Mev is an infrequent Independent setter. The last puzzle by Mev on fifteensquared was back in August this year.
There are several people mentioned in the grid. DINA ASHER-SMITH, BAUDELAIRE, MANDELBROT, HEATHER KNIGHT and CARLYLE I knew, but MAAR was a new name to me.
I am unsure about the wordplay for IN DEPTH at 2 down. The entry is a hidden word in ‘hawkwIND EP THats’ but I can’t see an indicator to tell us that it is hidden. I wonder if the entry itself is telling us that it is hidden (in depth)?
SPORTSBALL at 4 down is also a new word for me. The word doesn’t seem to be in Chambers or Collins dictionaries. I can only find it in the Oxford Dictionary of English, where the definition fits the clue.
I liked the wordplay for EXTRACURRICULAR (5 down), even if the clue surface conjures up a slightly unpleasant picture in the mind.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Olympian sprinter heard Misha’s tin rattling (4,5-5)
DINA ASHER-SMITH (British sprinter born 1995 who has competed at three Olympics) Anagram of (rattling) HEARD MISHA’S TIN DINA ASHER-SMITH* |
| 9 | Melt the ice with excellent – no ace – Sunday meal (7)
DEFROST (remove ice from; melt the ice) DEF (slang term, originally from hip-hop culture, meaning excellent or brilliant) + ROaST (sunday meal) excluding (no) A (ace) DEF ROST |
| 10 | At first you use carpet combs, anxiously searching for Adam’s needles (6)
YUCCAS (Adam’s needle is a species of yucca) YUCCAS (initial letters of [first] each of You, Use, Carpet, Combs, Anxiously and Searching) Y U C C A S |
| 11 | Splendid friend with a wagging tail (8)
PALATIAL (resembling a palace, sumptuous, splendid) PAL (friend) + A + an anagram of (wagging) TAIL PAL A TIAL* |
| 12 | Line not seen in tree’s curve (4)
ARCH (curve) lARCH (tree) excluding (not seen in) L ARCH |
| 14 | Asian king‘s quiet sound of realisation (4)
SHAH (ruler of certain Eastern countries; an Asian king) SH (direction to be quiet) + AH (expression indicating sudden realisation) SH AH |
| 16 | Poet rehashed a bluer idea (10)
BAUDELAIRE (reference Charles BAUDELAIRE [1821 – 1867], French poet, essayist, translator and art critic) Anagram of (rehased) A BLUER IDEA BAUDELAIRE* |
| 17 | Outsiders from Marseille left German bread for French mathematician (10)
MANDELBROT (reference Benoit MANDELBROT [1924 – 1810], Polish-born French-American mathematician recognised for his contribution to the field of fractal geometry) M AND E (outer letters of [outsiders from] MarseillE) + L (left) + BROT (German for bread) M AND E L BROT |
| 19 | Cut a groove into two-master when king’s away (4)
ETCH (cut a groove into) kETCH (two-masted sailing vessel) excluding (when … away) K (king) ETCH |
| 21 | Surrealist artist in the morning performs volte-face (4)
MAAR (reference Dora MAAR [1907 – 1997], French surrealist photographer, painter and poet) (RA [member of the Royal Academy, artist] + AM [ante-meridiem; in the morning]) all reversed (performs volte-face]) (MA AR)< |
| 22 | Extremely fast shot ultimately typifies finest Clooney show (8)
SCREAMER (an extremely fast ball or shot [definition in the Oxford Dictionary of English. Neither Chambers nor Collins mentions this specific definition, but it seems to me to be a definition well-used by sports commentators]) S (last letter of [ultimately] typifieS) + CREAM (elite; finest) + ER (George Clooney [born 1961] starred in the television series ER) S CREAM ER |
| 25 | See 8 Down
[HEATHER] KNIGHT |
| 26 |
Pause blood group therapy – in the end, it soothes kids (7) LULLABY (a song to lull children to sleep; it soothes kids) LULL (a pause) + AB (one of the blood groups) + Y (last letter of [in the end] therapY) LULL AB Y |
| 27 | Disorganised bartender I cast out (14)
SCATTERBRAINED (disorganised) Anagram of (out) BARTENDER I CAST SCATTERBRAINED* |
| Down | |
| 2 | Hawkwind EP that’s extensive (2,5)
IN DEPTH (extensively and thoroughly) IN DEPTH (hidden word in [?] hawkwIND EP THat’s) IN DEPTH |
| 3 | Ghastly Blunt, essentially overcome by terrible flaw (5)
AWFUL (ghastly) U (middle letter of [essentially] blUnt) contained in (overcome by) an anagram of (terrible) FLAW AWF (U) L* |
| 4 | Drink onboard and dance in competitive game in sarcastic fashion (10)
