Radian has compiled today’s puzzle for our stimulation and entertainment.
It is Tuesday today, but I haven’t spotted a theme of any description and there appears to be no Nina, but I could be missing something blindingly obvious to other solvers. For me, this was pitched at the right-level for a mid-week puzzle, in that there was enough to get one’s teeth into, but without it proving too time-consuming.
I think that, for the first time in weeks, I have parsed everything to my satisfaction. 26 took me a long time to parse, as I wasn’t sure where the definition lay, and I was wrong-footed by 8, where I expected the “game to do with passing” to refer to rugby. Furthermore, the entries at 18 and 23 were essentially (still) new to me, although I had stumbled across the latter in a previous puzzle and promptly forgotten it again.
My favourite clues today were 1, for smoothness of surface; 12, for making me smirk; and 27, for the misdirection around “coop”, which I wrongly read as “co-op”.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | BEWITCH | Partner skirts college entrance
C (=college) in [BE WITH (=partner, accompany)]; to entrance, as a verb, is to charm, enthral |
| 05 | ISOBARS | Iceland stops installing zero pressure indicators
O (=zero) in [IS (=Iceland, in IVR) in BARS (=stops, blocks)] |
| 10 | THOU | Second person getting some teeth out
Hidden (“some”) in “teeTH OUt”; thou is a largely obsolete second person pronoun in English grammar |
| 11 | OBITUARIES | Old sign about black stuff men ignored, passing remarks
BITU<men> (=black stuff; “men ignored” means letters “men” are dropped) in [O (=old) + ARIES (=sign, of Zodiac)]; the “passing” of the definition refers to death |
| 12 | GLUTEI | Instrument prodding trooper’s cheeks
LUTE (=instrument) in GI (=trooper, in US); the glutei are muscles in the hip and buttock |
| 13 | ADVANCED | A theologian maintains vehicle Anglicans lent
[VAN (=vehicle) + CE (=Anglicans, i.e. Church of England)] in [A + DD (=theologian, i.e. Doctor of Divinity)]; monies advanced are lent/loaned to borrowers |
| 14 | SNOWDROPS | Soprano instantly discards bloomers in winter
S (=soprano) + NOW (=instantly, as in “do it now!”) + DROPS (=discards, sheds) |
| 16 | USURP | Appropriate American insurers withdraw
US (=American) + URP (PRU=insurers, i.e. the Prudential, colloquially; “withdraw” indicates reversal) |
| 17 | CABIN | Cape mariner occupying his quarters
C (=cape, on map) + AB (=mariner, i.e. able-bodied seaman) + IN (=occupying) |
| 19 | NAVIGATOR | Note flyer describing good helmsman
N (=note) + [G (=good) in AVIATOR (=flyer)] |
| 23 | SCHEMATA | Outlines scene on border at start of act
SC (=scene) + HEM (=border, on garment) + AT + A<ct> (“start of” means first letter only); a schema is a diagrammatic outline or synopsis |
| 24 | EREBUS | Darkness before navy’s boat return
ERE (=before) + BUS (SUB=navy’s boat; “return” is anagram indicator); Erebus is the lower world or hell, hence “darkness” |
| 26 | SEMICIRCLE | House seductress clutching large ring? Not half!
