Umpire is a fairly new setter in the Independent stable, with a few puzzles appearing in the past 12 months.
I found this quite difficult, but very fair. The only completely new word to me was MATZOON. It’s component MATZO was also a rarely used word for me, so 23 across was my last one in. It also took me a while to relate the homophone of DEAU, in the wordplay at 3 down, to DOUGH (money / green) but I got there in the end
I quite liked the Spoonerism CLAYMORE / MAY CLAW but I know some solvers are not keen on Spoonerisms.
The definition for SAY WHEN was well hidden at 21 across, as was the definition for ROADKILL at 8 down.
It was late in the blogging process that I realised that ‘sausage’ probably wasn’t the NAME for a PET, but more likely it was a term of affection, at 19 down.
Wednesday is usually theme and Nina free in the Independent. We had some creatures, KOALA, ECHIDNA and OKAPI, two of which are Australian, and they are all slightly unusual in relation the families of creatures they are belong, but I don’t think that’s enough for a theme.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Pungent plant women like a bit short (6)
WASABI (mountain hollyhock; pungent plant from which a green paste, also known as WASABI, is made) W (women) + AS (like) + A + BIT excluding the final letter (short) T W AS A BI |
| 4 | Gather fruit that’s come back (8)
REAPPEAR (come back) REAP (gather) + PEAR (a fruit) REAP PEAR |
| 10 | Child of Elizabeth II on small and sweet horse (9)
TWEENAGER (child between the ages of about 10 and 14) TWEE (small and sweet) + NAG (small horse) + ER (Elizabeth Regina; Elizabeth II) TWEE NAG ER |
| 11 | Flatten a large adult bear? Apparently not! (5)
KOALA (a Koala bear is a marsupial NOT a bear; bear? apparently not) KO (knockout; flatten) + A + L (large) + A (adult) KO A L A |
| 12 | Think about female inspired by right to vote (7)
REFLECT (meditate on; think about) F (female) contained in (inspired by) (R [right] + ELECT [select by vote]) R E (F) LECT |
| 13 | Killing leaves bar on edge (7)
HEMLOCK (the leaves of the HEMLOCK plant contain poison) HEM (edge) + LOCK (bar [entry to]) HEM LOCK |
| 14 | Cut corners with oil prepared in device for speedy vehicles (6,7)
CRUISE CONTROL (in certain cars, an electronic device which controls cruising speed on motorways) Anagram of (prepared) CUT CORNERS and OIL CRUISE CONTROL* |
| 17 | Excited to follow series of matches good man approved (6-7)
RUBBER-STAMPED (approved) RUBBER (series of matches in the game of bridge) + ST (saint; good man) + AMPED (with up, excited) RUBBER S T AMPED |
| 21 | How much is it worth at the banks in Japanese money? (3,4)
SAY WHEN (phrase used to indicate when one’s glass is full enough) SA (sex appeal; it) + (WH [outer letters of {at the banks} WORTH] contained in [in] YEN [Japanese currency]) SA Y (WH) EN |
| 23 | Unleavened bread atop dish of fermented milk (7)
MATZOON (food similar to yoghurt made from fermented milk) MATZO (unleavened bread) + ON (atop) MATZO ON |
| 25 | Deliberately ignore a short recording about love (5)
AVOID (distance from; deliberately ignore) A + (VID [abbreviation for VIDeo recording] containing [about] O [character representing zero or love score in tennis]) A V (O) ID |
| 26 | Perhaps give knife to a boy to cut through half of meat spread (9)
MARMALADE (a spread) (ARM [give a weapon, such as a knife to] + A + LAD [boy]) contained in (to cut through) ME (two of the four letters of [half of] MEAT) M (ARM A LAD) E |
| 27 | Outline of religious books removed from containers in tatters (8)
SCENARIO (outline of a dramatic work, film, etc) Anagram of (in tatters) CONTAINERS excluding (removed from) NT (New Testament [religious books]) SCENARIO* |
| 28 | Type of red cabbages eaten regularly in some establishments for starters (6)
CERISE (light and clear purplish red; type of red) CERISE (first letters of [for starters] each of CABBAGES, EATEN, REGULARLY, IN, SOME and ESTABLISHMENTS) CERISE |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cautious to let in leaders of the enemy, being weak (6)
WATERY (weak) WARY (cautious) containing (to let in) TE (first letters of [leaders of] THE and ENEMY) WA (TE) RY |
| 2 | Storage space of quiet mischievous being (5)
SHELF (storage space) SH (instruction to ‘be quiet’) + ELF (mischievous being) SH ELF |
| 3 | Dictator’s to outlaw green cloth garment (7)
BANDEAU (band to bind the hair, worn around the head; garment) BAN (outlaw) + DEAU (sounds like [Dictator’s] DOUGH [money; green also is an informal term for money, especially dollar bills [greenbacks]) BAN DEAU |
| 5 | Love cycling the world (5)
EARTH (the world) HEART (love) with the letters all cycling one position to the left and the front letter going to the back to form EARTH EARTH |
| 6 | Soldier‘s call-up following letter from abroad written by King (7)
