With all the problems over the weekend, I’ve had to build the HTML for this entirely by hand. Therefore it’s unlikely there aren’t a few places where the clue text is wrong or has the wrong enumeration.
This was a mostly gentle puzzle, although I did struggle to work out the parsing of a couple.
10A and 18D were nicely put together. I quite liked the horror-film overtones of 4D and 5D had a good use of months to mean different things.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BILL |
Invoice from British cash register missing header (4)
|
| B{ritish} + [t]ill | ||
| 3 | FORD |
Crossing beneficial to Dutch (4)
|
| For(=beneficial to) + D{utch}. Chambers has D as an abbrev for Dutch. | ||
| 6 | MABEL |
Blame bad girl (5)
|
| Blame* | ||
| 10 | SARGASSUM |
Long tales abount Romeo having problem getting seaweed(9)
|
| Sagas(=long tales) around R(=Romeo in phonetic alphabet) + sum(=problem) | ||
| 11 | ACRID |
Pungent canine with dry coat(5)
|
| C{anine}(=abbrev used in dentistry) in acid(=pungent) | ||
| 12 | WADDLES |
Ungainly gaits of religious professor in part of the UK (7)
|
| DD(=Doctor of Divinity) in Wales | ||
| 13 | NEW MOON |
Women dancing in contact with heavenly body making an appearance (3,4)
|
| Women* + on(=in contact with) | ||
| 14 | LATE |
Departed behind schedule (4)
|
| DD | ||
| 16 | DIPPER |
Swim by bird(6)
|
| Dip(=swim) + per(=by) | ||
| 18 | LEA |
Field bluejay regularly missed (3)
|
| Even letters of bluejay | ||
| 21 | SPA |
Second secretary in health resort (3)
|
| S{econd}(abbrev from the time unit) + PA(=personal assistant) | ||
| 22 | ORNATE |
Speak about name that’s flowery(6)
|
| Orate(=speak) around n{ame} | ||
| 23 | PINE |
Fix European tree (4)
|
| Pin(=fix) + E{uropean} | ||
| 25 | PLAUDIT |
Poet Laureate to examine eulogy (6)
|
| P{oet} L{aureate} + audit(=examine) | ||
| 27 | GRAVITY |
Seriousness of children’s game limited by money (7)
|
| It(=a children’s tag game) in gravy(=slang for money) | ||
| 29 | NADIR |
Drain broken at lowest point (5)
|
| Drain* | ||
| 30 | INNER TUBE |
Bike part in Central Line? (5,4)
|
| Central(=Inner) + Tube(=line, as in Underground lines) | ||
| 31 | CANDY |
Outskirts of Canterbury are sweet (5)
|
| First and last letters (outskirts) of Canterbury are C and Y | ||
| 32 | SCAR |
Mark losing one man (4)
|
| I think this is [O]scar, the “losing one” meaning losing the first letter | ||
| 33 | CEDE |
Give up noisy children (4)
|
| I think this is a hom of seed(=children) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BUSHWALKS |
Former president quits hikes(9)
|
| Bush (=president, George W or George HW) + walks(=quits) | ||
| 2 | LURID |
Garish cover hiding middle of figurine (5)
|
| Lid(=cover) around [fig]ur[ine] | ||
| 4 | OBSESSION |
Bad smell rising before hearing Thing(9)
|
| BO<(=body odour) + session(=hearing, as in a court room session) | ||
| 5 | DEMON |
Evil spirit found in maybe March and November (5)
|
| Demo(=march being a type of demonstration) + N{ovember} (abbrev in phonetic alphabet). | ||
| 6 | MEALWORM |
Bustling mole with warm lava (8)
|
| (Mole warm)* | ||
| 7 | BERNOULLI |
Mathematician from Swiss city getting French agreement to cover lines (9)
|
| Bern(=Swiss city) + (oui around l{ines} l{ines}) | ||
| 8 | LADEN |
Burdened and inert having taken first tablet (5)
|
| I struggled to work this out but I think it is l[e]aden(=inert), the E being removed being an Ecstasy tablet | ||
| 9 | FALLS |
Following everything son declines (5)
|
| F{ollowing} + all(=everything) + s{on} | ||
| 15 | TEA GARDEN |
Adolescent taking oven by road for restaurant (3,6)
|
| Teen(=adolescent) around (Aga(=oven) + r{oa}d) | ||
| 17 | PATAGONIA |
Region where pinata is smashed, divided by a crack (9)
|
| (A go(=crack, as in “have a crack at something”)) in pinata* | ||
| 19 | ACETYLENE |
Gas is clean yet unfortunately emetic initially (9)
|
| (Clean yet)* + e[metic] | ||
| 20 | CORDUROY |
Modest about way ancient city gets old material (8)
|
| Coy(=modest) around (r{oa}d + Ur + o{ld}). Ur was an ancient Sumerian city in modern day Iraq. | ||
| 24 | FAIRY |
Fabled being is quite lacking in length (5)
|
| Fair[l]y = quite with l{ength} removed | ||
| 25 | PANIC |
Article in photograph causes alarm (5)
|
| An(=article) in pic(=abbrev of picture, a photograph) | ||
| 26 | TWINS |
Victories after time for siblings (5)
|
| Wins(=victories) after t{ime} | ||
| 28 | INURE |
Jack is leaving damage in temper (5)
|
| In[j]ure = damage with J{ack} removed |
Thanks Neal. I couldn’t parse GRAVITY so thanks for the help there. I’m unfamiliar with ‘gravy’ for ‘money’ and while I know ‘tag’ I didn’t realize ‘it’ was a game. Good to know. Regarding the site issues it is certainly a case of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone’. My access has been denied for a couple of days. I’m currently using TOR and a VPN. Thanks for today’s rebuild.
