It is not often that you get clue numbers over 40 in a 15×15 blocked grid so something must be going on.
It certainly is! Simply a-Maize-ing, the Indy brings in the New Year on a new high – a quintuple pangram – I’ve not seen one of those before!
Moreover, there were some excellent and succinct clues, which I only fully appreciated when reading them again whilst writing this blog. I encourage you to go back through them to savour what you might have missed during your solve.
Many thanks to Maize for an explosive start to the New Year. It was certainly up there with the pyrotechnics at midnight (not that I saw them, I was asleep at the time).
Across
1 Sovereign’s foremost sycophant and follower (5)
SHEEP – S[overeign] (sovereign’s foremost) HEEP (sycophant)
6 Place to show flesh wound (5)
SHELF – an anagram (wound) of FLESH
9 Carbon undergoes 95% reduction in pH? Much enthusiasm results (7)
AVIDITY – AcIDITY (pH) with the c (carbon) reduced by 95% to V
10 Quits rugby match after kick-off (5)
EVENS – [s]EVENS (rugby match after kick-off)
11 Inventive musician‘s remote control sound (5)
ZAPPA – sounds like (sound) ‘zapper’ (remote control)
12 Shrill, short, dumpy women going to Kentucky (7)
SQUAWKY – SQUA[t] (short, dumpy) W (women) KY (Kentucky)
13 Test edges of the site for Norman castle (5)
MOTTE – MOT (test) T[h]E (edges of the)
15 Manage to obtain case of bubbly (3,2)
GET BY – GET (to obtain) B[ubbl]Y (case of bubbly)
17 Gorgeous quality of rugby forwards? (7)
SCRUMMY – def. plus cryptic indicator
21 Mock judge rehears regularly (4)
JEER – J (judge) [r]E[h]E[a]R[s] (rehears regularly)
23 Returning Zulus provided sparkle (4)
FIZZ – Z Z (Zulus) IF (provided) reversed (returning)
24 Crewe or Palace? (9)
ALEXANDRA – double def. – the football team and the palace
25 Trip of a lifetime hampered at first by a couple of jokers (4)
HAJJ – H[ampered] (hampered at first) A J J (a couple of jokers)
26 Personal problem during kisses – a teenage obsession? (4)
XBOX – BO (personal problem) in (during) X X (kisses)
27 Politician tucked into battered cod; he ate with gusto (7)
CHOMPED – MP (politician) in (tucked into) an anagram (battered) of COD HE
31 Heave do-gooder away from time in prison (5)
RETCH – [st]RETCH (do-gooder away from time in prison)
33 Yoko, feeling frisky, starts intermittent type of relationship (2-3)
ON-OFF – ONO (Yoko) plus initial letters (starts) of F[eeling] F[risky]
36 Neglected her, in comparison to hero? (7)
UNLOVED – def. plus cryptic indicator – ‘her’ is ‘hero’ without the O (love)
37 Fast / living (5)
QUICK – double def.
38 King guarded by not entirely moral servant in Shakespeare play (5)
GOBBO – B B (King) in (guarded by) GOO[d] (not entirely moral) – a servant in The Merchant of Venice
39 Korea: both its sides fancy a sing-along (7)
KARAOKE – an anagram (fancy) of KOREA K[ore]A (both its sides)
40 Port a queen and a bishop accepted (5)
AQABA – A Q (queen) A B (bishop) A (accepted)
41 Cut short time being married (5)
MOWED – MO (short time) WED (being married)
Down
1 Fertiliser‘s as per manure ingredients (5)
SPERM – contained in (ingredients) ‘aS PER Manure’
2 Boxing clubs with English fighter possibly cast out (5)
EJECT – C (clubs) in (boxing … with) E (English) JET (fighter possibly)
3 Gets through piano grade – almost (6)
PASSES – P (piano) ASSES[s] (grade – almost)
4 Perhaps Scotch would be sweet if on the rocks? (6)
LIQUOR – def. and cryptic indicator – if you add ice (on the rocks) to the entry you get a type of sweet
5 Rook escapes heat under new thatch shelter (6)
WIGWAM – WA[r]M (rook escapes heat) under WIG (new thatch)
6 Why doing my quiz nearly always ends up in an astronomic row (6)
SYZZGY – [wh]Y [doin]G [m]Y [qui]Z [nearl]Y [alway]S (why doing my quiz nearly always ends) reversed (up)
7 Old deposit in field, one overseas (2-3)
EX-PAT – EX (old) PAT (deposit in field)
8 A thousand on board jet making it unstable (5)
FLAKY – A K (a thousand) in (on board) FLY (jet)
14 Knit or weave to illustrate cow (7)
OVERAWE – an anagram (knit) of OR WEAVE
16 Fly like a silent bee? (4,3)
BUZZ OFF – def. plus cryptic indicator
18 Dictator’s police republic? (5)
CZECH – sounds like (dictator’s) ‘check’ (police)
19 Branch of body set up after war to remove weapons (5)
UNARM – UN (body set up after war) ARM (branch of) – with an extended def.
20 Pest from central Georgia (5)
MIDGE – MID (central) GE (Georgia {the country not the state})
22 Raise a drink to old-style government (3)
RAJ – JAR (a drink) reversed (raise)
23 Note by message relay system (3)
FAX – FA (note) X (by)
27 Outspoken tosser’s part in polo match (6)
CHUKKA – sounds like (outspoken) ‘chucker’ (tosser)
28 Lower Year gets high room in Hogwarts (6)
OWLERY – an anagram (gets high) of LOWER Y
29 Dog trainer’s dad returning car with boot scratched (6)
PAVLOV – PA (dad) plus VOLV[o] (car with boot scratched) reversed (returning)
30 Part of the attraction when fair people bump into each other (6)
DODGEM – cryptic def.
