Radian making a rare Saturday appearance with a puzzle that made a fool of me, twice!
Solving went well to begin with. I made a note: A dozen clues answered at the first pass. Later I realised there was at least one clue that I hadn’t read, symptomatic I suspect of the erratic nature of my solving.
When I solved 15d I wrote it in wrong – I swear I understood the wordplay, but wrote in INNKEEPER instead of BARKEEPER. I didn’t notice for ages. Eventually, when I only had a few unsolved, struggling with 14 and 17 I realised the problem and put it right.
Then I was stuck on the last one, 26, and what did I find – for 18d I had only gone a written in SWALLOW instead of SPARROW.
A silly brain-slip twice in one puzzle. Self-inflicted handicapping. Sheesh. I suppose I’d better start taking more water with it.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ABSOLVE | Mariner loves swimming free (7) AB (mariner) LOVES* AInd: swimming |
| 2 | MOIDORE | I provide extra bags for money (7) I DO (I provide) inside (bags, bagged by) MORE (extra) |
| 10 | KNOT | Granny perhaps seen reversing in Milton Keynes (4) Hidden reversed in milTON Keynes. First one in. Who hasn’t got themselves knotted up in the centres of MK |
| 11 | SAINT LUCIA | Insult a CIA operative somewhere in the Caribbean (5,5) (INSULT A CIA)* AInd: operative |
| 12 | PARROT | Queen books impersonator (6) PARR (Queen Katherine of that ilk) OT (books) |
| 13 | CAROLINE | Queen‘s 24 25 (8) Double def. Queen plus 24 25 = PIRATE RADIO Referring to the “with it” 60s radio station |
| 14 | BARBARISM | Insult a male teacher about disputed coinage (9) BARB (insult) A then (M,SIR)< reversed (about). In language, BARBARISM means use of words or syntax thought undesireably foreign |
| 16 | ROADS | Part of Norfolk denied British safe havens (5) [b]ROADS. |
| 17 | USURY | Huge interest from young at heart cutting American tracks (5) [yo]U[ng] inside US RY |
| 19 | OFFENSIVE | Rank old fellow, 5, clutching nuts (9) O[ld] F[ellow] FIVE (5) around ENS (nuts) NUT is a synonym for EN which is the average width of typeset characters |
| 23 | WATER-SKI | Train skater in West Indies to practise other sport (5-3) SKATER* AInd: train, inside W I (West Indies) |
| 24 | PIRATE | Start to palpitate seeing red Corsair (6) P[alpitate] IRATE (seeing red) |
| 26 | DROP ANCHOR | GP acquires rare old villa in moor (4,6) O[ld] PANCHO (ref. Pancho Villa) inside DR (GP) and R[are]. Last one in, not just for the reasons described in the preamble. Surely this is the trickiest clue in the puzzle. I found the wordplay by reverse engineering from the only possible answer fitting the crossing letters, and finally googling villa to discover the Mexican Revolutionary Wiki Link |
| 27 | DORY | Ordinary boring dull boat (4) O[rdinary] inside (boring) DRY (dull) |
| 28 | SWARMED | Flooded Somerset, say, ready for battle (7) SW (Somerset, say) ARMED (ready for battle) |
| 29 | MAROONS | Abandons fireworks (7) Double def |
| Down | ||
| 2 | BANDANA | Neckwear article seen in Hastings (7) AN (article) inside Hastings BANDA Wiki link PM and then President of Malawi |
| 3 | OTTER | Harry’s heading off swimmer (5) Harry [p]OTTER |
| 4 | VISITOR | Pose among 6 men for tourist (7) SIT (pose) inside VI (6) and OR (men) |
| 6 | OUTCRY | Court disputed jury’s conclusion, creating uproar (6) COURT* AInd: disputed, [jur]Y |
| 7 | DOUBLOONS | Entitle US divers to collect old money (9) DUB (entitle) LOONS (US divers) around (to collect) O[ld] |
| 8 | REIGNED | Was monarch left without son? (7) RE[s]IGNED |
| 9 | PIECES OF EIGHT | Parts of cargo missing French and Spanish coins (6,2,5) Pieaces of [FR]eight |
| 15 | BARKEEPER | Publican‘s dog holding European record (9) E[uropean] EP (record) in BARKER (dog) |
| 18 | SPARROW | Bird broadcast about salmon (7) PARR (salmon) inside SOW (broadcast) |
| 20 | EMPORIA | Raise outstanding capital, securing pawn shops (7) AI (outstanding) ROME (capital) around P[awn] all in reverse (raise) |
| 21 | VETERAN | Senior doctor managed to contain athlete’s foot (7) [athlet]E inside VET (doctor) and RAN (managed) |
| 22 | USANCE | American expert retains name for former employment (6) US, then N[ame] inside ACE (expert) |
| 25 | RADIO | Entering port, notice apparatus exploiting waves (5) A D (a D-notice) inside RIO (port) |
26a wasn’t the one I found hardest but it was my favourite amongst many great clues. DOUBLOONS was the one I found hardest. Thought VETERAN was also a fantastic clue. I failed to get MOIDORE, a new word for me. Learnt a fair bit in solving this one: didn’t know that meaning of ‘roads’ in 16a; didn’t know Banda Hastings; didn’t know ‘nut’ for ‘en’; didn’t know ‘loon’ was US term for diver bird. So thanks to Radian for the education and to beermagnet for the blog.
PS As a mathematician, I take ‘pieces of eight’ to be the same as ‘pieces of 2 by 4’ 🙂
I was thinking INNKEEPER but it resulted in a very strange type of dog.
Loved DROP ANCHOR.Some very neat cluing and entertaining blog!Ta!
Couldn’t get MOIDORE (new word) or BARBARISM (new meaning) and was mystified by ‘Hastings’ and ‘Villa’ – I was v. impressed that you worked them out. ‘Fireworks’ for MAROONS was also unknown, though the other half of the dd made the answer clear, as was ‘nut’ for EN.
Just a guess, but I wonder if 16a is &littish. Maybe the port of Norfolk in Virginia, situated on Hampton ROADS, denied the British fleet access, possibly after the War of Independence? Or maybe not.
Entertaining and instructional from setter and blogger. Who could ask for anything more. Thanks to both.
After writing that little mathematical ‘joke’ at the end of my last post, it reminded me of another one:
Q: What squawks “pieces of seven, pieces of seven”?
A: A parity error.
Thanks Radian and beermagnet
I had 25 as simply AD (notice) in RIO (port).
Good stuff that soundly beat me with a mixture of new words (8 for me in answers and clues) and cunningly hidden defs. Unfortunately I didn’t get enough in to see the theme (though did have pirate and parrot so perhaps should have), but thought it nicely done. Fave clue was 25d (parsed the same way as SS @5) for its deception and thematicish surface. Thanks to The Unit for the puzzle and to The Attractor for the amusing and enlightening blog.
Hovis @4 – nice work! 🙂
New words for me at 5&27a and a new synonym at 19a. Will I remember them – doubtful!
Very satisfied to complete this one and enjoyed the journey.
Top clues for me were 10a plus 7&9d.
Thanks to Radian and to beermagnet for the review.