SPORTSBALL (informal term for any team sport played with a ball, used humorously to indicate that the speaker is not interested in or knowledgeable about sport in general; sarcastic description of a competitive game) (PORT [a drink] contained in [onboard] SS [steamship]) + BALL (dance) – the SS is implied in the wordplay by the use of onboard to describe the location of PORT] S (PORT) S BALL |
| 5 | Brief passage: “furry mice, mule and mare skinned outside school” (15)
EXTRACURRICULAR (of a subject or activity, outside and additional to the regular academic course; outside school) EXTRACt (short passage taken from a text) excluding the final letter T (brief) + URR (letters remaining in fURRy when the outer letters are removed) + similar treatment of mICe, mULe and mARe to generate IC + UL + AR EXTRAC URR IC UL AR |
| 6 | Bean producer finally hires Spanish painter who’s no good (4)
SOYA (plant that produces a type of bean) S (last letter of [finally] hireS) + gOYA (reference Francisco Goya [1746 – 1828], Spanish painter) excluding (no) G (good) S OYA |
| 7 | Embodied On The Road perhaps, beat’s half-smashed in Nebraska (9)
INCARNATE (embodied in human form) IN CAR (travelling on the road) + (AT [2 of the 4 letters [half-smashed] of beAT] contained in [in] NE [abbreviation for the US State of Nebraska) IN CAR N (AT) E |
| 8/25 | Former England cricket captain Cook, and that woman equestrian (7,6)
HEATHER [KNIGHT] (reference Heather Knight [born 1990], former captain of the English women’s cricket team’. Knight still plays for England, but not as captain) HEAT (cook, in the sense of boil or roast) + HER (that woman) + KNIGHT (Knights of old were often seen on horseback; equestrian) HEAT HER KNIGHT |
| 13 | Old footballer discussed wine store’s popular product (4,6)
BEST SELLER (something that has been sold very often; popular product) BEST (reference George BEST [1946 – 2005], Northern Irish footballer) + SELLER (sounds like [discussed] CELLAR [wine store]) BEST SELLER |
| 15 | Obscure park keeper mentioned plant (9)
HYDRANGEA (shrub or climbing plant with rounded or flattened flowering heads of small florets, native to Asia and America) HYDRANGE sounds like (mentioned) HIDE [obscure] RANGER [park keeper]. No doubt there will be some debate about the effectiveness of the RANGEA/RANGER homophone. HYDRANGEA |
| 18 | A slim hot nudist regularly shows nuts (7)
ALMONDS (nuts) A + LMONDS (letters 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 [regularly] of sLiM hOt NuDiSt) A + LMONDS |
| 20 | Historian Sandy’s crushed by vehicle (7)
CARLYLE (reference Thomas CARLYLE [1995 – 1881], Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher) CAR (vehicle) + LYLE (reference Sandy LYLE [born 1958], Scottish professional golfer, Open Champion [1985] and US Masters Champion [1988]) CAR LYLE – this being a down entry, the letters CAR are above and ‘crushing’ the letters in LYLE |
| 23 | Set up Mev’s goal for City (5)
MIAMI (city in Florida) (I’M [I am, Mev is the setter of the puzzle] + AIM [goal]) all reversed (set up; down entry) (MIA MI)< |
| 24 | Don’t take out missing lad in cowboy hat (4)
STET (restore after marking for deletion; don’t take out) STETson (hat traditionally worn by cowboys) excluding (missing) SON (lad) STET |
Thanks, D&M.
For IN DEPTH, I think we have to read that’s as THat has i.e. possesses.
Yes. The use of apostrophe s for inclusion isn’t that uncommon though some solvers don’t seem to like it.
Didn’t care for the number of people’s names here. Mandelbrot was the only one I knew but I did work out all the others. In general, I don’t like anagrams for such clues, such as 1a, but I did guess the SMITH part and the crossers then led me to the answer. SPORTSBALL was an easy guess but had to resort to google to check it.
I finished it but wasn’t a favourite by a long shot.
NeilW @ 1
Thanks – that makes sense. I just assumed that “that’s” expands to “that is”, but I’ve now looked at “‘s” in Chambers and it tells me that “‘s” could be short for ‘is’, ”has’ (she’s taken it) or ‘us’ (let’s go), depending on the context. In other circumstances , of course, “‘s” can indicate the possessive.
Dnk the Olympean or the artist. but no trouble with the poet, the mathematician or the cricketer (she is here at the moment playing in our national women’s comp). Elsewhere, sportsball was a newie, but otherwise pretty tame, ta Mev and duncan.