This week’s Spectator is entitled Orbital and is set by Doc
There was a fairly short preamble that told us there is a total of 12 unclued lights in this puzzle, six appearing singly as normal, with the other six appearing as a duo in three longer solutions, and five of them are associated with 20. All are verified in Chambers.
The title made me think of moons or satellites fairly early on, and, pleasantly surprised, I found that was indeed the theme.
The clues fell fairly steadily this week, something that doesn’t happen for me with Spectator clues every week.
Some of the satellites I knew, like PHOBOS, TRITON, EUROPA, IO, NEREID and TITAN, but the other six, I had to do a bit of research on. All twelve are listed in the Major Planetary Satellites Appendix in printed copies of Chambers. They don’t all feature in the Dictionary section, nor can they be found in every app that holds words from Chambers.
The twelve orbital objects are shown below with the location of the entry and the name of the Planet each one orbits. As the preamble stated, five of them are associated with SATURN, the entry at 20 down. The three pairs were located at 39 across, 9 down and 13 down, as shown in the table below.
| Clue | Moon | Planet orbited |
| 17a | MIMAS | Saturn (1) |
| 19a | PHOBOS | Mars (1) |
| 22a | ENCELADUS | Saturn (2) |
| 34a | TRITON | Neptune (1) |
| 39a (1) | EUROPA | Jupiter (1) |
| 39a (2) | IO | Jupiter(2) |
| 6d | DEIMOS | Mars(2) |
| 9d (1) | NEREID | Neptune (2) |
| 9d (2) | TETHYS | Saturn (3) |
| 13d (1) | UMBRIEL | Uranus (1) |
| 13d (2) | TITAN | Saturn (4) |
| 28d | IAPETUS | Saturn (5) |
The wordplay was clear throughout. I wondered once a twice whether clues were &Lit where the whole clue acts as the definition, but I’m not an expert on the precise definition of such clues. A couple of times, the clue seemed to be simply a definition or cryptic definition – e.g. the clues for ANTECEDENT and PELLET.
Thanks to Doc for an enjoyable crossword.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 | Academic field considering conflicts making dispute cease (5,7)
PEACE STUDIES (an academic field focused on understanding the causes of conflict and developing strategies for sustainable, positive PEACE) – possibly the whole clue could be seen as the definition Anagram of (making) DISPUTE CEASE PEACE STUDIES* |
| 10 | Scottish stranger involved in gun control (4)
UNCO (Scottish word for stranger) UNCO (hidden word in [involved in] gUN COntrol) UNCO |
| 12 | Papal fruit (10)
CLEMENTINE (relating to one of the fourteen Popes named CLEMENT) CLEMENTINE (a type of orange, either a variety of tangerine or a hybrid of orange and tangerine) double definition CLEMENTINE |
| 14 | Mineral next to ash that’s on land (3)
ORE (a mineral aggregate) ashORE (on land), a word where ORE is found next to the letters spelling ASH ORE |
| 15 | On the air broadcast of Dexter Morgan, say (4-4)
ANTI-HERO (Dexter Morgan is a fictional character and the ANTI-HERO protagonist of the Dexter book series by the American author Jeff Lindsay, and the television series Dexter) Anagram of (broadcast) ON THE AIR ANTI-HERO* |
| 17 | MIMAS |
| 18 | Sea-cow moving east in spring (7)
EMANATE (originate; spring) MANATEE (a type of sea-cow) with one of the final two Es (East) moved to the front of the word (moving) to form EMANATE EMANATE |
| 19 | PHOBOS |
| 22 | Very small trench for two-thirds of some French potted meat (6)
RILLET (a little RILL [small trench], so very small trench) RILLETtes (a French type of potted meat made by simmering shreds of lean and fat pork, etc until crisp, and pounding them into a paste) using just the first six of the nine (two-thirds) letters to form RILLET RILLET |
| 24 | On reflection, TV chef was poorly (5)
AILED (was poorly) DELIA (reference DELIA Smith [born 1941], English cook and television presenter) reversed (on reflection) AILED< |
| 26 | Most condescending about 40 noises (9)
SNOOTIEST (most condescending) Anagram of (about) OTT (entry at 40 across) and NOISES SNOOTIEST* |
| 27 | ENCELADUS |
| 29 | Now and again Ilse Geisler will lose according to Spenser (5)
LEESE (Spenserian word for ‘lose’) LEESE (letters 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 [now and again] of ILsE gEiSlEr) LEESE |
| 31 | Rabbi has whip-round for garment (6)
CRAVAT (a formal neckerchief worn, especially by men, as an alternative to a tie; a garment) RAV (a Rabbi) contained in (has … around) CAT (whip [CAT-o’-nine-tails]) C (RAV) AT |
| 34 | TRITON |
| 36 | Cruel restless bird sitting in tavern (7)
INHUMAN (cruel) HUM (a fabulous restless bird) contained in (sitting in) INN (tavern) IN (HUMA) N |
| 38 | English Catholic taken in by my compassion (5)
