Alchemi has provided an entertaining but challenging puzzle to keep us busy this Thursday.
I needed to have a couple of attempts at this puzzle before completing the grid. Even with a completed grid, I am still unable to parse 22 (now explained below – thanks!), and nor am I totally convinced of my parsing of 17. I look forward to hearing back from others.
My favourite clues today were 7, 19 and 25, all for smoothness of surface; and 2, for originality – who would have thought that this place name could be clued in such a way?!
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | GROUP | Don’t be such a baby – not with team
GRO<w> UP (=don’t be such a baby); “not with (=W)” means letter “w” is dropped |
| 04/12 | THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK | Film tempers their irritation announcing president’s return
*(TEMPERS THEIR) + IKE’S BACK (=announcing president’s return, i.e. Eisenhower); “irritation” is anagram indicator; the reference is to the 1980 Star Wars film |
| 09 | TRANCHE | Some in government ran checks on funding instalment
Hidden (“some”) in “governmenT RAN CHEcks” |
| 10 | TALLY UP | Compile scores, ending in arrogant colleague winning
<arrogan>T (“ending in” means last letter only) + ALLY (=colleague) + UP (=winning, e.g. in a match) |
| 11 | AVANT-GARDISTE | Puzzling advert against cultural innovator
*(ADVERT AGAINST); “puzzling” is anagram indicator |
| 14 | EGOS | Personalities say nothing succeeded
E.G. (=say, for example) + O (=nothing, pictorially) + S (=succeeded) |
| 15 | OUTBOARDS | Nothing in unfashionable poets’ motors
O (=nothing, pictorially) in [OUT (=fashionable) + BARDS (=poets)]; an outboard is an engine designed to be attached to the outside of a ship |
| 18 | LEGGINESS | Poem about food beginning to show model quality
[EGG (=food) in LINES (=poem)] + S<how> (“beginning to” means first letter only); e.g. glamour models would normally be leggy! |
| 19 | SKIN | Hide second family
S (=second) + KIN (=family) |
| 21 | MOUNT ST HELENS | How cameraman prepares apparatus for big explosion
Cryptically a cameraman “mounts the lens” when he prepares (his) apparatus; Mount St Helens is an active US volcano, known for its 1980 eruption |
| 24 | PRINCES | Royalty charges include November
N (=November, in international radio telecommunications) in PRICES (=charges, fees) |
| 26 | EXPLAIN | Give reasons for experimental network covering Italy
I (=Italy, in IVR) in [EXP (=experimental) + LAN (=network, i.e. Local Area Network, in computing)] |
| 27 | EGYPTIANS | Pet saying involved Africans
*(PET SAYING); “involved” is anagram indicator |
| 28 | NUKES | Bombs northern country explodes externally
N (=Northern) + UK (=country) + E<xplode>S (“externally” means first and last letters only are used) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | GATE | Entrance German goddess
G (=German) + ATE (=goddess, of mischief and rash actions) |
| 02 | OUAGADOUGOU | City’s focus as guard to dungeon US regularly used
<f>O<c>U<s> A<s> G<u>A<r>D <t>O <d>U<n>G<e>O<n> U<s>; “regularly used” means alternate letters only; Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso |
| 03 | PAC-MAN | Astronaut losing head then heart to computer game
<s>PAC<e>MAN (=astronaut); “losing head” means first letter is dropped; “then (losing) heart” means middle letter is dropped; Pac-Man is a maze action game, released in 1980 |
| 04 | TWENTY-ONE | Colour left unknown in card game
[WENT (=left, departed) + Y (=unknown, in algebra)] in TONE (=colour) |
| 05 | EXTRA | Exeter dropping a couple of points before getting one more
EX<e>T<e>R (“dropping a couple of points” means 2 x E=East are dropped) + A (=one) |
| 06 | MELODEON | Alchemi needs large cinema organ
ME (=Alchemi, i.e. this puzzle’s setter) + L (=large, in sizes) + ODEON (=cinema); a melodeon is a small reed organ |
| 07 | ICY | Reserved some bicycles
Hidden (“some”) in “bICYcles” |
| 08 | EXPRESSING | Old urgent saying
EX- (old, former) + PRESSING (=urgent) |
| 13 | KEY LIME PIE | Fellow leaves donkey wilted, without energy – that’s sweet!
<don>KEY (“fellow (=don, at university) leaves” means letters “don” are dropped) + [E (=energy) in LIMP (=wilted)] + I.E. (=that’s); Key lime pie is an American dessert typical of Florida, hence “sweet” |
| 16 | TASTELESS | Offensive 22 sets off
*(TESLA (=entry at 22) + SETS); “off” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | KITTY-CAT | Household pet needs a couple of whips
KITTY (=whip, i.e. pooled money) + CAT (=whip, i.e. for lashing) |
| 20 | BEDPAN | Daughter quietly interrupts pulse with hospital equipment
[D (=daughter) + P (=quietly, i.e. piano, in music)] in BEAN (=pulse, legume) |
| 22 | TESLA | Apparently commission the French scientific unit
TES (SET UP=(to) commission; “apparently” indicates vertical reversal – “up” – of “set”) + LA (=the French, i.e. a French word for the); a tesla is a unit of magnetic flux density |
| 23 | INNS | Where lawyers gather among Poles
IN (=among) + N S (=Poles, i.e. North and South); the reference is to the Inns of Court |
| 25 | IVY | Industry’s foremost visionary cleared out plant
I<ndustry> (“foremost” means first letter only) + V<isionar>Y (“cleared out” means all central letters are dropped) |
In 22d, you need to see TES as “set up” (apparently commission).
