Wednesday fun from Tees, who always gives us an enjoyable puzzle.
There are a few not-so-common words here, but they’re all clued clearly. Some great surfaces – I liked the images of a senior manager struggling with an oversized musical instrument, and the pub-goer with a disappointing drink. Hard to pick a favourite, but I think 2d deserves special mention for including both “upset” and “manipulated” in a clue with no anagram, especially where “upset” is very nearly valid anagram fodder too; and as a singer I also liked 9a’s ur-aria. Thanks Tees as always.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | URTICARIA |
Rash having primitive song about twitch (9)
|
| UR (a prefix meaning “primeval”, often used to mean “the original primitive version”) + ARIA (song), around TIC (twitch).
Also known as hives; itchy and unpleasant. |
||
| 10 | VERVE |
Animation shown where monkey loses tail (5)
|
| VERVE[t] (an African monkey), losing its last letter (tail). | ||
| 11 | MAPLE |
Sleuth Jane, not seeing river, finds wood (5)
|
| MA[r]PLE (Miss Jane Marple, fictional detective created by Agatha Christie) without the R (river). | ||
| 12 | DIACRITIC |
Buñuel has one to relieve revolutionary reviewer (9)
|
| AID (to relieve), reversed (revolutionary), then CRITIC (reviewer).
A mark added to a letter that modifies its pronunciation – for example the tilde (~) in Buñuel’s name. (Marks that appear on vowels can be called accents, but diacritic is a wider term for all such marks.) |
||
| 13 | DEPLETE |
Reduce pressure and scrub round (7)
|
| P (pressure), with DELETE (scrub = remove) around it. | ||
| 14 | TROCHEE |
Say yew outside old church is poetic feature (7)
|
| TREE (for example yew = “say yew”) outside O (old) + CH (church).
A unit in metrical poetry: a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one. |
||
| 16 | DOGMA |
Teaching degree presented by setter for example (5)
|
| MA (degree: Master of Arts, or a translation of a similar Latin phrase) next to DOG (of which an example is a setter). | ||
| 18 | BOA |
One having scaly body and feathers round neck (3)
|
| Double definition, though I think the second is named after the first. A constricting snake; or a garland of feathers worn around the neck like a scarf. | ||
| 19 | ADD UP |
Put figures together to sound reasonable (3,2)
|
| Double definition. I think the second is a phrase more often encountered in the negative, as in “that doesn’t add up”; I can’t remember hearing “yes, that adds up”. Is there a name for such negative-only phrases? | ||
| 21 | HAUTEUR |
Superior attitude of hot film director (7)
|
| H (hot) + AUTEUR (a film director, specifically one with a very strong artistic control or distinctive style). | ||
| 22 | THE HILL |
See 6 Down
|
| 24 | PETRICHOR |
Earthy scent from lab dish shortened task (9)
|
| PETRI (a dish used for growing cultures in a laboratory) + CHOR[e] (task; shortened = last letter dropped).
The distinctive earthy smell produced when rain lands on dry soil. |
||
| 26 | CELLO |
Boss must carry doubly large instrument (5)
|
| CEO (Chief Executive Officer = boss), carrying LL (large, doubled). | ||
| 27 | EXERT |
Virtuoso lacking power to bring into use (5)
|
| EX[p]ERT (virtuoso), without the P (power).
As in “to exert one’s influence”. |
||
| 28 | RESONANCE |
Terrible snore can echo, causing vibration (9)
|
| Anagram (terrible) of SNORE CAN, then E (Echo in the radio alphabet). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | OUTMODED |
Passé mood duet to be reworked (8)
|
| Anagram (to be reworked) of MOOD DUET. | ||
| 2 | STEP UP |
Upset manipulated figures losing a penny increase (4,2)
|
| PUP[p]ETS (manipulated figures), losing one letter P (p = penny), reversed (upset = upwards in a down clue). I wasted some time on an anagram (manupulated) of UPSET, trying to work out how to add a P when the wordplay told me to remove one; I’m sure that’s what Tees intended. | ||
| 3 | ACCELERATE |
Brewed treacle that goes into superb snowball (10)
|
| Anagram (brewed) of TREACLE, going into ACE (superb).
