Serpent has provided the first post-Christmas cruciverbal teaser for anyone sufficiently recovered from yesterday’s excesses to want to give the old grey matter a workout.
I think that this was too intensive a workout for my grey matter, since although I think that I have successfully completed the grid, there are two solutions that I have simply been unable to parse, at 2 and 11, and that despite having put the puzzle down and come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes. I look forward to others enlightening me during the course of the day. Overall, however, I think that this is a medium-to-hard puzzle on the Indy spectrum of difficulty, one that certainly offers plenty to entertain the solver along the way to the solution.
My favourite clues today were 8, 9, 25 and 26, all for smoothness of surface; and above all 16, for the double reference to Croatia and overall misdirection – the kind of clue that reminds me just why I love the cryptic crossword so very much.
To end what is my last blog of 2019, let me extend a big personal thank you to the Indy compilers for all the entertainment and challenges that this year’s puzzles have provided. I am sure that I am not alone in looking forward with relish to what 2020 might hold for us solvers and bloggers.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PSYCHE | Mind games involving heartless schoolboy and child
[S<choolbo>Y (“heartless” means all but first and last letters are dropped) + CH (=child)] in PE (=games, i.e. physical education) |
| 05 | POLISH | Smart clothes beginning to lend one refinement
[L<end> (“beginning to” mean first letter only) + I (=one)] in POSH (=smart) |
| 10 | MYRRH | King’s present requires money your Royal Highness
M (=money) + YR (=your, in texting) + RH (=Royal Highness); gold, frankincense and myrrh were gifts brought by the three kings/wise men to baby Jesus |
| 11 | STALEMATE | Deadlock is stagnation to Spooner
??? |
| 12 | UTMOST | Limit leading couples to utilising modern steps
UT<ilising> MO<dern> ST<eps>; “leading couples” means first two letters of each word only are used; as a noun, the utmost is the limit, the extreme |
| 13 | PEDANTIC | Ant and Dec mostly represented in film as sticklers for detail
*(ANT + DE<c>) in PIC (=film, i.e. picture); “mostly” means last letter dropped from anagram, indicated by “represented” |
| 15 | DIABOLICAL | Account I throw back in face is Dickensian?
BOLICA (AC=account + I + LOB (=throw); “back” indicates reversal) in DIAL (=face); dickens is the devil, hence “Dickensian” could mean “diabolical”, cryptically |
| 16 | LOVE | Split’s not Croatia’s capital for nothing
<c>LOVE (=split, divided); “not Croatia’s capital“, i.e. its first letter, means letter “c” is dropped |
| 19 | FLEE | Run away from line overwhelmed by charge
L (=line) in FEE (=charge, price) |
| 20 | HELICOPTER | Rotary machine to help with rice threshing
*(TO HELP + RICE): “threshing” is anagram indicator |
| 23 | AIRSPACE | Broadcasts with due deference to Sky nationally?
AIRS (=broadcasts, as verb) + PACE (=with due deference, i.e. to show disagreement with someone courteously); cryptically, “sky nationally” could refer to every nation’s own airspace |
| 25 | DEPART | Go off record covered by Rush
EP (=record, i.e. extended-play) in DART (=rush, dash) |
| 27 | OBSERVANT | Attentive governess perhaps pursues former pupil
OB (=former pupil, i.e. old boy) + SERVANT (=governess perhaps) |
| 28 | ICIER | Relatively hostile hit man eats mafioso’s heart
<maf>I<oso> (“heart” means middle letter only) in ICER (=hit man, assassin, colloquially) |
| 29 | INVENT | Come up with popular way to let off steam?
IN (=popular) + VENT (=way to let off steam) |
| 30 | PREFER | Favour whistleblower according to guards
REF (=whistleblower, i.e. referee) in PER (=according to, as per) |
| Down | ||
| 02 | SCRUMMAGE | Struggle with mobile blocking half of screen icon?
??? |
| 03 | COHESION | Bonding of cobalt and hydrogen electron with second charged particle
CO (=cobalt) + H (=hydrogen) + E (=electron) + S (=second) + ION (=charged particle) |
| 04 | ELSE | German woman reading English at university
E (=English) + LSE (=university, i.e. London School of Economics) |
| 05 | PLANETARIA | “Cosmic” instruments interpreted Das Lied von der Erde?
