Wire provides the Saturday challenge this week – and we, together with Eileen and Pierre, are hosting the S&B get-together in Nottingham from 11am at ‘The Embankment’ pub, Trent Bridge – see you there?
We always enjoy Wire’s puzzles, although there were one or two surfaces that we felt weren’t quite up to his usual standard (eg 9ac and 2d). We had never come across the texts at 15d before and, famous though it might be, we didn’t know the name of Don Quixote’s horse at 9ac. We learn something every day from crosswords!!
We did wonder whether there is a theme, particularly with the unusual words at 3d and 15d, but we can’t see anything – are we missing something?
Thanks Wire – a good Saturday work-out.
An anagram (‘novel’) of ON CART IN + E (Spain) – we had to check this ‘famous horse’ – apparently it is Don Quixote’s
IVY (restaurant) round or ‘lined with’ OR (gold)
Hidden (‘section of’) and reversed (‘retro’) in aiSLE WORThless
SECOND (back) O (first or ‘beginning’ letter of operatic)
A reversal (‘other way round’) of TIN – the chemical symbol for tin is Sn (big ‘s’, little ‘n’)
An anagram (‘in motion’) of NUCLEAR BITS
A clue-as-definition: D E (last letters or ‘finishes’ of grand architecture) + COR (wow)
Alternate letters (‘periodically ignored’) of sPoOnEr – not a Spoonerism!
ADO (trouble) in or ‘stopping’ RN (Royal Navy – ‘some of the armed forces’)
Cryptic definition – The BELLY BUTTON is ‘evidence’ of where the umbilical cord was cut after birth – ‘sudden switch to cordless’
A reversal (‘thrown back’) of DOCk (harbour) missing the last letter or ‘mostly’
An anagram (‘misused’) of TEENS + GoinG without the middle letters or ‘on vacation’
DON (fellow) round or ‘accepting’ REAM (papers)
cELl missing the first and last letters or ‘discovered’ + a reversal (‘recessive’) of DNA (genes)
NOV (November – ‘month’) ETE (French for summer) round or ‘including’ LET (permit)
RATING (‘number of stars perhaps’) with the ‘g’ (good) moved to the front or ‘promoted’
A reversal (‘surfacing’) of ORCA (whale) + STICk (pole) missing the last letter or ‘short’
An anagram (‘burst’) of TYRE ON RAIL
ON (working) US (The Independent as a team)
An anagram (‘cast’) of SPARE NETS round or ‘across’ E (middle letter or ‘body’ of wet)
DISCus (field event) missing US (American)
HOBo (vagrant) missing the last letter or ‘briefly’ + NOB (aristocrat)
TYRO (novice) LEAN (‘looking like Jack Sprat’ – who would ‘eat no fat’)
An anagram (‘incorrect’) of AGE IS PUT + N T (first and last or ‘extreme’ letters of neat) – a new word for us
TA (thanks ) + ELLA (singer – Ella Fitzgerald?) after RANT (rave)
DUB (name) ON NET (WWW – World Wide Web) – reputedly the favourite tipple (with gin) of the Queen Mother
DATE (fruit) round or ‘full of’ a reversal (‘on the rise’) of MICE (pests)
RASCAL (rogue) with the ‘r’ (right) and ‘l’ (left) interchanged or ‘swapping sides at both ends’
A homophone (‘overheard’) of part of DON QUIxote (owner of Rocinante – 9 across)
tEDDY (toy that’s stuffed) missing the first letter or ‘head ‘
A reversal (‘in retirement’) of AVID (full of enthusiasm)
Thanks, Wire and B&J!
Liked NIT, ACROSTIC, BELLY BUTTON and DONKEY.
BELLY BUTTON
Was trying to look for wordplay with BUTTON for ‘switch’. Had to settle for ‘cryptic def’.
ACROSTIC
Was thinking how ‘surfacing’ would indicate a reversal. ORCA is coming up!
Super puzzle, just what the doctor ordered for a Saturday morning, light and great fun.
I particularly enjoyed TIN, DREAM ONE, ELAND, GRATIN and HOBNOB (great word) but favourite has to be BELLY BUTTON (lol)
Many thanks Wire and our esteemed bloggers, enjoy your event.
Wondered about DECIMATE but it was not difficult to solve with some crossers. Needed dictionary help. Terrible punishment especially for the one in ten who were killed. Favourite is BELLY BUTTON and I needed the blog to clarify the parsing. I was thinking remote control on the stomach. Also enjoyed the parsing for COD, ELAND and POE. Thanks B&J and Wire.
Hi B&J
I had no trouble with ROCINANTE – in my top 10 of famous horses (Pegasus, Bucephalus, Shergar., muR deR..)
And have always thought that if ever I were to own a DONKEY, I would name him JOTE (pronunced HOE TAY).
What’s wrong with 2d ACROSTIC – the wordplay is nice enough – is it a case of “seen it all before”?
Nice to see the original meaning of DECIMATE. – 10 – so X.
SEPTUAGINT[a] rang a vague bell – Latin for 70 – so LXX.
Fun puzzle, nice blog. Have fun at the S&B get-together.
Thanks W & B&J
Excellent, though I have a minor quibble with GRATIN, which is a style of cooking rather than a dish. Thanks Wire and B&J, enjoy the S&B.
For INSCRUTABLE I think I remember something from the Goon Show – “He is INSCRUTABLE. Many times I have tried to SCRUTE him.”
Google doesn’t back me up, though. The closest I get is “SCRUTINISE with an intense SCRUTE”.
In the Goldilocks zone for me. I liked the DONKEY ROCINANTE pairing, which I thought was worth a slightly awkward surface. I wondered if there was something in the book which made it more of an &lit???
Good fun and the perfect set up for the day. Stephen L @ 2 has highlighted most of my favourites.
Tatrasman @5: Chambers certainly defines GRATIN as a dish; ‘au gratin’ is the style of cooking, I think?
Thanks Wire (I commented on the G Prize blog that it was ironic to look at Picaroon’s last clue from last week, having just finished this puzzle of yours). I should be able to thank B&J in person in an hour’s time – provided I can elbow my way through the throng who will be surrounding you!
After years of solving cryptics, finally a Spooner clue I like!
Thanks to B&J and Wire – and so wish I could be in the pub with y’all today!
Very enjoyable puzzle as always from Wire. I knew the horse but still took far too long to unravel the anagram.
Thanks, Wire and B&J. Have fun in Nottingham everyone who’s going.
Tatrasman @5 – to pick one example, gratin dauphinois is certainly the name of a dish.
Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament plus Apocrapha) Having read theology (50 years ago!) I have a copy on my shelves given to me by someone who couldn’t read Greek
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I read Don Quixote but I could not recall ROCINANTE, the only blip I had in this excellent crossword. My top picks were NEST EGG (great surface), DREAM ON, ELAND (innovative clueing of a crossword staple), GRATIN, and DECIMATE. Thanks to all.
Thanks both. A day late, and wondering why so few comments….perhaps some like me simply could not complete SEPTUAGINT remains just a jumble of letters to me, and whilst I knew of DONKEY ‘Otay’ his horse enjoys no fame here, nor would I know what past royals liked to drink, and I feel Ella as a stand alone singer needs some licence. BELLY BUTTON was excellent once I eventually woke up to it