The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27815.
I found this a quite delightful crossword, and not too difficult, once you got past the misdirections. So many of the clues are finely honed, and I feel lucky for it to fall to me to blog; many thanks, Puck.
| Across | ||
| 9 | INERT | Still in tears periodically during sex (5) |
| An envelope (‘during’) of NER (‘iN tEaRs periodically’) in IT (‘sex’). Bonjour tristesse. | ||
| 10 | IMPLICATE | Involve one like Puck — a Celt, I suspect (9) |
| A charade of IMP (‘one like Puck’) plus LICATE, an anagram (‘suspect’) of ‘a Celt I’. | ||
| 11 | VITRIOLIC | Very bitter civil unrest about 14 (9) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of TRIO (’14 down’ THREE-PIECE) in VILIC, an anagram (‘unrest’) of ‘civil’. | ||
| 12 | ORION | Stars regular characters in 4, 6 or 9, primarily (5) |
| A charade of ORI (fOuR sIx, ‘regular characters in 4,6’) plus ON (Or Nine, ‘or 9 primarily’). | ||
| 13 | QUARTET | Say 4 getting stripped off ‘offensive’? Solutions include each member of such a group with G-strings on (7) |
| A charade of [s]QUAR[e] (‘say, 4’) minus its outer letters (‘stripped off’) plus TET (‘offensive’ in the Vietnam war). The ‘G-strings’ are the lowest strings of a violin. | ||
| 15 | SICKENS | Son, not daughter, of writer gets ill (7) |
| A charade of S (‘son’) plus [d]ICKENS (Charles, ‘writer’) minus the D (‘not daughter’). | ||
| 17 | AMEER | Prince appearing in dream, eerily (5) |
| A hidden answer in ‘dreAM EERily’. Abdula Bulbul, for example. | ||
| 18 | DVD | Recording of sibling rivalry? (3) |
| Daughter versus daughter. | ||
| 20 | LASSI | Girl having one drink (5) |
| A charade of LASS (‘girl’) plus I (‘one’), for the yoghurt-based drink. | ||
| 22 | SESTETS | Tsetses flying in groups of 6 (7) |
| An anagram (‘flying’) of ‘tsetses’. Perhaps there is a mini-theme of groups. | ||
| 25 | ASOCIAL | Avoiding interaction in adult party (7) |
| A charade of A (‘adult’) plus SOCIAL (‘party’). | ||
| 26 | COCCI | Bacteria in bird’s eye, say (5) |
| Sounds like (‘say’) COCK’S (‘bird’s) ‘eye’. Note that the better known singular COCCUS is pronounced cock-us (with the second vowel approaching a schwa), but the plural is pronounced cocks eye, more or less. | ||
| 27 | REACHABLE | Accessible island to the west on open stretch of water (9) |
| A charade of REACH (‘open stretch of water’) plus ABLE, a reversal (‘to the west’ in an across light) of ELBA (‘island’). | ||
| 30 | INNOCENT I | Pub notice about a pope (8,1) |
| A charade of INN (‘pub’) plus OCENTI, an anagram (‘about’) of ‘notice’. The papacy of Innocent I was from 401 to 417. Before my time. | ||
| 31 | CONDO | Fiddle duet in US residence (5) |
| CON and DO are both slang for cheat (‘fiddle duet’). I live in a condo – condominium in full. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MIRV | Missile landing right inside MI5 (4) |
| An envelope (‘landing … inside’) of R (‘right’) in ‘MI’ plus V (Roman numeral ‘5’). Multiple Independently targetable Reentry Vehicle (the T must have been dropped to make it pronounceable), part of the all-too-aptly named MAD. | ||
| 2 | LESTRADE | Game’s up, in general, for inspector (8) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of STRAD (no, not Holmes’s instrument), a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of DARTS (‘game’) in LEE (‘general’), for Sherlock Holmes’s pedestrian policeman. | ||
| 3 | ETUI | A case of home tuition (4) |
| A hidden answer (‘of’) in ‘homE TUItion’, for that denizen of crosswords. | ||
| 4 | VIOLATED | Broke diet, with a third of vol-au-vent demolished (8) |
| An anagram of ‘diet’ plus ‘a’ plus VOL (‘third of VOL-au-vent’ – ‘third’ as a fraction). | ||
| 5 | APICES | Highest points of a group of stars with only one sun (6) |
| A charade of ‘a’ plus PI[s]CES (‘group of stars’) minus one S of the two (‘with only one sun’). | ||
| 6 | LIMONCELLO | Liqueur taking legroom in car (10) |
| An envelope (in’) of ON (‘leg’-, cricket) plus CELL (-‘room’) in LIMO (short for limousine, ‘car’), for the Italian lemon-flavoured liqueur. | ||
| 7 | DATIVE | A case of meeting about 4 (6) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of IV (Roman numeral, ‘4’) in DATE (‘meeting’), for the grammatical case. | ||
| 8 | VEIN | Verse given to a German tenor (4) |
