Spectator 2725 – Tandemonium? by CheeseCracker

This is my first Spectator puzzle blog, although I have been solving (and submitting) them for several years now…and have been lucky enough to win a few prizes along the way…

The preamble states that:

“Eight unclued lights comprise four pairs.”

This is fairly par for the course for a Spectator puzzle, where we are often tasked with finding some unclued entries and what links them – sometimes some sort of wordplay, with entries being anagrams or synoyms/antonyms of each other; sometimes entries are characters and/or locations from a play or a book, with the author hidden elsewhere; or some other set of thematic links. There is the occasional excursion around the perimeter or a diagonal…and then, of course, there is the Christmas Special, which is akin to a Private Eye Cyclops Xmas special – a jumbo puzzle with a correspondingly expanded thematic twist!

My usual approach is to dive into solving, in the hope of finding a few crossers for the unclued entries, to help me work my way into deducing the linkage(s). In the early days, when I was solving on printed copies of the PDF version of the puzzle, I would spend some time at the start identifying the unclueds and outlining them with oblong ‘sausages’ to help bring them into focus. However, I have realised over time that life is too short for that, and they should reveal themselves as I scan through the clues and as the grid fills…

In this case, it soon became clear that the eight unclueds were a set of rotationally symmetrically placed 4- and 6-letter slots, with one ‘unch’ (unchecked letter) for the 4s, and two for the 6s.

Once the grid started filling up, I noticed that 4D could be CAIN and 38D INCA, which are anagrams of each other, and 19A was probably ARCH, with 35 CHAR – again, anagrams. Continuing in this vein, I had a punt at GERMAN/MANGER, and eventually NASSAU and SAUNAS.

Oh, did I mention the ‘punning’ titles? The puzzles usually have a brief title with some sort of hint/pun as to the theme – so the previous week’s was ‘Word building‘, with the unclued words as ‘incremental anagrams’. ‘Not like us‘ (or US) had US versus British versions of words. A recent Hamlet-themed one was called ‘Victim‘…etc.

So, having smugly thought I had got these symmetrically-placed anagrams, I remembered to consider the title, and realised that they are not just anagrams, they are words with two halves cycled round from back to front – a bit like a pair of cyclists on a tandem occasionally stopping to change positions – hence ‘TANDEMonium‘!

 

And there you have it. A neatly executed device, with a generous proportion of crossers to help us on our way with the unclued entries.

My LOP (last one parsed) was GREENGROCERS, which I only worked out properly as I was writing this up; and I’m not sure I’ve come across OTHERISE, SHASTA or SYNCLINE before – all gettable from wordplay but needing a quick dictionary check to make sure. The SISTER as one responsible for ‘tender organisation’ raised a wry eyebrow, and INGESTA/EATINGS was a serendipitously spotted anagram!

Talking of serendipity, I happened to bump in to CheeseCracker at the York get-together – he may be better known to visitors here as Harpo and Monk. We had a convivial chat about matters cruciverbal and Spectator-ial, and he became the third person I met there whose puzzle I was imminently due to blog – after Guinevere and Odo…

My thanks to CheeseCracker for an enjoyable diversion, and I trust all is clear below…

 

