Gemelo has set a puzzle where he has imposed constraints upon the words he can use in each clue. Every clue is constructed from words of the same length as the associated entry.
I am impressed that Gemelo has fulfilled his goal, but I am not convinced that the solver has benefited from the constraint. One or two definitions are not as precise as I might expect, but perhaps I’m nitpicking. I struggle to match ENUMERATIONS and conspectuses at 1 down and ‘having record health’ seems at bit odd for HALEST at 6 down. However, one or two others that I thought were dubious are confirmed by Chambers Thesaurus – ACUMEN / wisdom and GROUND / jarred for instance.
I also thought that Gemelo would have to use fewer clue types as a result of the constraint, but I find that is not the case. There a good mix of clue types throughout the puzzle.
I don’t think I have come across A as an abbreviation for year (annus) before (see 7 across – HARAM to HARM), but again it is in Chambers. There’s always something to learn in a crossword.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Texan’s sexual desire amidst modest Russia (6)
ESTRUS (American [Texas] spelling of oestrus [heat or sexual impulse / desire]) ESTRUS (hidden word in [among] modEST RUSsia) ESTRUS |
| 7 | Year away from tabu hurt (4)
HARM (hurt) HARaM (forbidden under Islamic religious law; tabu) excluding (away from) A (annus; year in Latin) HARM |
| 12 | Achieve “sincere regards” audibly (7)
REALISE (achieve as in ‘realise one’s ambition’) REAL (sincere) + ISE (sounds like [audibly] eyes [sees]) REAL ISE |
| 13 | Naked belly – hello Islam! (5)
UMMAH (the body of Muslim believers considered as one community; Islam) tUMMy [belly] excluding the outer letters T and Y [naked] + AH (expression of surprise; hello?) UMM AH |
| 14 | Parking boorish, unusual balloon (7)
PLUMPEN (a rare [unusual] word to make something grow more fat and rounded [balloon]) P (parking) + LUMPEN (boorish) P LUMPEN |
| 17 | Complex storied newsmen? (7)
EDITORS (newsmen) Anagram of (complex) STORIED EDITORS* |
| 18 | Dutch brave about drink (5)
DECAF (DECAFfeinated coffee; a drink) D (Dutch) + FACE (to brave) reversed (about) D ECAF< |
| 19 | Bosh! One’s soft, flat Goan food? (4)
ROTI (in Indian [Goa is in India] and Caribbean cooking, a cake of unleavened bread; soft flat Goan food) ROT (bosh!) + I (Roman numeral for one) ROT I |
| 20 | Relevant, familiar Iranian’s currency (8)
MATERIAL (relevant) MATE (a person with whom one is well or long acquainted; a familiar) + RIAL (Iranian currency) MATE RIAL |
| 22 | Motoring society’s engaging language recalled anti-tank machines (8)
AUTOMATA (machines that imitates the movement of a living creature) AA (Automobile Association; motoring society) containing (engaging) (MOTU [language, of the Malayo-Polynesian family] reversed [recalled] + AT [anti-tank]) A (UTOM< AT) A |
| 24 | Ugly man‘s thus spun (4)
OGRE (ugly man) ERGO (therefore; thus) reversed (spun) OGRE< |
| 25 | Brief sense about North Tokyo title? (5)
TENNO (the formal title of the emperor of Japan [Tokyo], especially in his former capacity as a divine leader) TENOr (sense) excluding the final letter R (shortly) containing (about) N (North) TEN (N) O – either N could be the one contained |
| 28 | Western courage shortly slowing villain (7)
CULPRIT (villain) PLUCk (courage) excluding the final letter K (shortly) reversed (western [reading from right to left]) + RIT (abbreviation for ritardando or ritenuto, both of which are musical directions indicating a slowing of tempo) CULP< RIT |
| 31 | Retired setter’s advance payment system’s folding (7)
ORIGAMI ([paper] folding) (I’M [I am; setter is] + A [advance] + GIRO [a former banking system, organized by Girobank plc, by which money can be transferred direct from the account of one holder to that of another person or to those of others; a payment system]) all reversed (retired) (ORIG A MI)< |
| 32 | Fried stuff round tofu’s close (5)
SAUTÉ (fried lightly and quickly) SATE (satisfy fully; stuff [oneself]) containing (round) U (last letter of [close] tofU) SA (U) TE |
| 33 | Pretend comrade spawned animals without measure (another measure) (7)
