Loglady is appearing quite regularly in the Independent weekday series.
This was a puzzle with a clear theme centred on CHILI PEPPER, the entry to the gateway clue at 5 down. Some of the peppers are not listed in dictionaries or Bradfords. The wordplay was usually fairly clear so for completeness of blogging it was a case of checking that the answers were peppers on the world wide web. For me the most obscure ones were BANANA, NAGA, FRESNO and POBLANO. The rest I had come across or eaten.
The grid below shows the location of the PEPPERs. I was impressed by number of thematic items fitted in both across and down. Often thematic crosswords confine the theme words to the just the acrosses or just the downs. It was also good to see that the thematic words did not generate any really strange words in the rest of the grid. Sometimes the crossing letters from thematic entries force setters to find rarely used words to fill the rest of the grid.
Some of my favourite peepers didn’t make it into the grid. Once I got the theme I was on the look out for SCOTCH BONNET, JALAPENO and BELL.
Peppers weren’t the only food in the grid. We had a couple of fish – SARDINES and ANCHOVY. Indeed you could make an interesting spicy pizza from some of the ingredients in the grid.
The focus on the PEPPERs in the grid didn’t detract from the quality of the clues. There was a wide variety of wordplay constructions throughout the puzzle.
Definitely an enjoyable puzzle, although I suspect some solvers may feel that the lack of dictionary entries for some of the theme words was a bit of a challenge.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Where Prince might shoot vocal backing for Cure piece (8,6) |
BALM (anything that heals or soothes pain; cure) + ORAL (vocal) + CASTLE (rook; chess piece) BALM ORAL CASTLE |
BALMORAL CASTLE (location in Scotland where a Royal Prince may shoot) |
| 8 | Restriction per sodium in 5 (6) |
BAN (restriction) + A (per) + NA (sodium) BAN A NA |
BANANA (the BANANA pepper is medium-sized member of the CHILI PEPPER [5 down] family that has a mild, tangy taste) |
| 9 | Deep South kid holding pan of 5 (8) |
CHILE (country in the deep South of South America) containing (holding) POT (pan) CHI (POT) LE |
CHIPOTLE (a smoked and dried jalapeno CHILI PEPPER [5 down] that is used in Mexican dishes)
|
| 10 | Scattered a herb on a 5 (8) |
Anagram of (scattered) A HERB ON A HABANERO* |
HABANERO ( hot variety of CHILI PEPPER [5 down]) |
| 12 | Gather in nut kernel for bird to eat (6) |
IN + (TIT [bird] containing [to eat] U [middle letter of {kernel} NUT] IN T (U) IT |
INTUIT (perceive immediately without reasoning or logic; understand; get) |
| 13 | Pupil’s surroundings somehow anodyne after company of writer (5,5) |
CO (company) + (L [learner; pupil] contained in [surroundings] an anagram of [somehow] ANODYNE) CO NAN DOY (L) E* |
CONAN DOYLE (reference Sir Arthur CONAN DOYLE [1859-1930], British writer, best known for his Sherlock Holmes tales) |
| 15 | Use new cooker to make 5 (4) |
N (new) + AGA (stove; cooker) N AGA |
NAGA (The NAGA Viper pepper is a hot CHILI PEPPER [5 down]. In 2011, it was recorded as the "World’s Hottest Chili" by the Guinness World Records with a rating of 1,382,118 Scoville Heat Units [SHU], but was surpassed in SHU by several other peppers, such as Pepper X in 2017) |
| 16 | Short ode to cat is artistic work (4) |
O PUS I’m not sure that this parsing is right. It’s the position of word ‘short’ that is confusing me a bit. I don’t think O is an abbreviation [short] for ODE, so I’m tending to the view that it is the words of a complete ode that are short. O PUS |
OPUS (artistic work) |
| 18 | Singular pre-erotic recommendation, one preventing reproduction (10) |
AN (one; singular) + TIP (recommendation) + I (Roman numeral for one) + RACY (erotic). ‘pre’ indicates that recommendation one (TIP I) comes before RACY AN TIP I RACY |
ANTIPIRACY (descriptive of actions and strategies to prevent unauthorized publication or reproduction; infringement of copyright) |
| 21 | Aphid firstly, then bee, appear in flower (6) |
A (initial letter of [firstly] APHID) + B (bee) + LOOM (appear) A B LOOM |
ABLOOM (in flower) |
| 22 | 5 misses bit of potato (5,3) |
BIRDS (young ladies; misses) + EYE (part of a potato) BIRDS EYE |
BIRD’S EYE (a CHILI PEPPER [5 down]) |
| 24 | To cut disease, eat fish (8) |
DINE (eat) contained in (to cut) SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; a severe viral infection of the lungs characterized by high fever, a dry cough, and breathing difficulties. The virus that caused SARS is genetically related to the virus currently causing Covid-19) SAR (DINE) S |
SARDINES (fish) |
| 25 | 5 bought by peasant to make turnover (6) |
(ON [at the expense of; bought by, as in ‘the drinks are ON me’] + SERF [peasant]) all reversed (to make turnover) (FRES NO)< |
FRESNO (The FRESNO CHILI PEPPER [5 down] is a medium-sized cultivar of Capsicum annuum) |
| 26 | Agreement in writing (14) |
CORRESPONDENCE (agreement) CORRESPONDENCE |
