Vigo has provided our cruciverbal entertainment for this Tuesday.
I found this to be an accessible and enjoyable puzzle, towards the easier end of the spectrum in terms of difficulty.
I think that I have parsed everything satisfactorily, but I would appreciate confirmation of my parsing of 1A.
My favourite clues today were 12 and 15, both for smoothness of surface. The surface reading of 8 made me laugh out loud.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PATTER | Unfinished model drum
PATTER<n> (=model); “unfinished” means last letter is dropped; to patter is to pat or strike often, as e.g. rain on a window pane, hence “(to) drum” |
| 04 | VICARAGE | Almost sin having a tantrum in minister’s home
VIC<e> (=sin; “almost” means last letter is dropped) + A + RAGE (=tantrum) |
| 10 | RESISTING | Opposing cheat after one’s queen returns
RESI (I’S (=one’s) + ER (=queen); “returns” indicates reversal) + STING (=cheat, rob) |
| 11 | TRAIN | Prepare for starvation regularly
<s>T<a>R<v>A<t>I<o>N ; “regularly” means alternate letters only are used |
| 12 | HOTEL | Somewhere to stay following golf?
Hotel (for the letter “h”) follows Golf (for the letter “g”) in the NATO phonetic alphabet |
| 13 | DIACRITIC | Mark day institute gets a judge
D (=day, as an abbreviation) + I (=institute) + A + CRITIC (=judge); a diacritic is a mark attached to a letter to indicate modified sound |
| 14 | LIBRARY | Balance on line in public building
LIBRA (=balance, scales) + RY (=line, i.e. railway) |
| 16 | NILE | River having nothing to East
NIL (=nothing) + E (=East) |
| 19 | MEWS | Setter with small cat cries
ME (=setter, i.e. Vigo!) + W (=with) + S (=small, of sizes) |
| 21 | MAWKISH | Sentimental old lady having desire to embrace king
MA (=old lady) + [K (=king, of cards) + WISH (=desire)] |
| 24 | TRICOLOUR | Flag excursion around Rhode Island with colonel
[RI (=Rhode Island) + COL (=colonel)] in TOUR (=excursion) |
| 25 | SPASM | Jerk springs on top of mountain
SPAS (=spas) + M<ountain> (“top of” means first letter only) |
| 26 | LINKS | Briefly closes eyes having lost black ties
<b>LINKS (=briefly closes eyes); “having lost black (=B, as in HB pencils)” means letter “b” is dropped |
| 27 | APOLOGISE | Eat humble pie made from a loose pig
*(A LOOSE PIG); “made from” is anagram indicator |
| 28 | SINISTER | Left home carried by nun
IN (=(at) home) in SISTER (=nun); “sinister” means left or on the left-hand side |
| 29 | CLOUDS | Obscures flash covered up by civil service
LOUD (=flash(y), garish) in CS (=Civil Service) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | PORTHOLE | Left gap somewhere in ship
PORT (=left, on board a ship) + HOLE (=gap) |
| 02 | TEST TUBE | Match underground scientific apparatus
TEST (=match, e.g. in cricket) + TUBE (=underground, in London) |
| 03 | EASEL | Support revised lease
*(LEASE); “revised” is anagram indicator |
| 05 | INGRAIN | Popular cereal dye
IN (=popular) + GRAIN (=cereal); to ingrain is to fix a dye firmly in something |
| 06 | AFTERGLOW | Pleasant feelings following good base
AFTER (=following) + G (=good) + LOW (=base, vile) |
| 07 | ADAPTS | Makes suitable commercial appropriate to go on top of scoreboard
AD (=commercial, as noun) + APT (=appropriate) + S<coreboard> (“on top of” means first letter only) |
| 08 | EUNUCH | Greek letter to church after European Union employee found in harem
EU (=European Union) + NU (=Greek letter) + CH (=church) |
| 09 | WILDLY | Fantastically shrewd to keep vacated land
L<an>D (“vacated” means all middle letters are dropped) in WILY (=shrewd) |
| 15 | ALEHOUSES | Sees hula dancing around old pubs
O (=old) in *(SEES HULA); “dancing” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | TIRAMISU | Note jam is socially acceptable in pudding
TI (=note, in music) + RAM (=jam (into)) + IS + U (=socially acceptable) |
| 18 | CHIMNEYS | Smokers caught by that man with noisy joints
C (=caught, on cricket scoreboard) + HIM (=that man) + NEYS (knees=joints; “noisy” is homophone indicator) |
| 20 | STORAGE | Part of grist or a germ in silo?
Hidden (“part of”) in “griST OR A GErm” |
| 21 | MIRROR | Heads of media in Russia request operational reports for news outlet
M<edia> I<n> R<ussia> R<equest> O<perational> R<eports>; “heads of” means first letters only are used; the reference is arguably to newspapers whose name includes the word “mirror”, such as The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror in the UK |
| 22 | STYLES | Pig’s home the Parisian designs
STY (=pig’s home) + LES (=the Parisian, i.e. a French word for the) |
| 23 | SIGN UP | Register for jobseeker’s allowance in song unusually
*(IN SONG); “unusually” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | SCOWL | Grimace of bird squashed by Special Constable
SC (=Special Constable) + OWL (=bird) |
Today being a Tuesday, there is of course a theme: an impressive 11 entries by my count.
Only 10 from me:
The Mysterious Affair at STYLES
The Murder on the LINKS
The Mystery of the Blue TRAIN
Death in the CLOUDS
Death on the NILE
Murder in the MEWS
The Murder at the VICARAGE
The Body in the LIBRARY
The MIRROR Crack’d
The Secret of CHIMNEYS
The eleventh is At Bertram’s HOTEL. MIRROR is perhaps a double, as you could also have They Do It with MIRRORs.
Drat. You’re right, Andrew. Hotel was nagging at me but Bertram’s was a bit too obscure!
Always a pleasure to solve one of Vigo’s puzzles although, as usual, I missed the theme! Not to worry, that didn’t detract from the enjoyment.
Top three for me were 12&28a plus 1d, surface reads get my vote every time.
Thanks to Vigo and to RR for the review.
PS If you pop in later, Vigo, any chance that Solemate might be back in action one day – I keep expecting him to put in an appearance in the ‘other place’.
Well, spotting the theme didn’t tax our leetle grey cells too much, although we didn’t spot all the themed answers (and thought TRAIN might be an indirect reference to the Orient Express). Actually, our first guess at a theme was quite different; we saw ‘port’ clued as ‘left’ in 1dn, ‘links’ (German for ‘left’) at 26ac and ‘sinister’ at 28ac – all on the left side of the grid – so started looking for references to ‘right’ on the opposite side. To no avail, of course, and then we saw the real theme.
Favourites, though, were non-themed answers; DIACRITIC, AFTERGLOW, ALEHOUSES and SCOWL.
Thanks, Vigo and RatkojaRiku.
Lovely puzzle as always from Vigo with a spottable ghost theme (I’m still smarting from the Samsung Galaxy S5 mini 2016 special edition matt black ringtone theme)
Thanks too of course to RR for the blog
Nice puzzle. Like some others, missed the theme despite having read most of AC’s books.
23D is SIGN ON (not UP).
Thanks to Vigo and RatkojaRiku.
Thanks RatkojaRiku . Always a pleasure to meet a Vigo puzzle.
I will though just point out that 12 across although a very nice clue, appeared a week or two back in a Times Cryptic Jumbo.