Serpent provides an enjoyable mental workout today.
I understand that there’s usually some sort of Nina or theme in Serpent’s puzzles, but I’ve failed to see one here (apart from the small group of clues referring to 13a). If there’s something obvious I’ve missed, my apologies, and I’m sure someone will point it out soon enough. UPDATE: see Serpent’s comment below for the explanation.
But even without that, there are some lovely surfaces and deviously twisted definitions. I enjoyed 23a ( the homophone works for me), 3d and 7d, but my favourite was probably 11a (it’s a while since I lived in Wales but I still know what hiraeth means). Thanks Serpent.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | MARMALADE | Characters in male drama dancing like some queens? (9) |
| Anagram (characters in . . . dancing) of MALE DRAMA. Queen = a female cat; marmalade cat = a cat with light orange-brown fur. |
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| 8 | MEANS | Capital agency produces statistics (5) |
| A quadruple definition! 1: Means (noun) = capital = money. 2: Means (noun) = agency = the power to do something. 3: Mean (verb) = produce = result in, as in “a clear sky means a cold night to come”. 4: Mean (noun) = average = an example of a statistic. |
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| 10 | DAVID | Painter‘s adult representation of sex acquired by religious scholar (5) |
| A (adult) + VI (Roman numeral for six, which in Latin is sex), inserted into (acquired by) DD (Doctor of Divinity). There have been a few painters with the name David; I think Serpent is thinking of Jacques-Louis David. |
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| 11 | PENARTH | Quiet land occupied by new Welsh community (7) |
| P (p = piano = quiet, in musical notation), then EARTH (land) containing N (new). South Wales coast town – near Cardiff where I grew up, so familiar to me, but perhaps not to everyone. |
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| 12 | OWL | Member of Parliament exposed in a despicable manner (3) |
| This is tricky! I think the intention is [l]OWL[y] (exposed = outer letters removed), where low = despicable as in low-life or low cunning. But I’m not sure I’ve ever heard “lowly” used as an adverb in that sense. The definition is an old cryptic favourite: the collective noun is “a parliament of owls”. |
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| 13 | MUSICAL | University dons fabricated claims about output from instruments? (7) |
| U (abbreviation for university), contained in (dons, as a verb = puts on) an anagram (fabricated) of CLAIMS. | ||
| 15 | EPIGRAM | Saw stuff stored in electronic memory (7) |
| PIG (as a verb = stuff = eat too much), in E (prefix meaning “electronic”) + RAM (random access memory = a type of computer memory). Saw = epigram = a wise / witty saying. |
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| 17 | NORMAN | Reference standard article about person from … (6) |
| NORM (what is normal or expected = reference standard) + AN (a form of the indefinite article). The ellipsis indicates that the definition refers to the following clue, or in this case to its answer: Norman describes a person from Normandy in France. |
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| 18 | FRANCE | … man engaged to earn right for current state (6) |
| F[i]ANCE (man engaged to be married), with R (right) instead of I (the scientific symbol for electric current). | ||
| 21 | HOSTAGE | Garden confines male prisoner (7) |
| HOE (garden, as a verb = remove weeds) containing (confining) STAG (a male deer, or a man on a night out before his wedding). | ||
| 23 | EYEBALL | I shout out loud and stare (7) |
| Homophone (out loud) of I BAWL (I shout). | ||
| 24 | NOD | Lecturer’s about to make careless mistake (3) |
| DON (university lecturer), reversed (about). Nod (as a verb) = make a mistake through inattention. |
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| 25 | RICHARD | Dick Tracy’s second in command gets tough (7) |
| Second letter of [t]R[acy] + IC (abbreviation for in command / in charge) + HARD (tough). Name for which Dick is one of several possible short forms. |
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| 27/20 | RUGBY PLAYER | Performer at theatre school introduces prop? (5,6) |
| PLAYER (actor = performer at theatre), preceded (introduced) by RUGBY (an English independent school). Definition by example, hence the question mark; “prop” is a playing position in the game of rugby (which originated at this school). |
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| 28 | HOTEL | Place to stay in Lesotho that’s not so bad (5) |
| Anagram (bad) of LE[so]THO without the SO (not so). | ||
| 29 | RACONTEUR | Teller managed closure of East European banking company (9) |
