Our Wednesday entertainment has been provided by Twin today, a compiler whose work I have neither solved nor blogged until today.
There was a lot to get one’s teeth into today, as the puzzle uses a grid accommodating a large number of shorter entries. I made steady progress through the puzzle after a small number of write-ins, enjoying the solve as I went along, but I was ultimately foxed by 1 and 19, for which I needed to cheat: I didn’t really know 1, although I would have worked out 19 if I had already had the “k” as fourth letter.
There was much to admire in what appears to be a debut puzzle in the Indy for Twin: 7 and 10, for the clever divisions between wordplay and definition; 17D, for its surface and clever use of Dire Straits in the wordplay; and 21 and 22, both for smoothness of surface.
Incidentally, the right-hand side of the perimeter spells out GEOFF – our compiler’s forename, perhaps?
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 06 | ALI BABA | Graduates tracking the greatest caveman?
ALI (=the greatest, i.e. Muhammad Ali) + BA (=graduate, i.e. Bachelor of Arts) + BA (=graduate); the reference is to Ali Baba (and the Forty Thieves), who said Open Sesame to enter the cave |
| 07 | OPERA | E.g. Norma Jeane, ultimately a pro after surgery
*(<jean>E + A PRO); “ultimately” means last letter only is used in anagram, indicated by “after surgery”; the reference is to Bellini’s 1831 opera Norma |
| 09 | DEMO | Sit-in possibly cracked dome
*(DOME); “cracked” is anagram indicator |
| 10 | IAN FLEMING | I mingle restlessly with fan fiction writer
*(I MINGLE + FAN); “restlessly” is anagram indicator; the reference is to James Bond creator Ian Fleming (1908-64) |
| 11 | OTOSCOPE | What shows canal barges etc – oops! Duck gets caught
O (=duck, i.e. zero score in cricket) in *(ETC OOPS); “barges” is anagram indicator; an otoscope allows a doctor to view the ear canal |
| 13 | TAGINE | Label that’s carrying name for dish
TAG (=label) + [N (=name) in I.E. (=that’s, id est)] |
| 15 | EPEE | Disc engine’s case used for thruster?
EP (=disc, i.e. extended play record) + E<ngin>E (“case” means first and last letters only) are used; an epee is used for thrusting in fencing |
| 17 | AGREE | Eager to play match
*(EAGER); “to play” is anagram indicator; to match is to agree, tally |
| 18 | ALSO | Prodigal son’s covering this as well
Hidden (“covering this”) in “prodigAL SOn” |
| 19 | ROCKET | Surprise! Alien leaves
ROCK (=surprise, stagger) + E.T. (=alien, i.e. extraterrestrial); rocket is a kind of lettuce, salad leaves |
| 20 | RED DWARF | Sitcom // star
Double definition: Red Dwarf was a 1990s BBC sitcom AND a red dwarf is one of the smallest and coolest class of stars |
| 23 | RUBBISH BIN | Refuse to go into this new B&B, in hubris
*(B B + IN HUBRIS); “new” is anagram indicator |
| 26 | GAFF | Shortly slip home
GAFF<e> (=slip, error); “shortly” means last letter is dropped; colloquially, a person’s gaff is their home, pad |
| 27 | EULER | Swiss genius who uses Grease in audition
Homophone (“in audition”) of “oiler (=who uses grease)”; the reference is to Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707-83) |
| 28 | EMBRACE | Hold me back, British people
EM (ME; “back” indicates reversal) + B (=British) + RACE (=people) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | WIDOW’S PEAK | Opportunity to cut north, say, for point on top
WI<n>DOW (=opportunity; “to cut north (=N)” means letter “n” is dropped) + SPEAK (=say); according to Chambers, a widow’s peak is a point of hair over the forehead, like the cusped front of the widow’s cap formerly worn |
| 02 | CASINO | Area with vice among company?
[A + SIN (=vice)] in CO (=company); & lit. |
| 03 | NAAN | Older relative eats last of pitta bread
<pitt>A (“last of” means last letter is dropped) in NAN (=older relative) |
| 04 | ROULETTE | This might be deadly Russian or French character, finally getting comeuppance?
R (=Russian) + OU (=or French, i.e. the French word for or) + LETTE<r> (=character, in text; “finally getting comeuppance” means last letter is dropped) |
| 05 | TERM | End of // school period
Double definition: the term, e.g. of pregnancy, is its end AND e.g. summer term is a period of the school year |
| 06 | AGENT | Actor’s actor, someone chivalrous?
