A toughie from Imogen this morning, but ultimately rewarding if you stick with it.
If, like me, you found this a bit on the harder side, Imogen has helpfully provided another clue at 26ac, where he confirms that the crossword is pangrammatic (i.e. every letter of the alphabet appears once).
This was a tour de force with some very clever devices used (HUTU, THOU), although a little general knowledge is required (JOSHUA, ANKH) and the definition for BATE in 1dn is a bit obscure, and probably belongs in a weekend barred puzzle, rather than a midweek one.
Thanks, Imogen.
| Across | ||
| 8 | MACHISMO | One’s married after church amid revolutionary swagger (8) |
| 1’S M (married) after CH (church) amid MAO (“revolutionary”) | ||
| 9 | NILOT | East African, or people from the Six Counties? (5) |
| N.I. (Northen Ireland, “the Six Counties”) LOT (“people”)
A Nilot is an inhabitant of the Upper Nile |
||
| 10 | HUTU | Some Rwandans are in Shed 21 (4) |
| HUT U would be “Shed 21” assuming HUT A was Shed 1, HUT B Swas hed 2 etc. | ||
| 11 | EVEN-HANDED | Fair level: passed (4-6) |
| EVEN (“level”) + HANDED (“passed”) | ||
| 12 | STOWED | Packed bus finally pulled away (6) |
| (bu)S [finally] + TOWED (“pulled away”) | ||
| 14 | ONE BY ONE | 11 in a file (3,2,3) |
| “11” is ONE BY (beside) ONE |
||
| 16 | REBIRTH | Personnel including family groupings back in the Renaissance (7) |
| <=(HR (Human Relations, so “Personnel”) including TRIBE (“family groupings”)) [back] | ||
| 18 | UNFAZED | Not staged for an audience, so remaining calm (7) |
| Homophone of [for an audeince] UNPHASED (“not staged”) | ||
| 21 | INFRINGE | In front of family circle, uncle’s last to trespass (8) |
| IN + [front of] F(amily) RING (“circle”) + (uncl)E [‘s last] | ||
| 23 | JOGGER | One who nudges people as she runs past? (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | PIPSQUEAKS | Contemptible people‘s cruel quips are stopping points (10) |
| *(quips) stopping PEAKS (“points”) | ||
| 26 | A TO Z | What’s in this grid that may be your guide? (1,2,1) |
| Double definition, the first referring to the fact that the puzzle is a pangram, the second to a book of street maps. | ||
| 27 | EXECS | They manage clubs through refundable costs (5) |
| C (clubs) through EXES (expenses, so “refundable costs”) | ||
| 28 | UNUSED TO | Not familiar with tunes, duo bombed (6,2) |
| *(tunes duo) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BAGUETTE | In bad temper, visitor denied small piece of bread (8) |
| In BATE (obscure word for rage, so “bad temper”) GUE(s)T (“visitor” denied S(small)) | ||
| 2 | THOU | 500 of you? (4) |
| 500 is [half of] THOU(sand) | ||
| 3 | ASCEND | Heard donkey tail is to be raised (6) |
| Homophone of [heard] ASS END (“donkey tail”) | ||
| 4 | DOVECOT | Voted to change round company in tiny house (7) |
| *(voted) round CO (company) | ||
| 5 | ANKH | Cross first part of fantastic city (4) |
| Two definitions, the first referring to a symbolic cross like those worn by ancient Egyptians, and the second to Ankh-Morpork, the main city of Discworld in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels | ||
| 6 | YLANG YLANG | Tree repeatedly named in baby language (5-5) |
| Hidden in “babY LANGuage” and repeated | ||
| 7 | STREWN | Tossed around odd bits of turf in all directions (6) |
| [odd bits of] T(u)R(f) in SEWN (South, East, West, North, so “all directions”) | ||
| 13 | WAITRESSES | Hospitality workers with fine hair (10) |
| W (with) + A1 (“fine”) + TRESEES (“hair”) | ||
| 15 | EON | A long time, but Christmas is almost over (3) |
| <=NOE(l) (“Christmas”) [nearly over] | ||
| 17 | TUN | VAT not applied initially on large fish (3) |
| TUN(a) (“large fish”) with A(pplied) [initially] not on | ||
| 19 | EYE TOOTH | One ahead, I say! Press horn hard (3,5) |
| EYE (homophone of I [say]) + TOOT (“press horn”) + H (hard)
“The one ahead” here means “one on or in the head” |
||
| 20 | PEGASUS | Winger uses gap cleverly (7) |
| *(uses gap) | ||
| 22 | NAILED | Caught in outrageous denial (6) |
| *(denial) | ||
| 23 | JOSHUA | Banter to lift a high-class fighter (6) |
| JOSH (“banter”) + <=(A U (upper-class))
Refers to Anthony Joshua, until recently a World Heavyweight Champion |
||
| 25 | URSA | From the first, usually recognisable stars, actually major or minor (4) |
| Initial letters of [from the first] U(sually) R(ecognisable) S(tars) A(ctually) and &lit. | ||
| 26 | AXEL | Cut line in manoeuvre on ice (4) |
| AXE (“cut” ) +L (line) | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick and Imogen. Some really good clues in this puzzle, especially 5d. Regarding 23d, I took Joshua to be the Biblical hero who fought the Battle of Jericho.
