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Atrica has provided today’s puzzle. I have not had that much experience of solving and blogging work by this setter.
I found this to be towards hard end of the Indy difficulty spectrum. I think that I have arrived at a complete solution, but not without “cheating” to reveal 23 and 24, both of which I ought to have been able to work out from the wordplay, despite not knowing the substance at 24. I also needed to search Chambers to confirm the definition at 15. I may need more practice to get on this compiler’s wavelength. I am not convinced that my reading of “Oberon” at 31 is correct, so please let me know if I am barking up the wrong tree here.
Today is Tuesday, so there is probably a theme going on here, although it is one that I have failed to spot. Any ideas?
My favourite clues today are 11, for the two tennis references; 14, for mentioning another service in the wordplay; and 17, for the references to comestibles in definition and wordplay alike.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | CLERGY | Ministers, Conservative, dismissing a large adverse reaction
C (=conservative) + <al>LERGY (=adverse reaction; “dismissing a large (=L, in sizes)” means letters “a l” are dropped) |
| 04 | SOUTH SEA | Cook house sat in region he explored
*(HOUSE SAT); “cook” is anagram indicator; British captain James Cook (1728-79) made several voyages to the South Seas |
| 10 | ANOSMIA | Loss of sense in America? I’m so naïve returning
Reversed (“returning”) and hidden (“in”) “AmericA I’M SO NAïve”; anosmia is the partial or complete loss of sense of smell |
| 11 | TENSION | Nervousness with twirling racket briefly touching court divider
NOIS<e> (=racket; “briefly” means last letter is dropped) + NET (=court divider); “twirling” indicates reversal |
| 12 | BOIL | British greasy fluid, i.e. stew
B (=British) + OIL (=greasy fluid) |
| 13 | CHAMPAGNE | What’s in magnum? Not I’m thinking cheap bubbly
*(MAGN<um> + CHEAP); “not I’m thinking (=um)” means letters “um” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “bubbly”; semi- & lit. |
| 15 | RENDER | Swivelled rear end for a show
*(RE<a>R + END); “end for a” means that letter “a” is replaced by “end” in anagram, indicated by “swivelled”; in Chambers, the tenth derivation of “render” is “to show forth” |
| 16 | BEANBAG | Comfortable seat airline started earlier; good travelling to the Far East
BEGAN (=started) + BA (=airline, i.e. British Airways); “good (=G) travelling to the Far East” means that letter “g” moves to the final position in the word |
| 20 | BLOWN UP | Pupil to confess after bishop exploded
B (=bishop) + L (=pupil, i.e. learner) + OWN UP (=to confess) |
| 21 | CRYPTO | Currency in vault, and what doubters think it’s worth
CRYPT (=vault, in church) + O (=what doubters think it’s worth, i.e. nothing!) |
| 24 | AQUA REGIA | Tanks containing, for example, an extremely corrosive material
[E.G. (=for example)] + I (=an)] in AQUARIA (=tanks, e.g. for fish); aqua regia is a mixture of acids that dissolves the royal metal, gold |
| 26 | BATH | Half the fight’s getting husband to wash
<com>BAT (=fight; “half” means 3 of 6 letters are used) + H (=husband) |
| 28 | SQUEAKS | High-pitched cries question replacing Trump at the last opportunity in talks
SPEAKS (=talks); “question (=QU) replacing Trump at the last opportunity (=last letter)” means letters “qu” replace “p” |
| 29 | SURFACE | Waves mug, sharing fine veneer
SURF (=waves) + FACE (=mug, colloquially); if run together, these two words are “sharing fine”, i.e. the letter “f”! |
| 30 | NONSENSE | Reports of monster sightings? Nobody catches Nessie without, that is, getting hammered
*(NESS<i.e.>) in NONE (=nobody); “without that is (=i.e.)” means letters “ie” are dropped from anagram, indicated by “getting hammered” |
| 31 | OBERON | Leads in school play present Oberon, for example
S<chool> P<lay> (“leads” means first letter only) + HERE (=present); Oberon is one of the moons of Uranus, hence “sphere” |
| Down | ||
| 01 | CHAMBERS | Alphabetical list of rooms with legal occupants?
The “alphabetical list” refers to Chambers dictionary! Chambers are a suite of rooms occupied separately by lawyers |
| 02 | EMOTIONAL | Distressed when what’s been negotiated doesn’t begin to encompass proposal
MOTION (=proposal) in <d>EAL (=what’s been negotiated; “doesn’t begin” means first letters is dropped) |
| 03 | GUMS | Turned up rather pleased, showing part of a smile
SMUG (=rather pleased (with oneself)); “turned up” indicates vertical reversal |
| 05 | OUTRAGES | Senseless fads? Abominations!
A rage that is out(-of-date) would be a senseless fad! |
| 06 | TIN OPENERS | They can unveil baked beans with ridiculous pretension
*(PRETENSION); “ridiculous” is anagram indicator |
| 07 | STING | Smart nudist in gauze clothing
Hidden (“clothing”) in “nudiST IN Gauze”; to smart is to sting, of a wound |
| 08 | ARNHEM | Service held in (clears throat) site of Monty’s overreach
RN (=service, i.e. Royal Navy) in AHEM (=clears throats, i.e. sound made when so doing); the reference is to Field Marshal Montgomery and the Battle of Arnhem in WWII |
| 09 | DANCE | Dean wrestling with cold tap?
*(DEAN + C (=cold, as on tap); “wrestling” is anagram indicator; tap is a form of dance |
| 14 | SEA WARFARE | What the navy’s for, as RAF were a disaster
*(AS RAF WERE A); “disaster” is anagram indicator |
| 17 | ALPHA MALE | Highland meat, beer and the biggest cheese?
