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Most enjoyable puzzle from Basilisk.
As ever, a witty puzzle that kept me on my toes. A great variety of clue types and oodles of creativity. I’m afraid I can’t spot a theme/nina – anyone else found one?
ACROSS
1. Way of making large-scale hospital drama retrospectively (6)
RECIPE
(EPIC (large-scale) + ER (hospital drama)) <retrospectively
4. Unavoidable conclusion in favour of church cuts (8)
ENFORCED
END (conclusion), (FOR (in favour of) + CE (church)) cuts
10. Score own goal after fouling someone near (7)
SCROOGE
(SCORE + OG (own goal))* (*after fouling)
11. Free energy harnessed by explosive missile (7)
TRIDENT
(RID (free) + E (energy)) harnessed by TNT (explosive)
12. Educational establishment beginning to train military personnel? (4)
UNIT
UNI (educational establishment) + T[rain] (beginning to)
13. Ravel loved piece for device operated with pedals (10)
VELOCIPEDE
16. Craftsman had to leave work with other people (6)
COOPER
COOPER[ate] (to work with other people, ATE (had) to leave)
17. Damage largely to do with bird (7)
MARABOU
MAR (damage) + ABOU[t] (to do with, largely)
20. Two numbers added to puzzle (7)
NONPLUS
NO (number) + N (number) + PLUS (added to)
21. Government soldier detained by engineers (6)
REGIME
GI (soldier) detained by REME (engineers, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers)
24. Swerved from side to side and broke down outside this ground (10)
FISHTAILED
FAILED (broke down) outside (THIS)* (*ground)
25. Join new drilling rig (4)
KNIT
N (new) drilling KIT (rig)
27. Confession of undercover agent exposes graft (7)
IMPLANT
I’M PLANT (confession of undercover agent)
29. Name plastered all over abridged literary work (7)
NOVELLA
N (name) + (ALL OVE[r] (abridged))* (*plastered)
30. Firmly establish supply centre round new hospital (8)
ENTRENCH
(CENTRE)* (*supply) round N (new) + H (hospital)
31. Children’s writer’s first piece of complex material (6)
CRAYON
C[omplex] (first piece of) + RAYON (material)
DOWN
1. Perhaps school’s use of the Bible is expedient (8)
RESOURCE
Cryptic definition
A school’s source for RE (Religious Education) could be the Bible
2. Eating meat spread Coronavirus (11)
CARNIVOROUS
3. What player may need is support (4)
PROP
5. Speculative paper dismisses article for nothing (8)
NOTIONAL
N[a]TIONAL (paper) dismisses A (article) for O (nothing)
6. Is the creator of satire almost going crazy? (10)
ORIGINATES
(SATIRE GOIN[g] (almost))* (*crazy)
7. Prompt delivery of letter (3)
CUE
“Q” (“delivery” of letter)
8. Discredit heroine protecting troubled state (6)
DITHER
[discre]DIT HER[oine] (protecting)
9. Plead case for excellent cause (5)
BEGET
BEG (plead) + E[xcellen]T (case for)
14. Join forces to back English proposal with passion (11)
EMOTIONALLY
ALLY (join forces) to back E (English) with MOTION (proposal)
15. Be responsible for a favourite judge (10)
PERPETRATE
PER (a) + PET (favourite) + RATE (judge)
18. Wearing tight catsuit, one is finding difficulty fitting in (8)
AUTISTIC
(CATSUIT)* (*tight), I (one) is wearing
19. Control tax again? (8)
RESTRAIN
Cryptic definition (strain = tax)
22. Agency isn’t on the rocks (6)
OFFICE
Cryptic definition (OFF ICE = not on the rocks)
23. Start putting down good person (5)
BEING
BEGIN (start, putting down G (good)
26. Claim brief note ignores question (4)
AVER
[qu]AVER (brief note, ignores QU (question))
28. Place for quarrying stone (3)
PIT
Double definition (the second being the stone/pit of a fruit)
There’s a latin phrase nina around the inner perimeter, starting at the I in KNIT (clockwise).
Re: 7d. I once mentioned here sometime that I was learning the spellings for the Spanish alphabet but didn’t know how to spell a lot of our own. According to Chambers “cue” is (a) spelling for ‘Q’.
I spotted the Nina which helped me finish another excellent crossword from Basilisk
Thanks to him and Oriel
I needed the nina to get BEING-too ,many possibilities without that G.
But having got everything else, nearly….
I was puzzled by 4 and 8.I first thought ENFORCES which didnt suggest anything for 8
So I concluded something was wrong with 4(my answer I mean)
zThen I thought of ESTHER in Bleak House-nah!
Came back later and immediately saw DITHER which sorted it.
Not my favourite clue but who am I to say
One of my favourite setters
Thanks JC and Oriel
non carborundum illegitimi
cod Latin for don’t let the bastards grind you down
FrankieG. I think ‘illegitimi’ comes first. The Wikipedia entry has it in that order, hence my comment @1.