For 32a I had STAN (man) from ‘stain’ (mark). I liked FORD and DIPPER. The bird was sourced online. Thanks Vigo.
Thanks, Vigo and NealH!
Nice to see the site restored. Thanks to the admin and everyone who has been part of this process.
ACRID
(Should be a typo:)
ARID dry
C with ARID coat=C in ARID
CEDE
I think the same NealH
LADEN
Absolutely. The first E in LEADEN is taken (removed)
32A is STAN (STAIN less I) as Sofamore has already highlighted.
Certainly value for money with a whopping 36 clues! Light but very enjoyable too.
As a regular sea swimmer I have to choose DIPPER amongst my likes along with NEW MOON, the lol FAIRY and my favourite two, OBSESSION and Demon
Many thanks Vigo to and to NH for his sterling efforts.
Thanks both. The parsing of LADEN did elude me. In GRAVITY I had previously thought the game was ‘tag’ or ‘tig’ and ‘it’ was the person chasing the others, but I guess I am on the wrong scent there.
Thanks Neal & Vigo. Excellent as ever. With Bill, Mabel, Candy and Stan (& Ford? Twins?) all making an appearance, I’d be prepared to bet 10p that there’s a theme here. (Hmm, Demon and Fairy too?) Not that I know what it is.
Ah yes… stick those 8 words in a search engine, and there’s your answer. 🙂
Ah, so there is a theme. Albeit, not one with which I am familiar. As others have said, quite a light and gentle start to the week. PLAUDIT and FAIRY my favourites, today.
Thanks Vigo and NealH
Thanks to Mev for pointing out the possibility of a theme and it turns out that there is – although not one I’m at all familiar with! Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary to know although it did help with the parsing of a few – such as STAN.
Top clues for me were DIPPER, OBSESSION & DEMON.
Thanks to Vigo, whose puzzles I always enjoy, and to Neal for the review – particularly the parsing of LADEN.
A fairly kind start to the week, but with a few not so common words, eg SARGASSUM, DIPPER for ‘bird’ and INURE for ‘temper’. I couldn’t parse the IT bit of GRAVITY either and – no surprise – missed the theme.
Do we have any contributors from PATAGONIA here, or at least someone familiar with the region? I don’t know if it could be described as being geologically or topographically ‘divided by a crack’; if so the clue would qualify as a nice semi-&lit.
Thanks to Vigo and NealH
Thanks NealH – glad to be able to comment again.
Very gentle start to the week but the theme passed us by. Needed to google to find out what it was.
Thanks Vigo.
Nice to have this back even if only to learn about an extremely obscure no theme.
Good to be back.
This all went in smoothly but I didn’t get the theme.
Solved this then solved again with my 14-year-old to be taught all the themers I missed:
GRAVITY FALLS is a show in which adolescent TWINS DIPPER and MABEL PINEs spend a summer staying with their Grunkle (Great-uncle) STAN. Over the course of it, Mabel makes a best friend CANDY, gets a pet pig WADDLES. They reunite Stan with his long lost brother FORD, and thwart the plans of the villain BILL.
So I think I’m seeing 11 themers total? Nice tally for a not-too-strained grid!
oxtoby@14: I don’t know the show but according to Wikipedia, also there’s a character called CORDUROY.