Arguably the best Gemelo yet, with devices that do not just display the setter’s ingenuity but also challenge the solver.
Azed of course used occasionally to give us Spooner-themed puzzles, but here Gemelo has twinned that device with another. As he explained in the preamble “In half of the clues the definition has been Spoonerised; in the other half the wordplay replaces at least one spelled-out letter with the letter itself (e.g. if wordplay gives LAYR then the answer to enter would be LAWYER, as WYE=Y”. In practice, the wordplay was not as tricky as the example might suggest, with most examples simply being the usual phonetic spelling of the letters in question.
I certainly found this puzzle challenging, particularly parsing some of the Letter clues, and as usual look to you for suggestions. Some of the Spoonerisms may raise an eyebrow (can I hear the phrase “rhotic R” being used, I wonder?) but for the most part they were perfectly fair.
P.S. I had the pleasure of meeting Gemelo (Colin Thomas) at the event held at The Observer’s offices this week to celebrate the centenary of the publication of the first crossword in the newspaper. This film was shown to those present, who included many well-known crossword setters and editors, including Azed (Jonathan Crowther), Alan Connor (Everyman and crossword editor of The Guardian), Mick Hodgkin (puzzles editor at The Times), and John Henderson (Enigmatist, Io and crossword editor of the i newspaper).
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | KADAITCHA |
Old soul had to play one of the Australian Avengers (9)
|
| KA (old soul) *HAD (with the H replaced by “AITCH”). | ||
| 10 | A PEEPE OUT |
Drunk about to lose book for university course (9, 3 words)
|
| A(b)OUT around PPE (university course) with the first P spelled as PEE. It’s a Shakespearean spelling of “pip” and refers to an old card game: the meaning “drunk” seems to be a metaphorical allusion to one who has too many pips. | ||
| 11 | SAE |
As for Balmoral, it’s steady with a ramp (3)
|
| Double definition, with a Spoonerism of “ready with a stamp”. | ||
| 12 | YEAST |
Be part of Keir Starmer’s top two after affirmative vote (5)
|
| YEA (affirmative vote) ST(armer); it’s a Spoonerism of “key part of beer”. | ||
| 14 | CUESTA |
Hill ridge stone featuring in Q&A (6)
|
| ST(one) inside CUE (a homophone of Q) and A. | ||
| 15 | SPOUSE |
Wash around head of pony, one that’s itched at the halter? (6)
|
| P(ony) inside SOUSE (wash); a Spoonerism of “hitched at the altar”. | ||
| 17 | TETHYS |
Heartless, stealthy criminal sold E (6)
|
| *STE(al)THY; a Spoonerism of “old sea”. | ||
| 18 | OUNCE |
Pinks in last frames of uncommon challenge with nothing in front (5)
|
| O (nothing) in front of U(ncommo)N C(halleng)E (frames, or outer letters, of those two words). A Spoonerism of “lynx in past”; I spent some time looking for “links”. | ||
| 19 | INDEX NUMBERS |
At first Montgomery Burns nixed unusual stats showing relative movement (12, 2 words)
|
| *(M(ontgomery) BURNS NIXED), with the M shown as EM (or one of the Ns shown as EN). | ||
| 21 | AND THAT’S THAT |
Nothing saw to May, somehow seated at ten with Heath lacking any energy (12, 3 words)
|
| *(SEATED AT TEN HEATH) with all the instances of the letter E being removed. A Spoonerism of “nothing more to say”. | ||
| 23 | MERIT |
Malta flag put over wee berth (5)
|
| M(alta) TIRE (flag) (all rev). A Spoonerism of “be worth”. | ||
| 24 | TRENDY |
Essay carrying no date with it (6)
|
| ND (no date) inside TRY (essay) with the N spelled as EN. | ||
| 26 | OCCURS |
Overcharge copper, ultimately, whatever this earns tout (6)
|
| OC (overcharge) CU (copper) last (ultimate) letters of whateveR thiS. A Spoonerism of “turns out”. I can’t find anything in Chambers to justify OC as an abbreviation for “overcharge”, although of course O can represent “over”. | ||
| 28 | ISOBAR |
Boris shifted line on map (6)
|
| *BORIS, with the letter R represented as AR. | ||
| 30 | CADEE |
Rogue messenger once seen in Scottish town (5)
|
| Rogue = cad, with the D written as DEE. | ||
| 31 | SEL |
Largely cunning personality from Holyrood (3)
|
| SL(y); with L written as EL. | ||
| 32 | PRECONIZE |
Lie a crowd once confused with prize (9)
|
| *(ONCE PRIZE); a Spoonerism of “cry aloud”. | ||
| 33 | MUSKETEER |
Welsh river crossed by predominantly underground soldier (9)
|
| USK (Welsh river) inside MET R (Metropolitan Railway, a predominantly underground railway, with the T spelled as TEE). There may be a better parsing than this: one problem is that (according to one estimate) 86% of the Metropolitan Line on the London Underground is in fact above ground. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | KAYS |
Kansas landing-places of old (4)
|
| A phonetic representation of KS, an abbreviation for Kansas. | ||
