It’s nearly two years to the day since I last blogged a Gila puzzle. He (at least I think it’s a he) has produced a pleasing, Monday-style, nothing-to-frighten-the-horses cryptic here, with some thoughtfully constructed surfaces.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
cad clue as definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
6 New student more at liberty to keep quiet
FRESHER
An insertion of SH in FREER.
7 Church leader and priest close to having difference of opinion
PONTIFF
A charade of P, ON for ‘close to’ and TIFF. ‘Burton is on/close to the River Trent’ (but Allan will scold me if I don’t point out the town is called Burton-upon-Trent …)
9 Key component of speculative returns
VITAL
Hidden reversed in specuLATIVe.
10 Lockdown enforcer endlessly complained, unfortunately
POLICEMAN
This is the first crossie reference to the current crisis that I personally have seen. I think setters understandably have shied away from it. But it’s a good surface and clue: it’s (COMPLAINE[D])*
11 Group in a right state, primarily worried about the end of Europe?
REMAINERS
Ah, Brexit. Remember that? Setters certainly didn’t avoid that as a reference point for clues. I withdraw my ‘nothing to frighten the horses’ comment for this clue, because it was only on the point of posting the blog and going to the ‘ask the audience’ option that I finally saw how it parses. It’s a charade of REM for the [pop] group, then E for the last letter of ‘Europe’ inserted into (IN A R S). The insertion indicator is ‘about’; the anagrind is ‘worried’; the first letter indicator is ‘primarily’; and it’s a cad.
13 Mercenary pair of Nationalists securing international agreement in Berlin
NINJA
An insertion of I in N and N followed by JA, the German word for ‘yes’.
14 Messy affairs bothered like-minded people
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
(AFFAIRS BOTHERED)*
17 Pub meal main oddly lacking taste
UMAMI
The even letters of pUbMeAlMaIn. Only four tastes were recognised when I were a lad: salt, sour, sweet and bitter; but in 1990 it was ‘officially’ recognised as the fifth. Its source is glutamate, it’s been commercially exploited as monosodium glutamate (MSG) and it means ‘deliciousness’ in Japanese.
18 TV film seeing crazy politician getting elected
NUTS IN MAY
A charade of NUTS and IN MAY suggesting that Theresa has been elected again. Mrs May, Brexit … I’m having a flashback this morning. A television film from 1976 directed by Mike Leigh.
21 Hurry back, then walk somewhere far off
DEEP SPACE
A charade of SPEED reversed and PACE.
22 Religious celebration ultimately entertains prince and queen
SEDER
A charade of S for the last letter of ‘entertains’, ED and ER. ER is Brenda, of course, and Edward is her son. Largely anonymous these days, not that I pay much attention. A ritual celebration/meal in the Jewish tradition, held during Passover.
24 Lists featuring no flipping toiletries
ROLL-ONS
An insertion of NO reversed in ROLLS.
25 Aims to take behaviour towards the extreme?
ENDWAYS
An insertion of WAY in ENDS.
Down
1 It requires time to send rude messages
SEXT
A charade of SEX for ‘it’ and T. Like TEXTING but with body parts added.
2 This can be hot and cold when picked up
CHILLI
A homophone of CHILLY. I thank the setter sincerely for placing the homophone indicator (‘when picked up’) in a position that leads unequivocally to the answer. Those setters that place it in the middle and expect solvers to get some crossing letters before they can decide which option is right, please take note.
3 Small amount of liquid nearly covering a fine type of table
DROP-LEAF
A charade of DROPLE[T], A and F.
4 A prisoner entering with a snake
ANACONDA
An insertion of A CON into AND for ‘with’, followed by A.
5 City‘s main “Mr. Big” busted importing heroin
BIRMINGHAM
An insertion of H in (MAIN MR BIG)* gives you England’s second city.
6 British tech designer in France making some cash
FIVER
An insertion of [Sir Jony] IVE in FR. He was the British designer behind the iPhone and the iMac. No, I hadn’t either.
7 Lots of trouble, fundamentally?
PILES
A dd. PILES as an ailment would trouble you down below, wouldn’t it?
