A solid workout from Aardvark today. Something to get your teeth into! Thank you Aardvark
Do the four Zeds (Zees) in the centre of the grid indicate anything special?
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | COMPLICATED |
Politician in severe pain swallowed first of drugs – it’s difficult (11)
|
| MP (politician) inside COLIC (severe pain) ATE (swallowed) and Drugs (first letter of) | ||
| 7 | COX |
Constant steer involved in this job? (3)
|
| C (constant) and OX (steer) – extended definition: a constant steer is involved in… | ||
| 9 | REIGN |
Regularly greeting unknown number, as monarchs do (5)
|
| every other letter (regularly) of gReEtInG then N (an unknown number) | ||
| 10 | LEE MARVIN |
Good book, in the main, on actor Bruce, old Hollywood star (3,6)
|
| RV (revised Version, The Bible or the Good Book) inside MAIN following (on) LEE (actor Bruce Lee) | ||
| 11 | MUSSOLINI |
Discussed physical strength in one despot (9)
|
| MUSSOL sounds like (discussed) “muscle” (physical strength) then IN and I (one) | ||
| 12 | HOARD |
Ring kept in firm’s hidden stock (5)
|
| O (a ring) inside (kept in) HARD (firm) | ||
| 13 | SHOWBIZ |
How’s new French composer avoiding alien world of entertainment (7)
|
| anagram (new) of HOW’S then BIZet (French composer) missing ET (alien) | ||
| 15 | ZERO |
Nothing in minor e-zine recalled (4)
|
| found inside minOR E-Zine reversed (recalled) | ||
| 18 | JAZZ |
Jack joins sleepy characters on a music class (4)
|
| J (jack) with (joins) ZZ (characters indicating sleep) following (on) A – a class of music | ||
| 20 | ZIP CODE |
Fly with fellow editor westwards – this helps to find location in LA? (3,4)
|
| ZIP (fly, move quickly) with CO (fellow, as a prefix) then ED (editor) reversed (westwards) – in LA indicates an example of US usage | ||
| 23 | AMISH |
Alpha male vaguely belonging to religious sect (5)
|
| A (alpha) M (male) and ISH (vaguely) | ||
| 24 | TUNNELLER |
Run with Ellen, oddball revolutionary who tried to escape from 4? (9)
|
| R (run) with ELLEN NUT (oddball) all reversed (revolutionary) | ||
| 26 | CRAB APPLE |
Fruit item from bakery available in fancy parcel (4,5)
|
| BAP (item from bakery) inside (available in) anagram (fancy) of PARCEL | ||
| 27 | SWAMP |
Boggy land, area commoner on Devon/ Cornwall peninsula (5)
|
| A (area) MP (commoner, member of The House of Commons) following (on) SW (the Devon/Cornwall peninsula) | ||
| 28 | NAY |
Some, putting name forward, vote negatively (3)
|
| ANY (some) with the N (name) moved to the front (forward) | ||
| 29 | LIKE THE WIND |
Enjoy article finally penned after victory: How Usain Bolt runs? (4,3,4)
|
| LIKE (enjoy) THE (definite article) then penneD (finally) following (after) WIN (victory) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CERAMIST |
Maybe potter’s cue dishearteningly touches pack first (8)
|
| CuE missing middle (dishearteningly, removing the heart) then (touches, next to) RAM (pack) and IST (1st first) | ||
| 2 | MAILSHOT |
Marketing strategy, stolen by daily newspaper, succeeded (8)
|
| HOT (stolen) following MAIL (Daily Mail, newspaper) S (succeeded) | ||
| 3 | LENTO |
Slow and fast over (5)
|
| LENT (a fast) and O (over, cricket notation) | ||
| 4 | COLDITZ |
Camp’s chilled Italian wine variable (7)
|
| COLD (chilled) IT (Italian wine, as in Gin-and-It) then Z (a variable, mathematics) – a prison camp | ||
| 5 | THE RITZ |
Hotel different without entrance it’s said (3,4)
|
| oTHER (different) missing first letter (without entrance) then ITZ sounds like (said) “it’s” | ||
| 6 | DEATHTRAP |
Passing time, criticise rickety stairs, say (9)
|
| DEATH (passing) T (time) and RAP (criticise) | ||
