An enjoyable solve today with a couple of definitions which needed checking.
There were a couple which had us scratching our head due to clever misdirections until we suddenly realised that A = per and that He could be helium. Looking at our preamble for Klingsor’s last puzzle which we also blogged, we had the same problem last month!
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INERT GAS | He perhaps isn’t seething with rage (5,3) |
| An anagram of ISN’T and RAGE – anagrind is ‘seething’. The He refers to Helium. | ||
| 5 | STROLL | Walk or run on street (6) |
| ROLL (run) after or ‘on’ ST (street) | ||
| 9 | PER | A back-cloth? (3) |
| A reversal of REP (cloth) | ||
| 10 | ALTERCATION | Heated dispute about blocking amendment (11) |
| C (about) inside or ‘blocking’ ALTERATION (amendment) | ||
| 12 | COOK STRAIT | A way to get artist some water in NZ? (4,6) |
| A play on the fact that an anagram of ARTIST is STRAIT – the anagrind would be ‘cook’ | ||
| 13 | POOL | Game in Poland securing no-score draw (4) |
| PL (Poland) around or ‘securing’ O-O (no-score draw) | ||
| 15 | BELIEF | Fail to justify fellow’s conviction (6) |
| BELIE (fail to justify) F (fellow) | ||
| 16 | FOR GOOD | Focus for one harbouring sentimentality permanently (3,4) |
| FORD (‘Focus for one’ as in the car) around or harbouring GOO (sentimentality) | ||
| 18 | ADDRESS | Extremely agitated groom gives speech (7) |
| AD (first and last letter or ‘extremes’ in agitated) DRESS (groom) | ||
| 20 | RASCAL | Tinker, a scallywag, covers it (6) |
| A clue as definition with the answer hidden within ‘covered by’ tinkeR A SCALlywag | ||
| 23 | SOMA | Intoxicating juice is perfect drug (4) |
| Double definition although we had to check both | ||
| 24 | WINE WAITER | I write a new novel, one that may suggest Madeira? (4,6) |
| An anagram of I WRITE A NEW – anagrind is ‘novel’ | ||
| 26 | FISHMONGERS | More than one retailer feels bored by US idiot (11) |
| FINGERS (feels) around or ‘being bored by’ SHMO (US slang for idiot) | ||
| 27 | COB | Creation of baker, for starters? (3) |
| First letters or ‘starters’ of Creation Of Baker making this another clue as definition | ||
| 28 | LIEBIG | Invention by great chemist (6) |
| LIE (invention) BIG (great). Leibig was a German scientist and is considered to be the founder of organic chemistry. | ||
| 29 | STARKERS | Celebrity, with underwear half off, gets naked (8) |
| STAR (celebrity) with |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | IMPACT | Effect of independent member introducing law (6) |
| I (independent) MP (member) in front of or ‘introducing’ ACT (law) | ||
| 2 | EARLOBE | Craft ale bore? It depends on the listener (7) |
| An anagram of ALE BORE – anagrind is ‘craft’. Depend can mean ‘to hang down’ although this is rare according to Chambers which may explain why we had to check it. | ||
| 3 | TRANSPIRED | Unfinished business involving new part of church came to light (10) |
| TRAD |
||
| 4 | AFTER A FASHION | Sort of affair one has when playing around close to nest (5,1,7) |
| An anagram of AFFAIR ONE HAS – anagrind is ‘when playing’ around T (last letter or ‘close’ to ’nest’) | ||
| 6 | TEAK | Leaves Kelvin to find wood (4) |
| TEA (leaves) K (Kelvin) | ||
| 7 | ORINOCO | At home with old officer south of Yellow River (7) |
| IN (at home) O (old) CO (commanding officer) underneath or ‘south of’ OR (yellow) | ||
| 8 | LANDLADY | Commercial breaks tastelessly cutting off British host (8) |
| AD (commercial) inside or ‘breaking’ |
||
| 11 | REINFORCEMENT | Check with respect to building material’s extra strength (13) |
| REIN (check) FOR (with respect to) CEMENT (building material) | ||
| 14 | TRESPASSER | Intruder from Quebec’s very out of date, right? (10) |
| TRES (‘very’ in French which is spoken in Quebec) PASSE (out of date) R (right) | ||
| 17 | PARSIFAL | Opera and revamped Safari installed in PC laptop initially (8) |
| An anagram of SAFARI – anagrind is ‘revamped’ inside or ‘installed’ in P L (first or ‘initial’ letters of ’PC Laptop’) | ||
| 19 | DEMESNE | Humble-sounding estate (7) |
| A homophone or ‘sounding’ of DEMEAN (humble) | ||
| 21 | ARTICLE | A little bit powerless, die in Berlin? (7) |
| 22 | EREBUS | Before, public transport could be hell (6) |
| ERE (before) BUS (public transport) | ||
| 25 | IMPI | This writer’s linked with religious warriors (4) |
| I’M (this writer’s) with PI (religious) | ||
My FOI was “stride” for 5a, so not a great start. “Ride” & “run” can both refer to a car trip I felt.
Didn’t know COOK STRAIT and failed to get SOMA. Never did know how to pronounce DEMESNE so that took a while.
Thanks to Klingsor and Bertandjoyce.
Thanks Klingsor and BnJ
Interesting (to me anyway!) that both ALTERCATION and IMPI(SH) appeared in Bradman’s FT 16343 yesterday. I commented on Tuesday’s Maize about the sometimes surprisingly frequent occurrence of echoes between puzzles, and 2 more examples crop up almost immediately. Funny ol’ world sometimes.
I too failed on SOMA. When stumped, I have recently taken to using the ‘whatsthisword’ app on my smartphone, in preference to the electronic Britannica as previously, but the former let me down (only giving ‘the whole axial portion of an animal’) whilst if I had consulted the latter it would have given me ‘intoxicating drink’. Otherwise very entertaining, so thanks Klingsor and Bertandjoyce
Defeated by SOMA as well, despite the usual unsuccessful alphabet trawl at the end. I don’t think I’ve come across SHMO (rather than ‘shmuck’) before, so had to bung in 26a from the def.
Favourites were the ‘He perhaps’ def for 1a, EARLOBE and the hidden in a cryptic def RASCAL.
Thanks to Klingsor and B&J
Thanks to Bertandjoyce and Klingsor
Top stuff as always but I did wonder about 19d. I’ve only known “demesne” to be pronounced “demain”, and I was a little thrown by the hyphen in
“Humble-sounding” – is this a coded indication to an American pronunciation ( Humble in Texas )?
I’ve been out all day and as I usually find the Saturday crossword difficult I thought it would be something to do whilst travelling on trans and waiting for concerts to start.
I finished the whole thing long before I got to London!
I recall SOMA from Brave New World.
17dn was a bit self-referential.
When looking at The G prize blog I saw Klingsor had set the I puzzle and he’s one of my very top setters I decided to do it when I got time – and as usual it was a great puzzle. However it was a dnf as I had an unsatisfactorily parsed LANDLORD for 8d which made FOR GOOD ungettable. How deeply embedded my gender norms are – despite Arachne and Nutmeg’s best efforts. I did get SOMA but didn’t realise it meant both things. Many more to like with impeccable clueing as always – thanks to Klingsor and Bertandjoyce for the blog.