Another Saturday, another puzzle from Serpent – what surprise is hidden for us today?
The answer to that is a very long word indeed.
Certainly in my school days this was regarded as the longest word in the English language antidisestablishmentarianism starting from the first cell of 19ac going clockwise. Wikipedia now has a lung disease Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis as the longest word and it was created to be that.
Serpent has managed to include the longest word possible around the perimeter of a 15 x 15 grid (where no entries are included in the perimeter). A potential future challenge lies there, to use a clue answer within a hidden message (I suspect someone will tell me this has happened before, but I’ve never seen it).
As to the clues – snaky as always and beautifully constructed.
I liked 9ac and 19ac for their novelty, but 21dn was certainly my favourite. I liked the use of ‘her’ in 19ac – reflecting the current Sky at night presenter in particular, among other celebrated female astronomers. Plenty other clues of note too – as always. 8ac being a classic of misdirected pronunciation and 24dn very novel amongst many others of note.
Many thanks Serpent – I always look forward to your puzzles.
Key * anagram; underline definition; DD Double definition; Rev. reversed
Across
8 Slavers sold those captured in Troy off (6)
(sold + ro)* = DROOLS
9 Person whose convictions limit his career (8)
Cryptic defintion CRIMINAL
10 Cast regularly wanting Tony Curtis to direct (8)
(ToNy + curtis)* = INSTRUCT
11 Football manager wears women’s clothing for trip to see big game? (6)
FA (Football manager) in sari (women’s clothing) = SAFARI
12 Steal money from house? (4)
DD TAKE
13 Means of releasing what’s been bottled up by city’s gangs (10)
Cork’s(City’s) + crews (gangs) = CORKSCREWS
15 Must have latrine emptied in sewer (6)
need (must have) + le (latrine emptied) = NEEDLE
17 Spread the word about stopping chap going mad (6)
(chap)* around re (about) = PREACH
19 Star and moon could be central parts of her world (10)
(star + moon + hEr + woRld)* = ASTRONOMER
22 Stop esteem being eroded by taking drugs at fixed intervals (4)
esteem – e – e = STEM
23 Old lady isn’t fazed, being of pious attitude? (6)
ma (old lady) + (isn’t)* = MANTIS
25 Leave Islamic State for good, when the former limits the latter? (8)
emirate (Islamic state) around g (good) = EMIGRATE
26 Implement measure in court taking nothing from offence (8)
spoon (court) + foul (offence) – o (nothing) = SPOONFUL
27 Go further than u-turn abandoned by leader of opposition (6)
u-turn + o (leader of opposition) = OUTRUN
Down
1 Press report of sport articles that were forged? (8)
iron (press) + homonym of wear (sport) = IRONWARE
2 Tories condemned offensive act (6)
(tories)* = SORTIE
3 Key French article about revolutionary doctor staying in to shield (10)
esc(key) + un (French article) about che (revolutionary doctor) in to = ESCUTCHEON
4 Tesco terrine contains duck (6)
Hidden teSCO TERrine = SCOTER
5 Drunk almost topples over (4)
Rev. tipsy – y = TIPS
6 Voice in favour of church service (3,5)
air (voice) + for (in favour of) + ce (church) = AIR FORCE
7 Where old folk laid to rest argument in pub? (6)
bar (pub) + row(argument) = BARROW
14 Person who manages excellent coverage for viewers (10)
super (excellent) + visor (coverage for viewers) = SUPERVISOR
16 Helping to support start of Durham University’s term (8)
DU (start of Durham university) + ration (helping) = DURATION
18 Large organism with a trunk and head (8)
chest (trunk) + nut (head) = CHESTNUT
20 They’re often battered by foreign character behind swindle (6)
scam (swindle) + pi (foreign character) = SCAMPI
21 This ultimately fills up part of the intestines (6)
Rev. Ileum (part of intestines) around s (This ultimately) = MUESLI
22 Different levels in institute promoting right answer (6)
start (institute) moving r forward + a (answer) = STRATA
24 Seconds from assuming control of marginal seat (4)
seconds from aSsuming cOntrol oF mArginal = SOFA
That must be one of the first times I’ve spotted a Serpent nina in time for it to be helpful. The NE corner fell first which gave me the BLISHME section which invited an N and a T and then the circumference became obvious and led to, for this setter, a relatively straightforward solve.
Given the furore caused a while ago in a puzzle which reminded us that ‘slaver’ can mean dribble, I was delighted to realise the wordplay in 8ac did lead to DROOLS. And the pleasure of constructions and devices just continued from there. Far too many to tick – virtually the entire grid – so, to the relief of subsequent posters, I won’t! Suffice to nominate a couple that are, for me, slightly ahead of the pack: ASTRONOMER for the overall &littishness (I know it’s not one), STEM for the subtraction device, MANTIS for the definition, BARROW and SCAMPI which both brought smiles, and SOFA for the surface.
