A fun puzzle from ZAMORCA with a high density of anagrams.
ANAGRAM itself appears in the puzzle.
FF:9 DD:8
Apologies for the late blog; some tech difficulties.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INCIDENT |
Pub drink curtailed amidst tense fracas (8)
|
| [ CIDEr ( drink, curtailed i.e. without last letter ) in INN ( pub ) ] T ( tense ) | ||
| 5 | QUIVER |
Queen has retired vicar a-flutter (6)
|
| QU ( queen ) reverse of [ REV ( vicar ) I ( 1, a ) ] ; anyone with a better parse? | ||
| 9 | PRISONER |
One inspiring person organised run for detainee (8)
|
| { I ( one ) in [ PERSON ]* } R ( run ) | ||
| 10 | JAUNTS |
First to join uniform-wearing workers’ excursions (6)
|
| J ( Join, first letter ) [ U ( uniform ) in ANTS ( workers ) ] | ||
| 12 | CAKES |
Tearooms hosting king put out fine buns (5)
|
| CAfES ( tearooms, with K – King , coming in and F – fine, going out ) | ||
| 13 | FORETASTE |
Example of a setter’s puzzle (9)
|
| [ OF A SETTER ]* | ||
| 14 | AT WILL |
Wait perhaps taking on students when convenient (2,4)
|
| [ WAIT ]* LL ( student = Learner = L, plural ) | ||
| 16 | TARIFFS |
Harrassed staff gathering right information for taxes (7)
|
| [ STAFF ]* containing [ R ( right ) I ( information ) ] | ||
| 18 | ANAGRAM |
Exchange of letters with artist in Manga style (7)
|
| RA ( artist ) in [ MANGA ]* | ||
| 20 | BAD JOB |
Graduate finally forfeited post for shoddy work (3,3)
|
| BA ( graduate ) D ( forfeiteD, last letter ) JOB ( post ) | ||
| 22 | GRIEVANCE |
Complaint from good Republican regularly riles Vice President (9)
|
| G ( good ) R ( Republican ) IE ( rIlEs, regularly i.e. alternate letters of ) VANCE ( vice president, usa ) | ||
| 23 | ASSET |
Advantage with Alcaraz beginning second part of match (5)
|
| A ( Alcaraz, first letter ) S ( second ) SET ( part of match ) | ||
| 24 | APIARY |
Housing for workers is good in areas beside railway (6)
|
| { PI ( good ) in AA ( areas ) } RY ( railway ) | ||
| 25 | STRUGGLE |
Take pains with horse involved in poor result (8)
|
| GG ( horse ) in [ RESULT ]* | ||
| 26 | KINDER |
More sympathetic when family brought back wine! (6)
|
| KIN ( family ) DER ( reverse of RED, wine ) | ||
| 27 | DEFEATED |
Smashed act of daring crossing river delta (8)
|
| [ FEAT ( act of daring ) in DEE ( river ) ] D ( delta ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | IMPACT |
Hit writer reportedly ready for holiday (6)
|
| cryptic def ; sounds like I ( writer ) ‘M PACKED ( ready for holiday ) | ||
| 2 | CRICKET PAVILION |
Jumper Dad left during 7-0 win finally found in clubhouse (7,8)
|
| CRICKET ( jumper ) [ PA ( dad ) { L ( left } in VII ( 7, Roman numerals )} O ( 0 ) N ( wiN, last letter ) ] | ||
| 3 | DROSS |
Process order containing climbing pants (5)
|
| hidden, reversed in “proceSS ORDer..” | ||
| 4 | NEEDFUL |
Abruptly ended trip before finishing, out of petrol required (7)
|
| [ ENDEd ( abruptly, without last letter ) ]* [ FUeL ( petrol, without E – last letter of beforE ) ] | ||
| 6 | UNALTERED |
The same eternal problem probing universal dimension (9)
|
| [ ETERNAL ]* in { U ( universal ) D ( dimension ) } | ||
| 7 | VANISH FROM SIGHT |
Run out of lacquer with fear old manuscript inside’s to fade (6,4,5)
|
| [ VArNISH ( lacquer, without R – run ) ] [ FRIGHT ( fear ) containing { O ( old ) MS ( manuscript ) } ] | ||
| 8 | REST EASY |
Easter’s fitting holiday at last to relax (4,4)
|
| [ EASTERS ]* Y ( holidaY, last letter ) | ||
| 11 | WRIT |
Legal document set down brief (4)
|
| WRITe ( set down, briefly ) ; nice surface | ||
| 15 | IN REVERSE |
Brought back sad reveries about November (2,7)
|
| [ REVERIES ]* around N – November | ||
| 17 | HANG BACK |
Hesitate when mediocre journalist to pen article on Britain (4,4)
|
| HACK ( mediocre journalist ) containing [ AN ( article ) GB ( britain ) ] | ||
| 19 | MINX |
Naughty girl gets cross after a short time (4)
|
| MIN ( short time ) X ( cross ) | ||
| 20 | BREATHE |
Panicky bather initially encouraged to fill lungs (7)
|
| [ BATHER ]* E ( Encouraged, first letter ) | ||
| 21 | ATTEND |
Pay heed to top grade race finish (6)
|
| A ( top grade ) TT ( race ) END ( finish ) | ||
| 23 | AZURE |
Last letter’s in gold on blue (5)
|
| [ Z ( last letter ) in AU ( gold ) ] RE ( on ) |
I know I should know by my age but I’ve never bothered to check if there is any difference between Britain and Great Britain (GB). From 17d, I guess probably not.