I was ok with the definition of BATE as I seem to remember Jennings and Derbyshire using it to describe irritable masters in the Anthony Buckeridge novels I read in my youth.
For 7dn I had the definition as “in all directions” with TOSSED = SEWN as in seeds. I guess it works both ways.
Thanks S&B. I also though of the belligerent OT character in 23d, but the boxer (who I hadn’t heard of) seems a more likely candidate.
I think of “bate” as being dated schoolboy slang: “the Head’s in a frightful bate”.
Made a bit of a dog’s brekkie of this but it was an excellent puzzleThanks Imogen a d loonapick
Thanks loonapick and Imogen. Certainly needed you for several explanations: HUTU, EXECS, BAGUETTES
I was another battler.
I don’t like the use of such as “in” (10a, 4dn, 22d, 26d) and “of” (2a); they don’t form part of the clue, and are only there for the surface. They are wrongfully distracting; “in Shed 21” I was looking for a hidden word in “shed twentyone”,”shed infringement”. Other times they are quite justifiably meaningful, as “with” in 13d.
This was pretty hard, but good – thanks to S&B. Never having read Pratchett, the parsing passed outside my off stump for 5d – the nearest I got was Ankh Tawy (another name for the original Memphis). Seemed plausible at the time.
I’d agree with ‘tour de force’ – I thoroughly enjoyed this crossword which has some splendid ‘Aha’ moments. I did wonder when I got the J @23 whether we were in for a pangram so it was nice of Imogen to confirm this in 26a
Thanks to Imogen for the great crossword and to loonapick for the blog
Badly mauled by Imogen today. My first failure was ‘execs’ and then I rushed through the rest – I wasn’t too impressed by ‘one ahead’ as the definition for ‘eye tooth’. Didn’t really like ‘ankh’ or the misleading ‘in’ of 26 across. ‘Ylang Ylang’ existed beyond my obscurity threshold, but I suppose we learn these words as we do more crosswords. A final bit of grumpy pedantry: I thought HR meant ‘Human Resources’, not ‘Human Relations’, and I wondered if 26 across was also an &lit? Thanks Loonapick and Imogen.
There were a number of delightful and original clues in here which made for tough but ultimately positively rewarding (and fun) solving. I am starting to come in on the side of those concerned (and occasionally nit-picky) about clue grammar though. After yesterday’s issues there were more today. I am OK with “in” as in definition found in wordplay, less so when it is wordplay found in definition. But “of” doesn’t work the same way. So a few little niggles:
What is the role of “past” in 23a other than smoothing the surface?
“Contemptible people’s” – is this meant to be “contemptible people is…”? That requires us to take the two words as a single object, a noun phrase, which is awkward, but also to turn a possessive apostrophe into something quite other. Can someone explain how please?
“Baguette” is a loaf of bread not a piece. A piece means a part of something and a baguette is a whole thing in its own right. It’s there for the surface but it doesn’t quite fit for me.
“500 of you” – so clever but “thou” means “you” not “of you”. “Thine” would be closer for “of you”. “500 for you”?
“on large fish”? How does this instruct the solver to remove “a” from “tuna”? Again, surface triumphs over accuracy.
25ac is more an extended definition than a true &lit
These are all things which could have been attended to by a little editing, if there were some concern over them. I enjoy being challenged. I love clever clues like “hutu”, “strewn”, clues which educate like “nilot” (African people seem to be a theme the past few days!), and “ylang-ylang” was a delight. I hate staring at a clue all confused because the answer lies in actually ignoring part of the clue completely or that a word has to be taken to mean something it does not.