| 2 | DEALT |
Old doubt about cutting shoulder muscle (5)
|
| A(bout) inside DELT (shoulder muscle); a Spoonerism of “doled out”. | ||
| 3 | AESTHETIC |
Elegant white wine passed round the clubs (9)
|
| THE inside ASTI (white wine), C(lubs) with S spelled as ES. | ||
| 4 | TEMPS |
Transcendental meditation, I should add, works for a while (5)
|
| TM (transcendental meditation, with M written as EM); P.S. (I should add). | ||
| 5 | COCONUT |
What bums in a County Court, framing South African man about scam (7)
|
| CON (scam) inside OU (South African man) all inside CT (court). A Spoonerism of “what comes in a Bounty”. Other confectionery bars are also available. | ||
| 6 | ATE |
Goddess damned crown (3)
|
| Double definition, with the second being a Spoonerism of “crammed down”. | ||
| 7 | ESSENE |
Fraternity member once cycling round loch (6)
|
| (loch) NESS, with the last two letters cycled to the front and the first S spelled as ES, and the N as EN. | ||
| 8 | CATS-CRADLE |
Lord is cooped in this castle abroad, with Austen hero briefly returning to visit (10)
|
| DARC(y) (Austen hero, rev) inside *CASTLE. A Spoonerism of “cord is looped”. | ||
| 9 | NEAREST |
Horribly stern and extremely tight (7)
|
| *STERN,with the R written as AR and the N as EN. | ||
| 13 | EVENNESSES |
Uniform qualities serving NHS, as is regularly observed (10)
|
| Alternate (regular) letters of ” sErViNg NhS aS iS” with the first N written as EN, and the first and last S as ES. | ||
| 16 | SUBTENANT |
Stand-in worker perhaps supporting tradename, one with extended line of letters? (9)
|
| ANT (worker) under (supporting) TN (tradename) under SUB (stand-in) with the first N written as EN. The definition is a little whimsical, equating one who lets out property with a letter. | ||
| 19 | IAMBIST |
One’s restaurant discarding skin from radicchio bought of salad monger? (7)
|
| I AM (one’s) BIST(ro) (discarding skin of RadicchiO); a Spoonerism of “sort of ballad monger”. | ||
| 20 | NATURES |
Characters in ancient city found within nanoseconds (7)
|
| AT UR (in ancient city) inside NS (nanoseconds, with the S written as ES). I found this difficult to parse. | ||
| 22 | DROOLS |
Crows shaving wings in danger of owls losing weight (6)
|
| D(ange)R (wings in DangeR) O(f) O(w)LS (losing weight). A Spoonerism of “shows craving”. | ||
| 24 | TRICK |
Take in second habit from a rat? (5)
|
| R (take, from the Latin recipe) inside TICK (a second). A Spoonerism of “rabbit from a hat”. | ||
| 25 | NUDIE |
Boeing people share new speed for signalling – without British Airways, that is (5)
|
| N(ew) (ba)UD IE. A baud is a unit of signalling speed. A Spoonerism of “showing people bare”. | ||
| 27 | VEER |
Victoria to change course (4)
|
| VEE (the letter V) R, as in VR, or Victoria Regina. | ||
| 29 | BPM |
Base of Pete’s letters pursuing AOL (3)
|
| Letters following A O and L in the alphabet; a Spoonerism of “pace of beats”. This is the abbreviation referred to in the notes. |
O/C is in Chambers for overcharge.
I had USK inside METR[O] (which is underground, minus last letter “predominantly”), TEE spelled out.
Fun and challenging.
I really enjoyed solving this puzzle, but I always expect to enjoy solving a puzzle with non-standard clues. In most of the Spoonerism clues I was able to guess the Spoonerism even if I couldn’t see what the answer was, but I only worked out ‘Old doubt’ and ‘damned crown’ after understanding the rest of the clue. I liked the unlikely EVNNSSS in 13d, but I think I am unlikely to ever use the word, and having to remove every E to make the anagram in 21a.
I was a little disappointed that some of the spelled out letter appeared so often, but I thought it probably was hard enough to make sure half of the answers contained at least one while the other half have a Spoonerisable definition. I worked out KADAITCHA pretty near the end, even though I had been hoping for an AITCH to appear somewhere. The last clue I solved was 10a, where even after I understood the wordplay it took me a while to remember PPE (which I think I only have only seen in crosswords in this sense, but have heard very often in another) and then A PEEPE OUT seemed to be the only possible way of dividing it into three words, but it seemed so unlikely that I spent some time trying to come up with something better before giving up and looking in Chambers.
In my interpretation of the instructions, in the Letter clues the wordplay leads to a sequence of letters and then answer is formed by spelling out some of these letters, but the spelled out letters appear intact in the answer. So in 19a the wordplay leads to INDXNUMBERS and then X becomes EX, and in 9d the wordplay gives NERST and then R and S become AR and ES.
I had the same explanations as Cineraria@1.
Thanks, bridgesong and Gemelo.