A super puzzle from Gozo. I enjoyed this. Thank you Gozo.
The grid contains 8 fifteen-letter answers and 2 fourteen-letter answers. This has led to an interesting set of words in the grid. Not all of them are in Chambers but I rather enjoyed tracking them down.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WISEST |
Most prudent comedian on the street (6)
|
| WISE (the late Ernie Wise, comedian) with ST (street) | ||
| 4 | SPARAPET |
Medieval Armenian commander-in- chief on small wall on a bridge (8)
|
| S (small) then PARAPET (wall on a bridge) – an hereditary tittle for an Armenian military commander, dating as far back as 2BC which still gets occasional use. | ||
| 10 | ITALIAN CONCERTO |
A clarion in octet composed as suite by Bach (7,8)
|
| anagram (composed) of A CLARION IN OCTET | ||
| 11 | PLOUGH THE FIELDS |
Delightful hopes scatter with this autumnal work (6,3,6)
|
| anagram (scatter) of DELIGHTFUL HOPES – the definition autumnal work may be read literally (a farming activity that happens in autumn) or as a shortened form of the harvest festival hymn (autumnal work) “We plough the fields and scatter” | ||
| 12 | HERNIA |
Hearing not good – awful medical complaint (6)
|
| anagram (awful) of HEARINg missing G | ||
| 13 | UNITE IN |
Join single person and a German (5,2)
|
| UNIT (single person) and EIN (a, in German) | ||
| 15 | TOT |
For starters, Trescothick offers Turner a drop of whisky (3)
|
| first letters (for starters) of Trescothick Offers Turner | ||
| 16 | AVEC TOI |
Wildly active with love and with you in Nice (4,3)
|
| anagram (wildly) of ACTIVE with O – the answer is a French expression, as said in Nice | ||
| 17 | ENG-LIT |
Some sudden glitch in short university course of study (6)
|
| found inside (some of) suddEN GLITch – an abbreviation of English Literature | ||
| 19 | AMUSEMENT ARCADE |
Craft cameramen used at machine- shop? (9,6)
|
| anagram (craft) of CAMERAMEN USED AT | ||
| 20 | CHINESE LAYERING |
Horticultural process affected Nigerian lychees (7,8)
|
| anagram (affected) of NIGERIAN LYCHEES – also known as air layering | ||
| 21 | DENUDATE |
Lay bare at retreat you reportedly see (8)
|
| DEN (retreat) U sounds like (reportedly) “you” then DATE (see, in a romantic context) | ||
| 22 | USENET |
American teen hacked online forum (6)
|
| US (American) then anagram (hacked) of TEEN | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WHIPPY |
Mister ice-cream man, wife and unconventional community resident (6)
|
| W (wife) and HIPPY (unconventional community resident) – Mr Whippy, a UK based version of the US ice-cream company Mr Softee | ||
| 2 | STAY OF EXECUTION |
No axe-cut yet, if so ordered (4,2,9)
|
| anagram (ordered) of NO AXE-CUT YET IF SO – what a great clue! | ||
| 3 | SWINGING THE LEAD |
Second footballer gets ahead, going round top goalie who’s shirking (8,3,4)
|
| S (second) WING (footballer) then (gets) IN THE LEAD (ahead) containing (going round) Goalie (first letter, top) – from a nautical term for a sailor who is supposed to be taking depth readings but is just dangling the weight and doing nothing | ||
| 5 | PROSECUTE AT LAW |
Sue and Petra having clause two revised (9,2,3)
|
| anagram (revised) of PETRA with CLAUSE TWO | ||
| 6 | RECEIVING ORDERS |
Accepting regimes that make firms go bust (9,6)
|
| RECEIVING (accepting) ORDERS (regimes) | ||
| 7 | PARALLELISATION |
The art of making tracks? (15)
|
| cryptic definition – you could also have PARALLELIZATION | ||
| 8 | THOUSAND |
M or K? Grand! (8)
|
| triple definition | ||
| 9 | INITIATIVE TEST |
It will examine resourcefulness and start about four on oath (10,4)
|
| INITIATE (start) contains (about) IV (four) then TEST (oath, testament) | ||
| 14 | BALANCED |
Stable providing food for a healthy diet (8)
|
| providing food for a balanced/healthy diet | ||
| 18 | WEIGHT |
Oppressiveness of the wig abandoned (6)
|
| anagram (abandoned) of THE WIG |
An agreeably intriguing grid from Gozo with much entertainment derived from those lengthy clues, especially unravelling the anagrams. My favourites were 1d and 20a with nods to 2d and 11a for fine surfaces.
I was wondering if the letters running down the centre spelled someone’s name of significance to the setter?
4a and 20a were both unknown but the former was fairly clued and the latter easily guessed with a few crossers.
Thanks Gozo for another treat and PeeDee for the blog.
Thanks for the blog, total agreement with you and Diane, the unusual words or phrases were clued very fairly. I made it eight x (15) and two x (14).
One minor query – is (We ) PLOUGH THE FIELDS ( and scatter ) an AUTUMNAL work ? I thought it was spring.
Roz,
The work of antipodean farmers, maybe?
