Crosophile has provided this Wednesday’s cruciverbal challenge.
I made relatively swift progress through this medium-difficulty puzzle. I did, however, come to a standstill with two clues left unsolved: 19, which was staring me in the face all along; and 20, which I needed to search Chambers for, having not spotted the rather devious definition. I wonder how many other solvers were outfoxed by that clue?
My favourite clues today are 23, for overall construction, although my ignorance required me to look up Yggdrasil to understand the reference; 10 and 26, both for smoothness of surface; and 12, for concision. I think that I have parsed 29 correctly, but I would appreciate confirmation from other solvers.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 09 | STEWARD | Estate manager stealing diamonds from The Confessor
ST E<d>WARD (=The Confessor, i.e. English king 1042-66, canonised in 1161) |
| 10 | PLASTIC | It’s able to change form – clasp it tight
*(CLASP IT); “tight (=drunk)” is anagram indicator |
| 11 | EXTROVERT | He looks out at former remote-controlled vehicle enters bike races
EX- (=former) + [ROVER (=remote-controlled vehicle) in TT (bike races)] |
| 12 | SOUND | Measure depth of // safe // inlet of the sea
Triple definition |
| 13 | TEACHABLE | Every one sat in a desk? That’s how pupils need to be
EACH (=every one) in TABLE (=desk) |
| 14 | MERC | Freelance soldier infiltrating summer camp
Hidden (“infiltrating”) in “sumMER Camp” |
| 17 | SILENCE IS GOLDEN | Mum’s best lesson, diligence is wasted
*(LESSON DILIGENCE); “is wasted” is anagram indicator |
| 22 | ROWS | Where across clues are // creating arguments
Double definition; the across clues are in the rows of the grid! |
| 24 | SLUMMIEST | Most like squalor, slum and slime when working
*(SLUM + SLIME); “when working” is anagram indicator |
| 27 | CHOIR | Prof’s post has nothing for a group of singers
CHAIR (=prof’s post, at university): “has nothing (=O) for a” means letter “o” replaces “a” |
| 28 | METATARSI | Came across a sailor initially stranded on island – Bones
MET (=came across) + A + TAR (=sailor) + S<tranded> (“initially” means first letter only) + I (=island) |
| 29 | ETERNAL | Endless energy seen by seabird on the wing without end
TERN (=seabird) in <z>EAL (=energy; “endless” here means first letter dropped) |
| 30 | WOOLLEN | Cardigan possibly to court little Eleanor on return
WOO (=to court) + LLEN (NELL=little Eleanor, i.e. abbreviation; “on return” indicates reversal) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | ASBESTOS | A call for help when holding first-rate insulating material
BEST (=first-rate) in [A + SOS (=call for help)] |
| 02 | MEATBALL | Cooked lamb left around to munch – in this form, perhaps?
EAT (=to munch) in [*(LAMB + L (=left)]; “cooked” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | CACOPHONY | California firm’s fake American hullaballoo
CA (=California) + CO (=firm, i.e. company) + PHONY (=fake American, i.e. US spelling) |
| 04 | ADVERB | Part of speech promoted with second half pulled by bishop
ADVER<tised> (=promoted; “with second half pulled” means letters 6-10 are dropped) + B (=bishop, in chess) |
| 05 | SPOTLESS | Perfectly clean cooking utensil the French kept on board
[POT (=cooking utensil) + LES (=the French, i.e. a French word for the)] in SS (=on board, i.e. in SS=steamship) |
| 06 | BALSA | A flat stone turned up in a wood
A + SLAB (=flat stone); “turned up” indicates vertical reversal |
| 07 | ATTUNE | Get used – it’s a tense time with one Parisienne
A + T (=tense, in grammar) + T (=time) + UNE (=one Parisienne, i.e. a French word for one) |
| 08 | ACIDIC | Ill-natured old leader of Uganda featured in account
IDI (=old leader of Uganda, i.e. Idi Amin) in ACC (=account) |
| 15 | RUE | Leader abandons genuine regret
