A themed puzzle, quite taxing to finish. Thank you Gozo.
The theme is rivers. I made life hard for myself by misunderstanding the instructions. I was looking for 3 down clues that were also names of rivers and undefined. I should have been looking at 3 down.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COLORADO | Black or white in the States – one and the same (8) |
| COLOR (black or white for instance, US spelling) A (one) and DO (the same) | ||
| 5 | THAMES | Morning in the sticks, for starters (6) |
| AM (morning) inside THE then Sticks (first letter, for starters) | ||
| 9 | DORDOGNE | Made out leading racing hound (8) |
| DONE (made) contains (out, outside) Racing (first letter, leading) and DOG (hound) | ||
| 10 | GRANTA | German, not bad. That’s odd (6) |
| every other letter (that’s odd) of GeRmAn NoT bAd | ||
| 12 | ISERE | Cockney fellow’s present (5) |
| ISERE sounds like “‘he’s there” or possible “I is here” (present) in Cockney accent | ||
| 13 | WHITE NILE | A little lost, when old – losing one’s head (5,4) |
| WHIT (a little) then sENILE (lost, when old) missing first letter | ||
| 14 | MERSEY | Half the season’s over for sure (6) |
| sumMER (a season, half of) then YES (for sure) reversed (over) | ||
| 16 | HWANG HO | Suspend wife inside house (5,2) |
| HANG contains (with…inside) W (wife) then HO (house) – the Yellow River | ||
| 19 | PARRETT | Role which includes Romeo and Joiner, in French (7) |
| PART (role) contains R (romeo, phonetic alphabet) then ET (and, a joiner, in French) | ||
| 21 | MURRAY | Tennis champion knocking back drink by bar (6) |
| Andy Murray (tennis champion) and RUN (drink) reversed (knocking back) then RAY (bar?) | ||
| 23 | EUPHRATES | Reports of posh cargo on Stockton’s river (9) |
| sounds like “U freight Tees” (posh, cargo, River Tees) | ||
| 25 | LOIRE | Some terrain owls return to regularly (5) |
| found reversed (return to?) inside (some) every other letter (regularly) of tErRaIn OwLs | ||
| 26 | ROTHER | Front runner coming second (6) |
| Runner (first letter, front of) then OTHER (coming second) | ||
| 27 | MISSOURI | Young girl, topless siren (8) |
| MISS (young girl) then hOURI (siren, topless) | ||
| 28 | DONETS | The same practice areas (6) |
| DO (the same) NETS (practice areas, cricket) | ||
| 29 | CHERWELL | Singer at spa (8) |
| CHER (singer) with WELL (spa) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CADDIE | He’ll take drivers round the course (6) |
| cryptic definition | ||
| 2 | LARGE BEER | Strangely regrettable that non- drinker leaves this drink (5,4) |
| anagram (strangely) of REGREttABLE missing TT (non-drinker). I had LAGER BEER for a long time which messed things up for the rivers |
||
| 3 | RHONE | Sound of horse or injured heron (5) |
| sounds like “roan” (horse) or anagram (injured) of HERON | ||
| 4 | DUNAWAY | US actress dispensed with on the radio (7) |
| sounds like (on the radio) “done away” (dispensed with) – Faye Dunaway | ||
| 6 | HORSEHAIR | Stuffing husky and rodent, we’re told (9) |
| sounds like (we are told) “hoarse hare” (husky rodent) | ||
| 7 | MENAI | New name given to one strait (5) |
| anagram (new) of NAME then I (one) | ||
| 8 | STAYED ON | Remained and organised video nasty, but six left at the start (6,2) |
| anagram (organised) of viDEO NASTY missing VI (six) at the start | ||
| 11 | NIGH | It’s almost dark – almost! (4) |
| NIGHt (dark, almost) | ||
| 15 | SMEAR TEST | Examination of slide, most clever to conceal drug (5,4) |
| SMARTEST (most clever) contains (to conceal) E (ecstasy, drug) | ||
| 17 | GRATITUDE | Appreciation of view expressed by King George? (9) |
| ATITUDE sounds like (expressed) of “attitude”(view) following (by) GR (King George, rex) | ||
| 18 | APPEARED | Transpired to have copied bearing fruit (8) |
| APED (copied) contains (bearing) PEAR (fruit) | ||
| 20 | TATE | Thank you note for collection of pictures (4) |
| TA (thank you) TE (note, music) | ||
| 21 | MESSIAH | Footballer Lionel, a hot favourite at Christmas? (7) |
| MESSI (Lionel Messi) then A H (hot) | ||
| 22 | MENIAL | Lowly soldiers face losing leader (6) |
| MEN (soldiers) then dIAL (face) missing first letter (losing leader) | ||
| 24 | PUTIN | Leader’s lodge (5) |
| PUT IN (lodge) – Vladimir Putin | ||
| 25 | LOSER | Not the winner in a close race (5) |
| found inside (in) a cLOSE Race | ||
I also misread the 3 Down and entered LAGER BEER (the “obvious” anagram I would say).
I have to say that I rarely like Gozo’s themed puzzles and particularly disliked this one so I think I shall have to stop doing them from now on. I’m sure he will continue to have devoted followers.
Is LARGE BEER even a thing? It’s not in Chambers, and I can’t find any meaningful references online. Rather unfair, I think with the much more reasonable LAGER BEER as a possible solution.
