What is going on? No Eccles today! But we have Bard’s 5th puzzle instead.
We thought there must be a very good reason for Eccles missing his Wednesday slot. It wasn’t until right at the end that we realised that there were a number of animals hidden in the grid. Bert remembered something about The Year of the Snake coming up but had no idea when. A quick check online revealed that Bard had managed to include ALL twelve symbols of the CHINESE ZODIAC (6d). It is also the reason that Eccles has been knocked off his Wednesday slot as the Chinese New Year begins today.
We found the puzzle quite difficult to break into and it wasn’t until we had a number of crossing letters that we sorted out 21ac and 13ac. It was a challenging but very enjoyable puzzle, with excellent surfaces and a solver-friendly grid.
Congratulations Bard – that was quite an achievement especially as there were only a couple of obscure words.
CLAN (band) G (first letter or ‘beginning’ to generate)
An anagram (‘dealt with’) of MAGNETIC and R (resistance)
IN (stylish) IAN (Poulter as in Ian Poulter the golfer) inside or ‘into’ DINK (short shot in golf). Joyce guessed this one but thought that Ian Poulter would be a footballer. After checking DINK in Chambers, it made sense that Bard used a golfer named Ian. For those young solvers who have never owned a ‘fountain pen’ it was filled with liquid ink.
TIER (row) about G (Government)
E plus a reversal (‘back’) of ELGAr with ‘r’ (right) to go – another golfing reference
IN CE (Church) ‘around’ an anagram (‘reformation’) of SINCE. We had to check the definition in Chambers once we had worked out the parsing.
E (middle letter or ‘heart’ of Richelieu) A ST (saint – ‘good man’)
An anagram (‘burst’) off STOMA
S (second) TAG (name)
O (love) RA (artist) T (model) and an anagram (‘dancing’) of ON AIR
tERRy nORm both missing first and last letters or ‘disrobing’
R (rector) ON (working) inside I’S (island’s) – another golfing reference – does Bard play golf?
dELECTABLE (mouthwatering) missing first letter or with ‘starter gone off’
AlSo ShErRy (odd letters only) inside COLE (cabbage)
A homophone (‘reportedly’) of RUE (regret) INNS (pubs)
LAPD (Hollywood police) + a reversal (‘going northwards’) of GO
ACT I (play’s opening) VISTa (scene) missing ‘its last’ letter. Our LOI which took a while to parse as we weren’t separating ‘play’s opening’ and ‘scene’.
An anagram (‘harry’) of KANE’S and S (special)
PI (good) G (good) TAIL (dog) – ‘do’ can be short for ‘hairdo’
Hidden (‘held by’) in CassanDRA GONE Trick-or-treating
An anagram (‘drunken’) of HAZE and COINCIDES. A reference here to the hidden theme.
GEE (Oh!) with OAT (little bit of porridge) ‘stuck’ inside
A reversal (‘up’) of RAM (‘butter’ – an animal that butts) + K (king) + an anagram (‘redeveloping’) of SAD REGENT
SEA SHORE (coastal area) with S (sun) moving or ‘going down’
MONK (prior) EYED (keenly observed)
O (nothing) inside ROSTER (schedule)
TT (teetotaller) inside or ‘stopping’ BEER (alcohol)
ICE (an American term for murder) BOX (case)
RABBIe (Burns as in Rabbie Burns) without or ‘lacking’ ‘e’ (energy) + T (time)
I like this crossword, it was easier to solve which delighted me. My last ones in were PIGTAILS, RUINS and RABBIT, and when those were my remaining ones, only then did I realize the theme going on (happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate) which just delighted me more. Though I mistakenly thought that EAGLE was one of the zodiac and not RAT!… Some things I learned today like DINK and RABBIE.
I like 28A RUINS and 1D LAPDOG, having given me Eureka moments when I finally figured them out.
Thanks for this one, Bard and B&J!
P.S. The N in dragon isn’t colored.
A gem of a crossword. Enjoyed it from start to finish, which was quite a long time.
Thanks Bard and BnJ
Didn’t spot the theme, but nicely worked.
I may be misremembering, but I thought Indian Ink didn’t go in a fountain pen, as it was too thick and would clog the feed, but was used for dip-pen calligraphy and brushwork.
Firstly – apologies to the missing colour for N in DRAGON. It’s too late to change that now. Well spotted strobelite.
Secondly – Simon S is correct. Indian ink has to be modified to go in a fountain pen.
We are now off walking in the Lake District so will be out of touch for a while.
Very nicely done indeed and quite an achievement in the grid fill. I did raise an eyebrow at one or two solutions – INSCIENCE, ORATORIUM and DRAGONET in particular, and they alerted me to the possibility of a theme. The key phrase was one I went back to with most of the crossers so made for a nice reveal at the end. Plenty to enjoy with SEAHORSE being the standout clue but on this occasion, the grid’s the star.
Many thanks and congrats to Bard and B&J
A really nice puzzle with a well-worked theme – I knew we were around the time of the Lunar New Year, although didn’t spot all the signs. Only INSCIENCE was particularly obscure to me, but it was both nicely clued and fairly easy to divine its meaning. I had to tear myself away from ICEBAG to finish, and didn’t know that sense of MONKEYED.
I particularly liked the little bit of porridge, Rabbie Burns, and the seahorse.
Thanks both.
My LOi was 6d CHINESE ZODIAC. Scroll down to the table by Ethnic Group: Gurung has EAGLE instead of Dragon and Deer (STAG) instead of Pig.
[centig]RAM can replace Goat and 15d’s “Fish” can replace Dragon. {But there’s no [c]ASS[erole] as far as I can see.}
We got off to a good start having just wished our Chinese daughter-in-law Happy New Year. A steady solve, helped by looking out for the various animals. LOI was 4dn so we guessed it had to include ‘pig’ but we needed a wordfinder to see it was PIGTAIL. Otherwise no problems apart from checking INSCIENCE in Chambers (where it’s noted as ‘archaic’, hence the ‘historical’ in the clue).
Thanks, Bard and B&J – shé nián dà jí!
I agree with Hovis @2, whose comment made me smile. Thanks to setter and blogger and good luck to all for this year
I really enjoyed this. Someone on another blog today mentioned that a clever piece of wordplay was wasted in a clue with a really obvious definition. I don’t think you could say that of any of the clues here. They were perfectly judged, no giveaways but nothing too convoluted either.
Thanks to Bard and B&J
Great puzzle. Very clever and entertaining. Favourite is PIGTAILS. INSCIENCE nho. Thanks.
Thanks Bard for an ingenious crossword. CHINESE ZODIAC was one of my last answers so I didn’t realise what was happening until late. I then found the animals — quite amazing to fit them all in the grid. I used a word finder to get DRAGONET but all else came to light. Favourites included INSCIENCE (great surface), LAPDOG, GOATEE, SEAHORSE, ROOSTER, and BETTER. Thanks B&J for the blog.
Thanks B&J, and brilliantly done Bard!
Kung Hei Fat Choi
Nearly finished. Two I couldn’t get and I made a mistake in entering 6ac, which messed up 1dn. And I had a total brain fart for 6dn, entering CHINESE MOSIAC, thinking it was MOSAIC.