A super fun and intriguing puzzle from GUY as my last blog for 2024.
DD: 9 FF:10+
A couple of clues where I believe the parsing can be improved upon. In the interest of time, am posting the blog anyway rather than try and figure them out since connectivity is not a given.This blog comes to you from some corner of Kyrgyzstan, the name of which I can’t quite pronounce.
Wish you all a fantastic New Year 2025.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HAMILTON |
Show amateur and great poet using the same metre (8)
|
| HA[M] ( amateur ) [M]ILTON ( great poet ), using the same M – metre implying that the M is used in common to both words | ||
| 5 | SLAP-UP |
Lavish drink on sons at uni (4-2)
|
| S ( sons ) LAP ( drink ) UP ( at uni ) | ||
| 10 | NOT ON |
Unacceptable idea I must abandon (3,2)
|
| NOTiON ( idea, without I ) | ||
| 11 | TALL ORDER |
Monks wanting extra-long cassocks, an unreasonable request? (4,5)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 12 | SURROGATE |
Replacement Eurostar terminal in Barking planned (9)
|
| [ EUROSTAR G ( barkinG, terminal in i.e. last letter ) ]* | ||
| 13 | ATLAS |
Reference book finally abridged (5)
|
| AT LASt ( finally, abridged i.e. without last letter ) | ||
| 14 | PATENT |
Seconds from splashdown, take shelter for inventor’s protection (6)
|
| PA ( second letters of “..sPlashdown tAke..” ) TENT ( shelter ) | ||
| 15 | TADPOLE |
Swimmer finishing with a strong kick, then getting out? (7)
|
| cryptic def; possibly referring to a play on leapfrog. i don’t think I have cracked the parsing for this one. | ||
| 18 | SLEEPER |
Waiting agent strips again in the mirror (7)
|
| reverse of RE PEELS ( strips again ) | ||
| 20 | MODIFY |
Fury on both sides faced with PM’s change (6)
|
| MODI ( pm, of india ) FY ( FurY, both sides of ) | ||
| 22 | ARTIC |
Vehicle with trailer reversing it through bend (5)
|
| reverse of IT in ARC ( bend ) | ||
| 24 | POSTVIRAL |
Send ampoule containing end of applicator, having had Covid? (9)
|
| POST ( send ) [ VIAL ( ampoule ) containing R ( applicatoR, last letter ) ] | ||
| 25 | STEVENAGE |
East Coast mainline station still widening platform (9)
|
| EVEN ( still ) in STAGE ( platform ) | ||
| 26 | NUDGE |
Poke for one horse from behind (5)
|
| reverse of [ EG ( for one ) DUN ( horse ) ] | ||
| 27 | NUDISM |
Rolling in mud, soldiers initially practice without kit (6)
|
| [ IN MUD S ( Soldiers, initially ) ] | ||
| 28 | ALLIANCE |
Casual affair saving daughter’s marriage, perhaps (8)
|
| dALLIANCE ( casual affair, without D – daughter ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HONEST |
Try to make perfect street straight (6)
|
| HONE ( try to make perfect ) ST ( street ) | ||
| 2 | MOTORCADE |
Convoy’s way blocked by tense whales (9)
|
| MODE ( way ) containing [ T ( tense ) ORCA ( whales ) ] | ||
| 3 | LINE ONES POCKETS |
Start of novel, say: two space travellers back from Mars make a fast buck (4,4,7)
|
| LINE ONE ( start of novel say ) SPOCK ET ( two space travellers, from star trek and the movie ) S ( marS, last letter ) | ||
| 4 | OUTCAST |
Victim of eviction stirred us to act (7)
|
| [ US TO ACT ]* | ||
| 6 | LEONARDO DA VINCI |
Olive on an ID card represented Italian oil producer (8,2,5)
|
| [ OLIVE ON AN ID CARD ]* | ||
| 7 | PEDAL |
Load piano having turned lever on it (5)
|
| reverse of [ LADE ( load ) P ( Piano ) ] | ||
| 8 | PERISHER |
Blighter hazards that woman has no end of goodwill (8)
|
| PERIlS ( hazards ) HER ( ~ that woman has ) without L ( end of goodwilL ) | ||
| 9 | CLIENT |
Customer with right to a lawyer in court (6)
|
| LIEN ( right, to a lawyer ) in CT ( court ) | ||
| 16 | OXFORD DON |
Brainy fellow going to round up vote for Democratic Party (6,3)
|
| O ( round ) X ( vote ) FOR D ( democratic) DO( party ) N ( ?? ) – what am I missing? | ||
| 17 | ASSASSIN |
Idiot seeing trespass hired gun (8)
|
| ASS ( idiot ) AS ( ~seeing ) SIN ( trespass ) | ||
| 19 | REPEAL |
Cancel drive back having received answer (6)
|
| REPEL ( drive back ) containing A ( answer ) | ||
| 20 | MISDEAL |
Married ladies corrected cards handed out in error (7)
|
| M ( married ) [ LADIES ]* | ||
| 21 | FLEECE |
Left in charge, Charlie cleared out winter clothing (6)
|
| [ L ( left ) in FEE ( charge ) ] CE ( CharliE, cleared out i.e. inner letters ); massive misdirections in this one | ||
| 23 | TWEED |
Warm fabric undesirable for gardener with temperature up (5)
|
| T ( temperature ) WEED ( undesirable got gardener ) |
16d is simply ON (going) round X FOR D DO. I also had TADPOLE as a CD with the idea that a frog would leave the water with a strong kick of its legs.