FRENEMY (an enemy who masquerades as a friend; pretend comrade) FRY (swarm of young animals, especially fishes who have just spawned) containing (without [outside]) (EN [a printing measure equal to the width of a letter n] + EM [a printing measure equal to the width of a letter m] – hence measure and another another measure) FR (EN EM) Y |
| 34 | Mark tide left (4)
SEAL (mark) SEA (tide) + L (left) SEA L |
| 35 | Indian smokes beside dances (6)
BEEDIS (cheap Indian cigarettes [smokes]) Anagram of (dances) BESIDE BEEDIS* |
| Down | |
| 1 | Mountaineer’s disorganised conspectuses (12)
ENUMERATIONS (counts of the number of; lists of, one by one. Conspectuses is defined as ‘comprehensive views or surveys’ – are they really the same thing?) ENUMERATIONS (anagram of [disorganised] MOUNTAINEERS) ENUMERATIONS* |
| 2 | Birdie, moggie twitch within Dundee (6)
TOMTIT (a bird; birdie) TOM (male cat; moggie) + TIT (Scottish [Dundee] word for twitch) TOM TIT |
| 3 | Unstarted buildings garnering anonymous responses (9)
REACTIONS (responses) eRECTIONS (buildings) excluding the first letter E (unstarted) containing (gathering) A (anonymous) RE (A) CTIONS |
| 4 | Clan were dead, with line lost (4)
SEPT (clan) SlEPT (were dead) excluding (with … lost) L (line) SEPT |
| 5 | Greedy people losing weight lastly accept having record health (6)
HALEST (having the best [record] health) wHALES (people with large appetites; greedy people) excluding (losing) W [weight] + T (final letter of [lastly] accepT) HALES T |
| 6 | Financial takeovers succeeded following nightspot baccarat’s beginning? (9, 2 words)
CLUB DEALS (takeovers by a group of private equity companies working as a syndicate; financial takeovers) CLUB (nightspot) + DEALS (a game of baccarat begins with two cards being dealt to the player and the banker) CLUB DEALS |
| 8 | Jelly image, after Norse deity (5)
ASPIC (fish-jelly used as a glaze or a mould for fish, game, hard-boiled eggs, etc.) ÅS (Norse God) + PIC (PICture; image) AS PIC |
| 9 | Wind over wing from Ohio (4)
REEL (wind) RE (concerning; over) + EL (American [Ohio] term for a wing giving a building the shape of the letter L) RE EL |
| 10 | Intellectual manufactured forestalment (12, 3 words)
MAN OF LETTERS (scholar; intellectual) Anagram of (manufactured) FORESTALMENT MAN OF LETTERS* |
| 11 | Before midday, bustle united Tinder (6)
AMADOU (tinder made from fungi growing on trees) AM (ante-meridiem; before noon) + ADO (fuss; bustle) + U (united) AM ADO U |
| 15 | Resident‘s furiously delivered invective following Victorian socialist (9)
COMMORANT (resident, especially at a university) COMMO (Australian [Victorian] term for a communist [socialist]) + RANT (angry tirade; delivered invective) COMMO RANT |
| 16 | Carpentry implement underlies chocolate amphibian? (9)
AEROPLANE (an amphibian is a type of AEROPLANE designed to alight on land or water) AERO (brand of chocolate bar) + PLANE (carpentry implement) AERO PLANE |
| 21 | Ratio’s ruined former county person? (6)
ARISTO (ARISTOcrat; a noble historically associated with a County – e.g. Duke of Northumberland) Anagram of (ruined) RATIO’S ARISTO* |
| 23 | Copper breaks agreed wisdom (6)
ACUMEN (insight; wisdom) CU (chemical symbol for copper) contained (breaks) AMEN (expression of assent or agreement; agreed) A (CU) MEN |
| 25 | Earth‘s jarred (6)
GROUND (earth) GROUND (jarred) double definition GROUND |
| 27 | Lagos notes who’ll claim Jesus wasn’t godly, being upset (5)
NAIRA (Nigerian [Lagos] currency) ARIAN (a person who adheres to the doctrines of Arius, who believed that Christ was not consubstantial with God the Father, but only the first and highest of all finite beings) reversed (being upset) NAIRA< |
| 29 | Fish head from fair cuts mass from mine (4)
ORFE (a golden-yellow semi-domesticated fish) F (first letter of [head from] Fish) contained in (cuts) ORE (mass from mine) OR (F) E |
| 30 | Imp‘s edge (4)
LIMB (an imp or mischievous child) LIMB (edge or border) double definition LIMB |
I started by going through the clues in order, so once I reached 1d and 10d I had managed to overcome my habit of counting letters of potential anagram fodder because every word in the clue has the right number of letters to be an anagram of the answer.
