Serpent slides into today’s Saturday slot with some sort of slippery puzzle.
Certainly slippery for me. Several clues had me foxed for a long time. And there are still a few for which I need help cracking the wordplay to my satisfaction, and I could see no theme to help this time. (How many times have I said that and been disproved?)
Mostly, the definitions aided by crossing letters, were enough to get the answers in, so I think I have the complete grid here.
The 5-across / 5-down pair gave us an entry level start and I nibbled away around the grid, mainly the shorter answers, till I had about half in after trying all the clues.
In a parallel manner 23-across / 23-down got me off the mark in the second half till I finished, as often happens, back in the top left corner – with numerous question marks on my clue sheet.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FACADE | Front of building roughly covered with flag (6) CA (roughly, circa ) in FADE (flag) I suppose alternatively it could be AC in FADE if AC meant roughly somehow, the electricity is sometimes a bit rough around here, and the charges are always rough. It was probably that doubt stopped me filling it in till it was the penultimate answer unsolved, wondering if there was an iris-type flower that might fit just as well |
| 5 | IMPOSTOR | Independent politician roots out fraud (8) (I[ndependent] MP (politician) ROOTS)* AInd: out. Nice clear anagram gets me my first one in. |
| 9 | REBUTTAL | Actual victim blocks statement contesting allegations (8) BUTT (victim? Butt of the joke maybe) inside (blocks, i.e. surrounded by) REAL (actual) My last one in. BIFD’d in. I could not see the wordplay till writing this – still doubtful |
| 10 | SHAMAN | Unqualified medic is poor performer in hospital (6) HAM (poor performer) in SAN (hospital, sanatorium) |
| 11 | TABERNACLE | Salt symbolically received by Bill before church (10) NaCl (Salt symbolically, Sodium Chloride) inside TAB, ERE (Bill, before) Good grief that wordplay took some untangling. After getting the answer from all the crossers and the def. I was stuck think salt referenced either AB or RN via sailor, before spotting the chemical formula and literally !picking up the Tab”! |
| 12 | TWIN | Couple close to significant victory (4) [significan]T WIN (victory) |
| 13 | HERE | Present judge to the audience (4) Homophone “hear” |
| 15 | INTESTINAL | “Gutsy” woman appearing in silent broadcast (10) TINA (woman) inside (SILENT)* AInd: broadcast. |
| 17 | NATIONWIDE | Gift leaving party with extra around the country (10) Yet more tricky wordplay: WIDE (extra) gives us the last bit, but how does a word meaning ‘gift’ get removed from (leaving) a word meaning ‘party’ make NATION ? |
| 20 | GASP | Doctor limits when to breathe abruptly (4) AS (when) inside GP (doctor) |
| 22 | SUMO | Wrestling with something that adds nothing (4) SUM (something that adds) O (nothing) |
| 23 | FUNEREALLY | Recreational drug connected with friend in a miserable way (10) FUN (recreational) E (drug) RE (connected with) ALLY (friend) |
| 25 | INCITE | Prompt action ultimately inspired by one quote (6) [actio]N inside I, CITE (one, quote) |
| 26 | RAILLERY | Satire spoke perhaps about sick hospital drama (8) RAY (spoke, perhaps) around (about) ILL (sick) ER (hospital drama) |
| 27 | SECLUDED | Secret society mostly involved in depraved deeds (8) CLU[b] (society, mostly) in (DEEDS)* AInd: depraved. |
| 28 | TITTER | Social media platform deleting women’s response to joke? (6) TWITTER – W[omen] |
| Down | ||
| 2 | AVERAGE | State for example upset about article in Standard? (7) AVER (statae) EG< (for example, around) about A |
| 3 | AMUSE | Divert sources of aid, money and employment (5) A[id] M[oney] USE (employment) |
| 4 | EXTENSION | Strained relations with former partner over telephone (9) TENSION (strained) EX (former partner) swapped (over) |
| 5 | ILLICIT | Wrong sequence of characters in Cyrillic I transcribed (7) Hidden in cyrILLIC I Translated |