Yes, I was going for a Classical Latin word order, such as Horace’s “Nil desperandum…”, which it clearly emulates. But this is cod Latin.
2D was brilliant which is more than I can say for many of the other clues. Like 3D “what a player might need” : sorry but I don’t get it.
1D: does “expedient” really mean “resource” ?
Thanks for the blog, very good set of clues.
Peter @9 a player can be an actor , and an actor often needs props.
Thanks Basilisk for a great set of clues and the nina as well. I needed a word finder for RECIPE, MARABOU, and DITHER; I hated missing the latter because it was right in front of me. I had many favourites including CARNIVOROUS, TRIDENT, VELOCIPEDE (liked Ravel), COOPER, NONPLUS, NOVELLA, CRAYON. AUTISTIC, and OFFICE. Thanks Oriel for the blog.
Thanks Oriel and Basilisk.
What a terrific puzzle!
Upon completion looked for and found nina as well.
Liked:
RECIPE
FISHTAILED
PERPETRATE
BEING (top fav)
Tony Santucci@11 Ah that special kick yourself moment that comes from missing a lurker! Know it well. I thought this was just the right level of chewy. All digestible in the end and nothing stuck in your teeth. Apart perhaps from RESOURCE where I am with Peter that this is on the very outer edge of the synonym envelope.
‘expedient’ is listed under the ‘supply’ meaning of ‘resource’ in Chambers thesaurus but I admit I questioned it as well.
I agree with Peter@9 and Nick@13 that RESOURCE (1d) is not synonymous with expedient. Expedient implies improper or at least without regard for propriety, whereas resource lacks that connotation. The wordplay made that clue gettable, so this is just the tiniest of quibblets.
At 6d ORIGINATES I got stuck on Ovid as the creator of satire, so I couldn’t see the obvious answer. Fortunately, like sheffield hatter, I had my tea tray ready to hand.
Lots of good clues, including the great anagram at 2d CARNIVOROUS, the clever wordplay of 16a COOPER, and the original musical anagrind and good anagram at 13a VELOCIPEDE.
Thanks Basilisk for the challenging and satisfying puzzle, and Oriel for the meticulous blog.
Hovis@14, we crossed. I should have added “Chambers notwithstanding” to my comment @15 re RESOURCE.
I gave up with four to go.
Afraid I didn’t much enjoy because some of the parsing and/ or definitions were a mystery. Does resource really mean expedient?
Unfortunately, I also had a mistake in 22 down where I had Notice, not Office and so didn’t get Fishtailed, which I should’ve known.
Loved Carnivorous.
Is “supply” a satisfactory anagram indicator in 30 across? I thought not.
All in all, too long spent on a puzzle which was, for this humble solver, disappointing.
Ps. Incidentally, using a word finder is surely not solving a crossword. While I will use occasionally a Thesaurus (which I am sure. many regard as cheating), I draw the the line there (?)
.
[Moly @17: I’ll use a word finder on occasion just to learn what I missed. Unless this is a competition “cheating” is irrelevant. Who’s getting harmed here?]
Many thanks to Oriel for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to solve the puzzle and comment.
(I wouldn’t normally comment on comments, but “expedient” is listed as a definition of RESOURCE in Chambers and Collins. And “supply” (as an adverb) is certainly an acceptable anagram indicator.)
I was just about to comment myself on supply, in this sense it means – in a supple way – so is a nice trick.
@ Tony.
Apologies if I came across as critical. Wasn’t meant to.
I wasn’t really thinking of you in particular; It was more the general idea of using wordfinder. I only ever manage to finish about 60% of the FT’s crosswords generally giving up if I fail with a few to go. Maybe I should use WordFinder, because at least would perhaps help me solve any of the other missing clues.
Too many vowel nodes for my liking but kudos to the setter
@ Roz 20.
That is an excellent point you make about supply and which completely passed me by.
Thank you.
Moly @21: After years of solving Anerican puzzles I switched to the British crosswords when I retired in 2018. I had a lot of catching up to do and without some “outside help” I never would have improved to the point where I could get all but three clues in a Basilisk offering. By the way, I never had an issue with “supply” to indicate an anagram — the words before or after “supply”, supply the letters the solver needs.
I share some of the feelings about expedient but checking after the fact, it was in Collins ..
More puzzled by scrooge = someone near.. ah well
I thought a velocipede didn’t involve pedals, being propelled by the feet alone.. but the anagram didn’t lie at least..
Thanks Basilisk n Oriel
Tough but very satisfying. Failed to see the Nina.
Undrell @ 25 One of the meanings of ‘near’ is being tight with money, hence a scrooge.
This was horrible.
Someone near = Scrooge and expedient = Resource? FFS!
What motivates setters to come up with dreadful clues like this?