We were more than pleased when we realised we were blogging a Serpent puzzle today.
There were a few nifty devices used today with also a couple of definitions which we needed to check – we’re still not sure about 24d.
We are always on the lookout for something else in a Serpent puzzle but the only thing we can find today are the two 15-letter crossing answers which contain MIDDLE and CENTRE – using the middle row and column and centre square – very neat.
Thanks Serpent.
INDUS (river) TRIAL (test)
Double definition
E (English) CAD (rogue) inside or ‘gripped by’ DENT (depression)
US (American) ER (head of state)
OVERT (explicit) + ET (film) inside or ‘stopping’ HOP (progress by one member). We had a smile sorting out the parsing of this when we realised that if you were hopping, you would be using one ‘member’.
A whimsical parsing here – the CENTRE or middle letter OF GRAVITY is V and it is also the first letter or ‘leads’ to violence and vandalism.
An anagram (‘with treatment’) of APPROACH and L Y (first and last letters or ‘case’ of leprosy)
GO REd (show embarrassment) with last letter missing or ‘ultimately going’. We had to check the definition here. The only link we could find in Chambers was for Dutch pink which is a slang term for blood (gore). Thanks Hovis@1 – we missed that.
Hidden (‘banked by’) in economiST RAN GERman
REAR (parent) replacing the middle letters or ‘contents’ of DiarY
S (second) KIM (novel by Kipling)
A cryptic definition with the ‘fare’ referring to food and not transport
ANT (‘colonist’) ELOPE (run off together)
AUThor (writer) with an anagram (‘cast’) of ACTOR replacing the second half
Sounds like (‘reporter’s’) STATIONARY (still)
Another whimsical definition – the MIDDLE letter OF ‘THE ROAD’ is R which can stand for ‘Reading’ – one of the three Rs
LO (look) replacing or ‘ousting’ the middle letter or ‘central position’ of BBC (broadcaster)
Hidden (‘used by’) in unprinciPLED GEnius
NIPS (dashes) reversed or ’round’ + DOOR (entrance) outside CT (court)
STAKE (part of fence) around or ‘catching’ WEE (small) PS (rider)
TURTLE (whilst we think of a turtle as a marine reptile and a tortoise as land-based, according to Chambers, in America a tortoise can be referred to as a turtle) DOVE (jumped into water – the American version of ‘dived’). Thanks Hovis.
An anagram (‘alternative’) of GIVEN + TiTlE (odd letters only)
Something like a clam (shellfish) might fancifully be described as CLAMMY
AS (when) inside or ‘ringed by’ GP (doctor)
RObOT (Android) with middle letter or ‘core component’ deleted. We’re not really sure about the definition here but guessed it either refers to the folders used in computing, or to the source from which words are derived.
Re: 20a. Chambers has “pink” as a verb meaning to pierce esp with a sword or rapier.
Small typo in blog. You’ve written “turtle” both times in your explanation for 15d.
Great puzzle as always.
No matter how much you push the envelope, it remains stationery.
Regarding 24d, a root directory is highest level in structure ( e.g.c:\ on c drive). Struggled with 20a but eventually did find a definition of pink as a verb to mean stab/pierce. Thanks to Serpent and BertandJoyce.
Thanks Hovis – blog corrected.
Got there in the end but only put in GORE without understanding as it seemed the only wordlist candidate that was anywhere near, so thanks Hovis @1 for the full explanation. ‘Pink’ = ‘pierce’ is also linked to ‘pink’ = ‘cut with a scalloped edge’, according to OED. (Incidentally, why does OED get overlooked when quoting dictionaries here? I thought it was supposed to be the ultimate authority for the English language.) Thanks Serpent and B&J.
Another excellent puzzle and blog, thank you Serpent and B&J
Just occured to me re: 20a, my mum used to use pinking shears in dressmaking. According to Wikipedia “Before pinking scissors were invented, a pinking punch or pinking iron was used to punch out a decorative hem on a garment.” Now I know where the name came from.
I needed the blog to get the full subtlety of the two long crossing answers, so thanks to Bertandjoyce for that. I rarely do get what I think of as “self-referential” clues (what are they really called?). Excellent stuff all round, and I particularly enjoyed the one member hopping, the misdirection of the fare-dodger and clammy being like a clam. Made me smile. Thanks to Serpent and Bertandjoyce
Johnnybgoode @6: yep, pinking shears is what justified it for me before I looked it up. And pinking shears produce a serrated/scalloped cut as per Tatrasman’s comment. I did also wonder whether pink/claret blood/gore was going to be the definition.
I find Serpent one of the harder setters here but found the wavelength today, spotting lurkers and anagram fodder and even some of those tricky substitutions like the very clever BLOC. Like B&J, I enjoyed the wit in OVER THE TOP and also the amusing cd for STARVATION. INDUSTRIAL is a delightful assembly and misdirect. Like Jayjay, I smiled at CLAMMY. Did anyone else struggle for a while to see ANTELOPE? A cheeky trick to split a solution 3,5 over a 4,4 light (have I used that correctly? Doesn’t look right.)
Thanks Serpent & B&J
@Tatrasman the OED is a reference dictionary for the language and not something commonly found in the average household 🙂 The “crossword dictionary” was Chambers (also known as the BRB or Big Red Book as that’s what it was) as it was readily enough available for solvers and contains a lot of unusual and even obscure words. Collins seems to have settled in as a firm competitor these days as well, and I suppose if we wait long enough Wiktionary might start being referenced too 😉
On today’s crossword, there’s a lot of praise for the long clues, but if I might offer the other side? The clues amount to “V, where force acts” and “R, boring”. Neither really feel like they’ve caught what’s needed for a reverse cryptic to me. Thanks, though, to Bertandjoyce for the post!
We worked steadily through this and got it all, but along with others were mystified as to why gore = pink and didn’t grasp the full significance of 4dn. And, this being a Serpent puzzle, we were so intent on looking for a non-existent nina we didn’t see the obvious centrality of the two long answers.
Favourites were ANTELOPE and STARVATION.
Tatrasman@4: The “neglect” of the OED is probably because most, if not all, crossword setters and editors use either Chambers or Collins, which are also the dictionaries most solvers are likely to have access to.
Thanks, Serpent and B&J
As always, a great puzzle. “Progress by one member” the highlight for me!
For 6d “used by” seemed an odd indicator of hidden. For a while I was convinced that ANTELOPE was going to be a word meaning “horny” ending in ANT and starting with an animal minus the letter r, but the SPIN DOCTOR put me onto the right answer (a rare occurrence). I echo the general praise for both setter and bloggers.
Nice puzzle marred by the ongoing bug on the website when split clues are used (1/9 in this example) causing the safari browser to lock up and you have to reload – but it’s free and I could always print it out I know!
Thankyou B&J for explaining the middle two long clues which we got from the straight part of the definition but didn’t understand the cryptic on either!
Thanks Serpent for the challenge – STARVATION our favourite
Petert @ 12
If you use something, in one sense you consume it. In another sense, you end up around it. Seems OK to me.
Many thanks to bertandjoyce for the excellent blog, and to everyone who has taken the time to comment.
Thanks Postmortes @9 and Allan_c @10 for your comments on my dictionary query. For the record, I also have a Longman’s dictionary (now part of Pearson), which I have never seen referenced here, though it seems as good as the others to me.