| 7 | CAVIAR |
Vehicle hogging A6 is a symbol of luxury (6)
|
| CAR (vehicle) contains (hogging) A VI (six) | ||
| 8 | XANADU |
Letter of affection, and sprayed in gold, creating blissful state (6)
|
| X (letter of affection, a kiss) then anagram (sprayed) of AND inside AU (Au, gold) – a perfect place (state) | ||
| 14 | BEACHBALL |
Inflatable, in principle, boosts every party (9)
|
| Boosts (first letter, in principle, the source or origin) EACH (every) BALL (a party) | ||
| 16 | KOHLRABI |
Reflecting, one local with left hand approved vegetable (8)
|
| I (one) BAR (pub, a local) with LH (left hand) OK (approved) all reversed (reflecting) | ||
| 17 | TETRAPOD |
Perhaps badger Edward to restrain upsetting work culture (8)
|
| TED (Edward) contains (to restrain) OP (work) ART (culture) reversed (upsetting) | ||
| 19 | ZATOPEK |
Olympic champion, to exercise core in workout, goes to extremes (7)
|
| TO and PE (exercise) worKout (middle letter, core in) all follows (goes to) Z and A (the extremes) – Emil Zatopek, Czech long distance runner | ||
| 20 | ZANIEST |
Most mad finding a metallic element in relish (7)
|
| A NI (Nickel, metallic element) inside ZEST (relish) | ||
| 21 | FALCON |
Football chiefs left cold, playing predator (6)
|
| FA (football chiefs) L (left) C (cold) ON (playing) | ||
| 22 | BIGAMY |
Times defends current publication about crime (6)
|
| BY (times, multiplied by) contains (defends) I (current, electrical symbol) and MAG (publication) reversed (about) | ||
| 25 | ENSUE |
Follow Alsatian in, with “Beg!” (5)
|
| EN (in written in French, as in Alsace) with SUE (entreat, to beg) |
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee. The grid contains every letter of the alphabet except Q, and so does the set of clues. Normally, of course, a pangram in the clues is something that happens without any effort by the setter, but I wonder if this is really a coincidence.
Had a blast wrestling with this puzzle from Aardvark even though parsing was a devil leaving me with a few to understand/confirm here.
Once again, I was on the lookout for a pangram (alas, no Q) but what was revealed at the grid’s centre proved more intriguing. The repetition of letters here helped confirm 5 and 19d, while helping to land the unknown Olympian.
I also wondered at their significance.
Very difficult to pick a favourite today among so many goodies but COX, BEACHBALL and DEATHTRAP raised a smile.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee for the blog.
Was this an attempt to see how many times the letter Z could fit in a crossword? Despite this, I managed to finish apart from 19D: I had to try to cheat but nowhere could I find an Olympic champion with seven letters starting with Z and ending with K. I must confess that I have no interest in Olympics and hope that that Japs see sense and cancel the Covid cluster planned for later this year. Sport is not an essential pursuit.
Re 22A – I have seen this answer many times, usually clued as “Large girl gets married twice”.
A good crop of puzzles today and this was just as enjoyable and challenging as the others. I liked the four central Z’s (though also wondered about their significance) and the COMPLICATED parsing of some such as KOHLRABI and TETRAPOD.
Favourite was LEE MARVIN and memories of “I Was Born Under a Wanderin’ Star”.
Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee
Thanks for a super blog ( minor underlining issue with 26AC, sorry to nitpick )
Enjoyed this, impressive setting, well spotted Pelham Barton @1 would never have thought of that for the actual clues. COX is my favourite for the misleading steer.
