A near pangram from Gurney this morning.
I was almost certain this was a pangram, but one final check before writing this blog revealed that there was no W in the completed grid. It felt while solving that there were a lot of anagrams, but there were only four full anagrams (funny how your mind plays tricks on you like that – or maybe it's just me?). Anyway, a fun solve.
Thanks, Gurney.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RANDOM |
Chance currency award (6)
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RAND ("currency" of South Africa) + OM (Order of Merit, so "award") |
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| 5 | SKIPJACK |
Ignore sailor, one in the water? (8)
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SKIP ("ignore") + JACK ("sailor") |
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| 9 | CRUSADER |
Extremely clear with country, the German campaigner (8)
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[extremely] C(lea)R with USA ("country") + DER ("the" in "German") |
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| 10 | TALMUD |
Source of laws cheers, lifts me up, didactic, first of all (6)
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TA (thanks, so "cheers") + L(ifts) M(e) U(p) D(idactic) [first of all] |
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| 11 | UNREAL |
Lacking heart, unexpectedly neutral — hard to believe (6)
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*(neural) [anag:unexpectedly] where NEURAL is NEU(t)RAL [lacking heart] |
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| 12 | EPONYMIC |
Referring to name of equine, pony, Michael keeps (8)
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Hidden in [keeps] "equinE PONY MIChael" |
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| 14 | ARISTOCRATIC |
Satiric actor curiously upper-class (12)
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*(satiric actor) [anag:curiously] |
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| 18 | RECOGNIZANCE |
Bad gin craze once that may have financial consequences (12)
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*(gin craze once) [anag:bad] |
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| 22 | VIRTUOUS |
Six tour for a change with our group — good (8)
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VI ("six" in Roman numerals) + *(tour) [anag:for a change] with US ("our group") |
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| 25 | OLD BOY |
Describing network needing new blood? Yes, just a bit (3,3)
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*(blood) [anag:new] + [just a bit] of Y(es) |
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| 26 | ACCENT |
Mark of stress? (6)
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Cryptic definition |
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| 27 | FLATTERY |
Female, second of two, with ultimately smarmy sweet-talk (8)
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F (female) + LATTER ("second of two") with [ultimately] (smarm)Y |
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| 28 | CEREBRAL |
Breakfast item British scoffed, using head? (8)
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CEREAL ("breakfast item") scoffed Br. (British) |
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| 29 | TILTED |
Fought, having noble name, after central twist (6)
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TI(tl)ED ("having noble name") with its centre twisted becomes TI(LT)ED |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ARRANT |
A right tirade, unmitigated (6)
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A + R (right) + RANT ("turade") |
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| 3 | DESPERADO |
Criminal deeds on regular basis agent brought up — bother! (9)
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D(e)E(d)S [on regular basis] + <=REP ("agent", brought up) + ADO ("bother") |
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| 4 | MEDALLION |
Ornament old menial recollected (9)
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*(old menial) [anag:recollected] |
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| 5 | SURFEIT |
Too much foam, finally subdue it (7)
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SURF ("foam") + [finally] (subdu)E + IT |
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| 6 | INTRO |
Lodging in cabin, troubled start (5)
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Hidden [lodging] in "cabIN TROubled" |
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| 7 | JOLLY |
Very happy (5)
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Double definition |
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| 8 | CRUCIFIX |
Important dilemma as a learner’s dropped religious item (8)
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A L (learner) dropped from CRUCI(al) FIX ("important dilemma") |
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| 13 | NOR |
Neither’s frequent close companion, not half normal (3)
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[not half] NOR(mal) |
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| 15 | CONSONANT |
Letter is in agreement (9)
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Double definition |
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| 16 | ANECDOTAL |
Act One — lad in play referring to oral accounts (9)
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*(act one lad) [anag:in play] |
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| 17 | MEDIOCRE |
Doctor, bringing in oxygen, referring to pedestrian (8)
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MEDIC ("doctor") bringing in O (oxgen) + RE ("referring to") |
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| 19 | GNU |
Animal seen in falling numbers (3)
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[seen] in "fallinG NUmbers" |
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| 20 | ZESTFUL |
Relaxing, getting new start, invigorating (7)
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(r)ESTFUL ("relaxing") with Z instead of R [a new start] becomes Z-ESTFUL |
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| 21 | COURSE |
Plan progress path (6)
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Triple definition |
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| 23 | THEME |
Note covering border idea to be expanded (5)
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TE ("note") covering HEM ("border") |
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| 24 | OTTER |
Swimmer going too far? I’m not sure (5)
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OTT (over the top, so "going too far") + ER ("I'm not sure") |
Solid enough but suffers by comparison with yesterday’s classic.