PIKEMAN (man armed with a PIKE; old soldier) PI (Greek letter; letter from abroad) + K (king) + NAME (call) reversed (up; down entry) PI K EMAN< |
| 7 | Smitten with awful demeanour? (9)
ENAMOURED (smitten) Anagram of (awful) DEMEANOUR ENAMOURED* |
| 8 | Sometimes badger a kid playing in wind (8)
ROADKILL (a badger may be hit and killed by a vehicle and become ROADKILL) (A and an anagram of (playing) KID contained in (in) ROLL (wind [up]) RO (A DKI*) LL |
| 9 | Perhaps bluffers got involved in robberies, wiping out hotel (8)
EGOTISTS (bluffers exhibit self-confidence; as do EGOTISTS) GOT contained in (involved in) HEISTS (armed robberies) excluding (wiping out) H (hotel is the international radio communication codeword for the letter H) E (GOT) ISTS |
| 14 | Offspring in the vicinity of house initially left embracing in snug place (5-4)
CUBBY HOLE (snug enclosed place) CUB (young of certain carnivorous animals; offspring) + BY (in the vicinity of) + HO (house) + LE (first letters [initially] of each of LEFT and EMBRACING) CUB BY HO LE |
| 15 | Large sword could scratch, says Spooner (8)
CLAYMORE (large sword formerly used by the Scottish Highlanders) Reverend Spooner would pronounce CLAYMORE as MAY CLAW (could scratch) CLAYMORE |
| 16 | Father’s participating in very small sin (8)
TRESPASS (sin) PA’S (father’s) contained in (participating in) (TRÈS [very] + S [small]) TRES (PAS) S |
| 18 | Layer of eastern porcelain broken by daughter (7)
ECHIDNA (toothless, spiny, egg-laying, burrowing monotreme) E (Eastern) + (CHINA [porcelain] containing [broken by] D [daughter]) E CHI (D) NA |
| 19 | In the afternoon, ultimately come across one smoking sausage, maybe (3,4)
PET NAME (PET owners may NAME their pet ‘Sausage’ – or, more likely, it could just be a name used in familiar affection) (PM [post meridiem; afternoon] + E [last letter of {ultimately} COME]) containing (across) ETNA (active volcano in Sicily) one smoking) P (ET NA) M E |
| 20 | Remove borders from flag outside old section of building (6)
ANNEXE (additional section of a building) BANNER (flag) excluding the outer letters B and R (remove borders from) containing (outside) EX (former; old) ANN (EX) E |
| 22 | For a stretch, Saharan imbibed rainwater from these (5)
NIMBI (rain clouds; therefore rainwater from these) NIMBI (hidden word in [for a stretch] SAHARAN IMBIBED) NIMBI |
| 24 | Striped creature over here eating kelp and plankton primarily (5)
OKAPI (striped creature) OI (a phrase used to attract attention; a bit like calling ‘over here!’ [???]) containing (eating) KAP (first letters of [primarily] each of KELP, AND and PLANKTON) O (KAP) I |
Lovely crossword from Umpire with some tricky parsings. Got them all apart from MATZOON, having never heard of either this or MATZO making it impossible without recourse to a word fit.
Hmm.. put HEART in for 5dn which really slowed further progress in the top half, I presume cycling can be in either direction? The bottom half was more straightforward, MATZO being the fairly obvious unleavened bread beginning with M, although I was not aware of the final result. Took some workings-out to remove the right set of books from 27ac…
Challenging.
Thanks Umpire n duncansheill
This took most of the day, dipping in and out, but was a very good challenge. One of those crossword coincidences helped with the Spoonerism. Thanks, both.
Same here with the Spoonerism. Lucky, as I always forget that It’s a sword.
Thank you Umpire and duncanshiell.
Thanks for the kind words commenters, and for the very comprehensive blog duncanshiell.
Certainly not my easiest puzzle by any stretch, and I should have given thought to the MATZO being a required knowledge for MATZOON.
Hope everyone has a wonderful festive period.
Lovely puzzle. Thanks to Umpire & Duncanshiell
23ac defeated me, even though I knew MATZO from the old story about when Marilyn Monroe was married to the Jewish Arthur Miller and was visiting his family. “Is there any other part of the matzo you can eat?”
Thanks Umpire. It took me forever to get started on this and I never could finish leaving five unsolved and one completely wrong. I even looked at past crosswords by Umpire and I never failed this miserably. It’s good, however, to get an occasional thrashing. I did, as always, admire the splendid surfaces and I had favourites including WASABI, REFLECT, CERISE, ROADKILL, and PET NAME. Thanks Duncan for the blog.
Tried MATSO before MATZO, then added on “ON (atop)” for an almost jorum.
oed.com has ‘A crisp biscuit or wafer of unleavened bread which is traditionally eaten by Jews during Passover; (also) the unleavened bread of which matzos are made (more fully matzo bread).’ Citations have multiple spellings and plurals: ‘Matzoth, Matsot, Matzah, Motsas, matsoth, Motsos, mazzoth, matza, matzot’
Thanks d&U
Got them all but none too impressed. Sorry.