| A charade of V (‘verse’) plus EIN (‘a German’, the German for “one” or “a”). | ||
| 13 | QUADS | Muscles in groups working together? Not initially (5) |
| A subtraction: [s]QUADS (‘groups working together’) minus the first letter (‘not initially’). | ||
| 14 | THREE-PIECE | Suite, perhaps, for 13 across going 1 down (5-5) |
| A QUARTET (’13 across’) minus one of its members (‘going 1 down’ – no relation of that clue). | ||
| 16 | SPILL | Small tablet found in shed (5) |
| A charade of S (‘small’) plus PILL (‘tablet’). | ||
| 19 | DRAMATIC | Striking a flowing boundary up in Durham — it leads to century (8) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of RAMAT, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of TAMAR (‘a flowing boundary’, the river which forms most of the boundary between Devon and Cornwall) in DI (‘Durham It leads’) plus C (‘century’). Good cricketing surface. | ||
| 21 | SHINBONE | Body part in rubbish bin — and what setter did about it? (8) |
| An envelope (‘about it’) of INB, an anagram (‘rubbish’) of ‘bin’, in SHONE (‘what setter did’ – the ‘setter’ not being Puck, nor a dog, but the sun). | ||
| 23, 24 | SECOND STRING | Reserves with which to back horses, perhaps (6,6) |
| A charade of SECOND (‘to back’) plus STRING (‘horses, perhaps’). | ||
| 24 | See 23 | |
| 26 | CAIN | Murderer taking taxi home after disposing of bishop (4) |
| A charade of CA[b] (‘taxi’) minus the B (‘after disposing of bishop’) plus IN (‘home’). | ||
| 28 | HOCK | Joint providing German wine (4) |
| Double definition. HOCK as ‘German wine’ is an anglicism, derived from Hochheimer, one of the many appellations of Rhine wines. | ||
| 29 | EROS | Wound up seeing statue’s name (4) |
| A reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of SORE ( |
||
I thought the clue to 13 was telling us that the instruments of a string quartet were hidden in the solutions. I can see VIOLA in 4 and CELLO in 6, but where is VIOLIN?
Thanks PeterO and Puck.
Iroquois@1, if we see letters of VIOLIN in 11a/12a, perhaps, SECOND in 23d can complete the Quartet…
In fact, the STRING (24d) QUARTET
another VIOLIN is in 4d/24d
I think PeterO nailed it, as usual. The misdirections were more themey than the theme.
If I can complain of anything, it is of late posters yesterday who gave away football spoilers. (However, I’m still going to watch the game!)
Thanks Puck and PeterO
Thanks to Puck for an entertaining challenge and to PeterO for the blog. I especially enjoyed working through the misdirections provided by the numbers in the clues, of which some referred to other clues but most did not. I’m happy to have finished and even happier to have finished before going to bed.
The strings on a cello and viola are CGDA and GDAE on a violin so all have G strings.That and three piece, TRIO and use of 4 in general made for a
Chamber puzzle with a couple of body parts thrown in
Very nice from Puck and great blog from Peter/
I enjoyed this although it took me a while to complete it. I could not quite parse 14d, 13a, 31a.
Thanks Peter and Puck.
The other two violins the Strad in LESTRADE and the Amati in DRAMATIC. Sneaky Puck! Thanks to him and PeterO.
Thanks Puck and PeterO
For once I saw at least some of the thematic ones – is there a second theme on star clusters? Favourites were IMPLICATE and LIMONCELLO.
I wrote one word in the margin when solving this and it was “delightful!”. Was I prescient as it was the one used by PeterO himself in his introduction? It wasn’t an entirely easy solve, but after a while I had so many ticks as clues fell into place, that I gave up ticking and just thought I’d say I liked the whole thing. I didn’t get all the theme words but what the heck: I enjoyed the sound of music! Even the unfamiliar 17a AMEER was perfectly gettable.
Some others talk on this forum about the story-telling surfaces some setters provide in their clues – this was well exemplified here. 1a was such a tragic scene – “still in tears periodically during sex”! And this one, “Murderer taking taxi home after disposing of bishop”, was like a murder mystery. Puck living up to his pseudonym – full of fun and playfulness. And speaking of prescience – you can imagine how I smiled when I quickly solved 3d ETUI, after my comment on Monday’s Vulcan.
