Wire has produced a puzzle to take our minds off the lockdown this Wednesday. I was certainly grateful for a break from all the various news broadcasts, however important those clearly are.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle on the Indy scale. I made pretty even progress through it before grinding to a halt in the SE quadrant. 14 and 27 foxed me until the bitter end, and even though I had what appears to be the correct answer at 21, I couldn’t (and still can’t) parse it to my satisfaction. Help here would be greatly appreciated, as would confirmation (or otherwise) of 9, where I feel the clue would work just as well with 3 x “cha” instead of 4.
My favourite clues today were the cryptic definition at 27, and 18, for its deliciously smooth surface. I’d also like to pay tribute to the compiler for making 7 and 10 cross on a “z”, and 22 and 26 cross on a “j”!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | PASTILLE | Sweet of prison to install piano for bishop
BASTILLE (=prison); “to install piano (=P) for bishop (=B, in chess)” means letter “b” is replaced by “p” |
| 05 | AGHAST | Postbag has Theresa somewhat horrified
Hidden (“somewhat”) in “postbAG HAS Theresa” |
| 09 | TEA DANCE | Possibly cha-cha-cha-cha chance to perform here
CHA (=tea) + CHA-CHA-CHA (=dance); semi- & lit. |
| 10 | TARZAN | Jungle expert gutted zebra in lake
Z<ebr>A (“gutted” means all but first and last letter are dropped) in TARN (=lake) |
| 11 | TOFFEE APPLE | Sticky thing people eat maybe outside very loudly
FF (=very loudly, i.e. fortissimo in music) in *(PEOPLE EAT); “maybe” is anagram indicator |
| 15 | PLUMP | Fat prince after piece of fruit
PLUM (=piece of fruit) + P (=prince) |
| 17 | FIRMAMENT | Sky business guys with time to cover area
A in [FIRM (=business) + MEN (=guys) + T (=time)] |
| 18 | INSOLVENT | In pub, drunk loves starting with tequila on the rocks
[*(LOVES) in INN (=pub)] + T<equila> (“starting with” means first letter only); “drunk” is anagram indicator |
| 19 | AESOP | Storyteller recalled main work
AES (SEA= (the) main; “recalled” indicates reversal) + OP (=work, i.e. opus) |
| 20 | HIDING PLACE | Secret venue battering fish reported
HIDING (=battering, thrashing) + homophone (“reported”) of “plaice (=fish)” |
| 24 | AIKIDO | Best child has ordinary means of defence
A1 (=best) + KID (=child) + O (=ordinary, as in O level) |
| 25 | SCHLEPPS | Tough treks school records across Spain and Portugal
[(E (=Spain, in IVR) + P (=Portugal, in IVR)] in [SCH (=school) + LPs (=records, i.e. long-playing records)] |
| 26 | JET LAG | Fatigue from travelling in car hired out by Spooner
Spoonerism of “Jag (=car, i.e. Jaguar) + let (=hired)” |
| 27 | FLATIRON | When it got hot, this used to decrease
Cryptic definition: hot flatirons were once used to get the creases out of clothes, hence “de-crease” |
| Down | ||
| 01 | PETITS POIS | Cherished island spot is cultivated to yield veg
PET (=cherished) + I (=island) + *(SPOT IS); “cultivated” is anagram indicator |
| 02 | STAFF NURSE | Pole regularly on guard sees sister’s colleague
STAFF (=pole, e.g. for flags) + <o>N <g>U<a>R<d> S<e>E<s> (“regularly” means alternate letters only) |
| 03 | IRATE | Angry being trapped into turning vegetarian
Hidden (“being trapped”) and reversed (“turning”) in “vegETARIan” |
| 04 | LUCIAN FREUD | Painter clear about ordering Latin-free funeral
*(FUNERA<l>) in LUCID (=clear); “Latin (=L)-free” means letter “l” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “ordering”; the reference is to British figurative artist Lucian Freud (1922-2011) |
| 06 | GUATEMALA | Tag emu running over a large American country
*(TAG EMU) + A + L (=large, of sizes) + A (=American); “running” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | ADZE | Cutter’s confused state, head spinning
DAZE (=confused state); “”head spinning” means that the first and second letters get swapped round |
| 08 | TINA | A Turner in detailed colour article
TINT (=colour; “de-tailed” means last letter is dropped) + A (=article, in grammar); the reference is to US singer Tina Turner (1939-) |
| 12 | PURITANICAL | Saintly serving a turnip with single calorie
*(A TURNIP) + I (=single, i.e. 1) + CAL (=calorie); “serving” is anagram indicator |
| 13 | RED SNAPPER | Species of kipper under water plants essentially hidden
RE<e>DS (=water plants; “essentially hidden” means middle letter is dropped) + NAPPER (=kipper, i.e. someone asleep) |
| 14 | STEPHENSON | Walk with Muppetman to see Rocketman?
STEP (=walk) + HENSON (=Muppetman, i.e. Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets); the reference is to the British civil engineer Robert Stephenson (1803-59), inventor of the Rocket locomotive |
| 16 | POLYHEDRA | Old college man had artist making shapes
POLY (=old college, i.e. (now defunct) polytechnic + HE’D (=the man had) + RA (=artist, i.e. Royal Academician) |
| 21 | PILOT | Land with one on board
1 (=one) in PLOT (=land); & lit. |
| 22 | HADJ | Experienced judge’s annual trip
HAD (=experienced) + J (=judge); the Hadj is the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca |
| 23 | SKIT | Place accepting knight’s funny routine
K (=knight, as in KBE) in SIT (=place, put) |
I likewise struggled in the SE corner and failed on Red Snapper, for which I put Sea Snapper unparsed for some silly reason. I think 4 x cha works at 9A, and agree with your explanation of Pilot. Very good. Thanks Wire and RatkojaRiku.
RR, the correct name for the dance in 9a is cha cha cha, but it is often shortened to cha cha. I think it’s important to have the four “chas” in the clue to avoid any ambiguity. I think 21d is an all-in-one.
I didn’t particularly warm to the puzzle and I didn’t like 25a at all.
Thanks to Wire and RR.
Yes, I think 21d is a clue-as-definition, probably using the older meaning of “pilot” (before aeroplanes): an experienced navigator who boards a ship to guide it into harbour.
Good puzzle, and good blog – thanks both. I enjoyed the emu and the Rocketman.
It was NW where I got stuck, partly my own fault. Octahedra did not help (Old College, thanks? I know). I couldn’t see plump for the life of me, and i could NOT get potato out of my head from the checkers in 1d, even after getting INSOLVENT.
Just “Cha cha cha? (3,5)” looks interesting to me, but it would be in the GEGS category (no def). must be plenty of ways to do this, surprised i haven’t really seen anything similar, well done wire!
i liked IRATE most
thanks wire & RR
One or two we struggled with, such as SCHLEPPS, where we had to check in Chambers – which gives ‘a journey or procedure requiring great effort or involving great diffliculty’ as one meaning for schlepp.
Otherwise a satisfying solve. Favourite was TARZAN.
In 6dn the definition is simply ‘country’ – ‘American’ is part of the wordplay, supplying the final A (abbreviation for ‘American’) of GUATEMALA.
Thanks, Wire and RatkojaRiku
Another pretty straight forward puzzle this week. Didn’t know the painter, but I had enough crossers in place to work it out and check on wiki.
Thanks to allan_c for pointing out my slip at 6, now corrected.
Thanks also to those who confirmed my parsing of 21 – I found Quirister’s explanation @3 most convincing.