Another pleasing puzzle today from Old Snake Hips (as Hoskins calls Serpent). We’ve blogged the last two Serpent offerings so he may be getting a bit fed up with us. However, we are certainly NOT getting fed up with him!
Some of Serpent’s puzzles have a theme but we cannot see anything else going on in this one apart from the smooth surfaces which we expect in his puzzles. The only difficulty we had was caused by Bert entering a INKEEPPER for 12ac but when he solved 13d, he realised his error! Our only concern was with ED being clued as ‘boy’ in 28ac.
Thanks Serpent for the slither through the grass today – all very enjoyable.
A friend kindly informed us that we had the wrong spelling for 3d. We were both convinced that it was SUPERCEDE. You learn something everyday doing crosswords! Apparently it has been used as an alternative spelling since the 17th century and is common in current published writing but it continues to be regarded as an error.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | Small volume about one pursuing girl is a masterpiece (7) | |
| CLASSIC | CC (small volume) about I (one) after or ‘pursuing’ LASS (girl) | |
| 5 | Fantastic beast improvising back to front (7) | |
| GRIFFIN | RIFFING (improvising) with the last letter or ‘back’ moving to the front | |
| 9 | Steps made in a chaotic way (9) | |
| STAMPEDES | An &lit – an anagram of STEPS MADE – anagrind is ‘in a chaotic way’ | |
| 10 | Refuse right to sleep rough outside (5) | |
| DROSS | R (right) with DOSS (sleep rough) outside | |
| 11 | Raise your glass, knocking back Southern Comfort (5) | |
| CHEER | CHEER |
|
| 12 | Host target area surrounds board (9) | |
| INNKEEPER | INNER (target area) around KEEP (board) | |
| 14/19/
5d/26d |
One couldn’t appreciate wife when time at home got hard following gossip (7,5) | |
| WASTING ASSET | W (wife) AS (when) T (time) IN (at home) + SET (got hard) after GAS (gossip) | |
| 16 | Enduring riddle of silent grave (11) | |
| EVERLASTING | An anagram of SILENT GRAVE – anagrind is ‘riddle’ | |
| 18 | Year the euro collapsed, just as I predicted (5,3,3) | |
| THERE YOU ARE | An anagram of YEAR THE EURO – anagrind is ‘collapsed’ | |
| 19 | See 14 | |
| 21 | Was on the beat as tap dancing got under way (9) | |
| PATROLLED | An anagram of TAP – anagrind is ‘dancing’ + ROLLED (got under way) | |
| 23 | Plug in contact with outside of lead for record deck (5) | |
| ADORN | AD (plug) ON (in contact with) around or ‘outside of’ R (first letter or ‘lead’ to record) | |
| 25 | Cat jumps out of its skin (5) | |
| OUNCE | ||
| 26 | Extravagant words in newspaper’s really cool blanket coverage (9) | |
| SNOWDRIFT | An anagram of WORDS IN – anagrind is ‘extravagant’ + FT (newspaper) | |
| 27 | Auntie frustrated about covering too much stuff (7) | |
| SURFEIT | Hidden or ‘covered by’ and reversed or ‘about’ in the clue aunTIE FRUStrated | |
| 28 | Imagine ‘cougar’ meeting resistance in boy on the rebound! (5,2) | |
| DREAM UP | PUMA (cougar) + R (resistance) in ED (boy) reversed or ‘on the rebound’ | |
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | Roughly demonstrate housing co-operative’s beginning to provide good source of income (4,3) | |
| CASH COW | CA (roughly as in about) SHOW (demonstrate) around C (first letter or ‘beginning’ of co-operative) | |
| 2 | Conscious of key deficiency in American state (5) | |
| AWARE | ||
| 3 | Replace great player expected to do well on the radio (9) | |
| SUPERSEDE | SUPER (great) SEDE (homophone (‘on the radio’) of SEED – used to describe a player who is expected to do well) | |
| 4 | Twist around, beginning to dance, twist around as part of health regimen? (3-5,3) | |
| COD-LIVER OIL | COIL (twist) around D (first letter or ‘beginning’ to dance) inside OLIVER (Twist as in the Dickens character who asked for more) | |
| 5 | See 14 Across | |
| 6 | Stop working to support trendy record company (5) | |
| INDIE | DIE (stop working) after or ‘supporting’ IN (trendy) | |
| 7 | Old Labour leader’s image making an impression on the ground (9) | |
| FOOTPRINT | FOOT (Old Labour leader Michael) PRINT (image) | |
