives] O [zero; nothing]) + RE (with reference to; on) MEDI (O) C RE |
MEDIOCRE (middling or average in quality) |
| 10 | One attacks Stalin as a revolutionary (9) |
Anagram of (revolutionary) STALIN AS A ASSAILANT* |
ASSAILANT (one who attacks) |
| 11 | Travel to away match? (5) |
ELOPE (people who ELOPE go away to get married [match]) cryptic definition ELOPE |
ELOPE (run away secretly, especially with a lover [usually to get married]) |
| 12 | My name is Henry – go to collect hamper and food items (7,7) |
COR (gosh!; my!) + N (name) + IS + H (henry, scientific unit) + (PASS [go] containing [collect] TIE [restrain; hamper]) COR N IS H PAS (TIE) S |
CORNISH PASTIES (food items) |
| 14 | Point where, in Germany, I entered specialist market (5) |
ICH (German for I) contained in (entered) NE (North East; point of the compass) N (ICH) E |
NICHE (small, specialised group identified as a market for a particular range of products or services) |
| 16 | Having got married in capital, character makes fuss (9) |
(M [married] contained in [in] RIGA [capital city of Latvia]) + ROLE (character) RIG (M) A ROLE |
RIGMAROLE (a long, complicated series of actions, instructions, etc, often rather pointless, boring or irritating; fuss) |
| 18 | Wernher von Braun possibly put peg in chair (9) |
TEE (peg for a golf ball) contained in (in) ROCKER (rocking chair) ROCKE (TEE) R |
ROCKETEER (Wernher von Braun [1912 -1977] was a German-American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Germany and a pioneer of rocket technology and space science in the United States. |
| 20 | Better to make a U-turn over Northern Ireland given mass hysteria? (5) |
CAP (surpass; better) reversed (to make a U-turn) containing (over) NI (Northern Ireland) PA (NI) C< |
PANIC (contagious fear, potentially leading to mass hysteria) |
| 21 | Now be gentle if working around the centre of satellite dish (4,10) |
Anagram of (working) NOW BE GENTLE IF containing (around) L (middle letter of [centre of] SATELLITE) BEEF WE (L) LINGTON* |
BEEF WELLINGTON (dish of BEEF covered in pâté and baked in pastry) |
| 25 | Run out of weapons, including a small stockpile (5) |
(ARMS [weapons] excluding [out of] R [run] containing [including] A) + S (small) AM (A) S S |
AMASS (gather in great quantity; stockpile) |
| 26 | Dance director meets with a star (5,4) |
BOSS (leader; director) + A + NOVA (a star that suddenly increases in brightness for a number of days or years) BOSS A NOVA |
BOSSA NOVA (style of dancing originating in Brazil) |
| 27 | Fish can lose moisture – none gets eaten (4,4) |
JOHN (informal term for toilet, as is ‘can’) + (O [nothing; none] contained in [gets eaten] DRY [lose moisture]) JOHN D (O) RY |
JOHN DORY (golden-yellow fish of the mackerel family) |
| 28 | Go and act the fool! (4,2) |
BE A TIT ((act the fool) BE A T IT |
BEAT IT (go [away]) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Beat 100? One’s subtracted from total, leaving bullseye (4,6) |
DEAD (very tired; beat) + C (Roman numeral for 100) + ENTIRE (whole; complete; total) excluding (subtracting) I (Roman numeral for one) DEAD C ENTRE |
DEAD CENTRE (right in the middle, as is the bullseye) |
| 2 | One’s pulled out when arrest gets tricky? (5) |
Anagram of (gets tricky) ARREST excluding (pulled out) one letter, R. I’m not sure how the clue indicates that it is a R to be pulled out other than seeing that R is the only double letter in ARREST and one of them could be omitted. TASER* |
TASER (small gunlike device which fires electrified darts or barbs, used to immobilize or stun eg an attacker. Used by police to facilitate a difficult arrest) |
| 3 | Finding opening, soldiers provided one with a couple of keys (7) |
OR (other ranks; soldiers) + IF (provided) + I (Roman numeral for one) + C and E (musical keys) OR IF I C E |
ORIFICE (mouth-like opening) |
| 5 | More are picked up over by the front of terminus (5) |
ARE reversed (picked up; down clue) containing (over) (X [times; multiplied by; by) + T [first letter of {front of} TERMINUS]) E (X T) RA< |
EXTRA (more) |
| 6 | I give up drinking Tango, needing a more civilised drink? (4,3) |
I + (CEDE [surrender; give up] containing [drinking] T [Tango is the international radio communication code word for the letter T]) + A I CED (T) E A |
ICED TEA (chilled sweetened tea flavoured eg with lemon, something that Anglio considers more civilised than Tango, the fizzy drink) |
| 7 | Nip and tuck, then flatten and make fold (5,4) |
CLOSE (nip; pinch; close) + DOWN (flatten) CLOSE DOWN |
CLOSE DOWN (end; fold) |
| 8 | Sheep needing exercise say (4) |
EWES (sounds like [say] USE [exercise]) EWES |
EWES (female sheep) |
| 9 | Son who tucked into buns shows support for chippy (8) |
S (sons) + (WHO contained in [tucked into] ARSE [buttocks; buns]) S A (WHO) RSE |
SAWHORSE (a trestle for supporting wood that is being sawn; support for a carpenter [chippy]) |
| 13 | One from a long line of French perfume houses Dan reviewed (10) |
DE (‘of’ in French) + (SCENT [perfume] containing [houses] an anagram of [reviewed] DAN) DE SCE (NDA*) NT |
