This is my inaugural post for Fifteensquared. Proofreading this post, I realize that I have not settled upon a consistent annotation style. I hope that these nevertheless make sense, and I welcome any comments.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | ANTIPASTO |
Worker with experience put in satellite dish (9)
|
| ANT (worker) + PAST (experience) inside (put in) IO (satellite, i.e., moon of Jupiter) | ||
| 10 | TRURO |
Cornish city organised tour crossing river (5)
|
| anagram of (organised) TOUR around (crossing) R (river) | ||
| 11 | PICK-AXE |
Single out with guitar that may cause rocky bust-up? (4-3)
|
| PICK (single out) + AXE (guitar), i.e., tool used to break rocks | ||
| 12 | POLEMIC |
Verbal attack from European with microphone (7)
|
| POLE (European) + MIC (microphone) | ||
| 13 | EEL |
Where fin initially removed touch fish (3)
|
| “F” (first letter of fin, “initially”) removed from “FEEL” (touch) | ||
| 14 | INTERMINGLE |
Mix during time at school next to fire (11)
|
| IN (during) + TERM (time at school) + INGLE (fire) | ||
| 17 | CORGI |
Amazing soldier in Pembroke for example (5)
|
| COR (amazing, i.e., the exclamation) + GI (soldier, i.e., American), Pembroke Welsh Corgi being an example of the breed | ||
| 18 | RYE |
Grass over lovely Cambridge Backs (3)
|
| Hidden in the “backs” of oveR lovelY CambridgE | ||
| 19 | PARSE |
Analyse almost astronomical distance (5)
|
| almost PARSE[c] (astronomical distance = approx. 3.26 light-years) | ||
| 21 | ROMAN CANDLE |
Firework and source of light in Catholic church (5,6)
|
ROMAN (Catholic) + AND + L (first letter or “source” of light) inside (in) CE (church). Acknowledgment to Contractacus @22 in the Comments. |
||
| 23 | IRE |
Sack not opening causes wrath (3)
|
| [f]IRE (sack, sans the opening “f”) | ||
| 25 | MARTINI |
Swallow one gin cocktail (7)
|
| MARTIN (swallow, i.e., the bird) + I (one) | ||
| 27 | TRAWLER |
Recreated Walter Raleigh’s first vessel (7)
|
| anagram of WALTER + R (Raleigh’s first letter) | ||
| 28 | NYALA |
Antelope encountered in many a land (5)
|
| Hidden in maNY A LAnd | ||
| 29 | MARDI GRAS |
Festival to enjoy with artist in sweet bar? (5,4)
|
| DIG (enjoy) + RA (artist, or Royal Academician) inside (in) MARS (sweet bar) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MAGPIE |
Old woman with good pastry for hoarder (6)
|
| MA (old woman) + G (good) + PIE (pastry), these birds evidently being known for this behavior | ||
| 2 | STICKLER |
Blade for stabbing left cuts in fusspot (8)
|
| L (left) inside (cuts) STICKER (blade for stabbing) | ||
| 3 | APPARITION |
Spirit level in a mine brought to one working (10)
|
| PAR (level) in [sic] A PIT (a mine) + I (one) + ON (working) | ||
| 4 | ISLE |
Man say to mislead making frantic exit? (4)
|
| [m]ISLE[ad] with the word “mad” (frantic) making an exit, with Isle of Man being an example | ||
| 5 | COPPERHEAD |
Police chief is poisonous reptile (10)
|
| COPPER (police) + HEAD (chief), a snake common in my neck of the woods | ||
| 6 | ET AL |
Thanks accepted by the Spanish and others (2,2)
|
| TA (thanks) inside (accepted by) EL (the, in Spanish), Latin | ||
| 7 | NUTMEG |
Aromatic kernel in stone cask overturned (6)
|
| GEM (stone) + TUN (cask) reversed (overturned) | ||
| 8 | CONCRETE |
Genuine clubs on Greek island (8)
|
| C (clubs) + ON [sic] + CRETE (Greek island) | ||
| 15 | TERRA FIRMA |
Dread more established for commentators in ground? (5,5)
|
| Homophone for (for commentators) “terror” (dread) + “firmer” (more established) | ||
| 16 | IMPRESARIO |
As showman one eccentric is Mr Opera (10)
|
| Anagram of I (one) + IS MR OPERA. The “as” is necessary as the clue-definition connector, an interesting device for moving the definition somewhere else besides the usual first or last spot. | ||
| 17 | CEREMONY |
Show one mercy somehow (8)
|
| Anagram of (somehow) ONE MERCY | ||
| 20 | RAILLERY |
Less well entertained by some light banter (8)
|
| ILLER (less well) inside (entertained by) RAY (some light) | ||
| 22 | MERMAN |
Marines coming in stand for legendary sight at sea (6)
|
| RM ([Royal] Marines) inside (coming in) MEAN (stand for, i.e., represent) | ||
| 24 | EGRESS |
Right to depart, for example, on steamship (6)
|
| EG (for example, Latin) + RE (on, Latin) + SS (steamship, abbreviation). The definition is legalese. | ||
| 26 | IMAM |
Learned theologian and single mother? (4)
|
| I (single) + MAM (mother) | ||
| 27 | TYRE |
Revolutionary band in Lebanese port (4)
|
| Cryptic clue. In a very attenuated sense, a “tyre” is a revolving or “revolutionary” “band” of rubber. |
Welcome to the team Cineraria.
Welcome Cineraria and thanks for the well-considered blog. My parsing chimed with yours though I’m grateful for the assistance with the ‘sweet bar’ (29) the only one I had half-parsed.
I enjoyed this puzzle very much and thought it more accessible than usual from Neo.