Clueing OUAGADOUGOU – especially as an alternate letter device – seems like the kind of thing a setter does for a bet! What an achievement – the surface is pretty natural considering what it hides.
As our blogger says, plenty of entertainment: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK is very clever – both surface and construction, I liked LEGGINESS, the anagram for AVANT GARDISTE, the assembly of OUTBOARDS, MELODEON, BEDPAN and KITTY CAT. One definite favourite though: how Alchemi spotted MOUNTS THE LENS I will never know. Fabulous.
Thanks Alchemi and RR
Thanks RR and all.
OK, so I’m hopeless at getting a grid started without some help. For reasons we need not go into, I used a list of events of May 1980, which included the storming of the embassy at PRINCES GATE, the explosion of MOUNT ST HELENS and the release of both PACMAN and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. With those in the grid, the number of possible 11-letter entries ending in U which yield plausible crossers is pretty small, and on seeing OUAGADOUGOU as one of them decided there must be a “Look at how clever I am” alternating letter clue possible and put it in. Having filled the grid in, time to start clueing. I notice that 21a has a lot of consonants in a row and wonder what the hell the word is. I read “MOUNTS THE LENS” and metaphorically scratch my head trying to work out why I thought that would be a worthwhile entry in a crossword before the PDM as I realised what it really was.
I have to add my admiration for 2 and 21 as great clues. 4/12 wasn’t far behind, but it took me a while to think of presidents further back than Trump!
Whip meaning kitty and Ate as goddess were new to me.
Just as well that 2d was an alternate letters clue – never heard of the place and certainly couldn’t have taken a stab at spelling it! I was also stuck on the parsing of 22d so thank you for explaining that one, Hovis.
Last to fall by quite a long way was MOUNT ST HELENS and that gets my vote as favourite – very clever.
Thanks to Alchemi and to RR for the review.
Sheepish @4. It is well worth remembering Ate, she does crop up from time to time. The only Shakespeare play I have read is Julius Caesar for O level. It contains the line “With Ate by his side, come hot from hell…”, part of a speech by Mark Anthony we had to learn for English homework.
I should really have written Mark Antony, not Anthony. A name liked by setters for clueing ANTONYM (ANTONY M).
What Jane @5 said.
Many thanks to Alchemi for the fun and to RR for the review.
I needed a couple of sessions to do this as well, with the SW corner being almost blank at the end of my first try. I’d never heard of KEY LIME PIE and barely knew OUAGADOUGOU which is as good an alternate letter clue as I’ve seen.
I was interested to hear from Alchemi himself of the May 1980 (ghost) theme. Like several others, the thematic MOUNTS THE LENS was my favourite.
Thanks to Alchemi and RR
Having sampled key lime pie in Miami I was familiar and surprised-and glad to see it in a UK crossword
Nice puzzle
Alchemi @3: lovely story about your PDM and very funny to find you were bamboozled in reverse. You probably won’t see this as it’s late in the posting day but I’ve posted here before about my local authority’s campaign for safer disposal of dangerous rubbish: two words emblazoned on the side of the wagons, one above the other:
DU ST BIN
DA NG ERS
Because each grouping sat in a different panel on the side of the vehicle, the tendency was to read the second word as rhyming with BANGERS and, consequently, the whole phrase lost meaning on initial glance. Hiding in plain sight.
PM @11 Great stuff.
Thanks to Alchemi. 21 was brilliant and 2 takes the prize as the longest “alternate letters” clue I’ve encountered.
Pretty much what everyone has said.. chapeau for 2dn n 21ac.. 17dn was expecting something kinky.. n indeed Google reveals there is such a thing as a Kitty whip… but sadly is actually only employed to entertain ur feline..
Thanks RatkojaRiku n Alchemi
Excellent! Late to the finish and all that’s needed has been said above.
RR I think your parsing of 17 is spot on. A whip-round results in a KITTY – think of office collections for leavers. CAT is of course the cat o’ nine tails.
Late to the party for posting, although we solved it this morning – not without help. We needed a wordfinder for OUAGADOUGOU, but that then helped us get MOUNT ST HELENS. Fortunately we had encountered KEY LIME PIE – though probably not made with genuine Key limes. TWENTY-ONE and TESLA were obvious but we couldn’t parse them.
Thanks, Alchemi and RatkojaRiku.
I was fine with the whole date palms thing the other day, but 28a seems a little crass given the date tomorrow.
@Hovis – many thanks for clarifying the parsing at 22 – I just couldn’t see for looking!