Gozo is this morning’s setter.
I was about to type that this was a trademark pangram from Gozo, but actually there is no P among the solutions as far as I can see). There were, however, some excellent clues, including those for SOCRATES and GLOUCESTERSHIRE, and fewer obscurities than the last Gozo puzzle I blogged. I wasn’t convinced by the QUAD part of QUADRANGLE, as the two come from the same root, the prison being short for quadrangle, but let that pass. However, I think the definition of D-DAY is wrong, as D-Day was the start of an invasion of France by Allied forces which may eventually have ended the war, but it was not the end of the war per se.
Thanks, Gozo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | QUADRANGLE |
Prison dispute heard in courtyard (10)
|
| QUAD (old slang for “prison”) + homophone [heard] of WRANGLE (“dispute”) | ||
| 7 | OHMS |
Resistance units — I see thousands (4)
|
| OH (“I see”) + Ms (M is 1000 in Roman numerals)
The ohm is the SI unit of resistance in electronics. |
||
| 9 | D-DAY |
Unknown tot turning back at end of war (1-3)
|
| <= (Y (unknown, in maths) + ADD (“tot”))
I think this is a mistake by the setter – D-Day was not the end of any war. I wonder if Gozo originally meant V-DAY, but couldn’t find an appropriate clue. |
||
| 10 | FLORENTINE |
Like the Medici family’s chocolate-covered biscuit (10)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 11 | BRONCO |
Ella goes and breaks collarbone on rough ride (6)
|
| *(corbon) [anag:breaks] where CORBON is CO(lla)RBON(e) without the letters ELLA [Ella goes] | ||
| 12 | CLEANSED |
Freed from sin, is inclined to enter church that’s deserted (8)
|
| LEANS (“is inclined”) to enter CE (“Church” of England) + D (deserted, on a military record) | ||
| 13 | SOCRATES |
Old philosopher inside an emergency call box (8)
|
| CRATE (“box”) inside SOS (“an emergency call”) | ||
| 15 | QUAY |
Landing-stage is vital, we hear (4)
|
| Homophone [we hear] of KEY (“vital”) | ||
| 17 | BERG |
Tailless diver comes back to composer (4)
|
| <=GREB(e) (“diver”, tailless (i.e missing its final letter), comes back)
Alban Berg (1885-1935) was an Austrian composer. |
||
| 19 | ETAGERES |
Very dry wicket perhaps upset the stands (8)
|
| [upset] <=(SERE (“very dry”) + GATE (“wicket perhaps”)
An étagère is a sheved display stand for ornaments. |
||
| 22 | WINNINGS |
Spoils Warwickshire opener’s time at the crease (8)
|
| W(arwickshire) [opener] + INNINGS (“time at the crease”, in cricket) | ||
| 23 | DVORAK |
Composer, having drunk vodka, runs inside (6)
|
| *(vodka) [anag:drunk] with R (runs, in cricket) inside | ||
| 25 | REVOLUTION |
Spin doctor live, on tour (10)
|
| *(live on tour) [anag:doctor] | ||
| 26 | GRAZ |
Eat snacks during the day, mostly in Austrian city (4)
|
| GRAZ(e) (“eat snacks during the day”, mostly) | ||
| 27 | UTAH |
State of posh hat that’s returned (4)
|
| U (upper-class, so “posh”) + <=HAT that’s returned | ||
| 28 | THE BRONTES |
Shorten bet about literary family (3,7)
|
| *(shorten bet) [anag:about]
Very topical given the recent release of the new Wuthering Heights film. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | UNDERGO |
Subject to vitality, gains experience (7)
|
| UNDER (“subject to”) + GO (“vitality”) | ||
| 3 | DOYEN |
Party craving senior member (5)
|
| DO (“party”) + YEN (“craving”) | ||
| 4 | AFFRONTS |
Insults workers holding very loud unending argument (8)
|
| ANTS (“workers”) holding FF (fortissimo, so “very loud”) + [unending] RO(w) (“argument”) | ||
| 5 | GLOUCESTERSHIRE |
Home patch for the Avon lady? (15)
|
| Cryptic definition – the river Avon runs through Gloucestershire,
Avon ladies were women who sold Avon cosmetics and skin care products door-to-door. |
||
| 6 | ELEVEN |
Number of personnel eventually included (6)
|
| Hidden [included] in “personnEL EVENtually” | ||
| 7 | ORTANIQUE |
Fruit cultivated near Quito (9)
|
| *(near quito) [anag:cultivated]
A cross between an orange and a tangerine. |
||
| 8 | MANDELA |
Former President from island meeting endless hold-up (7)
|
| MAN (“island”, Isle of Man) meeting [endless] DELA(y) (“hold-up”) | ||
| 14 | ROGAN JOSH |
Jo, in new sarong, has hot Indian dish (5,4)
|
| JO in *(sarong) has H (hot) | ||