I had fun piecing together 3, 9 and 14 and had ticks for 5, 7, 15 and 20.
Yes, magpies are supposedly attracted to shiny things like milk bottle tops but current research suggests otherwise. Still, I like the idea.
Thanks to Neo for a fine puzzle and to our blogger.
Thanks. I meant to say in the preamble that I had never done a FT puzzle before last week, so I am still unaccustomed to the idiosyncrasies of their setters. So far, I have not encountered anything too exotic.
I didn’t find this too difficult but there were some harder clues and among others I liked assembling ANTIPASTO, INTERMINGLE, MARDI GRAS and NUTMEG from the wordplay. I usually start at the bottom of the grid, but not today, which probably saved me from putting in a knee-jerk “eland” for the ‘Antelope’ at 28a. I didn’t know the ‘banter’ sense of RAILLERY (“It’s in …”) which I’d thought was less pleasant than just social chit-chat.
I agree that TYRE for ‘Revolutionary band’ was a bit of a stretch.
Thanks and welcome to Cineraria – your annotation style looks fine to me – and to Neo
Wordplodder,
I thought of ‘raillery’ and ‘banter’ as interchangeable and both gentler than outright mockery. Sledging’, on the other hand, needs a rhino hide!
Diane @2. Didn’t know about current magpie research. The word does refer to a person who hoards so maybe that will eventually change but I doubt it.
[Hello Diane @5. Yes, sledging goes well beyond ‘banter’ and has not been Australia’s greatest gift to the sporting world. For someone like my father, who played a lot of cricket, it would have been unthinkable.]
[And to mine, Wordplodder. The practice is concussion-free, at least!]
A nice little divertissement, nothing too taxing.
I first heard of axe for guitar in another crossword a few months ago, which surprised me; in several decades of music teaching I’d never heard the expression.
Magpies are very intelligent and have wonderful communication abilities through their beautiful birdcall, but I didn’t think they were hoarders. Bower birds are, especially of blue things. I have one in my back yard.
I always thought of EGRESS as a synonym for EXIT, so couldn’t account for “right to” in the clue. But I’m happy to accept that it’s legalese. I must say, I had no problem with the revolutionary band, and thought it was quite clever. I’m happy with Ma or Mum or even Mom for mother, but Mam?
Still building up my knowledge of things British: knew nothing of Pembroke Welsh corgis, and I’d never heard of Truro. Couldn’t parse 22d till I came here, though I vaguely remembered Royal Marines.
MAGPIE isn’t defined in the sense of ‘bird’ here, for me. You can check it out in the dictionaries.
Yes, and probably its use in relation to people came about due to a widespread misunderstanding of the habits of the bird. So I guess we’re stuck with it …
Geoff,
Mum, mam and mom depend very much on various regional accents. Growing up in the British Midlands, I heard all three! Mam is widely used in the North too.
Ah. My UK education continues apace.
Diane @12, I was born and brought up in England, moving from Newcastle upon Tyne (where I was born) to Henley-on Thames, back to Newcastle then to High Wycombe, back to Newcastle then to Sunbury-on-Thames and then finally to Australia. Like you, I switched between “mum” and “mam” but I only know “mom” from American TV shows.
Of course I know all about “magpies”: “Howay the lads” – shame about the new owners… Glad to say that I have lost my North-Eastern accent.
I managed to get one solution incorrect: 22D. My best guess was “Morgan”. It’s a brand of rum called Captain Morgan and the subject of a song by Garth Brooks that I like to sing (Two Pina Coladas). I often dream of “mermaids” but not their agnate kin.
Thanks and welcome to Cineraria. A great start to your new career with a pretty hard puzzle.
Geoff DU – I’m not sure how old you are or how long your UK childhood lasted but my first usage of “mam” was in the North-East. I was born in Gateshead (sorry but that contradicts what I said at 11.42) – (but more people have heard of Newcastle than Gateshead) and “mam” was what we said in Geordie-land. It was only on my first (forced) transplantation to the home counties that I came across “mum”.
I didn’t have a UK childhood, Peter. Born and bred Aussie.
Welcome Cineraria
Welcome Cineraria. Good puzzle to start on I’d guess, as Neo and his alter egos, as far as I know, don’t mess around with the old constructions. Good blog.
Thanks Cineraria, great first blog, I would not worry about style, your explanations are very clear, as was the word play in the puzzle.
MERMAN seems to turn up a lot in crosswords, mermaid rarely. In the wild it is the other way round.
Thanks Cineraria, like the style especially the clear setting out of the ‘stretchier’ aspects eg TYRE, and the initial “As” of 16d. To counterbalance the merman/maid relative populations highlighted by Roz@19, I cannot recall anyone in the real world referring to their dear old ma as their “old woman”, of course the male version is quite common. Good fun, thanks Neo.
Gazzh @20, I think “ma” in that sense does appear in such familiar personalities as Ma Kettle or Ma Barker, but I also cannot imagine using it that way in real life.
Thanks for the blog. Great to have you on board. For 21 isn’t it: and l (source of or first letter of light) in Roman (ie catholic) CE (church)?
Contractacus @22, yes, upon reflection, I believe that was the intended parsing. I was wondering why that clue seemed so much iffier than the others. Just my being iffy, as it transpired.
Correctacus! ROMAN+C(AND/ L-)E with the Catholics and Protestants having a little tete-a-tete.
Not quite sure now why I didn’t plonk the ANDL straight into ROMANCE, but there must have been a reason. And why wasn’t that bit hANDLe? Who knows. Who cares.
Excellent first blog I thought, Cineraria, and thanks to all for comments (most of which were rightly about how good the blog is) 😀
Must admit I missed the intricacies in the clue for ROMAN CANDLE. It worked well at the simpler level, but the extra complexity is a bonus!