8 Start to feel – with no objectivity – you should enjoy yourself here
FUNFAIR
A charade of F for the first letter of ‘feel’ and UNFAIR.
12 Italian sausage made using mostly old meat and lard
MORTADELLA
(OL[D] MEAT LARD)*
14 Rotten person‘s nasty smell down below?
BOUNDER
A charade of BO for ‘body odour’ and UNDER.
15 Careless mistakes lead to horrific overdose
SLIPSHOD
A great surface. A charade of SLIPS, H for the first letter of ‘horrific’ and OD.
16 Before the indication to stop, absolutely nothing is produced
FATHERED
A charade of FA, THE and RED. I’m sure we all know why FA is clued as ‘absolutely nothing’.
18 Bread products are eaten by older family members
NAANS
I always forget that A is the abbreviation for ‘are’, the metric unit of area. So it’s A in NANS.
19 One inventor about to give away organisation’s principal secret
INSIDE
A charade of I and EDIS[O]N reversed.
20 Battle site is somewhat muddy, presumably
YPRES
Hidden in muddY PRESumably.
23 Couple definitely disheartened on a date
DYAD
A charade of DY for the outside letters of ‘definitely’, A and D.
Many thanks to Gila for this morning’s puzzle. I hope it won’t be two more years before we bump into each other again.
A lovely start to the week. Some new words for me: SEDER, MORTADELLA and didn’t know IVE. Great surfaces.
I parsed SEDER slightly differently as (entertain)S + (princ)E + (an)D + ER bur either works.
Thanks to Gila and Pierre.
An enjoyable start to the week. I got held up a bit in the SE corner as two of three words I didn’t know (SEDER & DYAD) intersected there. I have also never heard of Jony Ive.
My top clues were the topical POLICEMAN, REMAINERS (a great charade which took me ages to parse), and NUTS IN MAY.
Many thanks to Gila and to Pierre.
P.S. There is nothing delicious about MSG.
Morning Hovis. Your parsing of SEDER is no doubt what Gila intended. Which is a bit embarrassing for me: having said that I care less about the royals, I have unconsciously and unnecessarily gone for a parsing that requires two of them rather than just one. I’ll just go and look out my Chas’n’Di commemorative mug and make myself a brew …
I had ‘Lots of trouble’ with this, if not of the fundamental kind. Not what I was expecting as a quick pre-dinner solve, with some un-Mondayish bits, eg the parsing of REMAINERS. I ended up failing on the unheard of SEDER, which in retrospect was possible with Hovis’ parsing. I liked the hidden YPRES.
Thanks to Gila and Pierre
Took me ages to parse 11a and I have to admit to using my ‘phone a friend’ option. I also had to check on 22a, which I’d parsed in the same way as Hovis did and look up 23d which was new to me.
Not very keen on 25a and my favourite was the 15a careless mistake.
Thanks to Gila and to Pierre for the blog.
SEDER, DYAD, tech designer IVE, NUTS IN MAY, and SEXT were all unfamiliar to me, so I cheated a few times.
Much better than the Monday puzzles in the Guardian.
Not quite a breeze but we got it all, although we couldn’t parse FIVER, REMAINERS and SEDER. On the other hand BIRDS OF A FEATHER was a write-in from the enumeration, with NUTS IN MAY similarly.
Our favourites were PONTIFF and CHILLI
Thanks, Gila and Pierre
PS: Almost right, Pierre, but there are no hyphens. 🙂
Like many others, I struggled in the SE corner and needed a word list for Seder and Dyad. Thanks Pierre for explaining Remainers and Inside, I hadn’t a clue(!). Thanks Gila, I really enjoyed the puzzle despite the struggle – that’s what a cryptic one should require after all.
Defeated by the NHO SEDER and failed to parse REMAINERS seeing the state MAINE in the middle and not worrrying about the rest. I liked the topical POLICEMAN at 10A and wondered what had been “ADDED” as suggested by the bottom row.
Gila is a he. Used to be blogger AliG around these parts.