Radian has provided today’s puzzle, to take (guide?) us into the working week following the bank holiday.
I actually found this to be quite a tough puzzle, one that needed to be chipped away at and which revealed itself to me gradually, quadrant by quadrant. The SW quadrant proved to be the most stubborn of all. Interestingly, there is a something of an orienteering theme to this puzzle, with various entries referring to finding and losing one’s way, different kinds of maps, etc, with two pairs of across solutions even spelling out “Ordnance survey” and “compass bearing”.
My favourite clues today were 5, for surface reading; 7, for its amusing definition; and 8 and 17, both for hiding the container-and-contents device so well, at least from me! Incidentally, 14 was a new word for me.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | LAWSUIT | City clubs, for instance, hoard whiskey in case
W (=whiskey, in radio telecommunications) in [LA (=city, i.e. Los Angeles) + SUIT (=clubs, for instance, in cards)] |
| 05 | GET LOST | Souped-up car laps the French and the Spanish beat it!
[ET (=the French and, i.e. the French word for and) + LOS (=the Spanish, i.e. the Spanish word for the)] in GT (=souped-up car) |
| 10 | GAIA | Goddess showing gravitas now and then
G<r>A<v>I<t>A<s>; “now and then” means alternate letters only are used |
| 11 | SCRUTINEER | He overseas count in small vineyard, entire supply
S (=small) + CRU (=vineyard) + *(ENTIRE); “supply”, i.e. flexibly, is anagram indicator |
| 12 | LEGEND | What banks do to protect, say, name
E.G. (=say, for example) in LEND (=what banks do) |
| 13 | DALLIERS | Dutch colleagues arrest Republican time-wasters
D (=Dutch) + [R (=Republican) in ALLIES (=colleagues)] |
| 14 | WAYMARKED | Consider, say, putting vessel in sea with signposts
Homophone (“say”) of “weigh” (=consider) + [ARK (=vessel) in MED (=sea, i.e. Mediterranean)] |
| 16 | GUIDE | European pursues good Scottish pilot
GUID (=good Scottish, i.e. a Scottish dialect form of “good”) + E (=European) |
| 17 | STAVE | Staff taking time to rescue seals
T (=time) in SAVE (=rescue) |
| 19 | SESAME OIL | Ground preserves last of the identical plant extract
[<th>E (“last of” means last letter only) + SAME (=identical)] in SOIL (=ground) |
| 23 | ORDNANCE | One gets out of Fiat to find shells perhaps
ORD<i>NANCE (=fiat, edict, decree); “one (=I) gets out of” means letter “i” is dropped |
| 24 | SURVEY | View county sacrificing runs for victory
SURREY (=county, of England); “sacrificing runs (=R) for victory (=V)” means a letter “r” is replaced by letter “v” |
| 26 | UN-AMERICAN | Woman and husband seize chap, contrary to US aims
ERIC (=chap, i.e. a male forename) in [UNA (=woman, i.e. a female forename) + MAN (=husband)] |
| 27 | LAIR | Somewhere to hide Arab bread on the turn
RIAL (=Arab “bread”, i.e. currency in various Arab countries); “on the turn” indicates reversal |
| 28 | COMPASS | Pity missing one on range
COMPASS<ion> (=pity); “missing one (=I) + on” means letters “ion” are dropped |
| 29 | BEARING | What’s the relevance of // carriage?
Double definition: to have no bearing on = to have no relevance to AND bearing = carriage, deportment |
| Down | ||
| 02 | ALAMEDA | A weak old man’s walk in Madrid
A + LAME (=weak) + DA (=old man, i.e. father); an alameda is a tree-lined walkway, especially one between poplars (álamos in Spanish, hence in Madrid) |
| 03 | SCALE | Cold beer needed after second climb
S (=second) + C (=cold, as on tap) + ALE (=beer) |
| 04 | INSIDER | Such trading is illegal in drink, I’ve heard
IN + homophone (“I’ve heard”) of “cider” (=drink) |
| 06 | EXTOLS | Raves about old implements, discarding nothing
EX- (=old) + TO<o>LS (=implements; “discarding nothing (=O)” means letter “o” is dropped) |
| 07 | LONGITUDE | Line with a pole at each end led outing astray
*(LED OUTING); “astray” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | STEERED | Conducted Horse Guards about
RE (=about, regarding) in STEED (=horse) |
| 09 | GRID REFERENCE | Coordinates good testimonial about one medic
G (=good) + {[I (=one) + DR (=medic, i.e. doctor)] in REFERENCE (=testimonial)]} |
| 15 | MOVING MAP | Mobile GPS system affecting Mike apparently
MOVING (=affecting, i.e. emotionally) + M (=Mike, in radio telecommunications) + AP (=apparently); a moving map is one in which the navigation unit’s current location is always at the centre of the map |
| 18 | TORONTO | In two minds about duck taking to city
[O (=duck, i.e. a zero score) in TORN (=in two minds, undecided)] + TO |
| 20 | ABSENCE | Lack something to make one conspicuous?
