Apologies again for the late posting – an enjoyable (and significant?) puzzle from Klingsor today…
I woke up a tad worse for wear this morning, after celebrating cycling coast-to-coast across Lancashire and Yorkshire on the ‘Way of the Roses’ – nice pun! – and my phone popped up with a reminder that it was my turn to blog the Indy…cue a rushed print off, solve and blog, accompanied by some paracetamol and a strong coffee!
Fortunately Klingsor was not too severe on my hangover, and I made steady progress – enjoying the DIATR(IB)ES/TIRADES anagram along the way, as well as ARISTOTLE/TOTALISER. This was particularly apposite, as we had all been complaining about sore ‘aris’ es**, after four days in the saddle!…
It was only after I had entered my LOI – TREACLE – that I realised there was a Nina/message along the top and bottom rows – HUNDRED PUZZLES!
I’m not sure if this refers to 100 Klingsor puzzles specifically in the Independent, or 100 puzzles published generally, but hearty congratulations on reaching your century!
(And thanks for a nice hangover-friendly solve and blog today.)
**ARIS = double/embedded Cockney rhyming slang – Aristotle -> Bottle, Bottle & Glass -> A*se!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 8A | ANNEALING | Making tough decision, finally located in a north London borough (9) | making tough / A + N (north) + N (final letter of decisioN) + EALING (London borough) |
|
| 10A | EVOKE | Call up the day before to secure approval (5) | call up / EV_E (the day before) around (securing) OK (approval) |
|
| 11A | GUEST | Hotel resident thought aloud (5) | hotel resident / homophone, i.e. aloud – GUEST sounds like GUESSED (thought) |
|
| 12A | ADDRESSED | Sent extra clothes to iron, first off (9) | sent (e.g. a letter) / ADD_ED (extra) around (clothing) ( |
|
| 13A | POSSESS | Have groups of lawmen succeeded? (7) | have / POSSES (groups of lawmen) + S (succeeded) |
|
| 15A | ARTISTE | It is time to stop live performer (7) | performer / AR_E (live, exist), around (stopped by) TIS (it is) + T (time) |
|
| 17A | NEAR TO ONES HEART | Much-loved sporting hero a teen star? No (4,2,4,5) | much-loved / anag, i.e. sporting, of HERO A TEEN STAR NO |
|
| 19A | TREACLE | Sweet stuff in parcels regularly carried by plane? (7) | sweet stuff / TRE_E (e.g. plane) around ACL (regular letters of pArCeLs) |
|
| 21A | TIRADES | Diatribes lacking in balance primarily? Could be (7) | &lit-ish/diatribes / subtractive anagram, i.e. could be, of DIATR( |
|
| 23A | PUBLISHER | First of lads in bar is the woman’s bookmaker! (9) | book maker! / PUB (bar) + L (first letter of Lads) + IS + HER (the woman’s) |
|
| 26A | BULGE | Learner advances in brass instrument – that’s swell (5) | swell / BUGLE (brass instrument), with L (learner) advancing, could give BULGE |
|
| 27A | EXALT | Praise a cracking former officer (5) | praise / EX (former) + A + LT (lieutenant, officer) |
|
| 28A | TOTALISER | Aristotle changed system for the better (9) | system for the better (gambler) / anag, i.e. changed, of ARISTOTLE |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | HANG UP | Problem getting ring off (4,2) | double defn / a HANG-UP (hyphenated) can be a problem; and to HANG UP can be to ring off a call. |
|
| 2D | UNDERSTATE | Play down communist uprising in a French territory (10) | play down / UN (indefinite article, French) + DER (red, or communist, rising) + STATE (territory) |
|
| 3D | NASTIEST | Residence stocks wine that’s extremely unpleasant (8) | extremely unpleasant / N_EST (residence) around (stocking) ASTI (wine) |
|
| 4D | DIVA | Opera singer helping to make Verdi valued (4) | opera singer / hidden word, i.e. helping to make, in ‘verDI VAlued’ |
|
| 5D | REVERT | Go back on screen, introducing recipe (6) | go back / RE (on, regarding) + VE_T (screen, check) around (introducing) R (recipe) |
|
| 6D | EONS | French art entertains cricket side for ages (4) | ages / E_S (second person singular of ‘etre’, French, ‘tu es’ could be ‘thou art’?) around (entertaining) ON (cricket side) |
|