31 Former Isis stronghold split between Iraq and Qatar (5)
RAQQA – [i]RAQ QA[tar]
32 Broadcast of Siberian native in his natural environment (5)
TAIGA – sounds like (broadcast of) ‘tiger’ (Siberian native)
34 Take too much off boxwood sculpted harness piece (2-3)
OX-BOW – an anagram (sculpted) of BOXWO[od] – remove (take … off) od (too much {overdose}) before forming the anagram
35 Crossing round head of jungle’s inlet (5)
FJORD – FORD (crossing) around (round) J[ungle] (head of jungle)
Pyrotechnics indeed. Even the theme-blind like me must have suspected something going on. I’m sure this one will elicit much praise from fellow setters for its achievement, but from a solver’s point of view it was interesting too. And not that difficult, helped of course by the heavily intersected grid.
Well done, Maize and thanks to Gaufrid for blogging.
Great achievement to work in the quintuple pangram and some good clues such as AVIDITY, WIGWAM and the surface for CHUKKA to add further enjoyment for us ever so ‘umble solvers.
One to remember to start off 2018.
Thanks to Maize and Gaufrid and a happy New Year to all.
Today is the day that I tot up the statistics I keep on the
1100 or so crosswords that I did during 2017, rated for difficulty and quality.
It is no surprise to find that the seven offerings from Maize were, by far, the
most enjoyable of my crossword year.
What an incredible start to the new year. Not only is it a quintuple
pangram but the letters are remarkably equally distributed. By my reckoning, 20
letters occur exactly 5 times. As usual, Maize achieves this with no real obscurities
amongst the answers.
A real humdinger to start the new year; follow that, anybody – if you can! Of course, towards the end, once we realised we must be heading for a quintuple pangram, filling in the few remaining answers became almost like finishing a jigsaw puzzle – “what letters are we short of and where do they go?”
Not that that detracts from the superb achievement. Impossible to nominate a CoD, and we’re not even going to quibble about the enumeration of one answer.
Thanks, Maize and Gaufrid – and a Happy New Year to all, especially any who missed our greeting yesterday.
An AMaizeing achievement indeed. Not even too difficult for the most part, though there were a couple of unfamiliars I had to look up.
Nice to see some FIZZ — very appropriate. I laughed at the outspoken tosser of CHUKKA, and DODGEM impressed me as a totally brilliant cd.
A cracking start to the year. Thanks to Maize and Gaufrid, and all the best for 2018 and beyond to all.
Why do a pentapangram? Because it’s there, as someone once said.
Many thanks to Eccles and Dutch for encouragement in the process of putting it together, and to Eimi for allowing a puzzle with a fairly preposterous 46 clues.
Although a ‘hexa’ would doubtless be impossible in a 15 x 15 British style grid, I did wonder if it might be possible to put a penta together with a longer average word length than this puzzle’s 5.43 letters.
Many thanks to Gaufrid for the blog, and for giving us another year of this much cherished site.
Happy New Year to all.
I wouldn’t have believed it was possible to produce a ‘pentapangram’ without resorting to the use of a huge amount of completely obscure words but, my word, he did it!
So much to enjoy in this – I particularly liked 15,37&41a plus 16&27d.
Many thanks, Maize, and thanks to Gaufrid both for the blog and the help with parsing 9a&2d which I’d stupidly failed to rationalise.
Thanks Gaufrid for pointing out the pangrams. Absolutely superb from Maize.
Thanks Maize and Gaufrid.
What an absolutely stunning achievement, especially without plumbing the dictionary with a bathyscape.
Maize @ 6: does that mean you’re contemplating a hexa (or even hepta) jumbo?
Simon S @ 9 – it took me an age to fill this grid, and the very notion of trying for more pangrams on a jumbo grid is horrifying!
Maize @6: Why do a pentapangram? Because it’s there, as someone once said
I agree with everyone that it’s an amazing achievement to create one, the question though is, as a solver, do I want this? Do I really care? Pangrams can be helpful, double pangrams can add something. Maize is actually very short of a hexa (only missing out on B, N and V), so it seems a hexa may be possible.
Allan C @4: follow that, anybody – if you can!
No, I can’t. But more importantly, I do not want to. Why? Apart from 24 ac (ALEXANDRA) [not very cryptic], the maximum word length is 7. It leads to a grid that is more appropriate for a quick crossword than for a cryptic as there are too many crossers. In my opinion, Maize’s effort comes at a price. For me, it wasn’t much fun, this crossword (if I’m honest).
Maize @10: it took me an age to fill this grid, and the very notion of trying for more pangrams on a jumbo grid is horrifying!
Again, why on earth would you want that? Self-indulgence? You don’t have to defend yourself as I fully see where you’re coming from. And, as I said before, it is a marvellous achievement but – yes – a bit wasted on me.
Sorry to be the odd one out today, even more since it’s New Year’s Day.
Another good one from Maize, though probably solved too late in the day to appreciate it properly! The grid fill was quite an achievement, and with, for the most part, pretty common words used too. More please!
SvdH @11
Just short of a hexa? You must be double counting some crossers. Only 3 consonants were used more then 5 times – 1 C, 1 L, and 4 R’s. The only other extra letters were 13 A’s, 11 E’s and 7 O’s. 37 extra letters in total over and above the 130 for the 5 alphabets. Absolutely A-Maize-ing!
Sorry, NNI (and Maize), yes, I counted crossers doubly. Silly me. Forget about it.
But I’ll stick to my ‘verdict’ (as a solver who’s not really interested in crosswords in which the gimmick takes over), amazing but somehow pointless.