I found this pretty tough.
Maybe Dalibor’s puzzles are getting tougher. His clueing is as sound as ever and clue surfaces continue to tell stories in little vignettes.
I see from my notes it took 5 minutes before I found something to start me off. It was the reasonably simple hidden at 16 (with a great surface). Before that I had read through at least 9 other clues – it was quite intense brainwork to no immediate result: I was held up at 1a thinking it ended in …ING; I saw the wordplay at 5 but got stuck thinking of brains for minds; spent a lot of time failing to make something from the obvious anagram fodder at 9; Thought the ref to South Africa in 12 was ZA but thought that would be at the beginning of, or start and end, a word for an emetic – and so on.
Nowhere near half the puzzle answered by the end of the first pass which took more than 30m. And at the end of the second pass – near the hour mark – still 11 unanswered. That’s when it’s time to take a break and come back to it fresh.
The last few were generally solved by getting answers that fitted and seeing how they might work for the wordplay.
This was particularly true for 27 Fermat: I almost dismissed this as an answer because it so obviously fitted the definition given by the whole clue surface – and you can’t have a single definition can you. I had a real PDM when I spotted the structure of the clue.
So this was a great puzzle to blog. While writing this blog I discovered more in the clues than when I was solving it.
No Theme. One might have helped towards the end (please no-one point out a screamingly obvious one now).
There was a point when I had a dozen or so to go when the central column read ENZY– and I seriously considered the possibility that this might be Enzyme and there might be some associated theme – talk about grasping at straws.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | TAP DANCE | Footwork of judoka caught in video recording (3,5) DAN (judoka) C[aught] inside TAPE (video recording) |
| 5 | SCARES | Intro of Suspicious Minds is shocking (6) S[uspicious] CARES (minds) Last one in due to fixation on my first thought of Minds as Brains |
| 9 | RATTIGAN | Dramatic art giant? (8) (ART GIANT)* AInd: Dramatic. A nice little &Lit for one of Britain’s top playwrights Terence Rattigan |
| 10 | DILUTE | Thin cover put around pick-up truck (6) LID< (cover, put around) UTE (pick-up truck) |
| 12 | INFLUENZA | South Africa to override the Church in power? It makes me sick (9) INFLUENCE (power) use ZA instead of CE (South Africa override the Church) |
| 13 | TEETH | Support most of the ones like Tusk? (5) TEE (support) TH[e]. Not a reference to Donald Tusk after all |
| 14 | ROLL | Register a car of superior quality but not special (4) ROLL[s] Not sure about this wordplay – I presume “special” can give S, and ROLLS can certainly be “a car of superior quality” but there seems to be more going on in this clue |
| 16 | EVENTER | Sportsperson held hostage by eleven terrorists (7) Hidden in elEVEN TERrorists HInd: held hostage. First one in |
| 19 | COURAGE | Bottle about as old as we are (7) C (about) OUR AGE (as old as we are). I’m sure I’ve seen similar clues on the courage/bottle theme but this was so concise and with a nice story-telling surface, it is a gem of the type |
| 21 | BLUE | Right from the start Brexit looked utterly exciting (4) First letters of B[xxxxx] L[ooked] U[tterly] E[xiting] |
| 24 | ROOTS | Origins of Android not British (5) ROBOTS – B[ritish]. Android should probably be pluralised in the clue, but still getable |
| 25 | MYTHOLOGY | This person’s system of principles rejects English body of stories (9) MY (This person’s) TH[e]OLOGY (system of principles – without E[nglish]) |
| 27 | FERMAT | One from France linked to some elements of higher mathematics? (6) F[rance] then ERMAT hidden in highER MAThematics (HInd: some elements of) and an &Lit definition. Another absolutely excellent clue. And don’t leave without reminding yourself of his work: List of things named after Pierre de Fermat |
| 28 | VERMOUTH | Initially, 20% of estuary disappeared in the drink (8) [ri]VER MOUTH (estuary, without the first 2 of its 10 letters) |
| 29 | LETTER | For example, a landlady (6) Double Definition: “a” is an example of a letter, and a landlady lets property so is a letter |
| 30 | BY CHANCE | Perhaps, extremely bossy person at No 11 firing 14 after review (2,6) B[oss]Y CHANCE[llor] LLOR from ROLL (answer to 14) in reverse |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TURNIP | Way to get irrational number’s root (6) This answer has to be read as an instruction: TURN IP – IP reversed gives PI (an irrational number) |
| 2 | PUT-OFF | Opium taken regularly by posh person as an excuse … (3-3) [o]P[i]U[m] TOFF (posh person) |
| 3 | ADIEU | … to pass out as part of a posh farewell (5) DIE (to pass) inside A U (a posh) |
| 4 | CHANNEL | Queen’s daughter left after first half of Chas & Dave? (7) CH[as] ANNE (Queen’s daughter) L[eft] |
| 6 | COINTREAU | Eat, in or out – see you shortly outside for a drink (9) C U (see you shortly) around (EAT IN OR)* AInd: out |
| 7 | ROULETTE | One from Latvia interrupting Uruguay-Spain game (8) LETT (One from Latvia) between ROU (Uruguay – Republic of Uruguay) and E (Spain, E[spania]) |
| 8 | SHEPHERD | Female with doctorate to cuddle Queen’s Guide (8) SHE (Female) PHD (doctorate) around ER (Queen) |
| 11 | HARE | English playwright, male, not welcome in all-female area (4) HARE[m] The English playwright here is David Hare |
| 15 | ORAL STAGE | A great loss nearly spoilt Freud’s early childhood (4,5) (A GREAT LOS[s])* AInd: spoilt. |
| 17 | SCORNFUL | Small group of farmers entering my land, sacking and jeering (8) S[mall], then NFU (group of farmers) inside COR (my!) L[and] |
| 18 | AUTOCRAT | Strong man accepted universal credit: “just right to accept it” (8) A[ccepted] U[niversal], then CR[edit] inside “TO A T” (just right) |
| 20 | EMMY | Motörhead legend heading off for award (4) [l]EMMY |
| 21 | BATTERY | Black Friday’s ending grabbing special treat will cause bodily harm (7) B[lack] and [frida]Y around (TREAT)* AInd: special. Definition as in “Assault and Battery” |
| 22 | COLUMN | Tory admits to endlessly ponder over newspaper article (6) MUL[l]< (ponder, endlessly, reversed) inside CON (Tory) |
| 23 | LYCHEE | Fruit & Fibre artist exchanged for hard drugs (6) LYCRA (fibre) swap RA for H (Artist for H[ard]), then EE (drugs) |
| 26 | OOMPH | On reflection, Houses of Parliament associated with low energy (5) HP (Houses of Parliament) MOO (low) all reversed |
I sometimes find Dalibor too much of a slog to enjoy but found this enthralling from start to finish. So many top notch clues.
