A plain puzzle from Gemelo this week, but it was by no means straightforward
I continue to find Gemelo more difficult than Azed, and this puzzle was certainly harder than the same setter’s puzzle that appeared in The Times a couple of days earlier. As you can see, I have not been able to explain all the clues fully to my satisfaction, and I look forward to reading your comments below.
For those that didn’t see my post in response to last week’s puzzle, the much-delayed Azed slip for the August competition has now been published: http://www.crossword.org.uk/Azed2769.pdf
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SCOUT |
Mock retired servant from Magdalen (5)
|
| Double definition; I knew the college servant term, but was unfamiliar with the archaic (“retired”) verb meaning to mock. | ||
| 5 | ABOMASA |
Obama, unusually without date, reads (7)
|
| *OBAMA, SA (sine anno, without date). “Read” here is the term for a ruminant’s fourth stomach, the abomasum, the answer being in the plural. | ||
| 10 | POSTIL |
Brief note by side of gospel? (6)
|
| POSTI(t) (brief note) (gospe)L. An & lit clue, I think. | ||
| 11 | ABATIS |
A piece of brick is used in defence (6)
|
| A BAT IS. I was unaware that “bat” can mean a piece of brick. | ||
| 13 | IN THE END |
Ultimately like Henry to come without first transforming need (8, 3 words)
|
| (n)INTH, *NEED. “Henry to come” suggests a future King Henry IX. I thought that this was pretty devious clueing. | ||
| 15 | REEVE |
District’s official representative of Superman? (5)
|
| Christopher Reeve played Superman in the eponymous film series from 1978-1987. | ||
| 16 | PANIC BUYS |
Somehow a spicy bun gets in a stew (9)
|
| *(A SPICY BUN). A simple anagram, but with a somewhat tenuous definition. | ||
| 18 | REV |
Piously goes without this gun for once (3)
|
| Fortunately, this three-letter word is (quite fairly) fully checked, because I don’t think that I can parse it. “Piously” suggests “REVerently” but I can’t explain how the surplus letters come to be removed. “Gun” is slang for the act of revving an engine, but I suspect that there is more to it than that. | ||
| 20 | SPHERE |
Greek poet unloading crates after second round (6)
|
| S(econd) (PHEREcrates) (Greek poet). I guessed that there must be a Greek poet of this name, using Socrates as an exemplar. | ||
| 21 | ETHANE |
Before Sunset actor needing to sell gas (6)
|
| ETHAN (hawk)E starred in the film. | ||
| 24 | ISM |
Regularly winsome teaching (3)
|
| Alternate letters in wInSoMe. | ||
| 26 | RYE COFFEE |
Geoffrey initially lost at sea, consuming East Caribbean drink (9, 2 words)
|
| E(ast) C(aribbean) inside *(g)EOFFREY. | ||
| 27 | SPOIL |
Animal remains positive amidst filth (5)
|
| P(ositive) inside SOIL. | ||
| 30 | STAROSTA |
Polish nobleman knocked back in very good blast (8)
|
| AT (in) SO (very good) RATS (blast) (all rev). | ||
| 31 | ARILLI |
Inside cellar, I’ll identify botanical appendages (6)
|
| Hidden. | ||
| 32 | RAZEES |
Removes platforms from headland, shielding last bit of Alcatraz? (6)
|
| ZEE (the letter Z, last part of Alcatraz) inside RAS (a headland). The word refers to the process whereby a sailing ship is cut down by reducing the number of decks. | ||
| 33 | STROKER |
Irish author biting end of another’s rubber (7)
|
| (anothe)R inside (Bram) STOKER. | ||
| 34 | TITRE |
Source of Thatcher’s limited amount of concentration (5)
|
| T(hatcher) (l)ITRE) (limited amount). I’m not sure if Azed would use “limited” to indicate that the initial letter of a component had been removed. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SPIN |
Column lacking a particular point of view (4)
|
| SPIN(a) (spinal column). | ||
| 2 | CONTACT SPORT |
Study old introduction to this book on style of living in Rugby? (12, 2 words)
|
| CON (archaic term meaning to study) T(his) ACTS (book in New Testament) PORT (style of living – see the fifth sense of PORT in Chambers). | ||
| 3 | OSTENT |
Shakespeare’s appearance in big top? (6)
|