I notice however, after a quick look online, that ploughing matches/competitions are held throughout the Autumn months. Perhaps this is what Gozo meant? Polytunnels have certainly transformed traditional seasons!
Yes of course Diane, changing weather and new varieties, a lot of fields must have a winter sowing as well now.
Hi Roz, living in the countryside I can confirm that there is plenty of ploughing that goes on in Autumn. If rains as well then it is hard to avoid all the the mud that ends up splattered over your car, bicycle, shoes and everything else in sight.
I was going to say ‘what a great clue’ for 2d but PeeDee has got there first. But really, what a great clue.
Otherwise, it’s the usual mix of remarkable grid with mostly anagrams and a few so-so clues. Fun overall and surprisingly no dictionary or looking-up needed.
Google gives Andreas Schonle as a linguist at the University of Bristol, which seems (in my ignorance) a likely sort of person that might be connected to GOZO. It would account for the unusual entries.
Thanks Gozo, PeeDee
Roz – are you confusing ploughing with dressing and planting? Ploughing is the activity that happens after the harvest. The soil is turned over so that the remains of the crop and any weeds are buried and the nutrients from the deeper soil are returned to the surface. In the UK this typically starts late August and runs through to December. Dressing the surface and sowing happens later and is a different activity to ploughing.
I was thinking of the actual hymn, which I think is meant by “autumnal work ” . Was it a Harvest hymn or to bless the fields in Spring ?
That was the first thing that came into my mind on solving this clue: We plough the fields and scatter, the good seed on the land, dumty dum… by God’s almighty hand…. I’ve no idea what time of year we had to sing this at school, but the memory jumped out very strongly.
I suspect it was a Harvest hymn , but the good seed would have been scattered in Spring when it was written.
Yes, James @6,
That’s what I thought, especially with the ENG-LIT answer, though Andreas Schönle’s particular field is Russian literature. Could be something…or nothing.
The grid looked intimidating with those long answers, but even the unknowns at 4a and 20a were possible with crossers + wordplay. 7a was another uncommon word, which somehow popped into my mind at the right moment – good clue too.
An enjoyable and challenging puzzle with STAY OF EXECUTION being my pick today.
Thanks to PeeDee and Gozo
PeeDee @9
Likewise – it’s why I liked the surface.
A couple of quibbles: Bach wrote lots of Suites, but the Italian Concerto is not one of them.
There’s also the incorrect enumeration for ENG LIT (which I would write as two words, not hyphenated – I see Collins agrees).
I have updated the blog to mention the harvest hymn “We plough the fields and scatter” which if not an exact match is definitely relevant.
This looked daunting to start with, but proved to be a satisfying and entertaining solve.
I have to agree with Andrew @14 – Bach’s Italian Concerto is definitely not a suite.
I thought this a lazily constructed puzzle, relying on really obscure words like sparapet and denudate, and simply wrong meanings like parallelisation which is unconnected to art as far as I know.
Looking forward to a resumption of normal service tomorrow!
Andrew @14 – yes, the enumeration for ENG LIT is certainly an oversight on Gozo’s part. I initially wrote this in the blog but then deleted it. I had enjoyed the puzzle so it seemed a bit churlish, a bit ha ha, Gozo’s made a mistake! So I hyphenated it to make it fit into a 6 letter enumeration, sort of.
Kevin @17, for 7dn I took the art of to mean the skill of. The (non-existent) connection to art (painting etc) is misdirection.
I had quibbles with a few things here but all was redeemed when I heard the Italian Concerto which requires the player to refrain from any pedals and make the Steinway sound like a period instrument as it was probably composed on a harpsichord. Choose your favourite ivories tickler
Bach rocks/
PS thanks to Roz @2 for spotting my counting error in the number of long words here. I only just noticed that part of the comment. Fixed now.
Thanks PeeDee and Gozo.
To me, the quibbles didn’t seem to matter.
I thought the many long anagrams were splendid to conceive with good surfaces and am always impressed by his setting, here, and as Maskarade.
It is not easy, what he is doing.
Great fun. But my heart sank a bit when I saw “Bach” and “this autumnal work” in the clues as my knowledge of music is deficient. But it was soldier on time and everything fell into place fine. I only worked 7d out when I had all the crossers as it seemed too awkward a word to exist, but it fitted.
Thanks for that fun Gozo and the untangling Peedee.
Thanks Gozo. I slowly solved most of this on a lazy autumnal sail this afternoon failing with PARAPET and DENUDATE. I agree with others — STAY OF EXECUTION was brilliant. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
I am not an expert, and I was surprised I solved it!
I thought GOZO is brilliant
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Did this close to publication date, but it lingered in the pile uncorrected until now – lost the timing rhythm when staying down in a coastal town, escaping the Melbourne city lockdowns at the time.
Took three sessions and just under the hour to complete with a lot of joy untangling the long anagrams. Not literary enough to know the song with ‘Ploughing the fields’ and had to look up the reference for Bach’s ITALIAN CONCERTO. CHINESE LAYERING was a new term but am old enough to remember USENET.
Finished with BALANCED, DENUDATE and INITIATIVE TEST (didn’t know ‘oath’=TEST, but did find the TEST OATH taken by aspiring public officials).