Rant over. Ankh-Morpork was well within my GK – I still remember the delight of reading The Colour of Magic in about 1985 and identifying the stories in it as pastiches. “Fire raged through the bifurcated city of Ankh-Morpork” – in a single opening sentence I knew that Fritz Leiber was never going to read the same again.
Anyway, thank you loonapick for the cunning parsing, and Imogen for many witty and clever clues.
So far no one has noticed the hidden theme!
Imogen@ 10 – D’oh and double D’oh – nicely hidden in plain sight!
Struggled with loi’s Ylang Ylang and Ankh…still can’t see the theme though, someone put me out of my ignorant misery…
Thanks loonapick – I had no idea re ANKH and BATE unknown in that sense.
thezed @9: Although I don’t normally read through long posts, I have read this one and entirely agree with you and I thank you for taking the time to spell out the grammar and surface concerns.
Maybe by the time I’ve written this someone will tell us that a BAGUETTE is a piece of bread but not in my book.
In addition I have doubts about the tense of ASCEND.
I was in a daze over the theme but it’s all clear now.
Hovis @14 thank you – that weak clue was just what I needed
Thanks for dropping in with a tip Imogen but still at a loss …
And thanks from me, too Hovis! [I wasn’t going to comment, since I thought it had all been said, until Imogen dropped by.]
Many thanks, Imogen – I really enjoyed the challenge. Thanks to loonapick, too.
thezed@15 Glad I could help. Getting them in order with the initial ‘pointer’ is really quite remarkable. Kudos to Imogen for managing this.
Ronald@12. It,s not every day we have a theme like this.
Thanks for the blog and parsing of HUTU, d’oh. “baguette” is a diminutive form – originally (from google) a small rod in italian. The French would probably view a baguette as a small loaf.
Could someone help with the theme, pls?
andysmith @20 If something is small, it doesn’t necessarily make it a piece of something else though. It can be small but perfectly formed, as they say. Are baguettes small loaves? There are smaller (ficelle) and larger (bâtard) so more an average, almost typical loaf you might say.
It amused me to discover (on a trip to Japan with a French colleague) that chopsticks in French are also called “baguettes”.
Oleg @21 – there’s a clue in the perimeter.
thezed@22 “baguette” also means wand.
Eileen @23 no wiser. MHSRIPDSASALHOZRDEDSYADATB
Oleg @ 24 – how many rows are there?
OLeg – try going the other way. 😉
If Imogen had not clued us in, I think we’d still not notice the theme if we had a whole week to stare at it…
Thanks, loonapick.
It seems I remain blind to themes and nina’s. Probably wouldn’t have spotted the pangram if 26a hadn’t drawn attention to it. Enjoyed the puzzle all the same.
Oleg @ 21: the abbreviations MON, TUE, … SUN are hidden in the across lights.
PS Autocorrect put that apostrophe in “ninas,” curse it.
thezed @9 – I read 17d as tuna – a (=not applied initially). But ‘to’ would be better than ‘on’.
jim @30 – that’s my point. Here (and yesterday and increasingly I think) is an example of the preposition not making any sense for the wordplay, although it makes a good surface. As it is the wordplay we need to solve, that makes life unnecessarily tricky I feel.
I’m with Oleg and can’t see a theme – could someone please enlighten us?
Marcy@32 – look at the last two letters of 8a and the first letter of 9a – after that work your way down the grid and see what appears!
Miche@28
Sorry, I may be particularly dim but what are ‘across lights’?
Great puzzle. Was feeling good about finishing it but now feel stupid because I can’t see the theme, even with the answer given. HUTU and URSA were bijou delights. MACHISMO took far longer than it should to unravel. I had to check NILOT via google. I knew ANKH as the cross but not the city (either the Pratchett one or the alternative to Memphis) so I didn’t parse that one.
Lots of fun. Thanks to Imogen and loonapick.
crypticsue @ 33 – thank you! The scales have fallen from my eyes.
And the first of 4,5,6 & 7 down spells DAYS…
Thanks to Imogen and loonapick. I am another who found this very tough, but stuck with it and eventually got there. The pangram was the key to me finishing this. My last two were pipsqueaks (after realising the q was missing) and Joshua. Too many good clues to pick any out in particular and of course I missed the theme. Very enjoyable, though needed to come here to clarify some parsing, and thanks again to Imogen and loonapick.