I didn’t think 12a is a homophone: it wouldn’t work with the usual pronunciation of Isère (roughly “is air”). I think it’s just “IS [h]ERE”, though the cryptic grammar doesn’t quite work.
A hopeless DNF for me in the top left. Not only did I have the sensible LAGER BEER but also the defensible GOLFER (not CADDIE) for 1d. And I was working ‘blind’’ in that my version had no rubric. So I gave up and came to see where I went wrong.
Don’t feel too bad about it now.
Ah, well, thanks for the (unmet) challenge & to PeeDee for the blog.
I also didn’t finish. I liked what I did manage, but had the same problems as everyone else: lager beer, golfer, looking for 3 rivers going down which meant I was looking for a river at 4 down at the end. I missed DUNAWAY, WHITE NILE and ROTHER.
To add to the complaints, I think the wordplay for DORDOGNE is awful; ROTHER too.
ISERE I took to be cockney for his here (fellow’s present). There are plenty of cockney clues which rely on just removing the H rather than homophones, so I didn’t mind it, particularly since I got it straight after correcting lager to LARGE so was still distracted by my irritation at that.
Thanks Gozo, PeeDee
I enjoyed this – thank you Gozo and PeeDee. But I didn’t finish
I also had LAGER BEER and when I found BIGHORNS online for 3 (the Bighorn is a tributary of the Yellowstone River and the Little Bighorn is in turn a tributary of it) I felt sure I was about to finish the NW corner. Was this a bit of masterly misdirection?
I learnt a few new rivers which I’ll try to file away for the future. Eventually failed on ROTHER, having spent ages beforehand looking for the connection between ‘Peron’ and ‘lodge’. Glad I wasn’t alone in the ?? for LARGE BEER
A DNF but a good workout and plenty of clues, thematic and non-thematic, which I liked.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
Correction to my note about BIGHORNS in place of DORDOGNE: it’s clue 9, not 3. Sorry.
Well I finished it, but only by dint of online references.
I completely agree with the comments above re 2d. I did wonder quite early on whether it might be LARGE rather LAGER, but I dismissed it as unlikely. It would have been acceptable if the definition had hinted at the size component, something like ‘great drink’ maybe.
And I’m no animal expert but I don’t think hares are rodents, in which case 6d was unfair too.
I took 12 across to be [h]is (fellow’s) + [h]ere (present), both Cockneyised. And in 21a I think ‘bar’ can be reasonably interpreted as ‘sunbeam’ – e.g. a shaft/bar of light – making it passable as a definition of RAY, but only just.
Thanks to all.
I had a large lager beer while doing this. Gozo continues to earn my admiration for getting so many theme words into a 15×15 grid without too many awkward words like the large beer I had. Thank you, Gozo and PeeDee.
Thanks Gozo & PeeDee.
A small beer is half a pint, so I guess a large one is the full pint.
I also had GOLFER for my first attempt but I had no issues about switching to CADDIE as it is clearly the better answer. He/she takes the driver (the golfer or the club) round the course.
In Europe it’s not uncommon to order, in English, a large (400ml) or small (200ml) beer – other than at Lanzarote airport, where a large beer is 750ml.
Angstony @8 – Chambers says hare is “a … mammal of the order Rodentia or in some classifications the order Lagomorpha”, but they are rather behind the times: Wikipedia says “Rabbits and hares were formerly classified in the order Rodentia (rodent) until 1912, when they were moved into a new order, Lagomorpha”
I made good progress until stumped by Putin and Rother. No amount of head scratching and filling in gaps helped. Putin looks obvious now but it wasn’t at the time. I made the same mistakes as many others – golfer and lager beer quickly entering the grid only to be amended once Colorado and Dordogne revealed themselves.
Turning to to the beer debate, I’ve asked at a bar for a large beer on plenty of occasions – especially on the continent. I’ve never asked for a ”lager beer”. If I wanted one of those icy drinks, I’d simply order a lager.
I find it refreshing that I’m not alone with my mistakes and tribulations!
Thanks all.
Andrew @13: Thanks. I’d searched for ‘rodent’ in Wikipedia’s ‘hare’ entry, but found nothing and didn’t bother looking further. Chambers having an entry that is 108 years out of date is at once hilarious and worrying.
I too had LAGER BEER until I was left with just 9a and 12a to solve.
I was unfamiliar with seven of the rivers, so this reminded me of the Maskarade holiday specials when an atlas would have come in handy.
Thanks to TJ and PD.
Unless one majored in English and minored in Rivers of the World I don’t see how you can finish this without a generous use of outside references — that’s too much of a chore for me. Nonetheless I admire Gozo for the skill it must take to construct such a puzzle. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Was surprised at how many of the rivers that I either knew or was fairly certain of when deduced from the word play. Took a short session, all of lunch and a finishing off sitting to undo the mess in the top left corner that many others also seem to have had.
Find some of this setter’s theme puzzles more of a chore than entertaining, but this one didn’t. Not only do I appreciate the ability to get 17 themed words in, but enjoy many of the constructions to winkle out some of the harder ones. Seemed to be more than the usual amount of homophones, but they were all good un’s. Think that my favourite would have been HORSEHAIR.
Finished with the two rivers in the Auvergne region and then finally was able to accept LARGE BEER at 2d.
I completely agree with Hovis. I hope Gozo will take note of this and the other comments.
I think 1a is COLOR then A (one) then DO (the same).
Well spotted Jamie. Fixed now.