A fine and smooth puzzle from Guy in which it was good to see HAMILTON and STEVENAGE together.
I see TWEED is having a moment recently and why not…it’s more stylish than 21d and certainly preferable to 27a at this time of year!
Turbolegs, I confess I’m still in festive mood and just entered the two you question half-parsed (or half-parked as per your intro!😄). Can’t supply what’s missing, I’m afraid, though I agreed with everything else. I see Hovis has obliged with sensible explanations.
Thank you and also Guy.
The perils of blogging from a mobile using an onscreen swipe keyboard. Fixed the typo now, Diane@2.
Cheers,
TL
I had no idea how to parse TADPOLE. A curious clue. How, in ASSASSIN, does “as” equal “seeing”? STEVENAGE was unsolvable by an Antipodean; nor did I manage OXFORD DON.
I did better than usual for one of Guy’s — I have been known to finish in tears.
GDU. “SEEING that you have a problem with 17D” or “AS you have a problem with 17D” – maybe this will clear things up for you.
I partially agree with your concerns about “Stevenage” but I have visited England many times so didn’t take long to work it out.
Re 15A – I also could not parse it but the answer was obvious from the cross letters. Hovis @1 has a convincing solution but it would be nice to hear from the setter.
I’m afraid I can offer nothing particularly new to the TADPOLE discussion: I took it as a play on the tadpole’s development into something with legs. The parsing of LOI OXFORD DON defeated me but I see Hovis has come to the rescue.
I thought HAMILTON was a star clue with the sharing of metre. Splendidly done. I was also very taken with the two space travellers in LINE ONE’S POCKETS. TALL ORDER is amusing, POSTVIRAL a very neat assembly of Covid related terminology, both NUDISM and the very clever MOTORCADE were funny and nicely misdirectional, the setter has done a good job with the LEONARDO anagram resulting in a believable surface and the clue for CLIENT is wonderfully smooth.
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs
Great puzzle. I agree with Hovis about TADPOLE and with PostMark about HAMILTON. English born and bred but still with only a hazy idea about the location of Stevenage.
A curate’s egg for me.
I found parts of this difficult, but the puzzle grew on me as I parsed the last clues “in arrears”, although TADPOLE remains a mystery. I enjoyed some innovative cluing (e.g. HAMILTON and TWEED), a good deal of variety, and some nice surfaces such as NUDISM and TALL ORDER. LEONARDO was a pretty good clue too.
I will go further than GDU@4 on STEVENAGE. Like Virginia, I solved it and I actually have a rough idea where it is. But it is ridiculous for a global paper to expect its non-UK readers to research or know UK’s mainline stations. PERISHER and ARTIC were only slightly better on that count. I did not think LIEN was fair. It is a right to everyone and part of everyday English, not just a right to a lawyer as stated.
A couple of questions. What is a waiting agent (18)? Google does not seem to know either. And one to Diane@2: why is it good to see STEVENAGE and HAMILTON together?
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs on the Silk Road
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs
1ac: An interesting bit of wordplay, but the definition was remarkably vague, and no use to me as it went outside the range of my specific knowledge – I would have been happy with something like “city in New Zealand” if Guy could have found a way of putting that into a good surface. I did not think of MILTON overlapping with HAM and got stuck with the idea of trying to find a word beginning with the prefix HOMO-.
18ac: I took this on trust when solving. The relevant definition of sleeper from Collins 2023 p 1866 is “a spy planted in advance for current use, but not currently active”.
Correction to 9: in the definition of sleeper, it should be “for future use”, not “for current use”. Apologies for not taking enough care in quoting this.
Further to 9 and 10, Chambers 2016 p 1465 gives us sleeper as “an agent who spends a long time (often years) establishing himself or herself as an inoffensive citizen preparing for the moment when he or she will be required to pass on information, spy for a foreign power, etc”.
Ah! Thanks for clearing up waiting agent, PB. I was on the wrong track, thinking an agent for waiting rather than an agent who is waiting.
Thanks Guy for a great set of clues. I failed with the nho STEVENAGE and couldn’t parse TADPOLE and OXFORD DON but all else came to light with HAMILTON, SURROGATE, NUDIST, ALLIANCE, LEONARDO DA VINCI, and FLEECE being my favourites. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Completed but didn’t particularly enjoy. Some fine clues but also some puzzling parsing or unnecessary general knowledge – eg Stevenage.
I missed the wordplay on 14A (not sure why) but had all the rest. I found the puzzle challenging but doable. I had heard a variation of the phrase Lining your pockets, but always thought of it as making money, not necessarily quickly. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle-thanks to Guy. And to Turbolegs, please say hello to Carmen Sandiego if you happen to cross paths with her.
Martyn@8
HAMILTON here refers to the musical but F1 driver Lewis Hamilton hails from Stevenage. He’d be unsurprised by the lack of recognition for his hometown as he has been less than flattering about it in the past! Granted, it’s not as glamorous as Monaco!
Thanks Diane