Some solvers don’t mind having to remove a hyphen for wordplay but I still think it’s a bit sloppy. In 10a, “uniform-wearing workers” means workers in uniform but you need uniform in workers for wordplay.
I finished this with quiver, to get the message that I was hadn’t quite completed the grid. What it wanted was QUAVER, when I hit the check button it was the I in quiver that was wrong – but I reckoned they were unhelpfully near enough the same in that context.
I also thought we’d had a pangram here.
Thank you to Zamorca and Turbolegs
Couldn’t 5d also be quaver.
Thanks Zamorca and Turbolegs
5ac: I had this as QUAVER on paper, with “retired vicar a” = REV A reversed. Thanks Shanne@2 for confirming that this is the officially correct solution.
1dn: I do not think this clue quite works. Perhaps it has lost the word “is” after “writer”. Certainly “writer is” would give “I’m” which would naturally lose the apostrophe in the wordplay, but the soundalike only works for “packed” = PACT.
Incidentally, I agree with Shanne that this grid is a pangram – I cannot remember a Zamorca grid that wasn’t. I actually completed the pangram with the P in 24ac having done the right hand side first.
For 5ac I had QUAVER, a fluttering sound in a voice.
I did not quite understand the grammar of NEEDFUL? What is the anagrind?
For 5A, I also have QUAVER.
I had QUAVER too, the first entry I made. The last entry I made was NEEDFUL, where I found the parsing a bit messy. Overall I found it easy enough to complete during lunch, which is rare for me (even though I take a long time over my lunch).
Thanks to Zamorca and Turbolegs.
I agree this was on the easy side. I feel like I started in the NE and went clock-wise for every puzzle this week. So saying, LOIs were 7dn (did not know manuscript = MS so third word took time) and DEFEATED (I did not initially see “act of daring” = FEAT). The surfaces I thought worked best were FORETASTE, KINDER, HANG BACK, ATTEND, APIARY, MINX
When I got ANAGRAM, it seemed as though every clue so far had been one. I agree with PB@4 about IMPACT – my notes said “missing M?”.
Thanks Zamorca and Turbolegs
4dn: I think the parsing is meant to go like this
Abruptly ended = ENDE
trip = anagram lead to convert ENDE to NEED
before finishing = last letter of before = E
out of = to be removed from
petrol = FUEL
required = NEEDFUL (the main definition).
The eight page list of anagram indicators in the Wordgame Companion included with Chambers 2011 – and, I believe, elsewhere – does include the word “trip”, but I have my doubts about giving that list the same credibility as definitions in The Chambers Dictionary main text. I would also sympathise with the view that, if used at all, “trip” needs to go before the anagram fodder, not after.
Since it is Zamorca I was expecting a pangram and it helped me get QUAVER and JAUNTS as some of my FOI and AZURE as one of my LOI – there had to be a Z somewhere
Other favourites were: APIARY, HANG BACK.
Wish we didn’t have to see the VP so often – he is such a s??t
Thanks Zamorca and turbolegs
I also had QUAVER for 5a, using the a from a-flutter. Nice puzzle overall.
I’m with Fiona @10 with her dislike of 22Ac clue subject.
Well I agree about the current VP but his boss is equally abhorrent . But imho they would still make suitable subjects for a crossword puzzle. However although Attila the Hun might be acceptable in a puzzle, I do not think most of the Nazis would. I can’t quite understand why this should be the case.
can some explain to me why gg is horse and tt is race. they are not my chambers app on my phone. thank you thank you all.
Anil@14 GeeGee is a child’s word for a horse. The Isle of Man TT(Tourist Trophy) is a motor cycle race. Both appear now and then in crosswords. I agree that IMPACT is a bit iffy, though it didn’t trouble me at the time. For DEFEATED I spent a long time thinking that the River Delta had to be in the act if valour which seemed to result in detested, which didn’t match the definition.
Why is dross pants?
Because DROSS and pants both mean rubbish – it’s why pants gets used as an anagrind.
I see.
Hi all
Thanks for the clarifications. One question re 24A Apiary. Why is “pi” good ?
Thanks.
24ac: pi is British informal short for pious. ODE 2010 allows the shortened form to cover the meaning “devotedly religious” with the usage example a deeply pious woman.
Thank you Pelham. A new one on me.