A preamble this week that promised that the clues were light on gimmicks:
In twelve clues a thematic word must be removed before solving. The single letters to the left of the thematic words when read up in clue order, give a hint about finding the end of a description given by the single letters to their right, when read down in clue order. Solvers must draw eleven straight lines in the grid to represent the theme. One answer is a common abbreviation.
As this was solved while still feeling a little under the weather following a recent bout of illness, for the most part straight cryptic clues were exactly what I was hoping for.
The grid fill was a reasonably straightforward one, though with lots of interesting forays into the depths of the dictionary. Nappy for shaggy at 1ac would very much set the tone, with Q as a Stateside abbreviation for an experimental drug and onion for head elsewhere typifying answers that were more forthcoming than their parsing.
At the close I had the requisite 12 thematic words, though what linked them for the moment eluded me. Taking the single letters to their left, starting from the last clue up, led to:
TOPLESS TITLE
The single letters to the right to:
SETTE COLLI DI
The missing bit at the end being ROMA, from (A)roma, as per the hint, or the Seven Hills of Rome:
- Aventine Hill
- Caelian Hill
- Capitoline Hill
- Esquiline Hill
- Palatine Hill
- Quirinal Hill
- Viminal Hill
A check through the thematic words removed from the clues confirmed that each are terms for hills, some rather better known that others.
All that was left was to utilise eleven straight lines in the grid to represent the theme. Each hill could be found, sometimes overlapping, on diagonals throughout. Tracing them leads to seven peaks, thus representing each of the seven hills of Rome. Their positions in the grid don’t seem to match any online maps I’ve found, but doing so would have perhaps been a bit too much to ask of the setter.
An enjoyable solve overall then, that fell together very satisfyingly, so thanks to Vismut.
| Clue | Thematic Word | Answer | Wordplay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Took fringes off shaggy, hairy pirate in bar (12) | APPROPRIATED | nAPPy (shaggy) + an anagram of pirate contained by ROD (bar) | |
| 11 | Reduced price covers Pacific city trees (5) | COLAS | CO(LA)St | |
| 12 | Hormone’s deficient in singular carbohydrate (6) | INULIN | INsULIN minus the S for singular | |
| 13 | Sadly Peru’s second couple fell suffering flu in cathedral city (8) | fell | RUEFULLY | RU (last two letters from Peru) + an anagram of flu contained by ELY, our favourite crossword cathedral city |
| 15 | Country supplying unlimited viral drug to America (4) | IRAQ | vIRAl + Q – an American abbreviation for Trichosanthin, an experimental drug used to treat AIDS | |
| 16 | Ouija’s worked previously without old Ed’s spirits being up (9) | JOUISANCE | Anagram of Ouija‘s + oNCE without the O | |
| 17 | He put notes on a bar and would get drunk with a peer (5) | LISZT | Most famous these days perhaps for being half of Cockney rhyming slang Brahms and Liszt | |
| 19 | Fill barrow engineer left out, skipping nothing (6) | barrow | ENGLUT | ENG L oUT |
| 21 | In SE is a live Kraken? (8, 2 words) | SEA BEAST | S EAST contain A BE (live) | |
| 22 | Siestas over the French city (6) | NAPLES | LE contained in NAPS | |
| 25 | Little rag hurled insults setter ignored (6) | STUNSL | An anagram of insults without the I (the setter) – a stuns’l is a small sail (rag) | |
| 27 | Caught pike topped catch in onion net per records (4) | pike | CAUL | C hAUL (catch) – an old term for a head (onion) covering |
| 29 | Third of geishas stripped Saint John in Bathgate (4) | IAIN | The I from geishas + sAINt – Iain is the Gaelic form of John | |
| 33 | County alderman hit a tree (6) | CARAPA | CA (County alderman) RAP A – a spelling that isn’t in Chambers, but confirmed via Google. I suspect it may therefore be found in the ODE, which I don’t have access to. | |
| 34 | This fellow is terribly mean about working (6) | EAMONN | ON contained by an anagram of mean. We’ve all know an Eamonn. | |
| 37 | Leading characters in Narnia pretty entertaining I tell tot (3) | tell | NIP | I contained by the leading characters from Narnia and pretty |
| 38 | Irish trail naked individual in the forest (4) | TREE | sTREEl (Irish trail) without the S and L | |
| 39 | Both cycling through poetic valley, enduring (9) | LONGAEVAL | ALONG and VALE both cycling to give a term meaning great length of life | |
| 40 | Call to Prayer taking covers from jazz band (4) | AZAN | The Muslim call to prayer derived from jAZz and bANd | |
| 41 | Parliament man earl removed from joint section group (7) | man | KNESSET | The one-chamber parliament of Israel derived from KNEe without one e (earl) + SET |
| 42 | Support sentiment about curbing Italian enthusiasm (5) | ESTRO | Reverse hidden in SuppORT SEntiment | |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Before heartless law criminal suspect shows fibre (7) | law | ACRILAN | An anagram of criminal without the M |
| 2 | Europe briefly struggling to comprehend independence: can Aberdonian? (6) | POURIE | I for Independence contained in an anagram of Europe without the E to give a Scots oilcan | |
| 3 | Pal sees kip out is missing one special delight (6) | kip | PLEASE | An anagram of Pal and sees missing one S (special) |
| 4 | 5 miles up (3) | RAF | Miles – far, reversed to give the common abbreviation referenced in the preamble | |
| 5 | US cowcatchers needing plans to capture chief of Indians (6) | PILOTS | The I from Indians contained in PLOTS to give a US term for cowcatchers | |
| 6 | Rumble about electronic book missing in out-of-date kindle again (6) | RELUME | E (electronic) contained in Rumble without the B (book) to give an archaic term for rekindle | |
