A Thursday challenge from Twin; I enjoyed blogging this setter’s Indy puzzle a month ago, and was happy to meet again.
NOTE: There was a glitch on The Independent website, which caused a four-year-old Tyrus puzzle to appear. This has now been corrected.
If you want to see the Tyrus blog (10,655) then click here: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/12/05/independent-10655-by-tyrus/
Not the easiest puzzle, as is often the case with Twin, but I liked it – especially the “middle eight” that was nothing to do with music, the “legendary winger” who wasn’t a footballer, the neat and concise 30a, and the misleading definitions within the wordplay of 3d and 6d. Thanks Twin for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CONFETTI |
Paper tossed around Church Times newspaper, following brief talk (8)
|
| T T (abbreviation for time, twice = times) + I (a newspaper), after CONFE[r] (talk, as a verb) without the last letter (brief). | ||
| 5 | SPREAD |
Feast that might accompany toast? (6)
|
| Double definition. A large amount of food, especially when set out as a buffet for a special occasion; or jam, peanut butter or similar foods that you might put on your toast. | ||
| 10 | NAIL GUN |
Tool turned fruit into bread (4,3)
|
| UGLI (a large citrus fruit) reversed (turned), inserted into NAN (also spelled naan = Indian bread). | ||
| 11 | BONE-DRY |
Very crisp, black, straight lines (4-3)
|
| B (abbreviation for black) + ONE-D (abbreviation for one-dimensional = in a straight line = straight) + RY (abbreviation for railway = lines). I’m not quite convinced by 1-D = straight, but I assume that’s what’s intended.
Very crisp = bone-dry = descriptive of white wine without much residual sugar. Or perhaps just meaning something with all the moisture removed. |
||
| 12 | EVOKE |
Call up First Lady without consent (5)
|
| EVE (the first lady in the Bible) around (without = outside) OK (consent, as in “can you give me your OK for this?”).
As in “evoke a memory” = call to mind. |
||
| 13 | OVERCOME |
Discover comedian’s middle eight moved significantly (8)
|
| The middle eight letters from [disc]OVER COME[dian].
As in “overcome with emotion”. |
||
| 15 | TIE-DYE |
T-shirt design represented Eastern deity (3-3)
|
| Anagram (re-presented) of E (abbreviation for Eastern) + DEITY.
Fabric decoration technique popular in the 60s and 70s, often used on T-shirts. |
||
| 16 | SCREW CAP |
What seals second team appearance (5,3)
|
| S (abbreviation for second) + CREW (a team in rowing or other sports) + CAP (slang for an appearance for a national sports team). | ||
| 19 | NEXT DOOR |
Oxen trod precariously close (4,4)
|
| Anagram (precariously) of OXEN TROD. | ||
| 21 | ICARUS |
Legendary winger is engaging about sport (6)
|
| IS, containing (engaging) CA (abbreviation for Latin circa = about = approximately) + RU (abbreviation for the sport of Rugby Union).
According to ancient Greek legend, Icarus and his father Daedalus escaped from prison by flying, using wings they made out of feathers and beeswax; but it didn’t end well for Icarus because beeswax melts in the sun. |
||
| 24 | CANBERRA |
Australian site may make a typo, e.g. in fliers (8)
|
| CAN (as a verb = may = is able/permitted to), then ERR (make a mistake, for example a typo) in BA (abbreviation for British Airways = fliers). | ||
| 26 | ADLER |
Conan Doyle character‘s superlative conclusion leaving Lestrade confused (5)
|
| Anagram (confused) of L[est]RADE, leaving out -EST (suffix indicating “most” = superlative conclusion).
Irene Adler, who appears in only one of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories but is mentioned in a few others. For the surface, Lestrade is also a Conan Doyle character: a detective who is somewhat less clever than Holmes and therefore likely to be left confused by his conclusions. |
||
| 28 | RAT RACE |
Gunners locate treadmill (3,4)
|
| RA (abbreviation for the Royal Artillery regiment, also known as the Gunners) + TRACE (locate = find).