Roz @5. Over in the Guardian, Brendan once did a much more impressive lipogram omitting the letter E from both solutions and clues.
Thanks to PeeDee for the parsing, some of which I was too lazy to work out. Otherwise everything went in quite smoothly and a few did raise a smile, so a good way to spend half an hour…
Thank you Muffin, I had forgotten this until your reminder. I remember it now but did not notice the missing e when solving it.
Roz@5: I became overenthusiastic on pangrams in the clues for a short time some years ago, but here it would have been fairly easy to get a Q into the definition at 9ac (as queens do/as the queen does), so I think it is at least possible that the omission was deliberate. I would not put it any more strongly than that.
Yes another good spot. I think your theory is totally correct. Missing Q in the grid so definitely deliberately missing Q in the clues. As you say it is easy to get a Q into 9AC.
I had a quick look through a random sample of a dozen or so previous FTs and about one-third of them do not contain a letter Q in the clues, so one can’t read too much into that.
I suspect this is some form of mischief on the setter’s part, leading us up the garden path looking for a pangram and then deliberately not providing one. The five Zeds underline the omission.
The underling on 26ac is fixed now, well spotted.
Thanks PeeDee but the key statistic is how many of that one-third contained all 25 other letters. If that is fairly common then this could just be random chance but I doubt it.
With a huge amount of imagination, you could just about see the 5 Zs in the grid making a letter Q – more so if you rotate 90 degrees anti-clockwise and consider it a lower case ‘q’ 😉
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
A puzzle with a fair bit going on within it and took a bit longer than average to get it out. Started off with the clever COX at 7a and steadily made my way through the grid. Spotted the extraordinary number of Z’s appearing throughout, but on finishing found that there was not even a single Q after thinking that it was going to be a pangram as well.
Ended up in the SE corner with the complex KOHLRABI, SWAMP (where it took a while to piece together and TETRAPOD (a tricky definition by example).
Roz – that is a good point. Z occurs in textual English in a similar proportion to Q, so clues omitting a Q but containing a Z would be in the order of 0.3 x 0.6 so about one-fifth.
J and X occur about twice as often as Q and Z, so I suspect a puzzle omitting one of these by chance would be a lot rarer, but might possibly make a difference. A typical set of clues contains about 1,200 – 1,500 letters so the probability of omitting any other letter by chance must be about zero.
So probably (from a statistical point of view) a deliberate omission of Q in the clues and not a random occurrence.
Sorry Hovis I mixed up my bakery products @8 . I meant to thank you for the reminder about the puzzle with the missing E .
PeeDee@15 , I agree entirely. If my students were still here I would get them to do a proper significance test . I do not keep my paper copies to do it myself.
Thanks aardvark and PeeDee
Peter @ 2, in response to your question about Zs, at the Boatman/Paul crossword gathering in Brighton a few years ago, Paul told us that he had once tried to set a puzzle with a Z in every solution, and thought he’d managed it until he realised he’d misspelt UFFIZI.
Oh, and I’m not sure that a tunneller could have tried to escape from Colditz. It’s a castle built on a rock outcrop.
Simon S@19 in the classic 1970s TV series Colditz , there were several attempts to build escape tunnels. I do not know if the stories were actually authentic.
Also the Colditz board game had two tunnels , possibly three, again no guarantee of accuracy.
Simon – Wikipedia lists two escape attempts by tunnel: The Kitchen Tunnel and The French Tunnel
A satisfying challenge — thanks Aardvark. I used a word finder for COLDITZ and ZATOPEK but everything else unfolded eventually. Favourites were many and included COMPLICATED, SHOWBIZ, NAY, LIKE THE WIND, MAILSHOT, and DEATHTRAP. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Thanks for the workout Aardvark and the explanations Peedee. Again I finished this with breakfast coffee on a cold morning. Thoroughly enjoyed it and noticed the Z placement. This is the second AMISH we have had recently, clued almost the same.