Amoeba has settled into the Saturday slot and has, shall we say, become known to this solver.
Known for occasional really tough clues, and a penchant for themes. So when I saw the perimeter unches I suspected there might be something revealed there. Of course once I start solving I completely forgot about that – right up to the point where I got stuck. By that time I had about half the answers in mostly on the left hand side but with enough of the down clues in the lower half that it was clue the phrase ended FOOTBALL CLUB.
The only team that could fit is
CREWE ALEXANDRA FOOTBALL CLUB <Wiki Link>
I presume Amoeba is an Alex supporter.
So this gave lots of new letters for unsolved clues and one I particularly zeroed in on was 14a – it ended in X !
I love it when I get a crossword answer that I’ve never heard of before – I’ve heard of Onyx, of course, but Sardonyx has passed me by till now which is odd given its similarity to the word sardonic.
Funnily enough that isn’t my clue of the puzzle, that accolade goes to the concise and perfect:
3d Lacier pants – sweet! (6)
It doesn’t matter that it’s not the hardest nut to crack, it raised an appreciative smile here.
On the other side of the coin there were a few clues that I had real trouble with.
Chief among these:
24a LIP-READING
I will not even guess how the wordplay works here – I see nothing – so help please.
But the definition and crossing letters mean I am confident of the answer.
The same is not true of 27a which was only written in at the last.
Never heard of Mamey let alone an alternate spelling for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the wordplay I have ended up with to justify that answer is completely wrong and there is something much simpler going on.
There were a few others that held me up but they were just me having a poor knowledge of plants and flowers (ref. 9a) or missing what is wordplay and definition in the clue (ref. 6d)
Thanks “Alex”
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 8 | BAROUCHE | Carriage with no covering inspires pained expression (8) OUCH (pained expression) inside BARE (with no covering) |
| 9 | VINCA | Very old South American flower (5) V[ery] INCA (old South American) |
| 10 | UPON | In contact with company ignoring voucher (4) [co]UPON (voucher, company ignoring/ignored) |
| 11 | ANNUNCIATE | Proclaim ancient sauna with no walls needs development (10) (ANCIENT [s]AUN[a])* AInd: needs development. First one in, but not easy. That anagram needed concentration and an initial failed attempt using ([a]NCIENT SAUN[a])* |
| 12 | LIMBER | Flexible measure of obesity adopted by relative in retirement (6) BMI (measure of obesity, Body Mass Index) inside REL[ative] all reversed |
| 14 | SARDONYX | Returning a little sexy nod, rascal produces gemstone (8) Hidden Rev. in seXY NOD RAScal. I had never heard of Sardonyx – I won’t forget it now: Onyx Wiki |
| 16 | CEREALS | Criminal enterprise will ultimately scare grasses (7) ([enterpris]E [wil]L SCARE)* AInd: criminal. |
| 18 | SYRINGA | Mock orange leader of nationalist government visiting country bordering Israel (7) N[ationalist] G[overnment] inside (visiting) SYRIA (country bordering Israel) |
| 21 | LEAD TIME | How long it takes to produce heavy metal magazine (4,4) LEAD (heavy metal) TIME (magazine) |
| 23 | GULDEN | European capital previously sent back some abandoned luggage (6) Capital as in money. Reverse hidden in abandoNED LUGgage. Gulden is an early German/Dutch Gold coin, i.e. Guilder |
| 24 | LIP-READING | Looking at speaking up about inflationary measure in recession (3-7) I cannot see how this wordplay works. Edit: Thanks to KVa and Flea at comments #1 and #2 : LEADING (up) around (about) RPI< (inflationary measure [Retail Price Index], in recession) |
| 26 | POND | School touring northern lake (4) POD (school) around (touring) N[orthern] |
| 27 | MAMEE | Short of time, playwright pens second part for Beerbohm Tree (5) MAME[t] (playwright, ref. David Mamet (Wiki), short of time) around (pens) [b]E[erbohm] (second part for Beerbohm) Def. Alternative form of Mamey, an evergreen tree of species Mammea americana. Mamey Wiki Last one in. Very much so. In fact I would not be surprised if this is wrong and there is a much simpler reading. |
| 28 | ROLLOVER | Chance to win big old car without endless charges (8) ROVER (old car) around (without) [t]OLL[s] (charges, endless) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CAMPSITE | Where guys might secure temporary accommodation? (8) Whole clue is a Cryptic Def. |
| 2 | ROAN | Colour of tree with leaves (4) RO[w]AN (tree, remove W[ith]) |
| 3 | ECLAIR | Lacier pants – sweet! (6) (LACIER)* AInd: pants. |
| 4 | WETNESS | You and I agree to remove article on rising damp (7) WE (You and I) [a]SSENT< (agree, remove A (article), rising) |
| 5 | EVEN | Flat in Little Venice (4) Hidden in littlE VENice |