Snowball, as a verb = slang for “increase rapidly” = accelerate. |
||
| 4 | FRIDGE |
Cooler frost initially seen on hilltop (6)
|
| Initial letter of F[rost] on RIDGE (hilltop). “On” works because this is a down clue, so the F goes at the top. | ||
| 5 | SAMANTHA |
Bond actress up when devilfish snatches husband (8)
|
| AS (when), reversed (up = reading upwards in a down clue), then MANTA (manta ray = devilfish) containing (snatching) H (husband).
The actress Samantha Bond: Bond actress by name, and also Miss Moneypenny in a few of the James Bond films. |
||
| 6/22A | OVER THE HILL |
No longer fit public torment includes greeting (4,3,4)
|
| OVERT (public) + HELL (torment), including HI (a greeting).
Over the hill = considered too old to do something = no longer fit. |
||
| 7 | WRETCHED |
Sorry Watts had dry heaves (8)
|
| W (short for Watts = scientific measure of power) + RETCHED (attempted to vomit = had dry heaves). | ||
| 8 | RESCUE |
Save energy with curse undone (6)
|
| Anagram (undone) of E (energy) + CURSE. | ||
| 15 | OPALESCENT |
Broken pane with closet reflecting different colours (10)
|
| Anagram (broken) of PANE + CLOSET.
Like an opal or similar gemstone, showing different colours as the light catches it from different directions. |
||
| 17 | GAUNTLET |
Bony obstruction presents challenge (8)
|
| GAUNT (unhealthily thin = bony) + LET (an obstruction in legal terminology, as in “without let or hindrance”, though as a verb it more often means the opposite: don’t obstruct).
As in “throw down the gauntlet” = challenge someone to a duel. |
||
| 18 | BAR CHART |
Check daily temperature graph (3,5)
|
| BAR (check = a preventative measure or obstruction) + CHAR (daily = someone who does domestic cleaning) + T (temperature). | ||
| 20 | PULLOVER |
Use lay-by in Jersey? (8)
|
| PULL OVER = stop a vehicle at the side of the road, or ideally in a lay-by off the road if available.
Pullover = jersey = knitted garment. |
||
| 21 | HYPHEN |
Wi-Fi connection? (6)
|
| Cryptic definition, or definition by example; the hyphen is the connection between WI and FI. | ||
| 22 | THRUSH |
Spotted flyer in extremely tough attack (6)
|
| T[oug]H (extremes = end letters) + RUSH (attack).
Bird with spotted markings. |
||
| 23 | ISLAND |
Upright character smooth enrolling student for Easter? (6)
|
| I (character consisting of an upright stroke) + SAND (as a verb = to smooth wood or another hard surface), containing (enrolling) L (as in L-plate = learner = student).
Definition by example, hence the question mark: Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. |
||
| 25 | INTO |
Beer losing head: nothing to get enthusiastic about (4)
|
| [p]INT (a glass of beer), losing the first letter (head), then O (zero = nothing).
I suppose you could say we’re all “into crosswords” = enthusiastic about them. |
Fortunately, someone recently posted that her favourite word was PETRICHOR, which I (and Eileen, I believe) then looked up. Whether Tees read this and thought “let’s try and clue this one up” I wouldn’t know.
Needed Google’s help in finding what a devilfish might be and then to confirm who SAMANTHA was.
I guess I won’t be the only one to confidently enter “secure” for 8d and struggle to then get 12a. Fortunately, I did get this and corrected my error.
Great fun, as always from this setter.
Thought this was very good. I reckon Tees has improved lately.
And thanks for parsing of Samantha
Another fine puzzle from Tees – lots to enjoy but I’ll give special mention 5d and 21d
Thanks to Tees for the fun and Quirister for the blog
My second thoroughly enjoyable challenge of the day and I’m always pleased when Tees appears at the top of the grid. I agree with Quirister that the unfamiliar words were all clearly clued and was delighted to piece together URTICARIA, DIACRITIC (only the vaguest of recollections of the word), PETRICHOR and the (equally vaguely recollected) actress. I was also delighted when a vervet did turn out to be a monkey. The parsing of STEP UP defeated me in exactly the way Tees intended, I’m sure.
