It is a long time since it last fell to me to solve and blog a puzzle by Radian, so I was glad to renew that acquaintance with his work today.
I found that I had to work fairly hard at this crossword, which I would grade as medium-to-hard on the Indy spectrum of difficulty. I suspect, however, that others might not have found the puzzle as challenging as I did.
Both 3 and 23 were new to me, and although the anagram at 3 was a great help at solving, my first attempt was still wrong! I do not understand why in 25 “old invaders” is in plural, as it seems to me that the singular, giving “Hun” would be more accurate. I would also appreciate any comments on my parsing at 4 and 27. My favourite clues today were 1A, for smoothness of surface, and 24, for being so evocative of a pleasant way of spending a summer’s day.
On one of my recent outings with Radian, I did not spot a Shakespearean theme. I think that I may have atoned for my sins today. 1D and 20 clearly point us in the direction of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, with many of the words in the completed grid appearing in speech delivered by Cassius in Act 1, Scene 2.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | CHAFING | Irritating links limiting fine golfer at first
[F (=fine) in CHAIN (=(set of) links)] + G<olfer> (“at first” means first letter only) |
| 05 | PEDICAB | MDMA and LSD brought back in lead rickshaw
[E (=MDMA, i.e. the drug ecstasy) + DICA (ACID=LSD; “brought back” indicates reversal)] in PB (=lead, i.e. chemical formula); a pedicab is a cycle rickshaw |
| 09 | ERATO | Dine out primarily to obtain recipe inspiration
R (=recipe, from Latin) in [EAT (=dine) + O<ut> (“primarily” means first letter only)]; in Greek mythology, Erato is the muse of lyric poetry, hence “inspiration” |
| 10 | OURSELVES | Open University runs hard to avoid delays for us
OU (=Open University) + R (=runs, in cricket) + S<h>ELVES (=delays; “hard (=H) to avoid” means letter “h” is dropped) |
| 11 | ATTRACTION | Draw Times artist wearing suit
[TT (=times, i.e. 2 x T=time) + RA (=artist, i.e. Royal Academician)] in ACTION (=suit, court case) |
| 12 | SLUR | Slight // mark in bar
Double definition: a slur is a slight, an aspersion AND a mark – here a curved line – in a bar of music |
| 14 | ENCOMPASSED | Embraced English officer, male, discharged
E (=English) + NCO (=officer, i.e. non-commissioned officer) + M (=male) + PASSED (=discharged, i.e. of urine) |
| 18 | CONTROVERSY | Dispute hoax attempt to restrict sessions at Lord’s
CON (=hoax, trick) + [OVERS (=sessions at Lord’s, i.e. in cricket) in TRY (=attempt)] |
| 21 | PEEP | Go quietly and look
PEE (=go, i.e. urinate) + P (=quietly, i.e. piano in music) |
| 22 | CLOG DANCER | Noisy hoofer distributes gold among stars
*(GOLD) in CANCER (=stars, i.e. constellation); a hoofer is a professional dancer |
| 25 | ARTHURIAN | King’s skill with old invaders circling inlet
ART (=skill) + [RIA (=inlet, result of drowned river valley) in HUN (=old invader(s?), of Europe in 5th century)] |
| 26 | GREAT | Star about to appear in American piece
RE (=about, regarding) in GAT (=American piece, i.e. US slang for gun); e.g. Hollywood greats are Hollywood stars (of silver screen) |
| 27 | TORRENT | Notice outside flat about river in spate?
R (=river) in TO RENT (=notice outside flat); with the question mark, the definition appears to be “river in spate?”, although a spate of e.g. complaints could also be a torrent, a flood of complaints |
| 28 | FATHERS | Article in paper coming from female priests
[A (=article, in grammar) in FT (=paper, i.e. Financial Times)] + HERS (=coming from female) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | CAESAR | Carriage full of drink lifted autocrat
AES ((the) drink, i.e. a slang word for sea; “lifted” indicates vertical reversal) in CAR (=carriage); the reference is to Roman emperor Julius Caesar |
| 02 | AWAITS | A wife, when touring Italy, is expecting
A + W (=wife) + [IT (=Italy, i.e. ISO code abbreviation) in AS (=when, as conjunction)] |
| 03 | ICOSAHEDRA | “They have many faces,” said Horace, drunk
*(SAID HORACE); “drunk” is anagram indicator; an icosahedron is a solid with twenty plane faces |
| 04 | GHOST | Spirit of Grande Armée?
