Serpent’s Saturday slot slides around to suit and I have the pleasure of blogging today’s.
As expected, this was a pleasant, reasonably tough, solve with some excellent clues.
I read most of the way down the across clues before finding something. It was 22 Ac where “Capital” leapt out at me from the anagram fodder.
By the end of the first pass I had about half the clues solved but only 3 in the top half.
I didn’t get many more before taking a break.
Refreshed, I made much better progress after getting 5 Ac “Timidity”, and soon after 1 Ac “Gotham” too, and wondered why I had so much trouble earlier. With all those juicy first letters the clutch of down clues were at my mercy.
The one that resisted till the end was at the other end of the puzzle: 29 Ac “Steady”. Now I have the wordplay I cannot see why it misled me so much.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GOTHAM | Understood the meaning of overacting in New York (6) GOT (understood the meaning) HAM (overacting) Gotham is a nickname for NY |
| 5 | TIMIDITY | Serpent’s sex appeal distinctly overcome by considerable nerves (8) I’M (Serpent’s = Serpent is = I am) and IT (Sex appeal) intermittently inserted inside TIDY (considerable) |
| 9 | DICTATOR | Richard and Charlotte perhaps in audition for Big Brother? (8) “Dick Tater” Tater = potato = Charlotte is a variety |
| 10 | AUGURY | Sign of saint expunged from venerable rectory’s walls (6) AUGU[st] R[ector]Y |
| 11 | ANKH | Symbol intimately associated with Tutankhamen (4) Hidden inside tutANKHamen |
| 12 | ORIGINATED | Spoke about independent spirit being set in motion (10) I[ndependent] GIN (spirit) inside ORATED (spoke) |
| 13 | ANATTO | Got tan after turning somewhat orange colour (6) Hidden reversed in gOT TAN After. Inevitably this was one of the last solved and aI had to look it up to check it <Wiki> |
| 15 | ELEVENTH | Prime position left first mate in the navy at sea (8) L[eft] EVE (first mate) inside (THE N[avy])* AInd: at sea. 11 is a prime number |
| 17 | ACID TEST | Drug trial that could be decisive (4,4) ACID (drug) TEST (trial) |
| 20 | TENURE | Occupation university dons enter at work (6) U[niversity] inside (ENTER)* AInd: at work |
| 22 | CAPITAL SUM | Insurance pay-out puts a claim in jeopardy (7,3) (PUTS A CLAIM)* AInd: in jeopardy First one solved. |
| 24 | USED | Second-hand shop’s facade due to be revamped (4) (S[hop] DUE)* AInd: to be revamped |
| 26 | LIVING |
Quick work! (6) |
| 27 | ALTHOUGH | Even if wealth’s lost we should cut back (8) [we]ALTH OUGH[t] |
| 28 | REVEILLE | Slippery youngster covering up deceit is about to get a wake-up call (8) ELVER (Slippery youngster) around LIE (deceit) all reversed |
| 29 | STEADY | Staid or stayed – which is misspelt? (6) (STAYED)* AInd: is misspelt Last one in. |
| Down | ||
| 2 | ONION | Judgement disregards “good” reason for waterworks (5) O[pi]ION |
| 3 | HOTSHOT | Expert‘s recently-taken photo (7) Double definition |
| 4 | METRONOME | One marking time paid for working in capital (9) MET (paid for) ON (working) inside ROME (capital) |
| 5 | TERMITE | Time at school cut short by child’s social worker? (7) TER[m] MITE (child) |
| 6 | MIAMI | Religious leader upset about western border of Israeli city (5) I[sraeli] inside IMAM all reversed (upset) |
| 7 | DEGRADE | Dread for example having to change and move to worse position (7) (DREAD E.G.)* AInd: having to change |
| 8 | TORMENTOR | Rent room close to that silly bugger! (9) (RENT ROOM [tha]T)* AInd: silly |
| 14 | NECTARINE | Square containing exposed area of land for fruit (9) NINE (square) around [h]ECTAR[e] |
| 16 | ESTIMATES | European countries divided by case for interim assessments (9) I[nteri]M inside E STATES |
| 18 | DEICIDE | First person incarcerated by judge is a killer (7) I inside DECIDE (judge) |
| 19 | TESTATE | Exam put away with instructions on passing (7) TEST (exam) ATE (put away) |
| 21 | NEURONE | Provider of sensitive information to Central Intelligence Agency? (7) Cryptic definition – likening a brain (central nervous system) to the CIA |
| 23 | ALGAL | Everyone eats tips of green asparagus like seaweed (5) ALL around G[reen] A[sparagus] |
| 25 | EDGED | Promised to abandon place with borders (5) [pl]EDGED |
Rattled through this. Haven’t spotted any nina.
