Silvanus provides today’s brain exercise for frustrated social distancers.
A good mixture of the straightforward, the tricky-but-fair, and the slightly sneaky. And it’s a pangram too (includes every letter of the alphabet). Plenty to smile at, but my favourite clue is probably 16d for the surface – I can picture the manager shouting from the sidelines.
As many others have said on this site, it’s been good to keep doing crosswords for a break from the news, and to stay in some sort of contact with Fifteensquared friends via the blog comments. Thanks to Silvanus, and to all crossword setters, editors and publishers, bloggers and commenters – please keep them coming.
Definitions are underlined; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ZEALOT | One who’s enthusiastic to drink loads, ignoring sign of disapproval (6) |
| [boo]ZE A LOT (drink loads), without BOO (sign of disapproval). | ||
| 4 | ADJACENT | Next formal wear’s excellent, worker admits (8) |
| DJ (dinner jacket = formal wear for men) + ACE (excellent), admitted into ANT (worker). For newcomers to the crossword game, “worker” usually means either ant or bee. Other insect job titles are available, and indeed other High Street clothing retailers. | ||
| 9 | TENUTO | Sustained note in number just now oddly falling away (6) |
| TEN (a number) + [j]U[s]T [n]O[w] with the odd-numbered letters falling out. Tenuto = Italian for “held” = musical notation indicating that a note should be sustained for its full length. |
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| 10 | IMMANENT | Enduring within married couple, wild innate embraces (8) |
| MM (m = abbreviation for married; “couple” = two of them), embraced by an anagram (wild) of INNATE. | ||
| 12 | EXTRICATE | Free unlimited texts, price including international customers originally (9) |
| [t]EXT[s] (unlimited = end letters removed), then RATE (price, as in “the going rate”) including the first letters (originally) of International Customers. Free, as a verb = release = extricate. |
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| 13 | AVAIL | Advantage of Cockney’s reported plan when visiting pub? (5) |
| A reasonable plan when visiting a pub, at least in more normal circumstances than now, would be to HAVE ALE. In Cockney pronunciation this would be ‘AVE ALE, which sounds (reported) more or less like AVAIL. Avail as in “to no avail” = advantage. |
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| 14 | TELEVISION SET | One live Test is broadcast here? (10,3) |
| Anagram (broadcast = scattered) of ONE LIVE TEST IS. Extended definition: Test = international sports match, typically cricket (although the term is used for other sports too), which might be broadcast live on television. |
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| 17 | UNDERESTIMATE | Inadequate assessment of semi-nude art arranged on Tate’s walls (13) |
| Anagram (arranged) of SEMI-NUDE ART, then the walls (outside letters) of T[at]E. | ||
| 21 | DECAF | On reflection, resisted making coffee (5) |
| FACED (resisted, as in “they faced enemy action”), reversed (on reflection). Short for “decaffeinated coffee”. Some may argue that such a thing isn’t really coffee, or at least defeats one of the main purposes of drinking it. |
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| 23 | MACADAMIA | Direct Bill towards a flower going around tree (9) |
| AIM (direct) + AD (advert = bill) + A CAM (flower = thing that flows = river, in this case the one through Cambridge); all reversed (going around). The tree that produces macadamia nuts; named after someone called John Macadam. Not to be confused with the other John McAdam who gave his name to “tar macadam” or tarmac. |
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| 24 | AQUARIUS | Adult, one after two pints briefly confronting American stars (8) |
| A (abbreviation for adult), then QUAR[t] (two pints; briefly = shortened) with I (one in Roman numerals) after it, then US (American). | ||
| 25 | STRONG | Durable garment’s article aunt ultimately replaces (6) |
| SARONG (garment), with the last letter (ultimately) of [aun]T replacing A (the indefinite article). | ||
| 26 | TINKERED | Ken tried to change getting messed about (8) |
| Anagram (to change) of KEN TRIED. Tinker (as a verb) = mess about = be active without actually achieving much. |
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| 27 | PRETTY | Fairly insignificant Republican is imprisoned (6) |