| RAN (managed) + last letter (closure) of [eas]T + EUR (European), containing (banking = along the sides of) CO (company). Raconteur = someone who tells stories = teller. |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PROVISIONS | Supplies argument for things of great beauty (10) |
| PRO (argument for, as in “pros and cons” = arguments for and against something) + VISIONS (things of great beauty). Supplies as a noun = provisions = food and other essentials. |
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| 2 | See 19 | |
| 3 | MANDOLIN | Piece to perform on 3/4-size string instrument (8) |
| MAN (piece, as in chess or draughts) + DO (perform) + three-quarters of LIN[e] (string). | ||
| 4 | TEMPLE | Part of head office could be here (6) |
| Double definition: the area on the side of the head behind the eye, or the area of London around Temple Church which contains many lawyers’ offices. UPDATE: as Serpent points out below, the second meaning refers to “office” as a church service. | ||
| 5 | EMANCIPATE | Issue containing upside-down image is free (10) |
| EMANATE (issue = come out), containing PIC (picture = image) reversed (upside-down, in a down clue). Emancipate = to free someone from slavery. |
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| 6 | HAIR | 13 creating frisson of fear just before 2 (4) |
| HAIR[y] (creating a frisson of fear, as in “a hairy moment” = a brief fright), but just the bit before the Y (2d = yard, abbreviated to y). 13a is MUSICAL: Hair is a 1960s hippie-culture musical. |
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| 7 | MADAME | Nice woman prepared sandwiches before midday (6) |
| MADE (prepared), containing (sandwiching) AM (ante meridiem = before midday). French term of address for a woman – so a woman in the French city of Nice. |
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| 9 | SCHEME | School starts to employ more educational programme (6) |
| SCH (abbreviation for school) + initial letters (starts) of E[mploy] M[ore] E[ducational]. | ||
| 14 | COMPARABLE | Corresponding by telegram about politician involved in row (10) |
| CABLE (telegram = old text-based communication system), containing OAR (as a verb = row = propel a boat using oars) with MP (Member of Parliament = politician) inserted (involved). | ||
| 16 | RECTANGLES | Engineer enlarges core of junction boxes (10) |
| Anagram (engineer, as a verb = build / modify) of ENLARGES + the middle letters (core) of [jun]CT[ion]. | ||
| 18 | FEEDBACK | Cater for 20 responses to questionnaire? (8) |
| 20d = PLAYER, of which an example (in rugby and other sports) is a BACK; the question-mark indicates a definition by example. Cater for = provide food for. So “cater for player” = FEED BACK. | ||
| 19/2 | CHURCHYARD | Burial ground‘s 4 wheeled cart (10) |
| CHURCH (4, referring to 4d TEMPLE), then DRAY (a cart) reversed (wheeled = turned around). | ||
| 20 | See 27 Across | |
| 22 | ENDURE | Last goal about to preserve United’s lead (6) |
| END (goal = objective) + RE (about), containing (to preserve) the leading letter of U[nited]. Last, as a verb = endure. |
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| 26 | CATS | 13 statutes diminishing America’s position (4) |
| ACTS (statutes), with the A (America) moved downwards (diminishing . . . position). 13a is MUSICAL: Cats is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber based on the poems of T S Eliot. |
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| 27 | RENT | 13 characters appearing in parentheses (4) |
| Hidden answer (characters appearing in) [pa]RENT[heses]. 13a is MUSICAL: Rent is a 1990s rock musical. |
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That was well tough. Struggled to finish with HAIR & MEANS my last two in. Didn’t fully appreciate 8a, so thanks for that Quirister. I also was unaware of temple being part of London. Didn’t know the musical at 27d but guessed it and googled to confirm.
Thanks also to Serpent.
A couple of well-heeled solvers in there. Norman in France and David in Penarth are friends of Serpent
But I dont think either has been involved in musicals. However one was a Welsh International27/20
This was my pick of the day.
Thanks Serpent.
Many thanks to Quirister for the excellent blog. (I didn’t think of that alternative definition for TEMPLE but it works well enough. My intended parsing used “office” in the sense of a church service.)
This puzzle is a follow-up to my previous (100th) Indy puzzle, in which I acknowledged the help and support of four fellow Indie setters when I was getting started. This puzzle contains the names and locations of my test-solvers – DavidinPenarth, NormaninFrance and RichardinRugby – who have generously provided indispensable on-going help. To them, many thanks!
