Another brilliant puzzle from Brendan, where (no spoiler alert needed, I think) almost every clue contains a reference to doubling of some kind…
… two exceptions being those for 13a and 8d, where the answer begins with DOUBLE, followed by [a]CROSS and DOWN. Very nice indeed – thanks to Brendan.
| Across | ||||||||
| 5 | TAHITI | That island repeatedly disturbed this island (6) Anagram of THAT + twice I[sland] |
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| 6 | DEALER | Person distributing shares is fraudster if doubly so (6) A fraudster is a double dealer |
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| 9 | COLORADO | Shade in US area, with same again for state (8) COLOR (US spelling of colour, shade) + A[rea] + DO (ditto, the same again) |
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| 10 | PAWPAW | More than once, clumsily handle fruit (6) PAW (handle clumsily) twice |
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| 11 | POOH | Bear what is ridicule if repeated (4) Winnie the Pooh, and to ridicule is to pooh-pooh |
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| 12 | SUBSECTION | Replacement notices changed as one result of twice dividing (10) SUB (substitute, replacement) + NOTICES* |
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| 13 | DOUBLE-CROSS | Cheat producing score in old notation (6-5) A score is 20, which is XX (two crosses) in Roman numerals, an “old notation” |
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| 18 | BADEN BADEN | Initially beat a retreat, then once more in German town (5-5) B[eat] A DEN (retreat), twice |
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| 21 | GROW | Good argument for double, for example (4) G + ROW – doubling in size would be an example of growing |
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| 22 | BETRAY | Reveal 13 (6) Double definition |
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| 23 | WITTIEST | With it in audition, one most like to make others double up (8) W[ith] + IT + I (one) in TEST (audition) |
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| 24 | SAUNAS | Continent reflected about multinational group in hot spots (6) UN (international group) in SA (South America) and its “reflection” |
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| 25 | RINGER | Doppelgänger translated from writer in German (6) Hidden in writeR IN GERman |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | CHOO-CHOO | Train – train endlessly, train endlessly (4-4) SCHOOL without its “ends”, twice |
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| 2 | STRAPS | Secures in carriage, sandwiched between twin sons (6) TRAP (a horse-drawn carriage) in two S[on]s |
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| 3 | REAPPEAR | Once more show up a rep being doubly wrong (8) Two different anagrams of A REP |
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| 4 | BLEW IT | Lost opportunity in double withdrawal (4,2) Hidden in douBLE WIThdrawal |
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| 5 | TOO-TOO | Moreover, encored excessively (3-3) TOO (moreover) twice; “excessively” as in Hamlet’s “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,” though that doesn’t use a hyphen |
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| 7 | REASON | Indication of ‘again’ verbally supported by a boy, and why (6) RE (as a prefix, an indication of “again”) + A SON |
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| 8 | DOUBLED DOWN | Reaffirmed commitment, thus made pillow much softer (7,4) If you double the amount of down in a pillow then it would be softer |
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| 14 | BOB DYLAN | Nobel Laureate who lyrically discouraged doublethink (3,5) A reference to the 1962 Bob Dylan song “Don’t think twice, it’s all right”, which was the B side of “Blowin’ in the Wind” |
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| 15 | SIGNINGS | New members of team reorganised Sing Sing (8) (SING SING)* |
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| 16 | PAPERS | Guardian etc. added section about double (6) APER (a copier, double) is PS (postscript, added section) |
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| 17 | MOUSER | Second person on computer is chasing kitty (6) MO (moment, second) + USER (person on computer), giving a cat that chases mice |
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| 19 | EARFUL | Reprimand making one sad or scared, losing head – it’s even worse in stereo? (6) A headless TEARFUL or FEARFUL – not sure about the “worse in stereo” bit |
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| 20 | NITWIT | Silly ass – it follows direction repeatedly (6) N (direction) + IT + W (another direction) + IT |
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Thanks Brendan and Andrew
Yes, very clever, but also rather tedious – much more fun to set than solve, I think.
I did like MOUSER.
I wondered if the in stereo in 19dn might be a homophone indicator and earful might become awful. It’s a stretch!
Yes, lots of fun. Couldn’t parse PAPERS, but a bit of a tour de force. Many thanks to B & A.
Enjoyable puzzle. Great blog.
Thanks Brendan and Andrew.
REASON
‘verbally’ because ‘re’ basically modifies a verb?
EARFUL
Does ‘stereo’ indicate twice of EARFUL (whimsically)?
Like muffin@1, I was left indifferent towards this, despite the cleverness. Perhaps it was too soon after the last Brendan pan-theme, but whereas the trees one didn’t interfere greatly with the clueing in that prize puzzle, here I felt the puzzle suffered to the point that I found parts of it tedious and forced.