| PETTY (insignificant), with R (Republican) imprisoned in it. Pretty = fairly as in “pretty good”; it either means “good but not excellent”, or just typical British understatement for “very good”. |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ZITHER | Spot where we left musical instrument (6) |
| ZIT (spot = skin blemish), then [w]HER[e] (from which the letters WE are left out). | ||
| 2 | ANNOTATED | Added comments from working at Eton and outside (9) |
| Anagram (working) of AT ETON, with AND outside it. | ||
| 3 | ON TRIAL | Love new supertanker, essentially backed by Saudi money, in dock (2,5) |
| O (zero = love in tennis scoring) + N (new) + middle letter (essentially) of [super]T[anker] + RIAL (name of the currency in several countries, though the Saudi Arabian version is more usually spelled “riyal” I think). “In [the] dock” = appearing in court as the accused = on trial. |
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| 5 | DIMMER SWITCH | Charming woman under comparatively stupid son’s dark control? (6,6) |
| WITCH (woman who uses magic charms) under (after, in a down clue) DIMMER (more stupid) + S (son). Dimmer switch = variable control for a light, so (loosely) something that controls how dark it is. Tortured, but it makes for a good surface. |
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| 6 | ARAPAHO | Native American from Ohio area soldier raised (7) |
| OH (abbreviation for Ohio) + A (area) + PARA (short for paratrooper = military parachutist = soldier), all reversed (raised = upwards in a down clue). | ||
| 7 | ENEMA | Purgative wrapped inside polythene material (5) |
| Hidden answer (wrapped inside) [polyth]ENE MA[terial]. | ||
| 8 | TOTALITY | Fullness of boxer that’s hugged by tiny child (8) |
| ALI (Muhammad Ali, “The Greatest” boxer) contained in (hugged by) TOTTY (a very small child, according to Chambers – probably even smaller than a TOT). | ||
| 11 | HARVEST MOUSE | Creature a vet rushes to treat – second stops … (7,5) |
| Anagram (to treat) of A VET RUSHES, with MO (moment = second) stopping (inserted into) it. | ||
| 15 | STEAMBOAT | … male snake pursuing meal in street – it puffs out when moving (9) |
| M (male) + BOA (snake), after (pursuing) TEA (meal, as in afternoon tea or high tea); all inserted into ST (street). | ||
| 16 | QUADRANT | Tirade to follow set of players losing lead in Fourth Division (8) |
| RANT (tirade = verbal expression of annoyance) after [s]QUAD (a team of players, losing the leading letter). Quadrant = one of four divisions of the plane between two axes. The surface (presumably) refers to one of the levels of the English football league system, which was once called the Fourth Division, then the Third Division, and is now League Two. See this Wikipedia article if you really want to know. |
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| 18 | REFEREE | Person offering testimonial for match official (7) |
| Double definition: someone providing a reference (e.g. for a job application), or the official in charge of a sports match. | ||
| 19 | AUDITOR | Car having rust upset examiner (7) |
| AUDI (a make of car), then ROT (rust = oxidation of iron, or a fungus disease in plants) reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue). | ||
| 20 | GANGLY | Lanky schoolfriends as a group play regularly (6) |
| GANG (group of schoolfriends) + alternate letters (regularly) of [p]L[a]Y. Gangly (adjective describing a person) = lanky = tall and thin. |
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| 22 | CHURN | Dairy can compete henceforth, utilising recent negotiations initially (5) |
| Initial letters of Compete Henceforth Utilising Recent Negotiations. Is it just me or is “utilise” a horrible word? It means “use as a tool”, but very often appears where just “use” would do perfectly well if not better. Churn = container / device for turning cream into butter; originally wooden but later metal, so I suppose it could be called a can, and it’s a nicely misleading surface. |
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A thoroughly absorbing puzzle. Ok, DECAF is a bit of a chestnut, but the rest was wonderful. The clueing of MM by “married couple” in 10a; EXT by “unlimited texts” in 12a; and HER by “where we left” in 1d were some of the highlights for me.
My favourite was the wonderful starting clue for ZEALOT. Did ARAPAHO at 6d bring back memories of “The Chicken Song” from Spitting Image to anybody else? If you haven’t heard it (and don’t mind a potential ear worm) google it.
