We were pleased to see that we were blogging a Serpent puzzle today.
Some tricky clues along the way – a couple of definitions needed checking (fruit = product). It wasn’t until the end that we noticed CHAMPIONSHIPS across the middle but we cannot see any further references. Can anyone else see something that we have missed?
senaTORS (politicians) with half missing or ‘cut’. We guessed this straightaway but couldn’t parse it as we were both fixated on TORieS (politicians) without ‘ie’ which didn’t work with the parsing.
An anagram (‘shot’) of NOTED MOVIE
A double definition but we had to check that fruit = product. The ‘could be square’ uses a mathematical definition of product.
Hidden (‘evident’) in non-verBAL ANCEstors
U (university) inside or ‘donned by’ E (first letter or ‘beginning’ to expect) VACATION (time off)
Double definition
M (married) inside or being ‘eaten’ by CHAP (man). Took us a while to parse this one.
A sort of clue as definition with I (current) ON (working)
S (succeeded) HIP (in) S (seconds)
Triple definition
BLUE (miserable) MURDER (the collective noun for crows). Joyce has told the story before but solvers may have missed it. Her brother and cousin were 3 years older and she was always bossed around by them especially when it came to improvising a story/play. She was left in a room and told that she had to cry ‘blue murder’ as a cue for the two older ones to enter. She did just that and wondered why they entered in fits of laughter. She had never heard the expression before and took it literally!
An anagram (‘possibly’) of SEX around PRES (president)
F (first letter or ‘start’ to fatten) LOWERS (cattle). Stocks have a beautiful scent.
ILL (poorly) ITERATE (re-present)
LESsonS (schooling) without or ‘excluding’ son (child)
Double definition
TIRO (novice) with middle letters or ‘heart’ reversed or ‘broken’
POST (situation) I T first letters or ‘leads’ to increased tension
BUTS (objections) reversed or ‘raised’ + BORN (brought forth)
I (one) DEIFIED (treated like a god) around or ‘bored by’ NT (New Testament – ‘religious work’)
Sounds like FOUR CS – there are 4 Cs in CuCkoo CloCk
Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘returning’) in dELIVeries
R (Republican) P (power) in or ‘dividing’ US and US (America repeatedly)
A cryptic definition
PromiseS (first and last letters only or ‘disheartened’) and DO (party) underneath or ‘supporting’ EU (European Union)
COP (PC) YET (still) around DI (Detective Inspector – ‘superior officer’)
An anagram (‘broadcast’) of OUR SILLY
E (English) FETE (party) around or ‘receiving’ F (fine)
IS (continues) with REST (support) around the outside or ‘external’
Sounds like (‘report’) of AYES (people voting for) LEFT (socialist)
AS usual I loved this and took a while working some of them out. I liked 4 C’s but didnt see the connection with CHAMP ION SHIPS although ION was my FOI
I’ll look in later to see what other devious plots I missed
Thanks Serpent and B&J
Another treat from Serpent – my particular favourite was the 4 Cs
Thanks to him and B&J
For me, this was the hardest Serpent yet. In the end, I had to cheat on both PRODUCT and then STAPLE in order to finish. Didn’t particularly like the clue for TORS but that may be just me. Favourites were FORESEES & IDENTIFIED. I spotted the CHAMP ION SHIPS but didn’t see anything more.
Ditto what Hovis said. I had terrible trouble with the top left and bottom right. TORS and TRIO seemed obvious but I couldn’t see how either of them worked so no help with STAPLE or PRODUCT. I got TRIO eventually but TORS completely escaped me. It’s a bit unsatisfactory when the half of the word you’re given is so generic. I’m hoping there’s a reason for the two corners’ isolation, but I couldn’t see anything beyond championships either. I liked FORESEES, FLOWERS, POST-IT, CHAMP
Thanks Serpent, Bertandjoyce
We found top left very hard too, and particularly dislike 10a where both definitions seem questionable. We liked foresees!
Many thanks to bertandjoyce for the excellent blog and to everyone who has commented thus far. There is more to see by the way…
Thanks Serpent for dropping by – we thought there was more but couldn’t see anything.
Can you give us a nudge please in the right direction?
Nudge: *-ion-*
Ah! Very good. I can see four other words or phrases now. Are there more?
Thanks Serpent and B&J
I can see them too but not quite sure why – they don’t seem connected (torsion balance and expressionless?) or even in any particular pattern. I feel I’m still missing something.
Thanks Serpent and BnJ
I also wondered about fruit = product, but the phrase “fruit of my labour” came to mind, which eased it.
Eric W @ 10: There’s also PASS-ION & PRODUCT-ION, either of which could probably be followed by -LESS.
The intended pairs (reading down left and right) that are connected by ION are TORSION BALANCE, PRODUCTION LINE, CHAMPIONSHIPS, PASSION FLOWERS and EXPRESSIONLESS.
@Ericw: there isn’t any connection between the words and phrases beyond their connection with ION. I just like having some grid-based feature (such as a straightforward nina) to kick-start a grid-fill. Also, I think solvers like discovering features such as ninas and pangrams (and possibly using them to complete puzzles). On this occasion, I thought it would be interesting to see if I could construct a grid using a central element.
Thanks Serpent.
We missed the pattern formed by linking the words. All we came up with were single words that you added ION to, which didn’t see enough of a theme.
Congratulations – we are both solvers who enjoy looking for something extra and we always do in your puzzles.
Another (what else do we expect?) classy crossword from Serpent.
Like most others, no problem to see what’s going on in the middle row but, also, no idea what it meant.
I guess that’s always a bit disappointing for the setter.
Very clever.
Very hard, too.
I tend to agree with the first line from Hovis @3.
Just one more thing: how is ‘continues’ in 23dn ‘IS’?
Perhaps, someone can give an example?
Many thanks to Bertandjoyce for the blog, and Serpent for a real brainteaser.
One of those Saturday puzzles I found much too difficult. Got nearly half of it, no hope of getting anymore in a finite period of time.
Sil @ 14
“Life is / continues as usual”?
Thanks, Simon.
Got it now .
[and confirmed by Chambers “to be”, def. 6]
I couldn’t parse TORS and TRIO and was very doubtful about entering them, although they seemed to be the obvious answers. I failed to solve PRODUCT, unfortunately. In fact, even after reading the blog I couldn’t understand that definition until I read the post by Simon S — thank you! Thanks to Serpent — although I found this hard it was, as always, very clever. The cuckoo clock clue was fantastic.