ANATTO was new to me but I guessed a reverse inclusion and then just had to check.
Got DEICIDE straight away but had to check it could refer to the killer rather than just the killing (Chambers did confirm this).
For 19d, I think “with” is part of the definition.
Thanks to Serpent and beermagnet.
Interestingly, I had 26a as LIVING, a dd as in “the quick and the dead” and an occupation (“work”) as in “Well, it’s a living”. I still think that works but nail-file thing is funnier if correct, as I’ve no doubt it is.
Good puzzle anyway. thanks to both.
GB @2. Although I had FILING, I think LIVING is a better answer. Wasn’t entirely convinced by “filing” since you file nails whereas “quick” is the sensitive skin underneath.
I also have LIVING for 26a, and came here to see why it equates to “quick”.
If you reveal 26a, it comes up with LIVING
Good grief. 26A Isn’t FILING after all. When I got that I didn’t think any further and didn’t check the Reveal. LIVING it is. So I have changed the blog (however I still think Filing is a possible answer). Thanks for alerting me.
I took quite a while to sort this one out, especially the NE corner.
Thanks to Serpent for making me work hard for my cruciverbal entertainment and to beermagnet for the blog
Yes, this took a bit of sorting out. We worked through the acrosses first, and all we got were ANKH and USED, plus a tentative _RY as the ending of 10ac. But we fared a bit better on the downs and eventually were able to complete, with STEADY and GOTHAM our last ones in. STEADY was one of our nominations for CoD, along with ONION and NECTARINE. We also liked ELEVENTH, although we thought it should possibly have had a question mark as a definition by example.
Thanks, Serpent and beermagnet.
PS: Should the empty brackets, (), in the blog for 28ac contain explanations?
Thanks for the parsing. Not sure about navy as just n, and having a hard time seeing why bugger is tormentor, but otherwise some nice clues. 21 d a nice twist.
Ericw@9. If you take “bugger” as somebody who bugs/irritates then I think “tormentor” is fine. N (rather than n) as an abbreviation for Navy is in Chambers.
I filled in the empty brackets in 28ac. Thanks for pointing it out Allan
Many thanks to beermagnet for the comprehensive blog and to everyone who has taken the time to comment.
LIVING was indeed the intended solution for 26a.
As is usually the case with my puzzles, the completed grid contained a feature: in this case, the beginning and end of each down entry has a repeated sequence of two or three characters.
Wow! How did we all miss that!
Serpent@12
Thanks for popping in-I did search around after finishing your excellent puzzle but it eluded me.
While I am fine with it, some ‘purists’ will perhaps reject I as the ‘Western border of Israeli’ in a Down clue.
Also, ‘for example’ = e.g. might be (very) clear, I do think however that 7d verges on the borders of an indirect anagram, similarly 15ac (with ‘navy’ = n).
Serpent and Klingsor are the setters who often use these kind of anagrams but I think Klingsor is more aware of the dangers than Serpent.
That said, Serpent is a great setter.
And I missed the ‘theme’ completely.
Many thanks to beermagnet & Serpent.