A themed puzzle from Gozo today. An enjoyable puzzle, but not an easy one to fully complete.
The theme is the weather. As per the instructions, some of the themed answers have definitions and some do not. I am still trying to figure out if this makes the puzzle easier or harder. On the one hand I have some extra information to help find the answer, on the other it makes it harder to locate the wordplay in a themed clue.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ISOBAR |
Lives with love by pub (6)
|
| IS with O (love, zero score) and BAR (pub) | ||
| 5 | SUNBURST |
Brunt’s involved with us radiating beams (8)
|
| anagram (involved) of BRUNT’S with US | ||
| 9 | LIBECCIO |
Public office strangely without puff of wind (8)
|
| anagram (strangely) of puBLIC OffICE missing PUFF – the south-west wind | ||
| 10 | ICICLE |
Spike’s frozen (6)
|
| cryptic definition | ||
| 11 | AURORA |
Lights or lion, say? (6)
|
| sounds like (say) “or roarer” (or and a lion, something that roars) | ||
| 12 | COLD SNAP |
Sleep after illnesses (4,4)
|
| NAP (sleep) follows) COLDS (ilnesses) | ||
| 14 | HIGH PRESSURE |
Drunk journalists by river (4,8)
|
| HIGH (drunk) PRESS (journalists) and URE (the river Ure) | ||
| 18 | GENTLE BREEZE |
It doesn’t come as much of a blow (6,6)
|
| cryptic definition | ||
| 22 | DEW POINT |
Mixed with drugs, it becomes dusting powder (3,5)
|
| an anagram (when mixed becomes) of DRUGS with DEW POINT (it, the solution) is DUSTING POWDER | ||
| 25 | TRADES |
Swaps careers (6)
|
| double definition – the Trade Winds | ||
| 26 | SEREIN |
Fine rain, but it’s dry at home (6)
|
| SERE (dry) and IN (at home) | ||
| 27 | RAINDROP |
Soldier parachuting? (8)
|
| RA (Royal Artilleryman, soldier) then IN DROP (parachuting, in the act of) | ||
| 28 | HEATWAVE |
Bad weather endlessly around avenue. No! (8)
|
| anagram (bad) of WEATHEr (endlessly) contains AV (avenue) – no, not bad weather! | ||
| 29 | SEA FOG |
It comes in banks in the main (3-3)
|
| cryptic definition – “fog banks” and “the main” is the sea | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | SLIP-UP |
School children overturned – a minor mistake (4-2)
|
| PUPILS (school children) reversed (overturned) | ||
| 3 | BRETON HAT |
Bather not worried having French headwear (6,3)
|
| anagram (worried) of BATHER NOT | ||
| 4 | RECTANGLE |
Figure from ruined ship, we’re told, with seaweed (9)
|
| REC sounds like (we are told) “wreck” (ruined ship) with TANGLE (seaweed) | ||
| 5 | SNOWCAP |
Maybe PC was on the peak? (7)
|
| anagram (maybe) of PC WAS ON | ||
| 6 | NEILL |
Actor Sam is somewhat ebullient, on reflection (5)
|
| found inside (somewhat) ebuLLIENt reversed (on reflection) | ||
| 7 | UNITS |
Kitchen furniture from Tunis (5)
|
| anagram (loosely indicated by from, from the letters of…) TUNIS | ||
| 8 | SALTAIRE |
Cross about a model village (8)
|
| SALTIRE (the St Andrew’s cross) contains (about) A – a industrial village created in West Yorkshire by industrialist Sir Titus Salt to rehouse his workers from the city slums | ||
| 13 | DIS |
Underworld’s record cut (3)
|
| DISc (recoed) cut short | ||
| 15 | ELECTRICS |
Wirings set circle in motion (9)
|
| anagram (in motion) of SET CIRCLE | ||
| 16 | SHERARDIA |
Raider has uprooted field madder (9)
|
| anagram (uprooted) of RAIDER HAS | ||
| 17 | GENEVESE |
Swiss birds holding up archdeacon (8)
|
| GEESE (birds) holding VEN (venerable, an archdeacon) reversed (up) | ||
| 19 | LEO |
Stars of Cleopatra (3)
|
| found inside (of) cLEOpatra | ||
| 20 | RETIREE |
Pensioner, perhaps, on Hebridean island (7)
|
| RE (on, regarding) then TIREE (Hebridean island) | ||
| 21 | DE NOVO |
Dictionary is brought up around short month from the very start (2,4)
|
| OED (Oxford English Dictionary) reversed (is brought up) containing NOV (November, in short) | ||
| 23 | PLEAT |
Request time for gathering (5)
|
| PLEA (request) and T (time) | ||
| 24 | IONIA |
Part of Asia Minor seen during vacation I arranged (5)
|
| found inside (seen during) vacatION I Arranged |
I did not find this too hard but needed help with some words that were unknown to me: SALTAIRE, LIBECCIO, and SEREIN. A fun solve . Thanks to setter and blogger for the explanations.