After such a chronic fail for me on yesterday’s Paul, I found today’s fare so refreshing and it restored my confidence. Many thanks to the impish Puck and to PeterO – you always write a very good blog, our Long Island friend!
That was great fun. Loved the amusing misdirection. Thank you Puck, and PeterO for clarifying bits of parsing.
Etui again? Hock again? Couldn’t warm to this, despite some nice bits, even though I’m Kloppeuphoric this morning.
SteveB @9: Oh, well done! Missed that.
Pure delight from The Imp. Ticks at DVD, (although never sure if these acronyms are (3) or (1,1,1)) SICKENS, VEIN, & DRAMATIC for it’s smooth surface and clever construction.
PeterO a very trivial correction at 29d in your excellent blog, I think you meant wound.
So pleased to be able to post positively after yesterday’s.
Nice week, all
…forgot to add thanks to PeterO for the tit-bit about Eros/Artemis which I didn’t know. It prompted me to unearth the following:
“The whole memorial was removed twice from the circus in its history. In 1922 construction began on the new tube station directly beneath the memorial. The memorial was therefore taken away and put in Embankment Gardens. It returned to Piccadilly Circus in 1931; but when the Second World War broke out in 1939, the memorial was taken away again for safety and kept in Egham. It did not return to Piccadilly Circus again until 1948.
The statue was removed for restoration in the 1980s and re-sited on its return in February 1985. During the restoration a set of plaster casts was unearthed in the V&A basements which revealed damage to the statue. The statue was also vandalised in 1990 and after radiography and restoration returned in 1994. In May 2012 the statue had a new bow string fitted after it was broken by a tourist.”
Thanks, PeterO for a great blog. [I think you’re lucky, too.]
I can’t add anything to Julie’s delightful post [let’s hear it once again for ETUI!] except many thanks to Puck for the fun – you’ve been too long away.
Lots to love here – another who delights in being sent in every direction except the correct one, especially by all the numerical references. I think puck used numbers in about every way possible, especially with “1 down” to throw us off the scent completely. And lovely to see a theme that doesn’t spoil anything – nothing too forced to squeeze references in, and if there was not a perfect nina of violin anywhere, I don’t mind.
On the negative side, I am not big on the “DVD” clue for two reasons. One is that is it an abbreviation not an acronym (we’ve been here before but while the Japanese may have a word “deebeedee” we do not). the other is that the DVD is a physical medium on which a recording is stored, not a recording itself. Fussy I know but that’s me. I wouldn’t call myself a pedant precisely… Also I did not like “asocial” – solutions where one word makes up such a large part of the answer, especially when it is so strongly etymologically related to the answer, strike me as a bit last minute. I did not like “taking” in the Cain clue at first but thinking about it I can see it as “this is so TAKING this to be so” as a version of “definition LINK wordplay” – and worth it for the image.
But – as others have said, fabulous surfaces and great mischief. I’m off to girdle the world…
I’d love to be original but when Eileen’s said it for me, what’s a commenter to do?
Thanks to Peter, Puck and Eileen (that well known supergroup?)
crypticsue @18 – the credit all goes to Julie @11 today!
Yes , really good. I liked DVD. Wanted to put DAT until i finally got dramatic
Steve B. @9: thank you! I was just not thinking quite deviously enough! And with all the other misdirections, I really should have figured something sneakier was involved…
Yes, JinA is the tone-setting commenter today – thanks to her and to PeterO for pointing out some of the subtleties I missed. I also shared thezed’s reservations over ASOCIAL, but that apart it was a joy to solve. I also wondered whether there was some tangential reference to Puck’s musical idols(?) the Incredible String Band who have featured in at least two of his previous puzzles. Thanks to him as well.
Thanks Puck and PeterO
Expanding on all the other theme references, there is also an Orion String Quartet.
We haven’t seen General Lee for a while, but he’s a veteran clue component. A lot easier to fit into things than Eisenhower. The River Tamar, on the other hand, makes much rarer appearances than its three-letter cousins. I didn’t know it was a boundary. So is the Connecticut River, for a good deal of its length, between Vermont and New Hampshire, but I doubt that will be any more likely a word component than Eisenhower.
PeterO, a minor suggestion: I read 12a as “regular characters in fOuR sIx Or + Nine”, including “or” in the “regular” bit. And thank you for a fine blog. Thanks to Puck too.
I didn’t like ASOCIAL either, thezed @17, because “social” means almost the same thing in the clue and the answer, of which it makes all but one letter.
Lots to enjoy and I agree with the compliments of others. I couldn’t figure out the def. for 13a and missed the other string references but found lots of other clues to savour including the ‘flowing boundary up’ in19d, the ‘fiddle duet’ in 31a, SHINBONE (my last in) and even DVD.