| 16 | GARDENER |
One who goes to bed to work (8)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring to flower beds. | ||
| 18 | EXIGENT |
Demanding leave to absorb information (7)
|
| EXIT (“leave”) to absorb GEN (“information”) | ||
| 20 | EDAMAME |
Bean-cheese and pheasant, say. No good (7)
|
| EDAM (“cheese”) and (g)AME (“pheasant, say”) with no G (good) | ||
| 21 | UNHURT |
King in a French shack, not harmed (6)
|
| R (Rex, so “king”) in (UN (“a” in “French”) + HUT (“shack”)) | ||
| 24 | ORGAN |
The church keys? (5)
|
| Cryptic definition |
Liked Socrates, but not d-day ((1-3) surely, not (4), and not the end), or etageres (obscure word clued by obscure). Nevertheless enjoyable overall. Thanks both.
I also wasted time trying to cram in a p
I’m still not familiar enough with FT solvers to know who often has themes, pangrams etc so I missed that this was a lipogram, in spite of the obvious signs of all the high-scoring Scrabble letters! I was also puzzled by the errors in D-Day (definition and enumeration) which I dismissed as a possible answer prior to having the crossers. I guessed “quad” must be a slang term for prison, though a new one to me, and confirmed it with a dictionary search which gives the normal form as “quod” but “quad” as an alternative, so all’s fair.
I am more familiar with the word “etagere” in a gardening sense – it is a stand for small pots such as herbs with several levels.
Thanks Gozo for some crisp cluing, especially the cryptic definitions which I usually find very ambiguous but here were clear. And thank you loonapick for the parsing.
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
9ac: I agree with others about the error in the definition, but it was given as (1-3) on the pdf which I printed out at about 10am UK time.
5dn: I took this as a reference to the former county of Avon, which was formed out of parts of Gloucestershire and Somerset and apparently existed from 1974 to 1996. In any case, the question mark on the end of the clue is required, since there is more than one River Avon in England, including the one that gives part of the name of Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.
I agree with Pelham Barton #4; there are Avons all over the place. I’m told incidentally that the word “Avon” means “river” so that “River Avon” is something of a tautology. (Today’s useless fact.)
I was stumped by ETAGERES which meant I also failed to get EDAMAME, which is a bean unknown to me. I assumed from the hyphen in “bean-cheese” that such a foodstuff existed, and that it must be something like bean-curd. I should have checked it in the dictionary but was too lazy. Was it fair to put a hyphen there where a dash would have been more appropriate?
Dday is still showing as (4) on line @PB.
When I lived in Bath in the 80’s a lot of locals utterly refused to put Avon in their address.
I’d associate Gloucestershire more with the Severn personally. And there loads of Avons, which is just an old word for river if I’m not mistaken.
Babbler, we crossed 🙂
I am struggling to parse the cryptic reading of the clue for BRONCO at 11A. First, the letters of ELLA do not appear in the order E, L, L, A in COLLARBONE, so an anagram indicator is required to justify the intended reference to L, L, A ,E. Second, the word “breaks” should surely follow, rather than precede, COLLARBONE in order for it to have effect as a grammatically correct indication to rearrange the letters of CO[lla]RBON[e]. Third, “on” appears to have no cryptic function. It cannot act as a link word because “wordplay ON definition” makes no sense.
Bagpuss@8: Good point. I wondered about the fact that the subtraction was “out of order” as I solved it but I know not everyone feels the need for a second anagram indicator. For me it is certainly a weakness in the clue. I think there are ways round it – if the clue were something like “Collarbone broken, Ella lost her mount” then I would say this is instructing you to “break” the word “collarbone” e.g. into”broncoella” and then subtract “ella”, even though the “solution” to the initial anagram is not a word. I am happy with that as other clues also ask you to imagine “non-words” as a step to the solution (especially Spoonerisms).