Perhaps a rough week in the making for me, as Pasquale and Imogen are the two setters that give me the hardest time. Missed a few both yesterday and today.
Regarding the grammar of the clues, I believe thezed’s objections are all valid. That said, I’m inclined to be somewhat forgiving of looseness that doesn’t interfere with the solving, so for example the ‘of’ in 2d doesn’t bother me since the intent is clear. However, I hesitated to enter JOGGER even after solving the clue because I didn’t see where ‘past’ fit into the wordplay, and I had to pause at ASCEND because the clue seemed to call for past tense.
Overall, more to like than to dislike. Thanks to Imogen and Loonapick.
A top class puzzle. Needless to say I missed the nina.
Thanks both,
Very entertaining. The only of today’s quibbles that I concur with is the ‘of’ in 2d. Some memory assistance needed for 10a and I hadn’t come across ‘dovecot’ without a final ‘e’.
Referring to yesterday’s puzzle. People balked at knowing Ed Balls was in Strictly, but nobody complains about having to know someone called Joshua is a boxer. I thought of he who “fit the battle of Jericho” too.
Thanks Imogen and loonapick
Difficult, though I did finish. JOSHUA LOI (not a favourite clue).
I had no trouble with ANKH – I’m a Terry Pratchett fan – but I think that it’s a very unfair clue.
@steveb Lights are the white spaces for writing in answers (as opposed to the dark squares)
Anthony Joshua won an Olympic Gold and a World Heavyweight Championship. How famous do you have to be! Another wonderful crossword in what is proving to be another excellent week. I almost forgive Hugh for Saturday. I had no problem with baguette being described as a piece of bread. You could also transfer the piece to small and make the definition bread if you cared to, though then I suppose someone will complain about the floating ‘of’. Small words used to make lovely surfaces is fine by me, as are obscure surfaces that read like instructions. What I like is getting to feel as if I know the setter’s personality.
Wonderful puzzle! Although, the “past” in 23 ac and the “large” in 17 were annoying (but fair) distractions…
Thanks to loonapick and Imogen
A couple of things that I don’t think have been mentioned:
I saw 23a as a jocular CD. If that was what was intended then PAST is not superfluous.
6d was a write-in because the tree appeared in a Paul not too long ago, but despite reading the clue every which way, I can’t make it work.
The tree is only half named in BABY LANGUAGE, not repeatedly.
The first three across entries MaschismO NiloT Hutu, had me looking for Jan, Feb etc as well as days. Didn’t find any though.
Wow! Yorkshire Lass and I completed but with several not properly parsed, so many thanks loonapick. Failed to spot the pangram or the cleverly hidden theme: so nothing new there. Only quibble would be over unphased = unstaged. That seems a bit of a stretch. Favourite was PIPSQUEAKS: lovely word and excellent clue. I had bate as Greyfriars rather than Jennings, but am happy to bow to Frankie the cat@2’s superior memory. Many thanks Imogen.
Irishman @48
I wondered about “unfazed” to. I’m not sure that “unphased” = “unstaged”, but I decided that “phased” = “staged”, so that justified it.
..too..
I took un-phased to equal un-staged cryptically. It is a cryptic crossword after all. Dansar: you have to insert it repeatedly.
Dansar @ 47
‘The tree is only half named in BABY LANGUAGE, not repeatedly’
It’s named in {[baby language] repeatedly}, ie babY LANGuage babY LANGuage
Re ‘unstaged’ and ‘unphased’, I think they’re OK. If you phase things in, you introduce them in stages, so……?
Simon S @ 52
Thank you but,
“IN REPEATEDLY”, or preferably “IN REPEATED” and some other variations, I could just about see, but “REPEATEDLY IN ” defeats me.
BTW @53 reminds me that I wasn’t that happy with REMAINING CALM for UNFAZED. I see UNFAZED as simply CALM
Great Saturday puzzle.
YLANG YLANG works if you treat the clue as ‘repeatedly [named in baby language]’
I agree with Mark Reynolds @8 — HR means “human resources” in biz-speak, at least in the US. They just see us as something to use, not anything to relate to.
Great puzzle even without the pangram and the weekdays. Thanks, Imogen and loonapick.