Serpent, thanks for explaining the names (and copmus, well spotted) – I was sure there was something hidden here but I wouldn’t have worked it out. Re 4d, I’ve obviously been living around London for too long!
Three out of four ain’t bad for MEANS, but I failed to spot the ‘produces’ sense. I had no idea what was going on in MARMALADE, HAIR, MANDOLIN or RENT so all in all I found this pretty hard and needed a couple of sessions to finish it off. Still I did enjoy nailing the often not obvious parsing in those I could work out. No luck with the theme of course (well done, copmus) but very generous of Serpent to acknowledge the help of those behind the scenes.
Thanks to Quirister and Serpent
Thanks Quirister for blogging.
Took us two sessions to finish this, having run aground in the SE corner, with FEEDBACK, RUGBY PLAYER, and EYEBALL our last three in.
Thanks also to Serpent for the entertainment and challenge, and also for dropping in to explain the theme. We were trying to construct a theme in which Charlotte CHURCH, DAVID somebody, NORMAN somebody and RICHARD somebody (possibly RICHARD Burton), of whom one is a RUGBY PLAYER, one is a RACONTEUR and one is involved with MUSICALs are famous people born in PENARTH. So, I’m glad we don’t have to work at that any more.
I just do not know how I managed to finish this, as so many of the clues were so abstruse (for me anyway). But finish I did, with a smidgeon of help and confirmation from a word finder, so thanks Serpent and Quirister. One mini-theme was obvious, the other known only to the setter (and Copmus apparently).
A tricky Serpent today but I did enjoy the solve. As usual, I didn’t notice the Nina which is a splendid way to thank your test solvers.
Thanks to Serpent and Quirister
When I solved 11a, I thought of fellow solver David Thomas, but then quickly forgot about it. Then along came Norman in France. Wasn’t aware of Richard in Rugby, however.
LOI was RENT, never heard of it and only got it because of the crossers.
Found this tough going, so very pleased with myself to have completed it. Thanks JC.
I’m neither a rugby player, musical involvee nor raconteur, unfortunately, but I plead guilty to helping Serpent (help he hardly needs) to keep setting such excellent puzzles. Always a pleasure, Jason. Keep ’em coming.
Tricky! But got there in the end, with a bit of checking along the way. Must remember queens can be cats! Knew the musicals, which helped a bit, but only a bit. Thanks to Quirister and Serpent: what an enviable way to be able to say thank you.
Gadonya Norman and Jason.
Well, Penarth rang a bell but apparently not loud enough to spot what was going on.
Like DavidO @6 I tried to follow the Charlotte Church trail, then gave up.
A nice gesture from Serpent to highlight his test solvers.
Impressive to see that they’re placed sort of symmetrically in the grid.
As to the crossword itself, I found it difficult, harder than usual actually.
And, perhaps for that reason, also really enjoyable, very rewarding.
I couldn’t explain MARMALADE (7ac) and was slightly surprised to find doubles unches in both 3dn and 18dn (though none of them were less that 50% checked).
Many thanks to Quirister & Serpent.
We were on the lookout for a theme or nina but couldn’t see one even when we finished. We even googled to see it there was anyone notable called ‘David Richard Norman’ or some other permutation of those names.
Still, it wasn’t necessary to know the theme in order to complete the puzzle, which was as it should be.
In 16dn we liked ‘boxes’ being the definition – a change from its frequent use as a containment indicator.
OWL took us ages to see and then we kicked ourselves when we did see it.
Lots to enjoy so no real CoD.
Thanks, Serpent and Quirister
Excellent, chewy puzzle by a consistently excellent setter.
(I also at first suspected a theme of musicals, a field of human endeavour about which I incline to the opinion that ignorance is bliss.)
Congrats to Serpent on a first-rate ton plus one.
A really enjoyable puzzle, although the theme went right over my head. Failed on NORMAN, not correctly interpreting the ellipsis. Thanks to Serpent and to Quirister for what must have been a pretty challenging blog.
Defeated me. Couldn’t get the top right corner at all.
Bit late to comment, but thanks very much Serpent. I spotted 10/11 but missed the other pairs (although I did think 17/18 was a brilliant bit of elliptical cluing). Feel quite chuffed to have got through this with only an eetsy little bit of assistance!
great puzzle, many thanks Serpent. I didn’t know the welsh community i’m afraid, but i do now. Thanks also Quirister