Isn’t the pangram missing a q as well as a w?
I made heavy weather of this on my first pass but a reset after lunch did the trick with everything solved and parsed eventually. Liked SURFEIT, TILTED and SKIPJACK.
Thanks to Gurney and Loonapick.
Quite challenging. Didn’t get TILTED. I wonder why “the German” is always the masculine “der”, and never the other four (die, das, den, dem). Curious.
I found this tough to start but my morning coffee got the CEREBRAL processes working. ARRANT was a guess from the clue, never heard that before. Finished with SKIPJACK on the second attempt. Good fun, thanks.
I enjoyed this even though I came up short on half a dozen and got a couple of others wrong – my radar was not working this morning, when is it ever though?
Attacked this right after Paul, so the little grey cells were up to full speed.
Consequently a very quick solve, but a good warm down nonetheless.
Thanks both
I enjoyed this and also thought as I went through it that there seemed to be a lot of anagrams. Maybe because some of them very very close – e.g. 14ac and 18ac
Favourites included: ARRANT (my FOI), FLATTERY, DESPERADO, SURFEIT
Thanks Gurney and loonapick
A quick solve (for me) which is why I am broadcasting so early in the day. The anagrams were noteworthy perhaps because they were fairly easy ones. I finished on OLD BOY, having racked my brains for some time to think how on earth one might describe a network. It is clues like that (also e.g. JOLLY) that slow me down.
Funsize, perhaps you don’t know any knaves. ARRANT is a word that seems to be largely used to describe them, and nonsense, and not much else.
Thanks Gurney and Loonapick
GDU@3: I suppose because “der” is such a useful combination.
However, Independent 12162 by Eccles had “Entrance the German being very determined (2-2-3)” = “Do-or-die” so it has happened at least once. I think stretching it to the accusative, dative etc cases (“den”, dem”) is a bit much. I have a vague recollection of the Italian “lo” (or possibly “gli”) being used one which was also considered a bit below the belt by many.
So I reckon most would balk at “Part of the German language which is specialised (7)” (“des” – genitive case masculine “of the” + “cant” for the singing part).
Many thanks, loonapick, for the excellent blog and thanks also to all who commented.
An enjoyable puzzle, with just a couple that I had to cheat on. I’d never heard of a SKIPJACK, and I’ve learned that “sailor” can be “tar”, “salt”, or “AB”, but hadn’t seen “jack” before. 28 threw me off because I’ve only ever known “scoff” to mean “laugh dismissively”. (edit: a quick google suggests that the American “scarf” meaning “to eat quickly” is a bastardization of the British “scoff”)
I was more surprised by the number of hidden words clues than anagrams, I feel like those are usually one or two at most in a puzzle.
Favourites were CRUSADER, COGNIZANCE, FLATTERY, and SURFEIT. Thanks Gurney and loonapick!
Thought this was a very good puzzle and I’m proud I completed it. Thanks Gurney and loonapick!
I enjoyed this one and flew through the left-hand side, but took a bit longer on the other, struggling a bit with Skipjack and my LOI, Crucifix
Thanks to all.