| OS (large in clothing sizes) TENT. | ||
| 4 | TIERCE |
Third rank civil engineer (6)
|
| TIER (rank) C(ivil) E(ngineer). | ||
| 5 | ALEE |
Trimmed whalebone on side of boat (4)
|
| I can only explain this by pointing out that the letters ALEE appear in sequence in the word whALEbonE. I hope that there is a better parsing. | ||
| 6 | BANAUSIC |
Vulgar, boring songs perhaps lacking heart (8)
|
| BANA(l) (boring) (m)USIC (songs). Another completely unfamiliar term which I only solved from the crossing letters, parsing it retrospectively. | ||
| 7 | MAKESHIFT |
Rough and ready hair for Sikh, though getting in tangle (9)
|
| KESH (a male Sikh’s hair) IF (though) all inside MAT (tangle). | ||
| 8 | SILVER-BEATER |
Who makes plate of gold? (12)
|
| I think that this is just a cryptic definition, using “gold” to mean anything valuable. | ||
| 9 | AS LEVEL |
Confused lecturer with leaves of paper? (7, 2 words)
|
| L(ecturer) inside * LEAVES; it stands for Advanced Subsidiary level GCSE examination. | ||
| 12 | TEER |
Technically spread support when heading for green rule (4)
|
| TEE (support when heading for the green on a golf course) R(ule). | ||
| 14 | CIGARILLO |
Something smoked in production of garlic oil (9)
|
| *(GARLIC OIL). | ||
| 17 | BHEESTIE |
Close friend hugging male water- carrier (8)
|
| HE (male) inside BESTIE (close friend). | ||
| 19 | GEISHAS |
Spirit almost keeps entertainers in Asia (7)
|
| GEIS(t) (spirit) HAS (keeps). | ||
| 22 | HOGRAT |
Lid covering over grey rodent (6)
|
| O(ver) GR(ey) inside HAT (lid). | ||
| 23 | OFFSET |
Balance that’s not on television (6)
|
| A simple charade: something that’s not on television could be OFF SET. | ||
| 25 | MOKI |
Guts of Scottish fish and one from New Zealand (4)
|
| I think that this parses as (s)MOKI(e) (a Scottish term for a smoked haddock). | ||
| 28 | CARR |
Transport running short in boggy ground (4)
|
| CAR (transport) R(unning). | ||
| 29 | BASE |
Counterfeit instrument in recording (4)
|
| A homophone for “bass” (instrument). |
[P]REV[IOUSLY] (once) minus PIOUSLY
TI TRE[E] (thatcher, i.e., used for thatch material) minus last letter (limited) = amount of concentration
[B]ALEE[N] (whalebone)
SILVER-BEATER is a double/cryptic definition
I found this puzzle very hard. I think your parsing for TITRE is also plausible; that was my first guess, too.
Also, I think the use of Alcatraz is supposed to indicate American usage, i.e., ZEE rather than ZED.
Sorry, also: CARR[Y] (transport) minus last letter (running short)
34
TI TRE(e) (limited, a tree, but I could not it used for thatching)
I thought this was the hardest Gemelo puzzle so far after I abandoned it on Sunday only about half-done and only came back to finish it later in the week, but maybe I was more distracted than usual because I still had a little bit of Magpie solving and checking to do. I managed to complete the grid without looking things up, but ABATIS, SPHERE, RAZEES, OSTENT, BANAUSIC and MOKI were definitely guesses based on partial understanding, and I didn’t know either definition of SCOUT but felt that it seemed the likeliest word that would fit. I could also include POSTIL and BHEESTIE which belonged to the class of words that I knew are in Chambers, but I was only pretty sure they could have the meaning the clue required.
I also thought of the T(hatcher) (l)ITRE) explanation for 34a, and wondered if it could be also referring to the fact that Margaret Thatcher studied chemistry and briefly worked as a research chemist, but I never thought of TI TRE(e) given by Cineraria@1. I otherwise had the same explanations as Cineraria@1,2,3, except I think 18a reads better if ‘without’ has the archaic meaning of ‘outside of’, so the clue means ‘PIOUSLY goes outside of the answer REV for PREVIOUSLY’, rather than indicating removal.
I was a bit annoyed I didn’t solve 21a immediately because I could name the two main actors in that film, but once I had some checking letters I realised I needed to use more than a surname.
Thanks, bridgesong and Gemelo.