CORRESPONDENCE (letters; writing) double definition |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Translated abroad, skirting around very big words (7) |
Anagram of (translated) ABROAD containing (skirting around) V (very) BRA (V) ADO* |
BRAVADO (boastful and threatening, using big words to convey the impression of power and courage) |
| 2 | Animal upset a lot of shops (5) |
(A + MALL [shopping area, often with many separate shops]) all reversed (upset) (LLAM A)< |
LLAMA (animal) |
| 3 | Potential parts for child star not including lead part? (3) |
OVA |
OVA (female egg cells from which children may develop) |
| 4 | Fish from part of boat docked over vasty extremes (7) |
ANCHO ANCHO VY |
ANCHOVY (fish) |
| 5 | Food sauce enjoyed primarily when drinking bubbly, or vice versa (5,6) |
(LIP [insolence; sauce] + E [first letter of {primarily} ENJOYED) contained in (when drinking) CHIPPER (briskly cheerful; bubbly). As required, the construct is the exact opposite (vice versa) of ‘sauce enjoyed primarily when drinking bubbly’. CHI (LI P E) PPER |
CHILI PEPPER (food) |
| 6 | Certain amount in bank gets right contractor (9) |
(TEN [specific or certain number or amount] contained in [in] SHORE [bank]) + R (right) SHOR (TEN) E R |
SHORTENER (something that SHORTENs or contracts; contractor) |
| 7 | Like little thing spoken in patois (7) |
The phrase LITTLE THING might be pronounced as LI’L TING in a local / dialect way of speaking LIL TING |
LILTING (giving the swing or cadence rather than the structure of the melody, as when speaking in a patois) |
| 11 | Charming address rented with means to renovate (11) |
Anagram of (to renovate) RENTED and MEANS ENDEARMENTS* |
ENDEARMENTS (spoken or written expressions of love; charming address) |
| 14 | Fugitive muscles onto scam with rosy returns (9) |
ABS (muscles) + CON (swindle; scam) + RED (rosy) reversed (returns) ABS CON DER< |
ABSCONDER (escapee from legal process; fugitive) |
| 17 | Almost tasteless contents of crap 5 (7) |
BLAN PO (BLAN) O |
POBLANO (a mild CHILI PEPPER [5 down]) |
| 19 | 5 and beans regularly included in Mexican food (7) |
BAS (letters 1, 3 and 5 [regularly] of BEANS) contained in (included in) TACO (in Mexican cooking, a very thin rolled pancake with a meat filling, usually fried crisp) TA (BAS) CO |
TABASCO (variety of the CHILI PEPPER [5 down] species, best known as the ingredient of a sauce of the same name) |
| 20 | Stem, overwhelming urge for 5 (7) |
CANE (stem of a small palm) containing (overwhelming) YEN (urge) CA (YEN) NE |
CAYENNE (moderately hot CHILI PEPPER [5 down]) |
| 23 | Length of flight (5) |
SKEIN (loosely tied coil or standard length of thread or yarn) SKEIN |
SKEIN (flock of wild geese in flight) double definition |
| 25 | Gruff adult suppresses rage (3) |
FAD (hidden word in [suppresses] GRUFF ADULT) FAD |
FAD (hobby or interest intensely pursued at first, but soon passed over for another; something that’s all the rage for a time) |
Thanks Loglady and DS
Re 9, I took “Deep South kid” to be a reference to the Southern USA way of referring to a child as ‘chile’ when spoken. Otherwise I don’t see why ‘kid’ is in the clue.
Simon S @ 1
Yes, fair comment. I took the simple way out and went for the Country and ignored the kid. Your parsing is much more likely.
I can find CHILE for CHILD in Chambers 10th and 12th editions that I have in book form, but I can’t find it any of the latest dictionaries(Chambers, Collins or Oxford Dictionary of Engish) associated with the WordWeb suite.
Looking at all the dictionaries, CHILE is also given as a variant of CHILI which seems appropriate in this puzzle.
This was very spicy indeed. I liked the way LILTING worked but i did not see a proper def.
I would have liked to see Funky Monks or maybe FLEA in there but this pretty well floored me for a Tuesday.
But i had a fairly well-behaved thai curry for dinner.
There’s also ANCHO as part of ANCHOVY.
Definitely a struggle today with frequent recourse to dictionary, thesaurus, wordfinder and Google needed, and even then we went off on several false trails; not helped either by the spelling of CHILI with one L (we would normally spell it with two, as does Chambers which gives the single L spelling merely as an alternative).
HABAÑERO, btw, is an American name for the Scotch Bonnet according to Chambers.
Favourites were the non-themed SARDINES and BRAVADO.
Thanks, Loglady and Duncan.
Very hard, in fact a big fail. Not very good on the peppers, missed Fresno and chipotle, but also lilting and sardines even with all the crossers, so probably a bad day rather than the puzzle. Really liked OPUS, SKEIN and SARDINES.
Thanks Loglady, Duncan
Four themesters I’d never heard of, and they were not in my Word Finder, so not an easy solve for me.
Quite a struggle and too tough to be really enjoyable. Ended up finding a list of chillis on Wikipedia to help out. Several I wouldn’t have got otherwise. I think I got only two answers in the first hour of looking at this. (OK, I was watching TV at the same time.)