| 7D | DEAD HEAT | Man, American, wears ridiculously dated tie (4,4) | tie / DEAD T (anag, i.e. ridiculously, of DATED) around (wearing) HE (man) + A (American) |
|
| 9D | GODPARENT | Sponsor’s yearly payment supporting rising boxer? (9) | sponsor / GOD (dog, e.g. boxer, rising) + PA (per annum, yearly) + RENT (payment) |
|
| 14D | STONECHAT | Holy person wants to talk about a certain singer (9) | singer / ST (saint, holy person) + CHAT (to talk), around ONE (a certain) |
|
| 16D | SCANDALISE | Con artist’s crime ultimately creates shock (10) | shock / SCAN (con, recce) + DALIS (Salvador Dali’s, or artist’s) + E (ultimate letter of crimE) |
|
| 17D | NOT A PEEP | Upset about recording – old recording having no sound (3,1,4) | having no sound / NO (on, or about, upset) + T A PE (recording) + EP (Extended Play vinyl record, old recording) |
|
| 18D | HAREBELL | Plant a herb around spring, not start of winter (8) | plant / HAREB (anag, i.e. around, of A HERB) + ( |
|
| 20D | CHINTZ | Fabric, a feature associated with 25? Not half! (6) | fabric / CHIN (a feature) + TZ (half of |
|
| 22D | SHEARS | High sea’s extremely rough for clippers (6) | clippers / anag, i.e. high, of SEAS + RH (extreme letters of RougH) |
|
| 24D | BEAU | Fop wants British Evian water? (4) | fop / B (British) + EAU (French, i.e. Evian, for water) |
|
| 25D | RITZ | Hotel needs legal documents for hearing (4) | hotel / homophone, i.e. for hearing – the RITZ hotel sounds like WRITS (legal documents) |
|
Congrats to Klingsor on making his ton. The Nina helped with my last few up in the NW corner.
I liked GODPARENT and TIRADES / ‘Diatribes’ and found ANNEALING, well, tough.
Thanks to Klingsor and mc_rapper67
A steady solve for us today, and we actually spotted the nina before finishing. Took a while to see the parsing of TREACLE but otherwise no problems.
Thanks and congratulations to Klingsor on the ton and to mc_rapper67 on completing the challenge.
Late as usual, but to find only two had popped in to celebrate Klingsor’s 100th. Was everyone absorbed by the Cup Final? A comparatively gentle solve for a Saturday, but no less enjoyable for that. Thanks,to setter for a ton of fun and McRapper for the neat explanations.
A busy day yesterday [nothing to do with the Cup Final – or Eurovision] but had to add my congratulations to Klingsor, especially since I missed the Nina [nothing new there].
Another lovely puzzle – my favourites were TREACLE and TOTALISER [one of those seemingly [beautifully] simple ones that make you think it must have been done before but I’ve never seen it.
Many thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Klingsor
Congratulations to Klingsor, I’m looking forward to the next hundred.
The anagram @28a has been used before but never as well as here I think.
Thanks for all the comments/feedback.
Eileen at #4 – shame on you for missing the Nina – repeat after me a hundred times…’I must look up and down the main diagonals, and around the perimeter, in case there is a theme/Nina‘!… (;+>)
Eileen & Dansar – I had an inkling that I had seen the Aristotle/Totaliser anagram before, but couldn’t put my finger on it. A quick search on this site for TOTALISER gives the below – some going one way, some the other. Suffice to say they are all suitably different, and spread out over many millennia – and great minds think alike…
TOTALISER from ARISTOTLE:
Financial Times 15,774 – Hamilton
Posted on Monday, February 5th, 2018
Betting system Aristotle invented (9)
Financial Times no. 14, 028 by Armonie
Posted by flashling on June 12th, 2012
15 TOTALISER The Tote – ARISTOTLE*
Inquisitor 153 – COMPOSING TWIST by Hypnos
Posted by HolyGhost on December 11th, 2009
TOTALISER ARISTOTLE (Thematic entry)
Financial Times 12,722 by Mudd
Posted by Pete Maclean on April 3rd, 2008
16. TOTALISER – anagram of ARISTOTLE
ARISTOTLE from TOTALISER:
Guardian Cryptic 27,323 by Rufus
Posted on Monday, October 9th, 2017
Old Greek totaliser cock-up (9)
Financial Times 14,323 – Dante
Posted by Sil van den Hoek on June 6th, 2013
Totaliser beaten by great logician (9)
Guardian 24,864 – Rufus
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on November 23rd, 2009
11. ARISTOTLE. TOTALISER*.