MERCY (compassion for the unfortunate) (E [English] + RC [Roman Catholic]) contained in (taken in by) MY M (E RC) Y |
| 39 | EUROPAIO – two moons here, EUROPA and IO |
| 40 | Too much capital? Not half! (3)
OTT (over the top; too much) OTTawa (capital city of Canada) excluding the second three of six (half) letters awa OTT |
| 41 | The earlier phrase to which a pronoun refers (10)
ANTECEDENT (that which precedes in time, an earlier phrase, for example) ANTECEDENT (a noun or its equivalent to which a relative pronoun refers) double definition ANTECEDENT |
| 42 | Like some previous edition? (4)
USED (descriptive of a previous edition of a book, for example) USED (hidden word in [some] previoUS EDition) USED |
| 43 | South-eastern oryx bewildered and unworldly (12)
EXTRASENSORY (outside the ordinary senses; unworldly [?]) Anagram of (bewildered) S [South] and EASTERN ORYX EXTRASENSORY |
| Down | |
| 2 | Called up a very clear image about divine ones (10)
ENVISIONED (called up a very clear image in one’s mind) Anagram of (about) DIVINE ONES ENVISIONED* |
| 3 | Blimey, Alec capsized the boat (7)
CORACLE (a small oval rowing boat made by stretching hides over a wickerwork frame) COR (blimey, as in COR Blimey!) + an anagram of (capsized) ALEC COR ACLE* |
| 4 | Criticise swampy area in US (5)
SLASH (criticise very harshly) SLASH (in the United States—particularly in the South and East—a SLASH [often used in the plural, “slashes”] refers to a low, swampy area or tract of wet ground that is typically overgrown with bushes, trees, or brush) double definition SLASH |
| 5 | Cost of enclosure in almost rigid surroundings (3,6)
TEN POUNDS (an example of a cost) POUND (enclosure) contained in (in) TENSe (rigid) excluding the final letter (almost) E TEN (POUND) S |
| 6 | DEIMOS |
| 7 | From the Orient, numbers of old giants (5)
ETENS (archaic word (old) for giants) E (East; Orient) + TENS (numbers) E TENS |
| 8 | Could granny be a former England wicketkeeper, we’re told (4)
KNOT (a granny is a type of KNOT) KNOT (sounds like [could be] KNOTT [reference Alan KNOTT [born 1946], former Kent and England wicketkeeper) KNOT |
| 9 | NEREIDTETHYS – two moons here, NEREID and TETHYS |
| 11 | An old associate removed article from agreement (8)
COMPLICE (obsolete word for [old] an associate) COMPLIanCE (agreement) excluding (removed from) AN (an indefinite article) COMPLICE |
| 13 | UMBRIERLTITAN – two moons here, UMBRIEL and TITAN |
| 16 | Bit of sunshine right before a day’s end (3)
RAY (a bit of sunshine) R (right) + A + Y (last letter of [end] daY) R A Y |
| 19 | Certainly no big shot! (6)
PELLET (a small ball of shot) PELLET ( a cryptic definition that alludes to the contrast between the phrase ‘big shot’ [powerful person] and a PELLET being a very small piece of shot) PELLET |
| 20 | Heavenly body posed on vessel (6)
SATURN (a heavenly body) SAT (posed for an artist) + URN (a vessel for water) SAT URN |
| 21 | Her career’s ruined this investigator (10)
RESEARCHER (investigator) Anagram of (ruined) HER CAREER’S RESEARCHER* |
| 23 | Oddball neurotics’ states (9)
COUNTRIES (States) Anagram of (oddbal) NEUROTICS COUNTRIES* |
| 25 | France’s ecological party placing forest greenery in inferior surroundings (3,5)
LES VERTS (French for The Greens, France’s environmental political party) VERT (in forest law, all greenery in a forest that may serve as cover for deer) contained in (in … surroundings) LESS (inferior) LES (VERT) S |
| 28 | IAPETUS |
| 30 | Mad Men hero as medic’s mimic (6)
DRAPER (Dan DRAPER is an important fictional character in the TV series Mad Men) DR (doctor; medic) + APER (a mimic) DR APER |
| 32 | Village on Gare Loch or in River Humber (3)
RHU (a village, north west of Helensburgh on Gare Loch in Scotland) RHU (hidden word in [in] riveR HUmber) RHU |
| 33 | Rule out wrong aluminium thread (5)
LUREX (plastic-coated aluminium thread) Anagram of (out) RULE + X (a symbol to indicate that something is wrong) LURE* X |
| 35 | Invigorating air in Gozo? Never! (5)
OZONE (an allotropic form [O3] of oxygen present in the atmosphere, once regarded as health-giving; invigortating air) OZONE (hidden word in [in] gOZO NEver) OZONE |
| 37 | Goose on outside covers of news-magazine (4)
NENE (the Hawaiian goose) (NE and NE, the first two and last two letters (outside covers of) of NEws-magaziNE) NE NE |
Doc likes to make good use of the appendices in Chambers which I appreciate as there is a wealth of detail contained there. The iOS app does allow access to a pdf style document of appendices. I’m told users of Windows and Android apps are not as lucky.
Small typo in the blog … underlining of definition in 11d.
Enjoyed this one, thanks to Doc and duncanshiell.
Jay @ 1
Thanks – I’ve updated the blog to underline the right words