G (=grand(e?)) + HOST (=army, large number of); the French in the clue seems to have no bearing on the wordplay |
| 05 | PERFORMER | One who acts for each class her husband’s missing
PER (=for each) + FORM (=class, group) + <h>ER (=husband (=H)’s missing means letter “h” is dropped) |
| 06 | DEED | Legal document decided police must leave
DE<cid>ED; “police (=CID, i.e. Criminal Investigation Department) must leave” means letters “cid” are dropped |
| 07 | CIVILISE | Having secured India, Clive is ordered to improve
I (=India, i.e. letter “i” in international radio telecommunications) in *(CLIVE IS); “ordered” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | BESTRIDE | Dominate, leading gallop
BEST (=leading, top) + RIDE (=gallop) |
| 13 | EASY TARGET | It’s hard to miss each new strategy
EA (=each) + *(STRATEGY); “new” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | CIVIL LIST | Royal funds well-mannered band
CIVIL (=well-mannered) + BAND (=list, border, stripe, of fabric) |
| 16 | ICE PLANT | It covers this French blueprint for growth
[CE (=this French, i.e. a French word for this) + PLAN (=blueprint)] in IT; an ice plant is a flowering plant whose leaves are covered with fine hairs of sugary appearance |
| 17 | ANCESTOR | Forerunner has some grievances to redress
Hidden (“some”) in “grievANCES TO Redress” |
| 19 | SCHEME | Border in small church plot
HEM (=border) in [S (=small, in sizes) + CE (=church)] |
| 20 | BRUTUS | Dry American conspirator
BRUT (=dry, of champagne) + US (=American); the reference is to Brutus, who conspired to kill Roman emperor Julius Caesar |
| 23 | GANEF | Iron horse runs over rogue in New York
FE (=iron, i.e. chemical formula) + NAG (=horse); “runs over” indicates reversal; a ganef is a rogue, unscrupulous person in US slang, from Yiddish |
| 24 | HUGE | Jumbo‘s good in shade
G (=good) in HUE (=shade, of colour) |
I spotted er a ghost theme and remembered this setter likes”bard” puzzles(sorry)
Always a pleasure
Thanks all.
It’s Tuesday, it’s Radian, so brush up your Shakespeare! But it take us a while to identify today’s play – it was BRUTUS which put it beyond doubt. We spotted 14 words in total;maybe Eileen will drop by to confirm the count.
Lots of lovely clues; too many to nominate a CoD.
Thanks, Radian and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks RR and Radian,
Certainly more challenging than many. I concur with your parsing of 4 & 27 RR, for HUN/HUNS I was happy with Hun representing the plural, certainly by WW1 ‘the Hun’ was in genaral use to refer to the enemy as a plural entity. Indeed in Google land there seems to be a school of thought that would have the plural being just ‘Hun’ anyway.
4d GHOST I just assumed the question mark was indicating some licence had been taken.
And missed the theme, Philistine that I am.
Never seen 23 spelt that way, so spent a few moments trying to parse GONIF, and 3 required checking a couple of possible anagrams. Otherwise, all write-ins but none the less ejoyable. Thanks to Radian and RR.
Enjoyable puzzle, helped by spotting (at least some of) the theme. I didn’t know the musical meaning of SLUR, the LIST meaning of ‘band’ or GANEF, but all could be entered pretty confidently.
I liked the ‘Noisy hoofer’ at 22a and ICOSAHEDRA for the reminder of making models of polyhedra in Year 7 maths. Seems like only yesterday.
Thanks to Radian and RR
allan_c @2 – I had to go out before the blog was posted.
In my first comment on the last Radian puzzle, which was his second themed on ‘Now is the winter of our discontent…’, with only one overlap in the answers, I said, ‘Huge thanks, as ever, to Radian – whatever next?’ And now, amazingly, he’s done it again: he’s used the same two speeches of Cassius from ‘Julius Caesar’ Act I Scene ii as he did for the May 21st puzzle, where he included fifteen theme words. I can only find thirteen here, Allan [but you found two I missed last time ] with none repeated from the last puzzle, which is some feat.
Radian can keep doing this sort of thing until the cows come home, as far as I’m concerned, so, again, ‘Huge thanks to Radian’ – thanks, too, to RR for the blog.
Thanks Radian and RatkojaRiku for an enjoyable puzzle and informative blog. I must have spent 15 minutes trying all sorts of possibilities for 3D, and failing to get any confirmation from BinGoogle (I search using either Bing or Google). Eventually I hit on the right combination. Otherwise it was plain sailing and I too loved the ‘noisy hoofer’. Of course I guessed there was a theme from !D and 20D but my knowledge of Shakespeare is abysmal.
allan_c @2 -[I’m a bit disappointed that no one else has joined in] – my thirteen [not counting BRUTUS or CAESAR twice!] – were, in order of appearance, CHAFING, TORRENT, CONTROVERSY, ANCESTOR, BESTRIDE [the giveaway] HUGE, PEEP, OURSELVES, BRUTUS, CAESAR, GREAT, ENCOMPASSED, FATHERS. What’s the last one – please?? I’ve got to the stage where it must be staring me in the face but I just can’t see it: my [feeble] excuse is that I’ve been preoccupied with my Guardian blog. 😉 ]
Though I was aware there would almost certainly be some themage, I can report a thoroughly enjoyable solve just treating it as a regular puzzle.
GANEF was new to me, but clearly clued.
Thanks to Radian and RatkojaRiku – and to Copmus, whose “Bard puzzle” gave me a real chuckle.
Eileen@8: Hmmm. This has to be a case, I think, of “I will recount [sorry!] hereafter” – you are correct in that there are only 13. We thought we saw a word there that wasn’t (although it does occur as part of another word but that’s obviously not admissible).
Liked the joke, Allan. 😉