An absentee can be conspicuous by his absence, as the saying goes! |
| 21 | IBERIAN | Resident of Tomsk snubs top man from Toledo maybe
<s>IBERIAN (=resident of Tomsk); “snubs top” means first letter is dropped; since Toledo is in Spain, someone from there is an Iberian |
| 22 | SNARES | Poles live on special gins
S N (=poles, i.e. South and North) + ARE (=live, exist) + S (=special) |
I counted 13 clues on a map-reading theme and once I’d got the crossing grid-reference and compass-bearing I have to say it made the second-phase solve much quicker.
LONGITUDE was definitely a favourite.
Nice puzzle, thanks to Radian RatkojaRiku.
The usual Tuesday Indy theme is something to look forward to and I liked this one. Missed WAYMARKED (‘ear’ for ‘Consider, say’ was a bit of a stretch in retrospect) but otherwise nothing too unusual and the theme did help. I liked the ‘relevance of carriage’ clue for BEARING and the surface for TORONTO.
Thanks to Radian and RatkojaRiku
Thanks, RR, for the blog – and for pointing out the theme, which passed me by, I’m afraid.
I go along with your favourites, with the addition of 23ac.
WAYMARKED was familiar to me, since I am a bit of a rambler [although I missed the theme – but I’m one who goes by the book: ‘turn left by the big oak tree and over the stile, then over the next three fields following the waymarkers’, rather than following grid references.
Wordplodder @2 re your comment: I wonder if you had this as EARMARKED [as I momentarily did]: as RR has it in the blog, ‘consider, say’ = ‘weigh’, not ‘ear’.
Many thanks to Radian for a most enjoyable puzzle, as ever.
Hello Eileen @3,
Yes, I mistakenly entered ‘earmarked’, having deluded myself that somehow ‘Consider, say’ could be made to = ‘ear’, though that was wrong of course. Still, better than ‘earmurned’, my original (very original!) answer.
Neat themed puzzle, most enjoyable. Thanks!
Definitely a two-session puzzle, and one of four corners as well. My first session gave me most of the NW and SE corners, then returning later I realised that 26ac was UN-AMERICAN and the rest of the SW corner followed slowly, and similarly SCRUTINEER helped me finish in the NE corner.
But with all the themed answers 5ac would seem an unlikely outcome!
Some superb clues; I especially liked LEGEND, STAVE and SNARES.
Thanks, Radian and RatkojaRiku
Everyone (except the one who commented @42) appears to be ‘himmelhoch jauchzend‘ about Tramp’s crossword at the other place.
For me, though, Radian was the one to go for today.
Relatively hard to get started but no problem to finish it [just like the previous speaker in two sessions].
I saw the theme only hours (!) after completing the crossword.
Compass bearing & Ordnance Survey.
Very satisfying to have a ghost theme as an added bonus.
Just like Eileen I was familiar with WAYMARKED (14ac), for the same reason she gives.
At an early stage I considered ‘waymarker’ but then put it on hold.
Nice the way Radian clued ORDNANCE.
Using a well-known construction while throwing in some original ideas [Fiat, for example, which made me wonder whether there would be an ‘uno’ in there].
In 22d I initially thought of BEINGS (BE + GINS*) – Poles are, aren’t they?
Anyway, another really good puzzle from Radian.
[that said, a bit odd to see how he played around with ‘reference’ in 9d]
Many thanks to RR.
Found this difficult to get into and in the end it defeated me. Still about half to do and I’ve run out of time.