A gent is someone chivalrous; an agent is an “actor’s actor”, i.e. someone who acts on behalf of an actor |
| 08 | AWNINGS | A number wearing symbol of Aviator shades
A + [N (=number) in WINGS (=symbol of aviator, one whose training is complete)] |
| 12 | ERROR | Failure of Eastern educational standards to take over
E (=Eastern) + [O (=over, on cricket scorecard) in RRR (=educational standard, i.e. the three Rs)] |
| 14 | GLASWEGIAN | SEAL waging wars from northern city
*(SEAL WAGING); “wars” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | PRODUCE | Cane found in sort of purple fruit
ROD (=cane) in PUCE (=sort of purple) |
| 17 | ARTISTRY | Creativity shown by Dire Straits, short of opening tracks
*(<s>TRAITS) + RY (=tracks, i.e. railway); “short of opening” means that first letter is dropped from anagram, indicated by “dire” |
| 21 | DANUBE | Long-distance runner called an Uber for a stretch
Hidden (“for a stretch”) in “calleD AN UBEr”; as a long river, the Danube could be described as a “long-distance runner”! |
| 22 | RIFLE | Bug biting foot and arm
F (=foot, i.e. unit of measurement) in RILE (=bug, irritate); a rifle is a (fire)arm |
| 24 | BILE | Sacred text omitting black humour
BI<b>LE (=sacred text); “omitting black (=B, as in HB)” means letter “b” is dropped; yellow and black bile were two of the four bodily humours classified by Hippocrates |
| 25 | BEER | Recovered missing non-alcoholic drink
BE<tt>ER (=recovered, no longer sick); “missing non-alcoholic (=TT, i.e. teetotal)” means letters “tt” are dropped” |
In 4 I had Russian as part of the definition with the R in letter moving to the top as its ‘come uppance’.
Enjoyed this with the 1 / 19 crossers being my last ones in.
Thanks to Twin and RR
Very enjoyable indeed. North West was my only real pause for thought though needed all the checkers and Google to confirm for EULER.
ALI BABA, EMBRACE and AGENT all floated my boat but “top spot” must go to the brilliant WIDOWS PEAK.
Well done and thanks Twin, thanks also to RR
reddevil, re 4 I tend to agree as it fits the definition better. It’s very clever either way.
Another vote here for WIDOWS PEAK – very well contrived.
I didn’t know the sitcom so just as well the star was obvious and apparently I didn’t know how to pronounce Euler correctly until today!
Well done on your debut, Twin, and thanks to RR for the review.
Thanks for the blog, RR, and well done on the debut, Twin.
Found this mostly plain sailing but struggled with the last few – especially OTOSCOPE. Took me an age to make sense of the clue and then a further age to twig what kind of canal was being referred to. I’m familiar with WIDOW’S PEAK but that one also took a while to spot.
The lovely clue for AGENT is my favourite – very neat.
A debut puzzle which I found pretty difficult, especially up in the NW where I usually begin puzzles solved on line. I ended up just bunging in a few from wordplay, eg ROULETTE which was too tricky for me to parse. The ‘caveman?’ def for ALI BABA and ‘thruster?’ def for EPEE were my favourites.
I wondered if the other perimeter letters gave us more clues as to the setter’s identity; nothing that I could see.
Thanks and welcome to Twin and thanks to RR
A lot of very good clues, I thought. And just when,in another place, I (and at least one other) were thinking it would be nice to have a genius other than Einstein, we get one. Thanks, both.
Is TWIN perhaps a collaboration between two established setters?
I enjoyed this, but did struggle with the last few (eg 11A). Looks like there’s a minor 007 theme in 10a, 2d, 4d(?) 6d and perhaps 7a (scenes in e.g. Quantum of Solace) 15a (I’m not expert enough to tell an epee from various other swords in fight scenes).
Rudolf @8 the setter got a retweet from the Indy crossword editor yesterday – so looks like it’s a not a collaboration.
Late to comment on this one. According to the setter’s tweet from earlier today he is one setter (though possibly with a twin brother!) and GEOFF was just a quirk of the grid.
I agree there was some very nice crisp cluing in here with WIDOWS PEAK and ALI BABA my two favourites, the latter for its def a la WP@6. I parsed ROULETTE both ways and figured they both work as well as each other in terms of both wordplay and def.
Petert @7: I’d noticed your genius comment on the G thread and hoped you see this puzzle.
Thanks Twin and RR
[Sorry Sheepish. I was slow typing – and went back to Twitter to check my facts – so we crossed.]
Welcome twin to the Indy. Grand stuff. Hope to solve you again soon.
There are actually many people called Geoff Doerr on the internet, so perhaps today’s setter is among them? Very nice so thanks Twin an RatkojaRiku.
No problem with this, it all went in fairly straightforwardly.
RR/ reddevil @1 – re 4d, surely Russian is part of the definition? (Russian roulette is deadly, normal roulette isn’t). The final of letteR that is “getting its comeuppance” by “coming up” to the top of the word, not being deleted.
Slightly tortured grammar but I’m pretty sure that’s the setter’s intention.