I also was expecting 12a to be an emetic, so that took a while. I’ve seen the clue for 1d before and it was driving me mad trying to remember it. (I thought it was Eccles before but maybe it wasn’t?) Lovely clue imo.
Agree that Android should be Androids in 24a. Don’t get me started on how Marvin appeared in the Hitchhiker’s film.
Learnt a lot along the way but all the unknowns were clued so that I could guess the answers. AUTOCRAT took some teasing out so was pleased when I got that one.
Thanks to Dalibor and beermagnet.
I found the Eccles’ crossword. It was Independent 10191 with the clue “How to find pi’s root?”.
Maybe it’s stretching things, but I wondered about a European theme here –
(Spanish) INFLUENZA
(Dutch) COURAGE
(Greek) MYTHOLOGY
(Italian) VERMOUTH
(French) ROLL & LETTER
(Russian) ROULETTE.
There are a few European countries in the clues and ADIEU (and maybe ‘Black Friday’) to mark yesterday’s events.
Anyway (probably imagined) theme or not I enjoyed this. I agree, a bit less of a struggle than Dalibor can be, with the FERMAT and RATTIGAN &lits being my highlights.
Thanks to Dalibor and beermagnet
Thanks Dalibor and beermagnet
Enjoyed this a ot, but I have a minor quibble with 7 in that the standard abbreviation for Uruguay has been UY since 2012, so I think the clue would benefit from the addition of an ‘old’ or ‘historical’.
WordPlodder @3. I like it. Think I would go with SWISS ROLL and add ENGLISH CHANNEL. We may have left the EU but we’re still in Europe.
Do we have a European theme?
Dutch courage, French letter, Italian vermouth, Prussian (probably not) blue? What else
Lovely puzzle
Thanks Dalibor, beermagnet
oh so late. Note to self, always refresh.
GERMAN SHEPHERD.
DANISH BLUE might make the cut as well …
Pole dance
Presumably turnip’s representing the Swedes
Lepus Europaeus, the European hare.
Thanks to beermagnet and Dalibor
Very nice.
Does anyone know the significance of the repeated letter sequences?
Dansar @13: Do they need to have any significance? They could be there 30.
As to the puzzle as a whole, this was quite a challenge. LOI was FERMAT which we eventually needed a wordfinder for.
Thanks, Dalibor and beermagnet.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to solve and/or comment on the puzzle.
I hardly expected anyone to see that 11 clues had links to European countries, so kudos to those who did.
All were spotted except the ‘Belgian’ hare.
In these sad days for Python lovers perhaps we should remember the ‘Norwegian’ blue.
The fact that this puzzle came out on the first day after the UK left the EU, has nothing to do with me. Really just a coincidence.
Simon S @4, I took ROU straightaway from Chambers and/or Collins but you’re right.
That said It means, in Spanish, Republica Oriental del Uruguay which is still Uruguay, so I might get away with it.
Finally, beermagnet (and many thanks for your blog), the intended parsing of 24ac is: ROBOT’S (of Android) minus the B.
Finally, finally, perhaps I am dim but what is that about “the significance of the repeated letter sequences”?
Very late to the party, but just wanted to thank Dalibor for an excellent mental workout, and beermagnet for a very helpful blog. I don’t normally have time to do the Indy, but found today’s Prize in the Guardian a much quicker solve than usual.
I scuppered myself in the SW corner by carelessly entering VINTAGE in place of COURAGE.
Re “repeated letter sequences”, I noticed quite a few double letters: RaTTigan, tEEth, roLL, rOOts, leTTer, put-oFF, chaNNel, rouleTTe, eMMy, baTTery, lychEE, OOmph – but obviously there was no hidden mystery there to be uncovered!
particularly liked 19a and 15d, also 5a and 29a. An enjoyable solve, not quick, with NW being my last quadrant (there is only one connection between quadrants in this grid)
completely missed the theme, hey-ho. I suspect Mike thought it appropriate on this very sad day
Many thanks Dalibor (again) and beermagnet
Dalibor @15. Thanks for explaining the correct parsing of ROOTS. Should have spotted that.
There are 11 sequences of at least three letters which are duplicated in other entries:
fERMat vERMouth
daNCE chaNCE
pUTOff aUTOcrat
roulETTe lETTer
rATTigan bATTery
hAREs scAREs
courAGE stAGE
infLUEnza bLUE
CHAnnel CHAnce
evenTER batTERy
autocRAT RATtigan
30?
Yes apparently.
I’ll take the tin foil off my head.