I thought HYPHEN to be the star of the day, just like crypticsue. I love it when the answer is hidden in plain sight which is so often the case when it’s a punctuation mark or similar that’s being clued.
Thanks Tees and Quirister
Plenty to enjoy about this one including a couple of unknowns (PETRICHOR and the African monkey at 10a), some very good defs (‘Bond actress’ and ‘Spotted flyer’) and best of all the ‘Wi-Fi connection’ – a hidden and cryptic definition in one.
Thanks to Tees and Quirister
@Hovis: I did pick up on a fairly recent comment in 225 to the effect that PETRICHOR had not thus far been clued by anyone around these parts. Or even in other parts. Perhaps there was another word mentioned in the same post, IIRC, which I have forgotten, presumably because it was too hard to clue. Someone else can do that one.
Very late to this one today, so I’ve only just seen Hovis’ comment @1.
Re PETRICHOR, if it was me, I have absolutely no recollection of it – although, these days, that doesn’t signify anything! I built up the word from the clear wordplay today but couldn’t find it in any of my dictionaries. I was delighted to discover online that my guess at the derivation was correct: it’s from the Greek petra, rock and ichor, the fluid which flows through the veins of the gods in Greek mythology. I’d always thought there should be a word for that distinctive smell.
I’ll join the praise for another enjoyable Tees puzzle – especially DIACRITIC, RESONANCE, STEP UP and HYPHEN.
Many thanks to Tees and Quirister.
Thanks both. Must admit some of the answers and definitions were unknown to me – I also had the issue of entering ‘secure’ for 8dn which I feel also works(?)
I love the smell of PETRICHOR, though I only learned the word last year, having thought there ought to be one to describe it. I too first put SECURE at 8D but quickly realised it was wrong. Couldn’t parse PUPPETS or WRETCHED, so thanks Quirister for the explanations, and of course Tees for another excellent puzzle.
We worked steadily through this, getting almost everything including PETRICHOR, which we had to confirm online; it not being in either Chambers (2014) or Collins (2006). We eventually got DIACRITIC (our CoD) after correcting 8dn to RESCUE, which left us with 5dn unsolved – but returning to it an hour or so later the answer suddenly came to us so we did finish after all.
Thanks, Tees and Quirister.
Eileen. If you look at the independent crossword on Sunday March 28 (also by Tees), you will see what I was referring to.
Thank goodness for the PETRICHOR reference a few weeks ago! I liked this one: interesting to have a couple of typographical clues. I’m another who started out with SECURE.
Hi Hovis @11
Well I never – what a memory you have! Many thanks.
I did enjoy this one and was fine with PETRICHOR as a setter friend of mine mentioned it a while ago as being one of his favourite words. I’m another who started out with ‘secure’ for 8d until DIACRITIC came to my rescue(!) and I did have to look up the ‘primitive’ aspect of URTICARIA.
Favourite was RESONANCE just because the surface read made me laugh.
Thanks to Tees and to Quirister for the review.
PETRICHOR is a word that seems to have gained prominence in the last few years. I seem to remember seeing a few articles like this one all around the same time. Apparently the term was coined in 1964.
Thanks to Tees and Quirister
A long time spent trying to get Tees (or I or Me etc) into 16A only to find out it was a dog type of setter!
A couple of words we’d never heard of but got PETRICHOR from the wordplay and crossers but nowhere near the rash!
HYPHEN we struggled with ( I was convinced it was NETWORK despite my son’s protestations that it was too many letters – “are you sure????” I asked) but getting DIACRITIC made us look at it a different way
Lots of fun. Thanks Tees and Quirister
When I ran through the blog to get the ones we couldn’t parse I told my son that “PETRICHOR is ‘ The distinctive earthy smell produced when rain lands on dry soil.’ and he said
“There’s a specific word just for that?!?!”
Great crossword, we put secure for 8d which really borked us.