DESCENDANT (offspring from an ancestor; one from a long line) |
| 16 | This is about travelling cheaply, saving time? (5,4) |
C (circa; about) + (an anagram of [travelling] CHEAPLY] containing [saving] T [time]) C YCLE PA (T) H* |
CYCLE PATH (on which one can travel on a cheap form of transport. Whether it saves time could be debated) |
| 17 | Slow-witted fellow sits on bus, finally – leave room up top (8) |
GO (leave) + RM (room) + LES (man’s name; fellow) + S (last letter of [finally] BUS) GO RM LES S |
GORMLESS (slow-witted) |
| 19 | Poured out heart in Hereford, having bond with daughter (7) |
EF (central letters of [heart in] HEREFORD) + FUSED (having bond) EF FUSED |
EFFUSED (poured out) |
| 20 | Having lost enamel ultimately, crown becomes tender (7) |
PINNACLE (highest point; crown) excluding (having lost) L (last letter of [ultimately] ENAMEL) PINNACE |
PINNACE (a warship’s tender boat) |
| 22 | One of many that might become excited by poker? (5) |
If you agitate [excite] an EMBER with a poker it will flare up briefly [get excited] EMBER |
EMBER – this is a cryptic definition explained in the wordplay column |
| 23 | Swimmer takes jog around university (5) |
TROT (jog) containing (around) U (university) TRO (U) T |
TROUT (fish; swimmer) |
| 24 | "Had to take day off," Jack repeated, "for pilgrimage" (4) |
HAD excluding (to take off) D day + J (jack) + J (jack) – ie Jack repeated HA J J |
HAJJ (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) |
Quite wordy clues which is why, I think, I took a while to get on Anglio’s wavelength this morning.
I rather like the images conjured up by some of the solutions as one could elope down a cycle path and then eat pasties, beef wellington and john dory before ending up the celebrations with a quick 26a
Thanks to Anglio and Duncan – did you get to see the Lights?
I really enjoyed this solve. Among my ticks, I did have both EMBER and ELOPE, which I thought were good cds.
LOI was SAWHORSE, which also deserved a tick along with CORNISH PASTIES (fairly convoluted but good), CYCLE PATH, JOHN DORY and CLOSE DOWN. I didn’t know PINNACE, which I had to look up. I agree with Duncan that 2D is a bit vague; maybe ‘One rule’s pulled out’ or something similar could have been employed.
In 14A, it seems to me that the clue would read OK without the ‘where,’ which seems to be somewhat redundant(?)
Thanks Anglio and Duncan.
Thanks to duncanshiell and Anglio
I thought this was very good, but with the same reservations already mentioned re 2d , “Take out when arrest gets tricky?” perhaps.
Along with Robi@2, I wasn’t keen on the redundant WHERE in 14a, and I see NICHE as SPECIALIST rather than SPECIALIST MARKET.
Just two minor quibbles though in a very enjoyable puzzle.
Nice puzzle and quite difficult. I think there’s a bit more to 7 down: Chambers gives “neck and neck” as a US meaning of “nip and tuck”, hence close. And no, I didn’t know that before I looked it up today.
Unless there’s some subtlety that escapes me, I think 2 down must be a mistake – that’s rare for the Indy.
I think “one’s pulled out” is fair game and precedented as an indication that an unspecified letter is to be omitted.
I was held up trying to figure out how Dan was reviewed, given that he appears unaltered in DE SCEN(DAN)T. “Reviewed” seems superfluous to the clue except to create a surface. A can’t help thinking soeting else with “and” as the fodder would have been possible, though I haven’t yet come up with it.
cruciverbophile @4; I forgot to say that nip and tuck is an expression (British as well, see ODE) meaning close
Am I the only one to feel that cryptic crosswords rather overuse the International Radio Communication Code. (Likewise arses, tits etc.) In my cycling days cycle paths did save time for cyclists, who didn’t have to edge their way through closely packed traffic queues.
16 down reminded me of this old chestnut:
Two pieces of tarmac are sitting at the bar, boasting about how hard they are. Another piece of tarmac walks into the pub and the first two dive under a table, quivering with feat.
“What’s wrong?” asks the barman. “I thought you were both hard?”
“Well yeah,” says the first piece of tarmac, “but him over there, he’s a cycle path!”
Apologies in advance.
We needed two sessions to finish, but got there in the end. A generally satisfying crossword apart ftom the quibbles aready mentioned about the letter to be removed in 2dn, the ‘where’ in 14ac (necessary for the surface but confusing – we were misled into trying to fit in ‘wo’) and ‘reviewed’ in 13dn (again, necessary for the surface but confusing).
We wondered if there was a mini-theme of food and drink with 12ac, 21ac, 27ac, 6dn and 21dn.
Thanks, Anglio and Duncan
cryoticsue @ 1
Yes, the Northern Lights were very clear for each of the two nights we were in or just north of the Lofoten Islands
Off-topic comment moved to General Discussion.
Thanks Geoff, and sorry.
A nice puzzle. LOI 28a. Best clue 17d. Thanks setter and blogger.
cruciverbophile, what a horrible groaner! Cycle path indeed!