A very enjoyable puzzle. Thank you Gozo.
Gozo’s puzzles always have some sort of theme or special feature. Today it is numbers.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 5, 8 | THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING |
Cook does stunning salad dish with right sauce (8,6,8)
|
| anagram (cook) of DOES STUNNING SALAD DISH with R (right) | ||
| 9 | RHETORIC |
Butler of rich cut all eloquence (8)
|
| RHETt (Rhett Butler, from Gone With the Wind) Of RICh all cut short | ||
| 10 | SIMONE |
Phone card’s number for Nina (6)
|
| SIM (a card that goes in a phone) ONE (a number) – singer Nina Simone | ||
| 12, 11 | EIGHTSOME REEL |
Dance crew walk unsteadily after a few (9,4)
|
| EIGHT (crew, of a rowing boat) then REEL (walk unsteadily) after SOME (a few) | ||
| 13 | FIVES |
French composer’s game for quins (5)
|
| F (French) and IVES (Charles Ives, composer) – two definitions | ||
| 14, 22 | NINE TO FIVE |
Countdown – a hit for Dolly Parton (4,2,4)
|
| NINE TO FIVE is 9,8,7,,,5 (a countdown) | ||
| 16 | LONG RUN |
Finally in this marathon? (4,3)
|
| “in the LONG RUN” (in this) means finally | ||
| 19 | INEXACT |
10 multiplied by one hundred – a change that’s not accurate (7)
|
| anagram (change) of TEN (10) X (multiplied by) I (one) C (hundred) A – technically this is an indirect anagram, a technique that is frowned on by some, but personally I like them | ||
| 21 | FORE |
Warning call the quartet heard (4)
|
| sounds like (heard) “four” (quartet) – a warning call in golf, for example | ||
| 24 | SOGGY |
Small cat, not male, is sopping wet (5)
|
| S (small) and mOGGY (cat) missing M (male) | ||
| 25 | NIGHTWORK |
Dark doings? (9)
|
| cryptic definition | ||
| 27 | EXTRAS |
Runs from former wife’s threats – oddly (6)
|
| EX (former wife) and ThReAtS – runs in cricket not credited to a batsman, no-balls etc | ||
| 28, 14 | NINE NINE NINE |
A trio of German refusals, reportedly, as an emergency call (4,4,4)
|
| sounds like (reportedly) “nein, nein, nein” (no in German, three times) – the telephone number to dial for the emergency services in the UK | ||
| 29 | NANTES |
Family member with set-back at French city (6)
|
| NAN (family member) with SET reversed (back) | ||
| 30 | CHASTENS |
Tells off little Charles, 20 (8)
|
| CHAS (Charles, little indicates diminutive) and TENS (20 down) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | THREE-D |
Like a hologram out there on the top of door (5-1)
|
| anagram (out) of THERE on Door (first letter, top of) | ||
| 2 | ON EDGE |
Number with dagger – not even nervous (2,4)
|
| ONE (a number) with DaGgEr (not even, missing even-numbered letters) | ||
| 3 | STOUT |
Tubby’s beer (5)
|
| double definition | ||
| 4 | NOISOME |
Number One – a little offensive (7)
|
| NO (number) I (one) SOME (a little) | ||
| 6 | STIFFENER |
Strong alcoholic drink with starch (9)
|
| double definition | ||
| 7 | ALOE VERA |
Abandon or leave a plant (4,4)
|
| anagram (abandon) of OR LEAVE a | ||
| 8 |
See 1 across
|
|
| 11 |
See 12 across
|
|
| 15 | IN ANY CASE |
No matter how you pack – whatever! (2,3,4)
|
| double/cryptic definition | ||
| 17 | EINSTEIN |
Philosopher from the nervous nineties (8)
|
| anagram (nervous) NINETIES – the famous physicist was also a philosopher, and had a “doctorate in philosophy” | ||
| 18 | DEIGHTON |
Thriller writer’s cube number seen in quiet river (8)
|
| EIGHT (cube number, 2x2x2) inside DON (quiet river, from Russian novel Quiet Flows the Don) – British thriller writer Len Deighton | ||
| 20 | TENS |
. . . . is two of them! (4)
|
| 20 (the clue number) is two TENS (them, the number mentioned in the solution) – the definition is the clue number | ||
| 21 | FOGYISH |
Fuddy-duddy Foreign Office guy, disheartened, is Henry (7)
|
| FO (Foreign Office) GuY (no middle letters, dis-heartened) then IS H (henry, unit of electrical inductance) | ||
| 22 |
See 14
|
|
| 23 | SKIERS |
Steepling catches for piste performers (6)
|
| double/cryptic definition – a catch from a ball hit high in the air (cricket) and skiers on the snow slopes | ||
| 26 | TEENS |
Drug accepted by 20 youths (5)
|
| E (ecstasy, drug) inside (accepted by) TENS (20 down) |
One can certainly count (groan) on Gozo to supply the fun and games.