I enjoyed this, particularly as weather is an interest. I was sure the short month in 21d would have to be February, which misled me for a while. A few clues — 8d, 20d & 27a — required a bit of UK-specific knowledge that held me up a bit too.
Very appropriate theme for a day when we had a HEATWAVE, then RAINDROP(s) followed by thunder and lightning, all in the space of a few hours.
Not easy for me and I found the uncertainty about whether a def was there or not made things harder. Some unfamiliar words as mentioned by SM @1 and I ended up failing on the unknown SEREIN and SHERARDIA, the latter by mis-reading the anagram fodder.
Thanks to Gozo and PeeDee (and to Ben Fogle for his recent televised trip to the 20d ‘Hebridean island’)
Dnk LIBECCIO, SHERARDIA or SEREIN so a DNF for me today, but fun anyway.
I parsed 5d as SNOW (PC Snow from Softly, Softly TV show) on CAP (the peak) and read it as one of the undefined clues. Your parsing is better, Peedee, but it worked for me at the time.
Thanks Gozo and Peedee.
Thanks both.
Seeing the word SEREIN reminded me of the definition in an old Chambers – rain falling from a cloudless sky after sunset.
Rain from a cloudless sky must be unusual, but the additional restrictions of being after sunset seems a bit over the top
Bracoman @5 – that definition has always stuck in my mind too. “Rain falling from a cloudless sky after sunset” reads beautifully. It is almost a haiku. I know English has a reputation for accumulating spurious extra words, but what language would not want to co-opt such a lovely word?
Le Petit Robert is not as poetic”humidite ou fraicheur qui tombe apres une belle journee ”. ( I can’t see how to include the accents). The French is more prosaic and the definition slightly different. Still glad to have learnt a lovely new word although not sure how to pronounce it.
SM If typing on a touchscreen, try pressing and holding on the letter you wish to have an accent on and then sliding to the accented form on a submenu which will hopefully appear.
Guessing the theme with 1a, ISOBAR, made this crossword easier in one regard but unknowns like SALTAIRE and SHERARDIA led to a DNF. (I got other unknowns like LIBECCIO and SEREIN because the wordplay was very clear to me.) I thought GENTLE BREEZE and SEA FOG were barely cryptic; I did enjoy clues like COLD SNAP, SLIP-UP, and DE NOVO. Thanks to both.
Thanks so much Hovis. Very helpful .
SM
Thoroughly enjoyable. After reading the special instructions I decided to start with the down clues and immediately recognised ISOBAR, then AURORA which meant I was back to my usual pattern rather fast. Guessed 16d and was pleased when Google confirmed it. But I did wonder if SUNBURST was a weather or jewellery word. I have since been educated.
Thanks to Gozo and Peedee.
Dnf as SEREIN, SHERARDIA, and SALTAIRE were new to me. Which of the five down solutions are thematic? I see. SNOWCAP, but none of the other words seem weather related as far as I can tell. Thanks Gozo and PeeDee.
Verbose, I think 5 down is to be taken literally, not expanded into “5 of the down clues”, so it is just SNOWCAP that is thematic.
I can guarantee that for me, a heatwave is indeed bad weather.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
With ISOBAR in as the second clue, the theme revealed itself very early, making things a little easier later on. Same new words as everyone else, along with BRETON HAT and DE NOVO with all of them gettable from the word play.
Liked the concisely clued COLD SNAPS as my favourite amongst a pretty good lot. Also enjoy the compound anagram clues such as the one for DEW POINT.
Finished in the SW corner with HEAT WAVE (which took a while to work out the how), GENEVESE, which then enabled me to change my LITTLE BREEZE into GENTLE BREEZE.