| 6 | ANTISOCIAL | Having been stopped by spies, revolutionary on a list reluctant to join party (10) CIA (spies) inside (stopping) (ON A LIST)* AInd: revolutionary. |
| 7 | LASTLY | In conclusion, left much to be uncovered (6) L[eft] [v]ASTLY (much, uncovered) |
| 13 | BREADCRUMB | A tiny amount of dough raised? (10) Cryptic Def. involving the whole clue |
| 15 | RAY | Line catching Australian fish (3) A[ussie] in RY (railway, Line) |
| 17 | LEI | Rebellious princess denied introduction to Alex Garland (3) LEI[a] (Rebellious princess, no A[lex]) |
| 19 | GREEN TEA | Around noon, welcome unlimited meat and drink (5,3) N[oon] inside GREET (welcome), [m]EA[t] |
| 20 | SEMIPRO | One who’s not fully paid son for clothing label (7) EMI (label) inside (clothed by) S[on] PRO (for) |
| 22 | ENIGMA | Puzzle in game’s complicated (6) (IN GAME)* AInd: is complicated. |
| 23 | GIGOLO | Man who’s kept freelance job heading off on his own (6) GIG (freelance job) [s]OLO (on his own, head off) |
| 25 | ABET | Help criminal President Trump initially (4) ABE (president) T[rump] |
| 26 | PROF | Academic test essentially lacking (4) PR[o]OF (test, middle missing) |
LIP-READING
up=LEADING
inflationary measure=RPI=Retail Price Index
IPR–RPI reversed (in recession)
LEADING about IPR
24ac : I think definition is “looking at speaking” — the “up” is synonymous with leading and it’s spanning ipr. – RpI being Retail Prices Index and ( in recession ) causes this to be ipr ready for the insertion. Rpi is part of the analysis of inflation.
Well that was the first time in many a long year I’ve had to use “Display Puzzle”. Absolutely brutal.
Chapeau, beermagnet for parsing that one.
MAMEE
beermagnet: I parsed it as you did. I feel it’s okay.
Liked ROLLOVER, CAMPSITE, BREADCRUMB and GREEN TEA.
Thanks Amoeba and beermagnet.
Well done KVa and Flea, @ 1 + 2. Excellent parsing.
LIP-READING.
It escaped me, I was looking at “inflationary measure” being tyre pressure, but basically, I was already a bit demotivated by this puzzle. There’s General Knowledge [GK] and there’s Obscure Knowledge [OK]. In my book, GK is OK, but OK is not OK.
I’m not even convinced that MAMEE and SYRINGA are strictly correct, but I do not particularly care. Once I solved BAROUCHE and VINCA, I expected “one of those” crosswords. As for CREWE ALEXANDRA FC…..? Bizarre.
Isn’t SEMI-PRO more properly hyphenated?
Some clever setting, nice misdirections and surfaces; not enough to sweeten the medicine, though.
Apologies, but thanks Amoeba. Great blog, BM
I do feel that this was over-heavy in obscure words. I did know SYRINGA & SARDONYX but not BAROUCHE, VINCA, GULDEN or MAMEE. Also only knew ROAN as the horse and not just as a colour. Apart from MAMEE, I felt the clues were all gettable though but still too much dictionary checking.
Thanks both. Really enjoyed this, though it was quite a struggle hugely aided by spotting the Nina at a relatively early stage. I’ll give credit that this didn’t feel too contrived to deliver the perimeter, and a few unknowns for me were sympathetically clued, though I’ll also nominate MAMEE as the exception, as I knew neither the writer nor the answer, but I’ll put SEMIPRO forward as my favourite.
I wondered if Sardonyx was a cynical Asterix character…
Like others, found the obscurities a stretch, but I often need help, so swallow the medicine with a shrug.
Wanted to throw in RIP-ROARING using the crossers and IPR but it didn’t make sense.
The clue for CAMPSITE could be ‘where gays make temporary accomodation’. But maybe not.
Thanks both.
I thought this was a typically great puzzle by the one-celled wonder, and I enjoyed discovering I’ve somehow heard of the nina. Particular favourites were the clues for ANNUNCIATE, SARDONYX, LEAD TIME, ROAN, LEI and ABET. I did need the blog to untangle LIP READING and WETNESS, so thanks beermagnet for the blog.
Super stuff – lovely clueing, a clever grid and a vocab lesson to boot. What’s not to love? Best thanks to Amoeba and beermagnet.
Well, I nearly finished this. I guessed MAMEE and ended up using a word search to get CEREALS but crossing 2dn/10ac defeated me.
Thanks to beermagnet and solvers – I hope the Nina took the sting out of some of the entries.
Up the Railwaymen!
Thanks Amoeba. I solved this in fits and starts today and the numerous breaks must have helped because I completed this without any reveals. I spotted a Nina forming and that certainly helped me to finish. The odd words that always seem to come with a 26 letter Nina were clearly clued so that was a plus. ROAN, SEMIPRO, & GIGOLO were my top picks. Thanks beermagnet for the blog.
Take care to enunciate when you annunciate … The latter was a new one on me. A dnf, as I had to reveal the c of cereal and then the c of campsite to get the NW corner done. Could have kept staring at it but wanted to get back to Lord’s. Totes missed the nina, but happy for Amoeba’s team! Quite chewy, thanks Amoeba and beermagnet.