Then after all this, I then noticed the pangram. Thanks to Silvanus and Quirister.
Crosswords are an essential antidote to social distancing, and this pangram was a sheer delight albeit at the tougher end of Silvanus’ spectrum. The smooth surfaces are outstanding as we have come to expect from one of my favourite setters and there are too many highlights to list them all. I agree with Hovis that 1a provided a wonderful start (always good to hook the solver) and that gets my vote as favourite too.
Quirister, Collins lists three definitions for churn as a noun, the last of which is a fairly recent US novelty and is now in quite common usage in British industry too:
– a large container for milk
– a vessel or machine in which cream or whole milk is agitated …
– the number of customers who switch from one supplied to another
Many thanks to Silvanus and to Quirister.
Silvanus in good form as usual
Thanks to him and Quirister
I struggled in the SW corner, largely because, although I saw Macadamia, I couldn’t parse it, getting hung up on AC for Bill and failing to see Cam as the ‘flower’. But in desperation I bunged it in anyway and then the rest followed quite smoothly. I too spotted the pangram. Not sure about ‘totty’ as a tiny child; to me it’s a sexist word that is quite rightly fading into verbal history. Thanks Sylvanus and Quirister.
Hovis @1: yes, I admit it, every time ARAPAHO comes up in a crossword (surprisingly often).
Rabbit Dave @2: yes, those are the definitions I was working from – including the third, because I used to work in telecoms. My point was that I think “can” implies a metal container, and a churn hasn’t always been metal.
Tatrasman @4: I quite agree re totty, and let’s hope it continues to fade.
A great pleasure, as always, to solve a puzzle from this setter. Couple of surprises in this one – ‘zit’ isn’t a word I’d expect him to use although I guess the pangram made it necessary and I’d never given a thought to ‘totty’ having an alternative meaning. Always puts me in mind of bright young things tottering about on extremely high heels!
I particularly liked the use of ‘where we left’ in 1d and also the deceptive ‘dairy can’. I well remember the farmers in our area hauling the huge metal churns to the roadside every morning for collection.
1a made me smile and my favourite was DIMMER SWITCH.
Many thanks to Silvanus for the fun and thanks to Quirister for the blog.
A very enjoyable puzzle, especially 1a, 1d, 15d and 5d (my favourite).
Thank you to Silvanus and Quirister, particularly for the parsing of MACADAMIA which I knew had to be right but couldn’t quite work out how!
We too struggled to parse MACADAMIA thinking ‘Bill’ had to be AC, but we saw it eventually. We guessed we were getting a pangram when Z and J cropped up in the first two across clues, and we weren’t disappointed.
We liked HARVEST MOUSE and STEAMBOAT but our favourite, which really made us smile, was DIMMER SWITCH.
Thanks, Silvanus and Quirister. We hope you and the rest of the fifteensquared community are keeping safe and well.
I often struggle somewhat with Silvanus his crosswords.
For me, they usually turn out to be harder than they look at first glance.
Today I had a completely opposite experience.
Such a nice variety of clue types with (literally) absorbing surfaces, like in 1d ‘where we left’ giving us ‘her’.
A delightful crossword from, er, A to Z!
Many thanks to Quirister & Silvanus.
congratulations on the pangram silvanus, and i enjoyed fourth division, getting messed about, married couple, as well as the lovely 1a. referee seems to me the same meaning, applied to different sets of people.
thank you and thank you also quirister
My first entry was ZEALOT and I immediately thought this must be another pangram, having just completed today’s FT by Falcon.
Only problem I had was with TENUTO which I’d never heard of.
Many thanks to Quirister for his decryptions and to everyone who has taken the trouble to comment.
Stay healthy everybody.
Thanks Qurister and Silvanus. The song that 6d brought to my mind was by Ian Dury.
silvanus@13 her
16. Oops, thanks to Dutch for his correction, and my apologies to Quirister!
No problem, Silvanus. When I started blogging I thought I’d deliberately write a neutral profile and see whether anyone could guess. Apparently not, except for the small number of fellow bloggers who’ve met me. It’s been an interesting experiment, but not really one I need to continue.