That ‘sauce’ alone at 1, 5, 8 was worth the effort but the sly Nina @10) and ‘fuddy duddy’ @ 21 are further examples of this setter’s considerable guile…and that’s before we even get to the theme.
I’ll leave it to the mathematicians and Countdown fans to tot up all those figures (which if added, multiplied etc maybe produce 1a?).
Or could it be that a book written by Countdown’s Rachel Riley, “At Sixes and Sevens”, is relevant?
I can find all numbers 1-10, bar 7, in the grid – even 6 if also applying Wordsearch rules. Or is it that this long-running (16a!) TV show has aired more than seven x 1a episodes? There’s certainly more to this than meets the eye.
Thanks to Gozo for this words-and-numbers
treat. Cheers also to PeeDee to whom the pleasant task of blogging this falls today.
Thanks to PeeDee, I now fully understand the ‘Don’ part of 18d – an even better clue than I thought.
Also for confirming my guess that IVES is a composer …though there’s a stray ‘K’ in the blog!
I parsed 2d’s ‘not even’ to mean ‘odd’, as in odd letters: DaGgEr.
Thanks Diane, the stray K has been removed
Very enjoyable with a theme that encouraged the solver to look for as many thematic answers as possible. As Diane@1 says, there may also be something more going on, which I certainly can’t identify.
Not related to the theme, but I loved the RHET(T) ‘Butler’ reference for 9a (almost an &lit) and especially the ‘quiet river’ for DON at 18d – great read as I remember.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee
Funny to do this after a Qaos puzzle as he is often doing numbers and such like-good fun, this
Another most enjoyable and quickly solved puzzle, although the excellent blog was required to complete the parsing. I counted twelve numbers in the grid( including FORE) and a hidden NINE below INEXACT. Thank you Gozo and PeeDee.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Found this one of the easiest puzzles set by Gozo that I have done – well from a time perspective anyway, helped along by the number theme that helped with some of the later clues. Started off with 21a FORE and curiously finished with 21d FOGYISH.
Was a little concerned at first with the number of clues taking up multiple clue numbers, but which was dispelled quite early on when THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING fell quite early.
Really enjoyed some of the subtleties in definitions, such as ‘quiet river’ (DON), the clue number trick of 20d and the ‘steepling catches’ / ‘piste performers’ at 23d. Also thought the trick with RHETORIC and the indirect anagram for INEXACT were very good.
17D Einstein.
Physics was known as Natural Philosophy for many years, even centuries. The majority of Doctorates are abbreviated to PhD – Doctor of Philosophy. Einstein’s Doctorate was not in Philosophy, and was entitled “A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions”.
Thanks for the blog , very enjoyable and all comments above have spoken for me.
Minor quibble with EINSTEIN , not really a philosopher in any true sense of the word, I also have a doctorate in philosophy but it is purely for scientific research.
Sorry Andy , we crossed and I totally agree.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee. Much fun – and the best I’ve ever done with this setter. I did not get EIGHTSOME REEL though I did have the 8 and needed help parsing SKIERS but I did know Don.
Sorry, PeeDee @ 3,
I hastily misread your parsing of 2d. My bad.
A nice little number (sorry!) and most enjoyable.
Thanks, Gozo and PeeDee.
Despite failing with EIGHTSOME REEL and SKIERS I had a great time with this Gozo gem. RHETORIC, SIMONE, and IN ANY CASE were favourites. I liked how the NINE in 14a was part of two clues. Thanks PeeDee for parsing.