I’ve always had a soft spot for good old LESTRADE, even if he is portrayed as a bit of a bumbler.
Thanks to Punk and PeterO
William @14
Thanks for pointing out the typo, now corrected (while I was about it, I fixed another in 28D, which I spotted all by myself).
I had intended to revisit 13A, but never got round to it. Even though I had noted STRAD in another context,I doubt that I would have spotted AMATI, so thanks to Steve B @9 for that. I would be fairly sure the two make up Puck’s string quartet (both families are primarily known for their violins, although they did also make violas and cellos).
I have to admit that I tried for a while to work in the Tyne or the Tees, the actual flowing boundaries of Durham, into DRAMATIC before I figured out what was going on. I loved the string quartet, though I admit I didn’t see the STRAD or AMATI.
An enjoyable puzzle, a little tricky to parse in places.
Thanks to Puck and PeterO
My apologies to all for my daft posts @2,3 and 4. I will get my coat..
Thanks to Puck and PeterO. I think I found this tougher than most others. Overall a very slow solve with some unfamiliar words, and in the end a DNF for me because I could not for the life of me see 8d (through it seems obvious now). Still an enjoyable challenge and not much more to add to the other commentators. Thanks again to Puck and PeterO.
Not always a fan of Puck but I really enjoyed this despite ETUI which surely needs pensioning off. TAMAR I DRAMATIC was easy for one who lived in Cornwall for years and made the crossing to England and back many times. I’ve only encountered LASSI in India and drank it in a vain attempt to combat the inevitable Delhi belly during an overnight train journey. I knew there must be string quartet references in the puzzle but most of them eluded me. Good fun.
Thanks Puck.
A top-quality crossword from an excellent setter – I enjoyed it all the way until I got stuck near the end, only because I didn’t know LIMONCELLO or LASSI. ETUI was not quite my first in (I think APICES was), but it was so delightfully corny to have this ‘crossword’ word showing itself yet again. I liked the thematic vein running through the puzzle.
Only recently I solved a clue to TSETSES with ‘sestets’ indicated in the clue, so 22a had a certain familiarity about it.
Many thanks to Puck and PeterO.
Enjoyed this so thanks Puck and needed as ever PeterO’s help with several I could not parse. A case in point was VEIN. Is V really in the dictionaries for verse. That eluded me and seems a bit naff. Oh well, so a DNF although a very satisfactory one. Thanks PeterO for a very good blog.
Oh dear “…….verse?”
I love Puck’s cluing and thoroughly enjoyed this, despite not quite understanding the QUARTET definition. Thanks to Steve B for bringing the theme into full focus. Many faves, but particularly SICKENS, THREE-PIECE, DRAMATIC and SHINBONE. I’ve always pronounced COCCI as COCK-EYE, but the clue still seemed fine to me.
Great to see Puck after his somewhat lengthy absence. Thanks to PeterO and commenters for the blog.
S Panza @33
I think that V for verse is common in quoting chapter and verse for a Biblical quotation or reading. And yes, it is in Chambers.
Thanks PeterO, I’ll have to remember that. What annoys me is that I could not see vein = tenor which is pretty damn obvious!!
Thanks to PeterO and Puck
What a great crossword. What a great night in Amsterdam. Goodwill to all.
Loved this crossword, especially once the Strad and Amati emerged to make up the foursome. I still don’t understand the final phrase about G strings, though. All the instruments in the string section have a G string so I don’t see what ” Solutions include each member of such a group with G-strings on” means.
jvector: I didn’t dare to say it but I struggle to see how this is a definition of the answer. Sure, it relates to the fact that some solutions contain instruments with a G string (in particular a string quartet), but that’s as far as I can see.
PeterO
29d. I only mention that Artemis was female as an excuse for the tale of a group of archaeologists who were excited to have excavated a piece of glass with ORTHI on it and to have identified it as a fragment of a chalice dedicated to ARTEMIS ORTHIE. Some spoilsport pointed out that it was actually part of a bottle of Worthington.
A day late again so no one will see this, but to me this was one of the best puzzles in a long time. Of course I’m biased, being an amateur cellist – and my real-name initials are DVD. I thought the surface of one of the key clues, 13a, was a bit clunky but it was a brilliant clue nonetheless, and so many other surfaces were witty and clever. I too liked the various numerical misdirections.
I love the Sherlock Holmes stories, and a professional cellist friend currently plays a Stradivarius (on loan from the Canada Council), so 2d was also a special clue.
Thanks Puck – please come back soon – and PeterO for the fun.