But, as you point out, this clue is set out such that you have to remove an anagram of “Ella” as well as the issue with the anagrind itself.
I needed a word finder for ETAGERES, but I shouldn’t have, as I’ve seen the word before in these puzzles. Otherwise, this was right in my Goldilocks zone.
Babbler @5: EDAMAME is just soybeans eaten whole as a snack. Japanese, obviously; as it’s Japanese, it’s a four-syllable word (i.e., the final E is not silent). They’re usually cooked and served in their (inedible) pods; you have to suck the beans out and then discard the pods. I have also seen them pre-shucked before serving, which does make them easier to eat (but, I think fans of them would argue, less fun). Some people find them tasty; I find them underwhelming.
Perhaps the lipogram is predicting our response to 9ac – Nope.
Well, we got it all unaided but agree that 9ac is not the answer to the clue – where was the editor? And there could surely be much better clues for ‘Gloucestershire’.
Sorry, Gozo, not our best solving experience – but thanks, loonapick, for the blog.
I found this a curious mix of top-class clues and absolute stinkers. Perhaps like MrP@10, this was in the zone where I needed some thought but it was very solvable
I ticked OHMS for its simplicity, SOCRATES for elegance, DVORAK for its mental image, WINNINGS for a great surface (and misleading ambiguity- innings could have been in), and REVOLUTION (so many false anagram indicators!).
Most of the stinkers on my list have been covered: D-DAY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, EDAMAME, ETAGERES and QUADRANGLE. I add FLORANTINE as a half-stinker, given how parochial it is.
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
Big Al@12: Alia clued GLOUCESTERSHIRE in Guardian no. 29,921 on 4 February: Part of the UK rioters trashed with such glee.
I enjoyed this! I had some problems with some clues, but not necessarily the same as others have mentioned. I was happy enough to accept GLOUCESTERSHIRE as home for the Avon lady, for instance. I did quibble over QUAD for prison, and the 1-3 for 9ac would have speeded things up, perhaps. I was confused by the clue for etageres, as I was not sure what purpose “the” served? It reads as well without it, and would have saved some time trying to find something out of “the stands”. It would have helped if I’d been aware of SERE=dry, of course, and the fruit was also new to me, but I can’t blame Gozo for that! I enjoyed a lot: ROGAN JOSH, GARDENER, EDAMAME, SOCRATES… I laughed at ELEVEN, mostly as I recently rewatched a sketch of Scotsmen in a voice-activated lift using that number.. well it made me laugh anyway…
Thanks GOZO n loonapick
11ac: I agree with Jack@9 that a single anagram indicator is sufficient when the mechanism of a subtractive anagram allows the rearrangement to be done before the subtraction. If the subtraction has to be done first, working from first principles suggests that an additional indicator is necessary if the letters to be removed are not in the correct order in the starting letter sequence, and a further indicator is required if the letters to be removed are not consecutive in that letter sequence. Both of these requirements seem to have become optional in many places these days.
Further to comment 16: having posted that comment has got my brain working. The instruction “remove ELLA from COLLARBONE and then rearrange the remaining letters” can only give one collection of letters to form the final anagram regardless of whether or not the letters of ELLA appear in that order and regardless of whether or not the letters of ELLA are consecutive in COLLARBONE. In this case we have only one A, one E, and two Ls, but even if there were more than the required number to remove, it cannot matter which ones we remove if we are to rearrange whatever is left. On that basis, I can support the notion that the additional indicators are not necessary in practice.
PB@17 An instruction to remove ELLA from COLLARBONE does not make sense, as the string of letters in ELLA does not appear in COLLARBONE. To be effective, the instruction must have effect to remove the letters comprised in the word ELLA from COLLARBONE.
In my view, in any case where the wordplay requires the letters in the word X to be removed from the word Y, and an anagram to be formed from the residue, it is necessary for a “subsidiary” anagram indicator to have effect in relation to X except where the letters comprised in X appear both in the right order and consecutively in Y. I accept, however, that it has become fairly common practice for the “consecutive” requirement to be waived. But ignoring the other requirement seems to me to be just sloppy.