This is the first I’ve heard of Atrica, who doesn’t seem to have appeared before in the Indy. The debut was successful: several gentle clues soundly and pleasantly executed. When I saw that a new setter was appearing on a Tuesday I feared the worst and expected problems in the solving, but there were none really that I was aware of.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
If Atrica has begun life with a Nina it’s too sophisticated for me to see. Which isn’t saying much. Well actually now that I look it seems to be dwelling-places: palace. yurt, tepee, igloo, mansion, several more.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PALACE | Walk around interior of hall to identify location of throne (6) |
| p({h}al{l})ace | ||
| 4 | DWELLING | Living well in vacant, decaying housing (8) |
| d(well in)g, the dg being d{ecayin}g — the containment indicator is ‘housing’, not ‘in’ as it may seem | ||
| 10 | MOCK TUDOR | Make fun of house in ye olde style (4,5) |
| mock [make fun of] Tudor [the house of Tudor] | ||
| 11 | TEPEE | Sophisticate peers inside tent (5) |
| Hidden in sophisticaTE PEErs | ||
| 12 | KURD | Physician comes to country after revolution to see middle-Eastern native (4) |
| (Dr UK)rev. | ||
| 13 | CASTIGATED | Players I locked in getting ticked off (10) |
| cast [players, as in a theatre] I gated | ||
| 15 | NUTCASE | Cook can’t use fruitcake (7) |
| *(can’t use) | ||
| 16 | DITHER | Either go back one step at the outset, or wobble (6) |
| Take the first letter of ‘either’ and move it one place back in the alphabet | ||
| 19 | ISOBAR | Is given nothing but a line on a map (6) |
| is 0 bar | ||
| 21 | MANSION | Many sit endlessly on pile (7) |
| man{y} si{t} on | ||
| 23 | UNIONISING | After wedding I make myself heard, organizing the staff (10) |
| union I sing | ||
| 25 | YURT | Accommodation from the East truly lacking a trace of luxury (4) |
| (tru{l}y)rev., the l being l{uxury} — this is all about the yurt | ||
| 27 | HOLDS | Gets a grip: stops losing key, though getting old (5) |
| stops = halts; this loses alt, as in the Alt hey on a keyboard, to give hs: then it’s h(old)s | ||
| 28 | APARTMENT | Studio possibly suitable to hold paintings by bishop and queen? (9) |
| ap(art men)t — the bishop and the queen are both men in chess | ||
| 29 | TWO-EDGED | As a compliment, “excellent for a beginner” is cutting both ways (3-5) |
| 2 defs — the first one an example of a two-edged compliment | ||
| 30 | THONGS | Opera singers should avoid appearing in these vocal works with a lisp (6) |
| ‘songs’ said with a lisp so that it’s ‘thongs’ — I’m not quite sure about the need for avoidance and wonder what I’m missing | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PUMPKINS | Squashes monarch, after foot scrubbed, into shoes (8) |
| pump(kin{g})s | ||
| 2 | LACERATES | Less spiritual altarpieces mutilated, leading to tears (9) |
| (altar{pi}eces)* — pi = pious = spiritual, sort of | ||
| 3 | COTE | Shelter by seaboard in St. Malo (4) |
| The definition is as in sheepcote, dovecote (and ‘cote’ also stands on its own); the seaboard in St, Malo indicates the French word for ‘coast’, ‘côte’ | ||
| 5 | WORSTED | Fabric might be most ghastly when covering Edward (7) |
| worst Ed | ||
| 6 | LITIGATING | Appealing, perhaps, and soothing after leading character’s replaced by Liberal (10) |
| mitigating with its leading character replaced by L | ||
| 7 | INPUT | Entry of Russian leader, cycling (5) |
| Putin with the last two letters cycled to the front | ||
| 8 | GREEDY | Insatiable gardener periodically visited lady, stripped to the waist (6) |
| g{a}r{d}e{n}e{r} {la}dy — the gardener is periodically visited | ||
| 9 | IDEATE | Dream of fish getting swallowed (6) |
| ide [a type of fish] ate | ||
| 14 | CARBONISED | Recompilation of Brian’s code is very well done (10) |
| *(Brian’s code) | ||
| 17 | EPICUREAN | A nice, pure cocktail for connoisseur (9) |
| (A nice pure)* | ||
| 18 | INSTATES | Establishes where most Australians live (8) |
| Most Australians live in States within Australia — instates is not that common a word but obvious from ‘reinstate’ | ||
| 20 | RESCALE | Climb up again to adjust compass (7) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 21 | MANUAL | Keyboard‘s printed instructions (6) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 22 | MUD HUT | Adobe abode? (3,3) |
| CD — the similarity of the words is just there I think because it’s nice — we usually hear the word Adobe in connection with Publisher or Illustrator or suchlike, but the word refers to the mixture of mud and straw used to build mud huts | ||
| 24 | IGLOO | Place where northerner lives surrounded by water (5) |
| CD I think: you have to regard the snow or ice that makes up the igloo as water really, just frozen water | ||
| 26 | ITCH | Sorceress scratching head finds another thing to scratch (4) |
| {w}itch | ||
Eventually spotted the 4a theme, though too late to be of any help in solving. I wasn’t sure what to make of 30a either, other than the obvious – that appearing on stage in THONGS wouldn’t be a “good look” for opera singers.
I liked the ‘surrounded by water’ for 24d and the clever anagrammatic MUD HUT, even if it wasn’t very cryptic. Favourite was the risqué surface for GREEDY.
Thanks, and welcome, to Atrica and to John
Atrica is indeed a new setter for the Indy – another graduate from Big Dave’s site.
We found this fairly straightforward, but only spotted the theme towards the end (but it did confirm 24dn as IGLOO). Lots of nice clues, such as NUTCASE, HOLDS, CARBONISED, MUD HUT. As for THONGS – we thought an opera singer might appear in one in Strauss’s Salome!
Thanks, John, and thanks and welcome to Atrica.
Welcome Atrica, thanks for the excellent puzzle. Thanks to John also for the blog. Not sure about the lisping 30A though, wouldn’t it be thongth? Failed to spot the theme, though it was obvious in retrospect.
Well done on becoming a published setter, Atrica. I liked the theme in this one and my top three were DWELLING, MOCK TUDOR & GREEDY.
How I wish that modern day keyboards came with printed instructions!
Thank you for your debut puzzle, Atrica, and thanks to John for the review.
Thank you very much to those who commented, and to John for the review. @Tatrasman: I agree, 30A is not quite right. @allan_c: I once saw Dame Gwyneth Jones in Salome — a great voice but perhaps an ill-advised strip-tease.
Quite extraordinary. I’ve never known there to be so few posts. And a new setter. Well I shall welcome Atrica and hope he or she doesn’t judge the site by this response.
Sorry, just got in and my email took some time to update, which was why I thought there had only been one reply.