Rat race = treadmill = slang for work in a competitive environment where you have to maintain maximum effort in order to survive. |
||
| 29 | BRITPOP |
Slowing down quietly during dance music from the 90s (7)
|
| RIT (in musical notation, abbreviation for ritardando = Italian for slowing down) + P (in musical notation, abbreviation for piano = Italian for quietly), all inserted into BOP (slang for dance). Confusingly, rit. is also an abbreviation for ritenuto (held back), which is more of a temporary just-go-a-bit-slower-here rather than a gradual slowing down. If in doubt, watch the conductor!
British pop music genre from the 1990s. |
||
| 30 | PERMIT |
A university grant (6)
|
| PER (a, as in “once a day” = for each) + MIT (abbreviation for Massachusetts Institute of Technology = US university).
Grant, as a verb = permit = allow. |
||
| 31 | AESTHETE |
Art lover hates high summer in Paris (8)
|
| Anagram (high = intoxicated) of HATES, then ETE (French word for summer, so “summer in Paris”). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | CONTESTANT |
Player needing racket before match with six-footer (10)
|
| CON (racket = a fraudulent enterprise) + TEST (an international sports match, especially in cricket) + ANT (a six-footed insect). | ||
| 2 | NOISOME |
Unpleasant feeling rising, changing side of street (7)
|
| EMO[t]ION (feeling) reversed (rising = upwards in a down clue), with S changed to T (the “other side” of S[tree]T).
The sort of word that probably catches out second-language English speakers: it looks as though it should mean “noisy” but it actually means disgusting, and is usually applied to bad smells. |
||
| 3 | EAGLE-EYED |
‘Great score of course – I’d sounded sharp (5-4)
|
| EAGLE (in golf, completing a hole in two fewer strokes than expected = a great score on the golf course) + homophone (sounded) of I’D.
Sharp = eagle-eyed = paying attention to details. And if you are, you probably spotted a stray punctuation mark at the start of the clue – at least in the version I’m looking at. I think it’s just a mistake; it may be a 14d but there’s no obvious reason to link the two. |
||
| 4 | TINPOT |
Mickey Mouse beat Dumbo up (6)
|
| TOP (as a verb = beat = do better than) + NIT (dumbo = slang for a foolish person), all reversed (up = upwards in a down clue).
Mickey Mouse = tinpot = slang for insignificant or a poor-quality imitation. |
||
| 6 | PANIC |
Force constituent to accept an island state (5)
|
| PC (abbreviation for police constable = a constituent of the police force), containing (to accept) AN + I (abbreviation for island).
As in “get into a state” = get into a panic = get flustered. |
||
| 7 | ENDEMIC |
Medicine struggles to eliminate one? (7)
|
| Anagram (struggles) of MED[i]CINE with one I (Roman numeral for one) eliminated).
Clue-as-definition (&lit): endemic = a disease that is ongoing in a particular location and never completely eradicated. (As distinct from epidemic = one that occurs there for a period of time; or pandemic = one that occurs everywhere.) |
||
| 8 | DAYS |
Kinks’s Ray or Dave losing fight for unknown song of theirs? (4)
|
| DA[vie]S (surname of brothers Ray and Dave, founders of British rock band The Kinks), with VIE (fight, as a verb) replaced by Y (mathematical symbol for an unknown number).
1968 song by The Kinks. |
||
| 9 | ABSENCE |
Want beans cooked this time (7)
|
| Anagram (cooked) of BEANS, then CE (abbreviation for Common Era = another name for Anno Domini or AD = the current time as represented by calendar years). | ||
| 14 | APOSTROPHE |
I’m avoiding outside excursion (10)
|
| The punctuation mark in the middle of [i]‘[m] (avoiding the letters on the outside).
The Greek-derived word for this punctuation mark means “turning away”, and it’s used in rhetoric to mean a digression from the main topic of a speech to address someone or something else. |
||
| 17 | EUCHARIST |
Ceremony of religious leader touring America after several other countries (9)
|
| CHRIST (religious leader) around A (abbreviation for America), after EU (abbreviation for European Union = several countries other than America).
Another name for the church ceremony known as the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion. |
||
| 18 | BOARDER |
Student article that’s cutting edge (7)
|
| A (the indefinite article in grammar) inserted into (cutting) BORDER (edge).