| 7 | Like knot lassoing ends of nineteen ancient supports for Glaswegian relict (4) | knot | ANNS | Two N‘s from nineteen contained within AS – a stipend payable after a parish minister’s death to his widow (relict) in old Scots law |
| 8 | Act that puts in pipe instrument from below, say (6) | TUBAGE | TUBA + a reversal of EG | |
| 9 | Argue about fish special (7) | DISCUSS | DISCUS (an aquarium fish) + S (special) | |
| 10 | Trouble a Gallic town in the north (8) | UNSETTLE | A French UN plus SETTLE, a northern town | |
| 14 | Heard local toot Lancia driver initially dropping spies away from sea (6) | toot | INLAND | IN (heard INN) + LANCIA without the CIA + the D from driver |
| 18 | Being not dissimilar to skunk, men cut heroin in former admin area (6) | ZILLAH | ZorILLA (a skunk like creature) minus OR (men) + H (heroin) to give an administrative district in British India | |
| 19 | Local rivers in Neasden (3) | EAS | Hidden in NEASden to give a regular crossword staple | |
| 20 | Mound-birds newly built pile on Australian sand originally (7) | LEIPOAS | An anagram of pile + O A S from the following three words, to give the plural of a bird that most definitely isn’t a regular crossword staple | |
| 23 | Nearly call base after turning up cone in compound (6) | cone | PURINE | UP reversed + RINg + E (base) |
| 24 | Right to retain old spleen laid down in bible (4) | LIEN | A triple definition | |
| 26 | In the time of endless arable rollers (6) | TEMPLE | TEMP (tempore – in the time of) + LEa (arable) – a pair of rollers fitted to the sides of a loom | |
| 28 | Prophet starts to ascend Andes running over centre of Argentina (5) | AARON | A A R O (initial letters) plus the N from Argentina to give a biblical prophet and priest | |
| 30 | One’s Ceto how Diana recollected (5) | how | NAIAD | An anagram of Diana to give NAIAD, of which Ceto is one |
| 31 | Greek characters regularly riposte “because” (5) | IOTAS | Regular letters from rIpOsTe + AS (because) | |
| 32 | Come close to old-fashioned, advanced new Listener (5) | ANEAR | A (advanced) N EAR (listener) | |
| 33 | Chat about replacing back of boat to get planks watertight (4) | CALK | tALK with the first letter replaced with a C (about) | |
| 35 | Fast dun ignoring top of tickly zip in cloth (4) | dun | LENO | LENt + O (zip, nothing) – a thin muslin-like fabric |
| 36 | Envelope cut away, and no space for letter (3) | VEE | Envelope without the lop (cut away) and en (a printer’s measurement, space) |
Overall very enjoyable especially the impressive endgame and grid layout.
I did find the clueing a little over-complex (Liszt, onion, Q) and was left with a number of un-parsed answers but I guess the Inquisitor is meant to stretch the boundaries so fair enough. And thanks to Jon_S for clearing them up.
The title was also very clever (AROMA – a Roma – in Rome), simple and obvious with hindsight but without giving anything away in advance.
The only slightly unsatisying piece for me was “Topless title”; while correct it wasn’t strictly necessary as “Sette Colli Di” could have been easily completed without that hint. But I’m not sure what else could have been done.
Solving the clues was the first enjoyable phase of this puzzle. I liked the sheer variety of them – some quirky, others tricky and one very economical.
The theme was a bit of a mystery at first. I was slow to get Roma from Aroma, and slow again to separate the Italian words in the descriptive message. (My Latin is pretty good, but not so my Italian.) It was very satisfying finally to discover the connection with the twelve removed words and to look up the names of the Seven Hills, none of which I could remember. The way that these names were depicted in the grid was very neat indeed (even if opportunistic rather than geographic!).
Thanks to Vismut for the puzzle and Jon_S for the blog.
I think that a thematic point is that the single letters to the left of the to-be-removed words (fell, barrow, etc) go up, and those to the right go down, emulating the shape of a hill. A nice touch from Vismut – thank you. And thanks to Jon_S for the blog, which confirmed my parsing of the clues.
Like Arnold @1, I found some of the clues on the arduous side, and had more unparsed solutions than I like. I This perhaps explains my DNF: I knew I must have one of the thematic words wrong, but somehow couldn’t summon the will to go through them all again. But thanks to Vismut and Jon_S.
We weren’t sure where this puzzle was going and found parts quite tricky. We had to google one of the messages. Even then, we weren’t sure what was going to be revealed.
In the end, as the seven hills were formed we were suitably amazed at the construction of the grid. Utterly brilliant endgame.
Thanks Vismut and Jon_S.
I too had a great time with this one — another addition to the chorus of thanks to Vismut and Jon_S. The thematic hill words and the lurking “roma” in the title suggested the Seven Hills even before the hidden messages became readable, and the first sight of one in the grid was a happy moment. A very nifty endgame indeed.
Also, for the first time ever, I was able to use the mnemonic from one of John Julius Norwich’s Christmas Cracker commonplace books: Can Queen Victoria Eat Cold Apple Pie?
Brilliant. Thanks to Vismut for keeping me entertained on a long flight. A POTY contender for me. Stunning endgame
Another DNF for me this week I’m afraid, it took me ages to get going for some reason. As others above have already mentioned, many of the clues felt over elaborate to me, so I didn’t really enjoy this puzzle. In the end I didn’t quite finish (four clues remained unanswered for me) and the endgame was also beyond me on this occasion.