Across
Clue No	Solution	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing
1	MOROCCO	Doubling my carbon in low country (7) MO_O (low, as in cattle lowing) around ROC (cor, or ‘my!’, doubled back on itself) + C (carbon)
7	SAUNAS	Thematic deduction (6) SAU+NAS
12	APICAL	American sanctimonious state at the top (6) A (American) + PI (sanctimonious) + CAL (California, US state)
13	SYNCLINE	Geological fold running nicely round north east of south (8) S (south) before (to the West of) YNCLI_E (anag, i.e. running, of NICELY) around N (north)
15	TRACTATE	Treatise outline includes pretentious odds and ends (8) TRAC_E (outline) around TAT (pretentious odds and ends)
17	GREENGROCERS	General Secretary holds back brief register on new retailers (12) GREEN (raw, new) + G_S (General Secretary) around (holding) (D)ROCER (record, or register, briefly, or short of a letter, back!)
18	EATINGS	Ingesta, put another way? (7) &lit-ish – anag, i.e. put another way, of INGESTA, with EATINGS being a synonym for INGESTA, as well as its anagram!
19	ARCH	Thematic deduction (4) AR+CH
20	ENZYME	Yemen fighting spread by unknown catalyst (6) EN_YME (anag, i.e. fighting, of YEMEN) around (spread apart by) Z (unknown, maths/physics)
21	DEMISE	Extremely deceptive curt tightwad’s failure (6) DE *extreme letters of DeceptivE) + MISE(R) (tightwad, curt, or one letter short)
22	PARTISAN	Biased head of personnel wants skilled worker (8) P (head, or first letter, of Personnel) + ARTISAN (skilled worker)
29	SEA SNAIL	Marine mammals, not large, catch marine gastropod (3,5) SEA(L)_S (marine mammals, without L – large) + NAIL (catch)
30	USAGES	The Spectator objectively embraces wise customs (6) U_S (our setter, and his Spectator colleagues, as the object of a sentence) around (embracing) SAGE (wise)
32	TRUSTY	Reliable team at first out of practice (6) T (Team, at first) + RUSTY (out of practice)
35	CHAR	Thematic deduction (4) CH+AR
36	IN HASTE	He ain’t upset about what winds up Mistress Quickly (2,5) IN HA_TE (anag, i.e. upset, of HE AINT) around S (last letter of, or what winds up, mistresS)
37	LASER PRINTER	April’s rent revised on returned IT equipment (5,7) LASER PRINT (anag, i.e. revised, of APRILS RENT) + ER (re, on/regarding, returned)
39	ESOTERIC	Secret news posts regularly censored western material (8) ESOT (regular letters from ‘nEwS pOsTs’ + ERIC (ciré, material, heading west, or reversed)
40	OTHERISE	Treat as alien exotic theories (8) anag, i.e. exotic, of THEORIES
41	ACACIA	Top-rate duo of accountants backing plant (6) AI (A1, top rate) + CA + CA (Chartered Accountant, twice, so a duo of them!), all ‘backing’ to give ACACIA
42	NASSAU	Thematic deduction (6) NAS+SAU
43	ALASKAN	Statesman sadly snubbed German philosopher (7) ALAS (sadly) + KAN(T) (German philosopher, Emmanuel Kant, snubbed by one letter)
Down
Clue No	Solution	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing
1	MANGER	Thematic deduction (6) MAN+GER
2	OPERA HAT	Run pole upwards, ending at collapsible lid? (5,3) HARE (run) + PO (pole, abbreviation) all upwards = OPERA_H, with ending AT = OPERA HAT!
3	RIVETERS	Joiners, of a sort, exposed back of ship guarded by tugs (8) RIVE_S (tugs) around (guarding) (S)TER(N) (stern, back of ship, exposed by removing outer letters)
4	CAIN	Thematic deduction (4) CA+IN
5	CLAGGY	Tenacious greylag’s wings stuck in fine-grained earth (6) CLA_Y (fine-grained earth) around GG (wings, or outer letters, of GreylaG)
6	PYROXENE	Silicate mineral extracted from cattle in burning woodpile (8) PYR_E (burning woodpile) around OXEN (cattle)
8	ACCEDED	Turned about, yielded and came forward (7) AC (ca, circa, about, turned) + CEDED (yielded)
9	ULTRAMONTANE	Organised a tournament involving lake beyond the mountains (12) U_TRAMONTANE (anag, i.e. organised, of A TOURNAMENT) around (involving) L (lake)
10	ANTICS	Capers stuffing Atlantic salmon (6) hidden word in, i.e. stuffed into, ‘atlANTIC Salmon’
11	SEETHED	Boiled article plunged into dust (7) SEE_D (dust) around THE (definite article)
14	REINTEGRATES	Again makes entire goal up on base secured by straps (12) REIN_S (straps) around (securing) TEGRAT (target, goal, up)
16	ACEDIA	Outstanding helper raised sloth (6) ACE (outstanding) + DIA (aid, helper, raised)
23	SISTER	One responsible for tender organisation? (6) punning CD – a SISTER might be a senior nurse responsible for organising a group of nurses, people who tend, so ‘tender organisation’!?
24	ASTERISK	Star skater is smashing (8) anag, i.e. smashing, of SKATER IS
25	HAYSTACK	Rick keeps riding gear around yard (8) HA_S (keeps) + TACK (riding equipment), around (keeping) Y (yard)
26	WISTERIA	Climbing shrub once known on northern (Yorkshire) river (8) WIST (archaic, i.e. once, for known) + ERIA (the Aire, Yorkshire river, heading northwards, or reversed – in a Down clue)
27	NUCLEON	Particle of gas orbiting quickly, off and on (7) N_EON (gas) around (orbiting) UCL (alternate, or off-and-on, letters of qUiCkLy)
28	TESSERA	Standing Greek god embedded in piece of mosaic (7) ARES (Greek god, of war) + SET (embedded), all standing up to give TESSERA
31	SHASTA	Indigenous Californian sabbaths ruined without books (6) subtractive anag. – i.e. ruined, of SA(BB)ATHS, without BB – books
33	UNREAL	Illusory granules barely moving (6) subtractive anag. – i.e. moving, of (G)RANULE(S) – granules, barely, or with outer clothing removed!
34	GERMAN	Thematic deduction (6) GER+MAN
38	INCA	Thematic deduction (4) IN+CA