An enjoyable and slightly unusual puzzle. Thank you Chalmie.
A devilish puzzle to blog.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | BAN KI-MOON |
Independent satellite tracking deposit for diplomat (3,2-4)
|
| I (independent) MOON (satellite) all follows (tracking) BANK (deposit) – former Secretary General of the UN | ||
| 10 | APRIL |
March now over with police reserve initially in trouble (5)
|
| first letters (initially) of Police Rreserve inside AIL (trouble) | ||
| 11 | MULLETS |
Grey or red hairstyles (7)
|
| a MULLET is also a type of fish, known by various names including Grey Mullet and Red Mullet | ||
| 12 | EATEN UP |
Consumed drug with peanut mince (5,2)
|
| E (ecstasy, drug) then anagram (mince) of PEANUT | ||
| 13 | SIX |
Happens to be back by early evening (3)
|
| IS (happens to be) reversed (back) then X (by, multiplication) – 6pm, early evening | ||
| 14 | TUB-THUMPERS |
Campaigners spouting purest rubbish about back-to-front digit (3-8)
|
| anagram (rubbish) of PUREST containing (about) THUMB (a digit) with back the letter moved to the front | ||
| 17 | RADIO |
Medium bill accepted by Ferdinand? (5)
|
| AD (advertisement, bill) inside (accepted by) RIO (Rio Ferdinand, footballer) | ||
| 18 | SIX |
A number of Greek characters sent back (3)
|
| XI’S are more than one XI (a Greek character) then reversed (sent back) | ||
| 19 | RACES |
Things to bet on – according to Winstone, did I hear? (5)
|
| RACES sounds like (did I hear) “Ray says” (according to Ray Winstone, actor) – one has to use an informal pronunciation here “Ray sez”, in the manner that one of Ray Winstone’s East End hardmen might have used | ||
| 21 | THERE YOU ARE |
Unlikely hero, yet oddly up a tree greeting solver’s arrival (5,3,3)
|
| anagram (unlikely) HERO YET then every other letter (oddly) of Up A tReE | ||
| 23 | SIX |
Back centre of revolution to expel a number (3)
|
| aXIS (centre of revolution) missing (to expel) A reversed (back) | ||
| 25 | CERAMIC |
Pottery figure’s from freelancer, am I correct? (7)
|
| found inside (from) freelanCER AM I Correct – definition might be just pottery, I am not sure | ||
| 27 | BUDDIER |
American friends mostly right to have more offshoots (7)
|
| most of BUDDIEs (friends, American) then R (right) | ||
| 28 | NICKS |
Arrests Stevie? (5)
|
| double definition – slang for arrest by the police and singer Stevie Nicks | ||
| 29 | A MATTER OF |
This taste is discriminatory, somehow, to fat mare (1,6,2)
|
| a double-wordplay clue: anagram (somehow) of TO FAT MARE and “a matter of taste” (this, the solution + TASTE) means discriminatory | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | N-BOMBS |
Take note, primarily, of Marx Brothers slinging racial insults in America (1-5)
|
| NB (take note) then first letters (primarily) of Of Mark Brothers Slinging | ||
| 2 | UNFLEXED |
Cable connects peacekeepers with journalist not having to use muscle (8)
|
| UN (peacekeepers) and ED (editor, a journalist) connected by FLEX (cable) | ||
| 3 | MINESTRONE |
Work in quarry, crossing river for soup (10)
|
| MINE STONE (work in quarry) contains (crossing) R (river) | ||
| 4 | BOWS |
Shows respect to missile-launchers (4)
|
| double definition – they launch an arrows | ||
| 5 | ENVER HOXHA |
Albanian leader cross – have heron shot! (5,5)
|
| anagram (shot) of X (cross) with HAVE HERON | ||
| 6 | RAFT |
Actor George starts rehearsing on one foot (4)
|
| first letter (starts) of Rehearsing then A (one) FT (foot) – former US actor George Raft | ||
| 7 | ORANGE |
Fruit of Salvadoran geneticists (6)
|
| found inside salvadOREAN GEnetics | ||
| 8 | FLY-POSTS |
Spy’s loft conversion puts up bills (3-5)
|
| anagram (conversion) of SPY’S LOFT – bills are advertisements | ||
| 15 | BOSTON CRAB |
Hold famous tea party with hermit? (6,4)
|
| the BOSTON tea party with a hermit CRAB – a hold in wrestling | ||
| 16 | MARKET DATA |
Unexpectedly dramatic take I see extracted from business intelligence (6,4)
|
| anagram (unexpectedly) of DRAMATic TAKE missing (extracted from) I C (see, the name of the letter C) | ||
| 17 | RETICENT |
Unforthcoming about crime losing its edge seen in colour (8)
|
| RE (about) then CrimE missing (losing its) RIM (edge) inside TINT (colour) | ||
| 20 | CASHIERS |
In Stuttgart, she loads hydrogen into vehicles for money-handlers (8)
|
| SIE (she in German, in Stuttgart) contains (loads) H (hydrogen) all inside (into) CARS (vehicles) | ||
| 22 | ENRICH |
Henri Cartier-Bresson starts cycling to expand wealth (6)
|
| HENRI and C first letter (…starts) of Cartier-bresson with the letters rotated one place (cycling) | ||
| 24 | X-CRAFT |
90 over 18 for one old British minisub (1- 5)
|
| XC (90, Roman numerals) on top of (over) RAFT (the answer to 6 down) – SIX (giving 6 down for the wordplay) comes form the answer to 18 across, one of the three sixes in the grid (coincidentally adding up to 18) | ||
| 26 | MUSE |
It inspires birds to keep head down (4)
|
| EMUS (birds) with the first letter (head) moved down the word | ||
| 27 | BRAE |
Scottish bank not very bold (4)
|
| BRAvE (bold) missing V (very) |
Quite a fair puzzle. 1D, 15D and 24D were unknown to me but the cross letters made solving possible. Cross letters and a sneaky Internet search helped me complete 5D, whose name I remembered after solving.