ALP (=highland, high ground) + HAM (=meat) + ALE (=beer) |
| 18 | FUNGUSES | Sociable German takes drugs – mushrooms?
FUN (=sociable, genial) + G (=German) + USES (=takes drugs) |
| 19 | COCHLEAE | Initially coiled organs contained hairs, later enabling auricular evolution
C<oiled> O<rgans> C<ontained> H<airs> L<ater> E<nabling> A<uricular> E<volution>; “initially” means first letters only; & lit. |
| 22 | CARSON | Pioneering environmentalist dissected acorns
*(ACORNS); “dissected” is anagram indicator; the reference is to US marine biologist Rachel Carson (1907-64) |
| 23 | LAPSE | Blunder overtakes someone running in circles, reportedly
Homophone (“reportedly”) of “laps (=overtakes someone running in circles, i.e. on athletics track)” |
| 25 | U-TURN | Go the opposite way, seeing sign for intersection?
In mathematics, an inverted U – “a U turn” – is the sign for intersection |
| 27 | WRAP | Complete filming of “The Sound of Music”
Homophone (“the sound of”) of “rap (=(form of) music” |
There’s a lot of bubbles err bubbling about
CHAMPAGNE
As ‘bubbly’ can also mean CHAMPAGNE, it gets more &littish…
RENDER (I had a slightly different take)
Swivelled REAR=RAER and END for A. No anagram was needed.
OBERON
I had the same parsing.
Phew. I’d agree this was at the harder end of the spectrum. I’m not entirely sure why, in retrospect, but some complex word ordering and a bit of GK – or lack of – certainly played a part. I also found myself stymied where the compiler expressed an opinion – CRYPTO being worth nothing and, particularly, ‘Reports of monster sightings’ being NONSENSE. ‘Monty’s overreach’ is another though easier to penetrate. It will be interesting to see if any Nessie-hunters happen to be cruciverbalists and turn up to express outrage.
Likes included SOUTH SEA, CHAMPAGNE, BATH, OUTRAGES, TIN OPENERS, STING and WRAP. I also liked SPHERE which I parsed as you, RR (you have OBERON incorrectly entered as the solution, though). GK failures were inverted-U for intersection (not convinced by U-turn = inverted U, though) and CARSON.
Thanks Atrica and RR
flashling@1 has hinted at the theme.
TENSION, BOIL, BLOWN UP, EMOTIONAL, OUTRAGES, STING, SEA WARFARE…there must be more, Hope I am on the right track.
AQUA REGIA is just EG in AQUARIA. In 26a, I had BATtle rather than comBAT, but either works.
For 15a, I thought ‘swivelled’ worked better as a reversal indicator, so RAER (rear<) with END replacing A.
The solution to 31a should be SPHERE not OBERON.
I thought CHAMPAGNE & SEA WARFARE were outstanding clues.
me@2
Sorry. SPHERE, not Oberon.
The first half dozen acrosses went in fairly easily but we struggled after that and just couldn’t get LAPSE. And we thought SEA WARFARE (one of the easier clues) was bordering on the ‘green car’ type of clue. So we can’t say we enjoyed it. Thanks, though, to Atrica and RR.
26A – I’d have thought that almost all solvers would have gone with BAT-tle rather than com-BAT – but I guess both work…
I reckon it’s just a word association with the tag word BUBBLE. There’s SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, BUBBLE and SQUEAK, BUBBLE WRAP, BUBBLE BATH, BEANBAG BUBBLEs, CHAMPAGNE BUBBLEs, BUBBLEs when water BOILs, EMOTIONAL BUBBLEs and probably more.
But ( … I’m imagining kiddies bubble blowing … ) the greatest clue I aver is : SURFACE TENSION, the vital pull on the tangential bubble film, a key physical force where the incumbent numerical value determines whether the bubble coheres a little longer or bursts !
Thank you Atrica and RR.
Good spot Flea (as usual!)!
I saw SURFACE TENSION. Couldn’t connect it with anything despite the hint from flashling.
BUBBLE GUMS…
BUBBLE DANCE?
Parsed the OUT in OUTRAGES as unconscious = “Senseless”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_chamber
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholiota_nubigena
‘commonly known as … the bubble gum fungus’
KVa@11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_dance
Parsed RENDER as KVa@2 – “Swivelled” indicating reversal, rather than anagram.
Liked COCHLEAE for its “auricular evolution”
Thanks A&RR
Thanks to RR for the blog and to all who commented. Congratulations to Flea for spotting the theme! There’s actually one more bubble in there, and as Flea points out SURFACE TENSION makes a bubble a SPHERE. (This one arose as I was reading about the crypto bubble.)
Thanks Atrica for a great set of clues. I missed SQUEAKS, needed a word finder for CRYPTO and ARNHEM, and didn’t spot the theme but I still enjoyed this quite a bit. NONSENSE alone was worth the price of admission and SOUTH SEA, BLOWN UP, EMOTIONAL, TIN OPENERS, FUNGUSES, and COCHLEAE all earned ticks. Thanks RR for the blog.
Great puzzle. Idiosyncratic. Solved and parsed. I had ‘swivelled’ as a reversal indicator, ‘senseless’ as out (cold) and battle rather than combat for ‘fight’ but both work. Needed Google to confirm AQUA REGIA, CARSON and ARNHEM. I liked RENDER because the clue was tricky to unpack and ‘render’ as a synonym for ‘show’ it was new. Also like CHAMBERS and LAPSE but the grid is chockablock with entertaining clues. Didn’t know the mathematical U but the clue was one of the easier ones to solve anyway. Thanks RR and Atrica.