| 8 | Is aware of vocal newspaper’s material assistance for those stricken by cold (4,3) | |
| NOSE RAG | A homophone (‘vocal’) of KNOWS (is aware of) RAG (newspaper) | |
| 13 | Dull, vain don abused invalid (4,3,4) | |
| NULL AND VOID | An anagram of DULL VAIN DON – anagrind is ‘abused’ | |
| 15 | Carrot cake may use this instead of sugar (9) | |
| SWEETENER | SWEETENER can be used in baking a cake to replace sugar | |
| 17 | Move desk to turn bolt (9) | |
| SKEDADDLE | An anagram of DESK – anagrind is ‘move’ + ADDLE (turn) | |
| 18 | Redevelopment of top site makes little impression on the ground (7) | |
| TIPTOES | An anagram of TOP SITE – anagrind is ‘redevelopment’ | |
| 20 | Incubator’s going to replace energy source and work without interruption (7) | |
| NONSTOP | N |
|
| 22 | Love meat mostly containing a bit of saturated fat (5) | |
| OBESE | O (love) BEE |
|
| 24 | Ignominy of political leader being removed from platform (5) | |
| ODIUM | ||
| 26 | See 14 Across | |
Lots of toughies I thought. Usual fantastic clueing from Serpent. I take it that ‘carrot’ in 15d is in the sense of a bribe also called a sweetener. Couldn’t spot any theme but maybe somebody will if there is one. Have to admit that I got stuck in the SE and used a thesaurus to get (P)ODIUM, having only the M and that allowed me to finish. Thanks to S&B.
Enjoyable puzzle, marred only by my not having heard the term WASTING ASSET before, causing me to waste considerable time trying to figure it out and then wondering whether it could be right. I also spelt 3d with a C.
Thanks to Serpent and B&J.
What a fantastic clue for THERE YOU ARE.
The split for WASTING ASSET revealed my limitations; I had to write it down as 7,5 on a piece of paper and fill in the crossers- couldn’t do it on-screen with the naked eye
Lots of fun.
WASTING ASSET was not a fast solve for me (not a term that came to mind easily) but unlike Baerchen above I found it helpful knowing that each of the separate bits was a word and didn’t have to ink any dead trees.
I do have to agree with him about THERE YOU ARE.
Many thanks Serpent and Bertandjoyce.
I probably spelt SUPERSEDE wrongly but otherwise a very classy puzzle-from start to finish.
Thanks Serpent and B&J.
@Kitty
No I knew it was four kosher three-letter words – the gaffer wouldn’t permit non-words – it’s just that I don’t have the necessary smarts to be able to visualise it in the noggin,if you see what I mean
Sorry, Baerchen – I didn’t doubt that you knew it was three distinct words and didn’t mean to suggest otherwise. I just meant that that gave me enough help to get to the answer. I didn’t word it very well.
I haven’t come across the device where words are split across different parts of the grid, so 14/19/5/26 was a bit tricky for me, despite the enumeration. Got it eventually. I spotted the alternative spelling of SUPERSEDE and changed it while proofreading when I didn’t get a complete notice, but also had to change AWAKE to AWARE to finally get there, which explained why I couldn’t parse it in its original form. A tough puzzle with lots of misdirection, and a sense of achievement at the end. Thanks Serpent and B&J.
Quite a tough offering worthy of the Saturday prize puzzle had it still existed. But we got there in the end with the SE corner the last to fall – SNOWDRIFT was our LOI then all we had to do was parse ADORN and NONSTOP, which we did eventually.
We liked the way WASTING ASSET slithered snake-like through the grid, but our favourites were THERE YOU ARE and the aforementioed SNOWDRIFT.
Thanks, Serpent and B&J
Many thanks serpent for a very enjoyable puzzle.
I particularly liked THERE YOU ARE, EVERLASTING, SURFEIT, AWARE, COD-LIVER OIL, OBESE.
The rest was pretty good too. I agree with both kitty and Baerchen – I had to write down a little 4×3 grid to help me, but in the end I saw the 7,5 first anyway.
Thanks also B&J
WASTING ASSET is nice, so long as one doesn’t mind the liberty: my only disappointment is that the last two elements (GAS & SET) were clued as the words they actually are if you see what I mean.