<t>RUE (=genuine); “leader abandons” means first letter is dropped |
| 16 | COMMOTION | Caught by public area of land I’ll go in to stir
[I in TO] in COMMON (=public area of land) |
| 18 | IBO | A Nigerian island’s bad smell
I (=island) + BO (=bad smell, i.e. body odour); the Ibo are a people leaving in SE Nigeria |
| 19 | ENSEMBLE | Women’s emblem includes this band
Hidden (“includes this”) in “womEN’S EMBLEm” |
| 20 | DREARILY | With boring MO and doctor I dropped in ahead of time
DR (=doctor) + [I in EARLY (=ahead of time)]; the “MO” of the definition stands for modus operandi! |
| 21 | NUTRIENT | E.g. almond, almost entire, prepared as sustenance
NUT (=e.g. almond) + ENTIR<e> (“almost” means last letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “prepared”) |
| 22 | RACKET | It’s a scam nicking book from top of shelf
<b>RACKET (=shelf); “nicking book (=B) from top of” means initial letter “b” is dropped |
| 23 | WOODEN | Chief god clasps ring fashioned from Yggdrasil perhaps
O (=ring, pictorially) in WODEN (=chief god, in Anglo-Saxon mythology); Yggdrasil is an immense tree in Norse mythology, hence “wooden”! |
| 25 | UPTOWN | Higher urban area, now put in disarray
*(NOW PUT); “in disarray” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | IRONY | Some memoir on Yeltsin as a form of satire
Hidden (“some”) in “memoIR ON Yeltsin” |
Thanks both. In ETERNAL I believe AL is derived from ALA meaning wing-like
Re 29 ala is a wing or winglike anatomic process or part, especially of bone so: E(nergy) plus TERN & most of AL(a)
TFO beats me to it ….
Thanks Crosophile and RR. And thanks for clarifying 29, TFO & flashling – I’m sure I’ve seen ALA before but failed to drag it from the recesses of the memory. Otherwise found this all pretty straightforward. Faves were STEWARD and CHOIR.
I had trouble parsing ADVERB and STEWARD amongst others so I also found this quite difficult. No idea about ‘Yggdrasil’ – I’d love to hear how it’s pronounced.
An acoustic theme here. ‘Mum’ is always right of course.
Thanks to Crosophile and RR
Very satisfying to complete this although the bird wing element defeated parsing. And lovely to see the mention for Yggdrasil which is one of those ancient mythic concepts that is so delightful and mysterious. Though not quite elephants on the back of a turtle …
Favourites included: PLASTIC for the surface, SILENCE IS GOLDEN for the anagram, CHOIR for the almost unnoticed substitution, CACOPHONY for the assembly, ENSEMBLE as a lovely hidden within a great surface and WOODEN, again for the surface but also because you’ve gotta love any clue that can introduce the aforementioned tongue twister as if it’s the most natural thing in the world!
Thanks Crosophile and RR.
Wordplodder @5, I think the Y in Yggdrasil should be pronounced like the German ü (‘oo’ with pursed lips), though I stand to be corrected by any speaker of a Nordic language who drops by. Very enjoyable, so thanks Crosophile and RatkojaRiku.
I dallied with trying to work MODERN into an answer for DREARILY. I thought BALSA was clever (my LOI), but STEWARD was my favourite.
One of those Goldilocks puzzles, not too easy, not too hard.
Chambers does give a pronunciation of YGGDRASIL: ig’dre-sil, only the e is a schwa. Apparently Yggr was a surname Odin. I never knew that. I’ll have to mention that if I ever meet him.
Thanks Crosophile for some top-notch clues, PLASTIC, CHOIR, and WOODEN among them. I hadn’t heard of MERC as short for mercenary and I missed the hidden element of the clue. I thought the clue for ATTUNE should have read “get used to a tense time …” and not “get used – it’s a tense time …” It seems “get used to” is a better definition of ATTUNE than “get used” and “it’s” seems out of place. Thanks RR for the blog.
Belatedly, thanks so much for the great blog and all the comments. Much appreciated.