Thanks Serpent and twencelas
Can I offer my contrafibularities and pericombobulations to Serpent
Great fun
i send this from a small village in North wales
Thanks Serpent!
Brilliant. Simply Brilliant!
All these long words are a nightmare for anybody suffering from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia 🙂
I dug it too, and of all of it, I so dug 25a & 24d. Ta, S & B
Superb puzzle, as one has come to expect from Serpent. It/he deserves wider circulation and more comments.
I find myself wondering how, when he’s come up with a suitable perimeter nina, he decides where in the grid to start it. Trial and error, or a cunning plan from the outset?
19a is very neat, but I wondered about ‘could be’, since that’s usually used when the solution to the anagram follows the fodder. Here, it is not the case that STARMOON could be ASTRONOMER, and ‘could be’ doesn’t seem quite right as a stand-alone indicator.
Simon @6, I always try to start at top left, but if it doesn’t work, or lead to a nice fill, then try to find a place where it does. (Embarrassingly, I spent ages wondering what could finish “Is establishment Arianism ….?” here. Oops.)
James @7 , I think it’s (STARMOON)*, and then the ER.
My favourites were AIR FORCE and BARROW.
Nice one, Serpent, and thx twencelas.
Mev@8, exactly, that’s why I’m questioning the use of could be.
Great stuff as usual with Serpent. Favourite was 11. Spotted the nina in time for it to help with some of the NW corner. Cheers twencelas for, erm, clearing up the intestines and thanks Serpent for another cracking puzzle.
Most of this was quite some way above my level, and I didn’t notice the nina, so I can’t say I enjoyed it overall, but some of the bits I managed to solve without the reveal button I did really like. This definitely included the crossing 16D and 19A, which reminded me it’s ages since I last emailed a fellow Durham graduate who now works for NASA – I’m sure she’ll like it.
And respect to Serpent for the accomplishment!
I’m not sure I see the issue with ‘could be’.
Surely STAR and MOON combined ‘could be’ ASTRONOM and then you just add the E and R.
Seems fine to me.
Solved this quickly due to very early spot of the nina much as PostMark@1 (with whose comments I mostly concur – other than my usual solution/solve whinge).
Thanks to Serpent and twencelas
I’m sure you don’t have to explain to James that it is (STAR+MOON)*+ ER that is intended in 19ac.
He just questions whether ‘Star and moon could be’ leads to ‘ASTRONOM’ because the indicator is placed behind the fodder and one would expect that it is the definition that will follow it directly. This isn’t the case here.
I had actually a similar feeling as James but I took it more or less for granted (as Serpent is 99% of the time such a precise setter).
Personally, I found ‘Football manager’ for FA a bit weak but others will say that the FA is ‘an organisation that manages football’.
When gsolphotog says ‘Simply Brilliant’ his view is probably biased by the splendid nina.
In my opinion, this crossword was not better, let alone less good [I won’t use the word ‘worse’], than Serpent’s usual output.
Always brilliant, then?
Many thanks to twenceslas for his enthusiastic blog.
Sil@13 I wasn’t explaining it to James just stating my own understanding to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.
We were slowing down a bit but (this being Serpent) thinking there might be a nina we saw …ESTABLISHM.. together with a few other perimeter letters so we took a punt on ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM – and it paid off as we then finished at a gallop.
So many good ‘uns we can’t nominate a CoD.
Thanks, Serpent and twencelas.
Many thanks to twencelas for the great blog and to everyone who has been kind enough to comment.
Got there in the end but for a while I thought I wasn’t going to finish. Didn’t spot the Nina.
Another who found this wonderful entertainment and was also helped by the Nina, spotted fairly late.
First came across antidisestablishmentarianism in 1957 edition of Guinness Book of Records.
Thanks Serpent and to twencelas for the blog
Twencelas, please explain to me your comments ‘where no entries are included in the perimeter’ and ‘to use a clue answer within a hidden message’.
Wilfried – what I’m trying to say is the hidden ‘word’ is formed by alternate perimeter squares giving a maximum letter count of 28. If for instance in the perimeter there were also clue answer words, then more cells would be available e.g. super c a l i f rag i list i c e x p i a l i doc i o u s. I realise in this example the symmetry of the grid would be broken, but hope it illustrates what I’m getting at.
No, I did not see the brilliant Nina; I was too hung up on what what seemed to me a most unusual grid, with the 3×3 back space in the center. I worked on this for quite a while and eventually revealed 8a.
Sepent/Basilisk has become one of my favourite setters. I saved this crossword for Sunday since I had the NY Times and Brendan’s prize to fill my Saturday. I saw the nina because I now know to look for it. There were many good clues — SAFARI, NEEDLE, MANTIS, and STRATA among them. I could not parse MUSELI or DROOLS. Thanks to both.