A fishy puzzle from Chalmie this morning…
…but not fishy as in “suspect”, as, apart from the anachronistic 14dn, the rest of the puzzle was fun and friendly. It took me a while to work out that Chamlie wasn’t looking for a name at 17dn, but the rest of the answers slotted in fairly quickly. My favourite clue was 4dn.
Thanks, Chalmie.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PATHETIC | Feeble way to get name back (8) |
| PATH (“way”) + <=CITE (“name”, back) | ||
| 5 | SHARKS | Fish listen to ship going past (6) |
| HARK (“listen to”) with SS (steam”ship” going past) | ||
| 10 | ILLICIT | Banned guilds policed city centres (7) |
| (gu)IL(ds) + (po)LIC(ed) +(c)IT(y) | ||
| 11 | ROPIEST | Extremely poor pastries found in rubbish (7) |
| PIES (“pastries”) found in ROT (“rubbish”) | ||
| 12 | GO IT ALONE | To strike out on his own, eccentric theologian has to waste hours (2,2,5) |
| *(teologian) (i.e. “theologian” without the H(ours)) | ||
| 13 | DODOS | They all died taking too many drugs during parties (5) |
| OD (overdose, so “too many drugs”) during DOS (“parties”) | ||
| 15 | SIGHT | Sense good deal (5) |
| Double definition – for the second, think “good deal more” = “a sight more”) | ||
| 16 | BLOATERS | Fish leave first, wearing hats (8) |
| L(eave) wearing BOATERS (“hats”) | ||
| 19 | SHADOWED | Fish had debts tracked (8) |
| SHAD (“fish”) + OWED (“had debts”) | ||
| 20 | NASAL | Sound quality of Davidson as a leader (5) |
| Hidden in “davidsoN AS A Leader”) | ||
| 21 | TAPER | Spill one records (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 23 | LEGISLATE | What MPs do as a member hasn’t turned up yet (9) |
| LEG (“member”) IS LATE (“hasn’t turrned up yet”) | ||
| 25 | CODEINE | Drug fish with a German drug (7) |
| COD (“fish”) + EIN (“a” in German) + E (“drug”) | ||
| 27 | IMITATE | University worried by international copy (7) |
| M.I.T. (“university) + ATE (“worried”) by I(nternational) | ||
| 28 | SEEDER | Understand the German garden tool (6) |
| SEE (“understand”) + DER (“the” in German) | ||
| 29 | BECHAMEL | Persist with ruminant drinking hot sauce (8) |
| BE (“persist”) + CAMEL (“ruminant”) drinking H(ot) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PRIGGISH | Sanctimonious expression of contempt about Diana? (8) |
| PISH (“expression of contempt”) about “Diana” RIGG | ||
| 2 | TALKING SHOP | Discussing business in useless forum (7,4) |
| TALKING (“discussing”) + SHOP (“business”) | ||
| 3 | ENCHANTED | Magical fish, having lost head, placed first bet (9) |
| (t)ENCH (“fish”, having lost head) + ANTED (“placed first bet”) | ||
| 4 | INTRO | Resistance breaks into a few bars to start with (5) |
| R(esistance) breaks INTO | ||
| 6 | HOPED | Had ambitions for his first comment piece (5) |
| H(is) + OP ED (opposite the editorial or “comment piece”) | ||
| 7 | RYE | Old port and whisky (3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | SITES | Locates from opposite sides (5) |
| Hidden in “oppoSITE Sides) | ||
| 9 | FREELOAD | Release boy carrying round sponge (8) |
| FREE (“release”) + LAD (“boy”) carrying O (“round”) | ||
| 14 | DAR ES SALAAM | Challenges South Africa with a hit outside capital (3,2,6) |
| DARES (“challenges”) + S(outh) A(frica) with SLAM (“hit”) outside A, so DARES-SA-L(A)AM
Going to cry foul here, as Dar Es Salaam has not been a capital since 1996 (originally intended to happen in 1974), when Dodoma was completed, so “old capital” or “ex-capital” may have been more accurate. |
||
| 16 | BEWILDER | Maybe bitter about chaotic puzzle (8) |
| BEER (“maybe bitter”) about WILD (“chaotic”) | ||
| 17 | TUNESMITH | It haunts me, somehow, to ignore American composer (9) |
| *(it hunts me) (the A of American ignored) | ||
| 18 | BLUEBELL | Sad inventor gets flower (8) |
| BLUE (“sad”) + (Alexander Graham) BELL (“inventor”) | ||
| 21 | TUCKS | Folds unable to move with head down (5) |
| STUCK (“unable to move”) with its head (S) down | ||
| 22 | RAISE | Bring up fish in conversation (5) |
| Homophone of RAYS (“fish”) | ||
| 24 | GUIDE | Mentor first to give you fish (5) |
| G(ive) + U (“you”, in textspeak) + IDE (“fish”) | ||
| 26 | DUE | Outstanding battle isn’t finished (3) |
| DUE(l) (“battle”, not finished) | ||
*anagram
Thanks Chalmie and loonapick
Not as hard as this setter can be but did find it entertaining with all of the fish and the unexpected composer definition.
My ignorance helped not be offput by the Tanzanian capital as I still thought that it was. Interesting reading about how Dodoma was nominated as the capital in 1973 but it took them until 1996 to officially complete the transfer although Dar es Salaam is still the focus of central government bureaucracy and is still regarded as the country’s primary city – so maybe we can cut some slack on this one !
SITES was my last one in and it took some looking to see that it was a hidden word – these compilers are getting quite tricky with this type of clue I am finding.
7d careless-“Whisky say” would be OK but cant hack it as it is.
Thanks setter and blogger. I enjoyed the double definition in 2 down.
brucew@aus
1996 was still more than 20 years ago, so I think “capital” should still have had some qualification applied to it.
Fair cop on Dar Es Salaam. Sorry. By having PATHETIC SHARKS across the top, I was hoping to mislead someone into thinking it was going to be a Viz-themed puzzle.
Liked this. Small error in blog. The ‘hit’ needs to be LAM rather than SLAM in 14d.
I parsed SHARKS as you did, but my friend who was solving this with me, parsed it as SH (listen) followed by ARKS (ships going past). Not sure which works best. Going past as an inclusion indicator seems a bit weak so maybe my friend is correct?
Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick. I got stuck with CODEINE and DUE (and was not sure about ROPIEST as a term) but otherwise enjoyed this fishing expedition.
I’m not normally a fan of a theme based on clues rather than answers, but I liked this one. The new capital of Tanzania went over my head, and there were a few I had trouble parsing, including TALKING SHOP. Incidentally, Hovis @6, your (friend’s) suggestion for the parsing of 5a is a good thought and I agree that ‘going past’ is an unusual inclusion indicator, but the clue is ‘ship (not ships) going past’ so SH + ARK doesn’t quite work.
Interesting, and not a little confusing, to read a bit about ‘whisky’, ‘whiskey’ and RYE. Got me thinking about ‘American Pie’ and ‘them good ole boys’. Only 46 years ago.
Thanks to Chalmie and loonapick
I quite enjoyed this, but as I think copmus @2 was saying, WHISKY at 7 doesn’t really work. WHISKEY would, but WHISKY is purely Scottish and RYE, as far as I know, isn’t a permitted ingredient.
Isn’t 2d just a double definition; Talking Shop and A Talking Shop?