SEMI (=house, i.e. semi-detached) + [L (=large) in CIRCE (=seductress, in Greek mythology)]; a semi-circle is only half a ring, of course! |
| 27 | CREW | What coop boss did // for ship’s company
Double definition: CREW is made the sound of a cock (=(hen) coop boss), as in The cock crowed AND a ship’s company! |
| 28 | REVENGE | Tit for tat, say, not once backfired
E.G. (=say, for example) + NEVER (=not one); “backfired” indicates reversal |
| 29 | AGILITY | Nimbleness and expertise good for bachelor
ABILITY (=expertise); “good (=G) for bachelor (=B)” means letter “b” is replaced by “g” |
| Down | ||
| 02 | ECHELON | English clubs look into female division
E (=English) + C (=clubs, in cards) + [LO (=look!) in HEN (=female)] |
| 03 | INUIT | Nice night to pursue one husky driver
I (=one) + NUIT (=Nice night, i.e. the French word for night) |
| 04 | CROZIER | Former announcer hosted Australian clerical staff
OZ (=Australian) in CRIER (=former announcer, i.e. town crier); a crozier is a bishop’s crook, hence “clerical staff” |
| 06 | SCURVY | Sailor’s complaint, sick at first with waves
S<ick> (“at first” means first letter only) + CURVY (=with waves) |
| 07 | BERING SEA | What separates the US and Russia leads to each saving energy
E (=energy) in [BRINGS (=leads to) + EA (=each)] |
| 08 | ROE DEER | Game to do with passing round dictionary before finishing early
[OED (=dictionary, i.e. Oxford English Dictionary) in RE (=to do with, regarding)] + ER<e> (=before, poetically; “finishing early” means last letter is dropped |
| 09 | DISAPPEARANCE | Police turn up expert to handle new loss
DIs (=police, i.e. Detective Inspectors) + APPEAR (=turn up, show up) + [N (=new) in ACE (=expert)]; the loss of e.g. species could be described as a disappearance |
| 15 | WHITE LINE | Traffic controller with knotted rope traps European
E (=European) in [*(WHIT) + LINE (=rope)]; a white line is a road marking, hence “traffic controller” |
| 18 | ACCRETE | Come together on entering empty crypt in a church
[RE (=on, regarding) in C<ryp>T (“empty” means all but first and last letters are dropped)] in [A + CE (=church, i.e. Church of England)]; to accrete is to grow together, become attached |
| 20 | ICEBERG | One diver comes up holding cold chunk of glacier
C (=cold, on tap) in [I (=one) + EBERG (GREBE=diver, i.e. a diving bird; “coming up” indicates vertical reversal)] |
| 21 | OPULENT | Loaded old boat containing large case
O (=old) + [L<arg>E (“case” means first and last letters only) in PUNT (=old boat)] |
| 22 | PALING | Every year fish are getting lighter …
PA (=every year, i.e. per annum) + LING (=fish) |
| 25 | EXCEL | … top catch? About 90
XC (=90, in Roman numerals) in EEL (=catch, i.e. fish caught); to excel is to surpass, top e.g. another’s performance |
Thanks, RatkojaRiku.
I presume this is the theme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Erebus_(1826) with a fair number of NW passage and marine related clues. I see also that the sister ship of Erebus, Terror, was commanded by Captain Francis CROZIER.
Thanks, RatkojaRiku.
This was an interesting challenge, with several cleverly concealed definitions and witty surfaces. There are too many good clues to list favourites.
It’s Tuesday, it’s Radian and there’s a theme to be found. I was led right up the garden path today. ‘… speaks thunder and the chains of EREBUS to some of Saturn’s CREW’ [from our A Level book, Milton’s ‘Comus’, lines learned especially as an example of zeugma] leapt out at me immediately and then there was CIRCE in 26ac – but after that the trail went cold. I would never have got this theme, so many thanks to NeilW.
RR, your remark re 27ac absolutely forces me [yet again] to give the link to this sketch [about three minutes in].
Many thanks to Crucible [yet again] for a most enjoyable puzzle.
Oops! – I meant Radian, of course. 😉
Great puzzle and blog. Many thanks to
RedshankNice one, copmus.
I thoroughly enjoyed this despite having no idea about the theme. There were several points at which I thought that I was stuck and would need some aid to continue but managed to complete. Very satisfying. Thanks to Radian, RatkojaRiku and Neil.
Almost completed – we were in the wrong part of the Arctic for 7dn and had ‘Barent Sea’ (should be ‘Barents’, anyway) which, of course, we couldn’t parse. We guessed there had to be a theme but couldn’t see it although we thought at first it might be something to do with crews – ‘cabin crew’ and ‘scurvy crew’ came to mind but then the idea fizzled out.
Some lovely clues, though. We liked SNOWDROPS, SEMICIRCLE and CROZIER.
Thanks, Radian and RatkojaRiku
I really struggled with this to begin with and almost gave up with less than half completed, so I confess to then consulting a word list to get 9D and hey presto! everything else then fell into place. The theme was totally lost on me, despite having watched a TV programme about the expedition recently. Thanks anyway to Radian and RatkojaRiku.