I also had trouble understanding definition of HALEST until the last two letters gave me the idea it could be a superlative. I didn’t know the language MOTU or the term CLUB DEALS, but COMMORANT was probably the hardest for me because I wasn’t sure about both the answer and the term COMMO.
I also didn’t know what ‘conspectuses’ meant, but there seemed to be only one anagram that would fit. Maybe an advantage of trying to solve this puzzle without looking anything up is that I didn’t spend too much time worrying if ‘enumeration’ and ‘conspectus’ are close enough in meaning. Afterwards I found that Chambers has ‘a synopsis, summary’ as another meaning of ‘conspectus’ which I thought could be the same as ‘a summing up (rhetoric)’ for ‘enumeration’.
Thanks, Gemelo and duncanshiell.
ARISTO
Thought it was a play on ‘count-y’ just like ‘earl-y’ that we often see.
That said, the blogger’s parse may well be the intended one.
Thanks Gemelo and duncanshiell.
I am getting to like Gemelo – I never really tried Azed but I thought I’d give the new version a shot and it’s a good Sunday workout. Also I won a £25 book prize a week or so ago so am stupidly happy. I made sure to spend it with an independent bookshop of course.
I agree with our blogger that the constraint on the clues added nothing for the solver so this was just a normal puzzle but harder to set. I struggled to find good online evidence for “commo” as Australian slang but it could not be anything else. I also had “artois” for a while in place of “aristo” – it’s a former region (county) of France so fitted with the “former” which I don’t think “aristo” does. We still have arisotcrats alas.
For the abbreviation “a” for “years”, this is commonly used in astrophysics and geology where ages of stars/planets/rocks are often measured in “ka” or “Ma” for thousands and millions of years.
Thanks Gemelo (and duncanshiell)
Complete disaster. Got less than half done, mostly the left side, and not helped by foolishly entering ARIAN at 27dn.
Jack @3, if you aim to continue enjoying Gemelo, it’s a good idea to take the statement “The Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended” seriously as it would have resolved your problem(?) with aristo.
The “former county person” is referring to the second definition of ‘county’ in there…
county2 (obsolete)
noun
A count
so the ‘former’ doesn’t refer to the word aristo, but to the word county in the clue.
Thanks for the examples of where ‘a’ is used as an abbreviation for year. That’s useful information. It’s in the list in C2016 of abbreviations at number 15…
a3
abbrev
1. About
2. Absent
3. Acceleration
4. Accepted
5. Acre
6. Acreage
7. Acting
8. Active
9. Adjective
10. Advance
11. Advanced
12. Afternoon
13. Alto
14. Anno (Latin), in the year
15. Annus (Latin), year
16. Anonymous
17. Answer
18. Ante (Latin), before
19. Anterior
20. Are (metric measure)
21. Atto-
I also can’t see the point of the compiler imposing an artificial constraint on themselves.
Given the (unnecessary, I agree, and perhaps rather ostentatiously clever) complication the setter inflicted on himself, the actual puzzle was very enjoyable, I found. All fairly clued.
Perplexus @6, “ostentatiously clever” exactly pinpoints my reaction to this puzzle. I hope that Gemelo will move towards including occasional specials of the Ximenean type that many of us love (Printer’s Devilry, Playfair, …).
I struggled with a few clues – largely my own failure to see the fairly obvious (eg BEEDIS – I hadn’t even thought of an anagram and kept trying to come up with something like Byhops!). I agree that the constraint didn’t seem to add much for the solver and occasionally made things a bit dubious; I wasn’t epecially keen on “western” for reversed in 28ac. “Heading west”, which might have been a more usual choice, makes sense, but I’m not sure that “western” really does. However, on the whole it was a good challenge.
Tim C @5: True I might have spent my book voucher on a more up-to-date version of Chambers than my mid-80’s copy! Thanks