Cryptically, PLANET ARIA could be an English rendering of the German “Das Lied (=song) von der Erde (=Earth, hence planet)”; a planetarium is a machine showing the motions and orbits of the planets |
| 06 | LEEWAY | Latitude where returning fish change direction to go north
LEE (EEL=fish; “returning” indicates reversal) + WAY (YAW=to change direction, deviate from course, of a ship; “to go north” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 07 | SCANT | Toilet in the middle of street is quite inadequate
CAN (=toilet, colloquially) in ST (=street) |
| 08 | IMBUED | University dons plot against yours truly is inspired
I’M (=yours truly is) + [U (=university) in BED (=plot, in garden)] |
| 09 | RESCUE | Reporter’s line backs substance of press release
<p>RES<s> (“substance of” here means all but first and last letters) + homophone (“reporter’s”) of “queue (=line)”; to release is to rescue, deliver from |
| 14 | DISENCHANT | This can end badly and create disillusionment
*(THIS CAN END); “badly” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | OSTRACISE | Shun East German people taking lives
OST (=East German, i.e. the German word for east) + [IS (=lives, exists) in RACE (=people)] |
| 18 | HOSEPIPE | Alternative to watering can smother briar with weeds reportedly
Homophone (“reportedly”) of “hoes (=weeds, as verb)” + PIPE (=briar) |
| 19 | FLAGON | Sink aboard vessel
FLAG (=sink, droop, as verb) + ON (=aboard) |
| 21 | RETURN | About to go and come back
RE (=about, regarding) + TURN (=go, attempt, as noun) |
| 22 | SPARSE | Thinly scattered ashes perhaps evenly distributed
<a>S<h>E<s> P<e>R<h>A<p>S; “evenly” means even letters only are used in anagram, indicated by “distributed” |
| 24 | RESIN | 10 perhaps behave like recidivists?
Cryptically, to re-sin would be to “behave like recidivists”; myrrh (=entry at 10) is an aromatic resin/gum from the bark of a tree |
| 26 | STOP | Plug terminals of users straight into desktop
<user>S <straight>T <int>O <deskto>P; “terminals of” means last letters only |
Thanks RR & Sepent
STALEMATE = male (stag) state (nation)
SCRIMMAGE = scr(een) + m=mobile in image
Thanks Serpent & RR
11 STALEMATE is a lift & separate: a STAG NATION would be a MALE STATE. Spoonering that gives STALEMATE.
11 – a “stag” nation could be a male state, Spooner’s version of stale mate.
Thanks RatkojaRiku
What would have been my first two comments have already been covered so I will just mention that there is a Nina in the unches nearest the perimeter.
Hyvää uutta vuotta 2020 sinulle, Riku.
In 20ac, PACE = in due deference to (“to” in the clue isn’t surplus).
In 30ac, per is used in legal texts such as ‘per Smith LJ in R v Jones’ (= according to Lord Justice Smith in the case of the Queen against Jones).
In 5dn, the QM at the end shows “die Erde” is a definition-by-example for PLANET.
Just got round to this tonight, didn’t have access to a printer earlier. Some tricky parsings, as per usual,
Spotted the Nina only after I’d finished. It may well have helped on a few had I looked for it earlier.
[Btw, Jason, I would like to apologise for turning my attention to someone else while you were explaining something to me at the George the other weekend. The other person obviously didn’t realise he was barging in and I didn’t want to just ignore him as I knew he was only briefly in the country and I needed to thank him in person for test-solving a puzzle for me. By the time I had done that, you had walked off, for which I don’t blame you. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to handle the intrusion better.]
Quite a challenge but we worked steadily through it and got there in the end. The NE corner was the last to fall, once we got LOVE. Our CoD was PLANETARIA. Failed to spot the nina, though – we tend to forget that this sort of grid pattern may well have one just inside the perimeter.
Thanks, Serpent and RatkojaRiku.
Good old Nina to the RESCUE again. I’d come to a STALEMATE (liked it) before I worked out the Nina from the letters I did have and that helped me complete the puzzle. Still, I had ‘scrummage’ for 2d and I couldn’t parse PLANETARIA, DIABOLICAL or RESCUE.
This certainly helped get the mind into gear after the Christmas festivities.
Thank you to Serpent and RR
The nina decided me on UTMOST and not upmost-always useful in a Serpent puzzle. Top notch as usual.
Thanks Serpent and RR.
Playing catch-up today. Fantastic crossword. The clue for LOVE is superb. HELICOPTER is another beauty. The anagram for DISENCHANT is very nice. STALEMATE induced a groan when I got it. Had to cheat on SCRIMMAGE. Didn’t know the word or that m could stand for mobile. Yet another clever Nina.
Thanks Serpent and RatkojaRiku.
We are also catching up on crosswords tonight. Lovely puzzle and thankfully we looked for a nina which helped us solve our LOI – 16ac. Great clue – we just couldn’t think of another word meaning nothing until we had the V.
We wondered about the thought behind the choice of nina.
Anyway, thanks to Serpent and RatkojaRiku.
Sorry, very late to the party!
Thanks to RatkojaRiku for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to solve and comment.