I’m not sure that 27A is a real word…
I liked this most for the devil in the detail, as it were, which helped snag/confirm a few, such as the eyebrow-raising 1d.
I didn’t know the actor so put in RAFT unparsed. I could parse BOSTON CRAB but needed an online check to see if it was a wrestling term; eye-watering images emerged.
And like Peter, I needed to check the Albanian leader – got the surname right anyway.
TUBTHUMPERS was my favourite.
Thanks to Chalmie for the unorthodox fun and to PeeDee for filling in a few parsing blanks.
Well done parsing this enjoyable puzzle. I am
still trying to work out the definition of 1d. For the first word I had A and H which did not make sense.
For the other SIX is it not just XIS sent back? I am being slow but can’t follow how XIS are more than XI fits in?
Thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee
SM – yes, SIX is just XIS (the plural of XI, the Greek letter) reversed. My explanation was supposed to clarify XIS is the plural of XI but I seemed have confused more than helped.
SM – I see now I have a typo in the blog, I understand your confusion. It should have read “more then one XI”. Fixed now.
Thank you PeeDee.
I should have added that the Nina was fun too.
I had exactly the same highlighting of the grid as shown in the blog, having no idea what it all meant until I looked it up afterwards. I couldn’t parse RACES or A MATTER OF and there were a few unfamiliar terms in N-BOMBS (helped by the Nina), X-CRAFT and FLY-POSTS.
Hard work but some new words learnt and I now know there’s a certain three digit number to avoid whenever possible!
Thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee
An interesting puzzle which I chipped away at throughout the day. A fair bit of general knowledge required and needed help with the Albanian PM, the footballer, the Cockney actor, the German ‘she’, the American actor / dancer and the mini-subs. Throw in Stevie NICKS, BAN KI MOON and the wrestling hold which I did know – all added up to having to know a bit above just the cryptic skills. Failed to see through the staged parsing to account for RAFT at 24d – nice clue when explained. Didn’t spot the nina across the top and bottom, although did note the 666 play.
Interesting clue at 1d, flirting with the PC lot – and having an alternative neutron bomb to play with – not sure which one is the more dangerous these days !! :).
Finished in the NW corner with the first SIX (took ages to see how it worked), UNFLEXED and MULLETS (knew of the red one but not the grey one).
This reminded me of Mike Leigh’s “Naked”
“Are you takin the piss?”
“You’re bloody givin it away”
But then it could have been Dan Brown visiting the ATM
Thanks PD and all. Since this was my 666th composition in this form, and I noticed NUMBER OF THE BEAST broke neatly into 8, 8, and the FT has this lovely grid with three 3-letter entries across and 8 spikes at top and bottom, it was nice and easy to stick those in first and see what happened.
The nasty surprise was finding no documentary support for any way of avoiding N-BOMBS being defined fairly offensively, but I think I got away with it.
X-CRAFT and N-BOMBS are pretty terrible as words, but they are at least clued so the solver can say “I’ve never head of it but that’s what the clue says it is and it at least looks vaguely plausible” and write it in. Otherwise, the old Albanian typing error was a nasty piece of work when he was alive, and he’s no easier to deal with as the subject of a crossword clue, but I reckoned he was “famous” enough to not count as an obscurity.
From my point of view, I thought it was rather fun to clue the same word three times in one puzzle (and thanks to my test solver for pointing out that two of the original clues were basically the same).
Thoroughly enjoyed this – very good fun, though I had never heard of Stevie Nicks but the answer was obvious. Started only getting 5 or 6 of the across clues, but then the downs flowed very quickly. TUBTHUMPING a favourite.
As usual, didn’t notice the NINA until I’d finished! Many thanks to Chalmie for a great (and I now realise) extremely ingenious) puzzle.
This took awhile and it contained much that was unknown to me. I’m glad I only failed with just two clues, TUB-THUMPING and BOSTON CRAB; I guessed at BAN KI-MOON and ENVER HOXHA and then confirmed. I never heard of an X-CRAFT and I never heard the term N-BOMBS used in America. I did catch the theme after reluctantly solving my 2nd SIX and saw the nina after that. Congratulations, Chalmie, on your beastly milestone. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Chalmie @10: The American Heritage Dictionary defines N-BOMB as an abbreviation for neutron bomb. That’s ghastly in its own right but at least it saves one the worry about racial issues.
Thanks Chalmie and PD. Very clever puzzle! Only thing I didn’t know was the wrestling hold. Unusual with three identical answers and then the theme became apparent.
SM@3 N-BOMBS is like “F-bomb”, an “explosively” offensive word.
Thanks Jeff@14. I had by now guessed as much but grateful for the confirmation.
Devilishly wicked grid! Thoroughly enjoyable.
Thanks Chalmie & PeeDee
I enjoyed this puzzle. Agree with the amount of general knowledge required being unusual. I wish more cryptics had this kind of meta outcome… It’s so fun to reveal the hidden curse!
First crossword I’ve come across the same solution for multiple clues. Threw me for a while.
Live and learn as always with the cryptic world.
A fairly quick solve for us although we were puzzaled at first by the two SIX’s at 13 and 23 having first put ‘sum’ (reversal of ‘mus’) for 18; but then we worked out the nina which put us right for 18 and helped us get 5dn.
We loved the misdirection in 20 where ‘losing its edge’ suggested removing the outer letters of ‘crime’ until we saw that the inside letters were a synonym for ‘edge’. Very neat!
Thanks, Chalmie and PeeDee.