The puzzle can be found here.
Hello again! Wire is here to entertain us this Saturday with a puzzle I thought had some very nice touches. Thanks Wire.
I enjoyed the DISCUS event for its novelty and the FREE LUNCH (who says I’ll pay later?). I also liked the encrypted filename at 15d, but my favourite clue is my favourite user of stakes: BUFFY. Which was NUMBER ONE for you?
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
Across
1a Festivity with experienced knight (7)
GALAHAD
GALA (festivity) with HAD (experienced)
5a Spinning Sid replaces Rolling Ric in Big Top event (6)
DISCUS
The reversal of (spinning) SID replaces the reversal of (rolling) RIC in [cir]CUS (Big Top)
10a Lack of drive space with one unit regularly (5)
ENNUI
EN (printer’s space) with alternate letters of (… regularly) oNe UnIt
11a Main nationalist colour on side of saltire (6,3)
NUMBER ONE
N (nationalist), UMBER (colour), ON (from the clue), and the side of saltirE
12a Exchange coin inside of Asian capital (7)
NICOSIA
Make an anagram of (exchange) COIN and add the inside of aSIAn
13a Fragment in meal, time for complaint (7)
AILMENT
Form an anagram of (fragment) IN MEAL and append T (time)
14a English call for help to restrict media shots (9)
ESPRESSOS
E (English) followed by SOS (call for help) around (to restrict) PRESS (media)
16a Close to confiscating girl’s flute? (5)
GLASS
The last letter of (close to) confiscatinG + LASS (girl) is (‘s) something of which flute is one type
18a Person taking temperature before head cold cleared (5)
THIEF
T (temperature) before [c]HIEF (head) with C (cold) removed (cleared)
20a Soviet stockpiler in US runs out for vegetable (3,6)
RED PEPPER
RED (soviet) + P[r]EPPER (stockpiler in US) with R (runs) removed (out). Fruit or vegetable? You say tomayto, I say pepper
22a Local black drink that is on front of magazine (7)
BRUMMIE
We start with B (black) and RUM (drink), then IE (that is) goes after (on) the first letter of (front of) Magazine
23a 75% of stone floor gets abrasive treatment (7)
RUBDOWN
75% of RUBy (stone) plus DOWN (floor, as a verb)
25a Joyful church hosts dance affair without strings (4,5)
FREE LUNCH
FUN (joyful) plus CH (church) contains (hosts) REEL (dance)
26a Waste year in pursuit of fellow goddess (5)
FREYA
Make an anagram of (waste) YEAR after (in pursuit of) F (fellow)
27a Cut-throat maybe exposed on small island chain (6)
AZORES
rAZOr (cut-throat maybe) without the outer letters (exposed), then RE (on, regarding) and S (small, as seen on clothing labels, though oddly missing from Chambers)
28a Due to put enclosure around twisted tree (7)
PAYABLE
We are to put PALE (enclosure, seen in the phrase “beyond the pale”) around the reversal of (twisted) BAY (tree)
Down
1d Young earl in Sandwich area under protection (5,4)
GREEN BELT
GREEN (young), then E (earl) in BLT (sandwich)
2d Cover swollen scapula partially (4,3)
LENS CAP
SwolLEN SCAPula, partially
3d Special issue of ‘Tunes’ picked up (5)
HEIRS
This sounds like (… picked up) AIRS (tunes)
4d Cook sent lad eggs stuffed with extremely oaten fillers (6,8)
DENTAL SURGEONS
Make an anagram of (cook) SENT LAD, then add URGES (eggs) containing (stuffed with) the outer letters of (extremely) OateN
6d Doctrinaire hides gold, rogues discovered (9)
IDEOLOGUE
[h]IDE[s] [g]OL[d] [r]OGUE[s] without outer letters (discovered)
7d Depression engulfs husband with chronic ear infection (7)
CHOLERA
COL (depression or pass in a mountain) surrounds (engulfs) H (husband), with an anagram of (chronic, in the informal sense of awful) EAR
8d Indicated variety of wheat (5)
SPELT
Two definitions: indicated or spelled (spelled “spelt”), or a species of wheat
9d Post retired doctors on Syrian transport storing mineral mostly (14)
AMBASSADORSHIP
The reversal of (retired) BMA (doctors, British Medical Association) preceding (on, in a down answer) ASSAD (Syrian) + SHIP (transport) containing (storing) ORe (mineral), mostly
15d Filename left encrypted at home (2,7)
EN FAMILLE
FILENAME + L (left) anagrammed (encrypted)
17d Quiet anger about tattoo’s reduction in size (9)
SHRINKAGE
SH (quiet) and RAGE (anger) around (about) INK (tattoo)
19d Undelivered sample of store tunics brought back (2,5)
IN UTERO
A part of (sample of) stORE TUNIcs, reversed (brought back)
21d Words of wisdom from one who tests Britain (7)
PROVERB
PROVER (one who tests) followed by B (Britain). I had thought that “test” was the meaning of “prove” in the expression “the exception that proves the rule”, but on checking find that to be in dispute
22d Award sailor returning to guard rear of vessel (5)
BAFTA
AB (sailor), reversed (returning), surrounding (to guard) AFT (rear of vessel)
24d User of stakes for fence initially blocks purchase (5)
BUFFY
The pair of first letters of (… initially) For Fence is inserted into (blocks) BUY (purchase)
This was how I like Saturday puzzles – hard enough but not too hard. I missed the fruit v. vegetable angle, but my NUMBER ONE was RED PEPPER – you say pepper, I say capsicum – mainly because ‘stockpiler in US runs out’ reminded me of yet another genre of trash TV I’ve spent too long watching. I also liked the ‘fillers’ def at 4d, the misdirection of ‘chronic ear infection’ at 7d and the (for me) difficult 9d.
Thanks to Wire and Kitty
As a long-time BUFFY fan, 24dn certainly gets my vote.
I certainly enjoyed a lot of the clues as I got them but made heavy weather of it in general so had forgotten which bits I liked by the time I’d finished. The two long ones are pretty complicated and I spent a while counting the letters in SENTLADEGGS ON before looking for another approach.
BUFFY (though never seen it), EN FAMILLE, GREEN BELT, RUBDOWN, THIEF were good.
oh yes, ta Wire, Kitty
Just as well you were around to sort out the parsing, Kitty. I eventually filled the grid but had so many question marks. No real excuse as the only thing I didn’t know was the stockpiler.
Must try harder!
Thanks to Wire and very definitely to Kitty, without whom I’d have been lost.
This was quite a struggle in places but we completed it in the end, mostly on the train home from the York S&B (sorry you couldn’t make it, Kitty) But we couldn’t completely parse everything, notably DENTAL SURGEONS (thinking ‘eggs’ was part of the anagram fodder), IDEOLOGUE (thinking ‘discovered’ applied only to ‘rogues’) and AMBASSADORSHIP (failed to lift and separate ‘Syrian transport’).
On the other hand we liked GALAHAD, DISCUS, SPELT and IN UTERO – the latter was our CoD.
Thanks, Wire and Kitty.
A very enjoyable puzzle made even more enjoyable on second reading through Kitty’s lovely blog.
Special thanks for including 12a, my birthplace:)