| 6 | PASTE | Soundly beat American in cycling stage (5) A[merican] inside STEP (stage, cycling the letters to make PSTE) |
| 7 | STARTLING | Astounding cast supplied with sharp content (9) TART (sharp) in SLING (cast) |
| 8 | OCARINA | New harmonica dispensing with rudiments of historic musical instrument (7) (HARMONICA – H[istoric] – M[usical])* AInd: new. |
| 14 | EDITORIAL | Upward trend supplied by speech about current leader (9) TIDE< (trend, upward) then ORAL (speech) about I (current) |
| 16 | SPEARMINT | Piece of asparagus with perfect flavour (9) SPEAR (piece of asparagus) MINT (perfect) |
| 18 | ALUMNAE | Old girls in male sauna stripped off (7) (MALE [s]AUN[A])* AInd: off. |
| 19 | IGNORED | Snubbed Italian man after disowning son and daughter (7) SIGNORE () – S (disowning S[on]) + D[aughter] |
| 21 | SPLURGE | Huge spending increase receives record backing (7) LP< (record, backing) inside SURGE (increase) |
| 23 | FIEND | Addict‘s condition brought about death (5) IF< (condition, brought about) END (death) |
| 24 | ALLOT | Ration voting having ousted leader (5) [b]ALLOT |
Thanks Serpent and beermagnet
I/ think that symbols for chemical elements are included in all the across clueIn 17 it’s (do)NATION.
What I meant to write was:
I think that symbols for chemical elements are included in all the across clues.
In 17 it’s (do)NATION.
The initial letters of the acrosses spell FIRST THINGS FIRST.
Beat me to it, Andrew. Also had (DO)NATION. Clever bugger, aren’t I 🙂
Well spotted Andrew and Hovis! Not seen that Nina device before. So that’s another one we’ve got to think about now. A quiz of two halves: top hard, bottom easy, at least for me they were. I agree with Beermagnet’s parsing of 7A. A good workout, so thanks Serpent and Beermagnet.
A fine slippery crossword – I did notice the clever Nina too
Thanks very much to Serpent and beermagnet
Serpent has used this first letter Nina before and it helped me open things up when I was stuck, particularly in the lower part of the grid. Some good parsing to eventually work out, with TABERNACLE, NATIONWIDE and FUNEREALLY my favourites.
Thanks to Serpent and to beermagnet
As we said of Dutch’s offering on Thursday, this was one of those croswords where the first two or three across answers go in straight away and you think ‘this is going to be a doddle’ but then …
Perseverance paid off, though, and we managed to finish despite the serpentine nature of some of the clues. And we managed to parse everything; we failed to spot the nina, though.
We liked TABERNACLE, NATIONWIDE, EDITORIAL and SPEARMINT among others.
Thanks, Serpent and beermagnet.
Thanks beermagnet and Serpent.
At the bottom I had ….N, G, S, F, I, ?, ?, T
and guessed FIRST THINGS FIRST…that gave all the other starters. Very please with myself 🙂
NATIONWIDE top fav.
pleased
Tatrasman@5
I have seen this device used before, perhaps by Serpent himself.
I had a very similar solving experience to allan-c@8. I agree with all the favourites above. Missed the Nina though.
Thanks Serpent, I always enjoy your crosswords. This one slipped in easily for me except for RAILLERY (used a word finder) and FACADE which I guessed but couldn’t parse. I found the nina which helped me solve NATIONWIDE. Favourites were TABERNACLE, EDITORIAL, ALUMNAE, and FIEND. Thanks beermagnet for the blog.
A day late to this. No unaided finish as revealed the F checker to get FUNEREALLY & FIEND. Couldn’t parse TABERNACLE but did twig the do removed from NATION.
Needless to say oblivious to first things first. Slippery indeed but very enjoyable.
Thanks both
Huntsman, you beat me over the line by 15 minutes!
Cracking puzzle, well worth persevering with over several sittings this weekend. Managed to parse everything satisfactorily after much head scratching but remained completely oblivious of the Nina until I came here. Lovely stuff, Serpent, thanks.
And thanks for the blog, Beermagnet. Sterling work.