A pupil at a boarding school. |
||
| 20 | X FACTOR |
Vote in favour of keeping Move It (1,6)
|
| X (symbol used to indicate a vote on a ballot paper), then FOR (in favour of) containing ACT (move = do something).
X Factor = it = slang for an indefinable but desirable quality, especially sexual attractiveness. |
||
| 22 | RELAPSE |
Degenerate left church area after religious teaching (7)
|
| L (abbreviation for left) + APSE (a rounded recess, usually at the east end of a church), after RE (abbreviation for religious education).
Degenerate, as a verb = gradually become worse. Relapse = return to a previous poor state after a period of improvement. So not quite the same, but close enough. |
||
| 23 | MARBLE |
Rock and roll’s first book penned by Jack or Tom? (6)
|
| First letter of R[oll] + B (abbreviation for book), contained in (penned by) MALE (Jack or Tom; jack = a male donkey, tom = a male cat). | ||
| 25 | BRAAI |
S African gathering support over Grok, say (5)
|
| BRA (support garment) before (over, in a down clue) AI (abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence, for example Grok which is an AI chatbot associated with X, formerly Twitter).
South African word for a barbecue party. |
||
| 27 | GRIP |
Bag of chopped beef (4)
|
| GRIP[e] (beef = slang for a complaint), with the last letter removed (chopped).
Another word for a holdall = travel bag. |
I wasn’t aware of the other sense of APOSTROPHE , so that held me up. Nice puzzle and blog. A shame that many won’t get to appreciate it.
ENDEMIC and EAGLE-EYED were my top faves.
Thanks Twin and Quirister.
Straight lines are represented in two dimensional space
I don’t know which was the better crossword, the 2020 Tyrus or Twin’s from 2024. They were both great but I’d plump for the Tyrus as the winner because of the nina. The website I use to access the puzzle is very American, in that it appeals to the lowest common deniminator. After I’d entered Twin’s puzzle correctly it said ‘no score for repeated puzzle’. Not that I need a score, but I did need some help with Twin’s puzzle. I found it rather heavy-going in places because for me, the clues were a little prolix and convoluted. That’s just me I suppose. It’s not a complaint, that’s his/her style. I couldn’t work out ‘one-d’ as ‘straight’ and things like that held me up. APOSTROPHE for excursion is unfamiliar but I do know it in the sense of ‘pause’. I liked GRIP for GRIPE, the hidden OVERCOME, DAYS for the memory, PERMIT for the misdirection and everything else really. TINPOT would have to be my toppie because I had to cheat to find it and now I’ll never forget it. Thanks for the blog and the puzzle.
Almost total defeat for me.
I found this quite hard in places (no chance whatsoever of getting BRAAI or parsing DAYS) but elsewhere really creative (e.g., in 2D, I can’t recall seeing that trick before). 13A perhaps the best hidden clue I have ever seen. One-D for straight in 11A is very hard and I congratulate Quirister for figuring it out. Pity about the IT problem, must have been fixed by the time I came to this. Thanks to Twin and Quirister.
I struggled with this one. (And Mr T gave up altogether). Had to come here to find some of the answers. 14D was a very obscure definition for a familiar word. 25D braai? Come on!
Like Pete said @3 a straight line is 2D. One dimension is surely just a point?
I don’t think I’ll be attempting any of his/her crosswords again.
On reflection I’m wrong there. A line is one-dimensional. Sorry!
Definitely preferred Tyrus… whole host of annoyance, best seen in 13ac where the tense should have been present rather than past ie overCAME.. ah well
Thanks Twin n quirister
@9 “Overcome” is the past participle (“he was overcome/moved significantly”).
PG Wodehouse had it right in Uncle Fred in the Springtime:
“…the door opened and there entered a young man of great height but lacking the width of shoulder and ruggedness of limb which make height impressive. Nature, stretching Horace Davenport out, had forgotten to stretch him sideways, and one could have pictured Euclid, had they met, nudging a friend and saying, ‘Don’t look now, but this chap coming along illustrates exactly what I was saying about a straight line having length without breadth.'” (in other words, a straight line has only one dimension)
Superb puzzle, very enjoyable. Better late than never!
A very well crafted puzzle. Smart, devious and inventive. I did it after today’s Guardian and enjoyed it all the more for that.