That said, DOUBLE-CROSS was excellent and I’m kicking myself for failing to parse it, and I also didn’t twig the DOUBLE-CROSS / DOUBLED DOWN relevance to crosswording, which in hindsight was probably the neatest part of it all.
I assume the reference in EARFUL is that two earfuls simultaneously would be stereo. I don’t see what “verbally” is doing in REASON.
Cheers to Brendan for the effort, and to Andrew for the blog.
Couldn’t miss the theme, which helped with the solving, making it perhaps a bit too easy.
I did have the thought that DOUBLED DOWN in a pillow wouldn’t make it softer if it was already stuffed full.
Favourites COLORADO, MOUSER.
Thanks Andrew and Brendan.
For Goodness’ sake … I can understand the setters who choose not to read the blogs. Were I Brendan, how disappointing I would find comment #1. Could you not have waited a bit, muffin, so at least the snipe would have appeared a little further down the page? I could not disagree with you more. A masterclass in pretty much every aspect of the setter’s art – from grid selection, to choice and positioning of solutions, to the brilliant cluing. And it would have taken a long time to make all that fit together so, no, not a question of easier/more fun for the setter. Chapeau to Brendan; an absolute tour de force.
Thanks to both
Brendan sometimes reminds me of a precocious student who rather than just write the set essay, completes it in pig Latin, backwards
Individually there were some good clues here but as a whole the pudding felt somewhat over-egged
I’ll leave others to marvel at his brilliance
Cheers A&B
I’ve heard the phrase ‘double earful’ to mean a severe scolding, such as the manager of a football team might deliver to an underperforming team during the half-time interval.
I thought it was brilliant too – and really enjoyable seeing how many ways Brendan had included the theme in the clues and solutions.
I read EARFUL as AP @5 – getting an earful in both ears would be doubly bad. (and when/if the comment above appears, it was on hold for approval when I typed this>)
Thank you to Brendan and Andrew
Even though it was pretty obvious what was going on with the doubling up effect it took me a while to get on Brendan’s wavelength. Such that I was tending to (successfully each time) guess what the solution might me, but puzzled by the exact clueing, hitting the Reveal button. Certainly with CHOO CHOO and TOO TOO. And at one point, with DOUBLE CROSS in place and Y already in at the tail end of 22ac I impetuously dashed in Twenty there. As in XX representing the Roman numerals. However, having said all that, great ingenuity as ever from this wonderful setter, with Andrew explaining everything so concisely…
A third of the way through I started to feel the theme was becoming a bit forced/joyless but was won back over by the quality and variety of the remainder of the clues and finished thinking it was a lovely puzzle. Thanks.
I’m with you @ Postmark #7.
I don’t want to carp, but I also felt that this puzzle was a bit too clever for its own good. A tour de force but some contrived clues. I enjoyed the solve so won’t complain.
I failed to parse WITTIEST and DOUBLE CROSS but they were obvious answers. I had a smile over BOB DYLAN and the song reference. Favourite DOUBLED DOWN. Incidentally I recently discovered that this widely used phrase comes from the casino game Blackjack.
I can add nothing to Postmark’s comment @7, apart from the usual thanks to Brendan and to Andrew (I’m glad it was you blogging.)
We’re in the ” thoroughly enjoyed it” group, marvelling at the ingenuity therein.
Thanks Brendan! Always happy to see your name at the top of a puzzle
I’ll add myself to the ‘this was brilliant’ camp.
I really enjoyed this – not only the way Brendan slipped a theme into every clue but also the way he managed self-referential across and down clues which crossed in the centre, doubling the cleverness. I much prefer this kind of theme to, say, finding the names of works by a Bolivian poet or three thousand different meanings of the word “book”. It’s like a fugue or a cannon – the composer sets themselves a limitation and then works around and outside that to surprise and delight. That’s just me though – clearly others didn’t enjoy as much.
Thank you Andrew and Brendan.
I’m amazed Brendan has copped so much flak. This was one of the most fun crosswords ever, IMO
Brilliant puzzle, so playful and witty – fully agree with Postmark@7 et al. Many thanks to Brendan, and to Andrew for the blog, I needed help with parsing 16 down.
“Brilliant” was my thinking too. Boy, do I love a Brendan!
The double-(a)cross and double-down went over my head and was the cherry on top. So thank you Andrew for highlighting that and thank you Brendan for yet another wonderful puzzle! (Or is that yapelzzu? 😉 )
Brendan’s ingenuity never fails to amaze me. Every puzzle is a work of art.
My thanks to him and to Andrew.
Interesting theme of doublings but I found this quite tricky to solve and it was hard or impossible to parse all my answers.
Favourites: BOB DYLAN (don’t think twice); DEALER.
I could not parse 13ac, 1d, 5d, 16d, 17d as well as 9ac DO = same again.