Serpent
First of all, a Happy Christmas to all solvers
I have failed to parse the wordplay in two of the entries – TIDE and ASSERTIVE. I have a vague idea for the first, but no idea at all for the second. I look forward to finding out what I have failed to see.
Overall I found this puzzle quite tough with definions that required some lateral thinking. On the other hand there were some good clues. We don’t often see a quadruple definition like the one at 2 down.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | I gain one second to come first (6) |
I (Roman numeral for one) + S (second) + LAND (secure; win) I S LAND |
ISLAND (I is an abbreviation for ISLAND) |
| 5 | Prickly character initially chafing at casual treatment by you and me (6) |
CACT (first letters of [initially] each of CHAFING, AT, CASUAL and TREATMENT) + US (you and me) CACT US |
CACTUS (spiny plant; prickly character) |
| 10 | Itinerant artist against being framed by informant (9) |
(RA [Royal Academician; artist] + V {versus]) contained in (being framed by) TELLER (one who informs; informant) T (RA V) ELLER |
TRAVELLER (itinerant) |
| 11 | Tipsy Lord admits blunder (5) |
MY (gosh!; Lord!) containing (admits) ERR (blunder) M (ERR) Y |
MERRY (tipsy)
|
| 12 | One course of half-eaten meal swimming in fat left unfinished (7) |
DINNER (meal excluding three letters [of six] NER [half-eaten]) contained in (swimming in) PUDGE (alternative spelling of PODGE [squat, fat and flabby person or thing]) PUD (DIN) G |
PUDDING (one course of a meal) |
| 13 | Watch thug circling round floor (7) |
LOUT (ill-mannered or aggressive man or youth; thug) containing (O []round shape] + KO [knockout; floor]) L (O KO) OUT |
LOOKOUT (watch) |
| 14 | Reporter’s not changing paper? (10) |
STATIONERY (sounds like [reporter’s] STATIONARY [not moving or changing]) STATIONERY |
STATIONERY (paper, for example) |
| 17 | In the main, movement is restricted to those attending (4) |
I am defeated by the wordplay here. The homophone TIED denotes one whose tenant may occupy the premises only as long as he or she is employed by the owner or one who must buy goods from stores controlled by the landlord / employer, so there may be some very tenuous link to the clue ‘restricted to one attending’. However, there is no homophone indicator in the clue so I am really clutching at straws. TIDE |
TIDE (ebb and flow of the sea [main] twice daily, in the main, movement) |
| 19 | Plant having no proper flower (4) |
PRIMROSE (plant) excluding (having no) PRIM (proper) ROSE |
ROSE (flower) |
| 20 | Reporter‘s son grew upset with men (10) |
Anagram of (upset) SON, GREW and MEN NEWSMONGER* |
NEWSMONGER (person who deals in news;, a reporter for example) |
| 23 | County’s eastern region briefly brought back old legislation (4,3) |
CORNWALL (English county) with the rightmost [eastern] four letters [region] excluding the final letter [briefly] L reversed [brought back] CORN LAW< |
CORN LAW (old law regulating trade in grain, enacted in 1815, repealed in 1846) |
| 25 | Quietly object to offer (7) |
P (piano; quietly] + RESENT (be angry about; object) P RESENT |
PRESENT (offer) |
| 27 | Plant raised area close to conservatory (5) |
DAIS (platform for the use of speakers; raised floor) + Y (last letter of [close to] CONSERVATORY) DAIS Y |
DAISY (plant) |
| 28 | Quarantine breach losing six lives to begin with (9) |
IS (lives), this part goes at the start (to begin with) + VIOLATION [breach] excluding (losing) VI (Roman numerals for six) IS OLATION |
ISOLATION (quarantine) |
| 29 | Insect larvae drawn by source of sugar (6) |
BEET (a source of sugar) + LE (?) BEET LE |
BEETLE any insect of the Coleoptera) |
| 30 | PA seems more distant on the phone (6) |
FATHER (sounds like [on the FARTHER [more distant]) FATHER |
FATHER (daddy; pa) |
| Down | |||
| 2 | Hold good area for spectators put up with principled position (5) |
STAND (hold good) STAND (area for spectators) STAND (tolerate; put up with) |
STAND (principled position) quadruple definition |
| 3 | Tipsy pirate providing drink (8) |
Anagram of (tipsy) PIRATE + IF (providing) APERIT* IF
|
APERITIF (drink taken as an appetizer) |
| 4 | Industry fabricating ceiling and walls to decorate (9) |
Anagram of (fabricating) CEILING and DE (first and last letters of [walls to] DECORATE) DILIGENCE* |
DILIGENCE (industry) |
| 5 | Song is something sung by gondolier when stripping naked (5) |
BARCAROLE (a gondolier’s song) excluding (stripping) BARE from the outer letters CAROL |
CAROL (song) |
| 6 | Shared ground, almost one side of cricket pitch (6) |
I think this is using the COMMA in the clue as it is the previous character to the word ‘almost’. We have COMMA excluding the final letter (almost) A + ON (the leg side in cricket, the other being the OFF side) COMM ON |
COMMON (tract of open land, used by all the inhabitants of a town, parish, etc; shared ground) |
| 7 | Forcibly removing criminal into unorthodox group’s housing (9) |
Anagram of (unorthodox) GROUP containing (housing) an anagram of (criminal) INTO UPRO (OTIN*) G* |
UPROOTING (removing forcibly) |
| 8 | Shell-like bone in middle of fossil record (6) |
TAPE (record) contained in (in) SS (central letters of [middle of] FOSSIL) S (TAPE) S |
STAPES ( stirrup-shaped bone, the innermost ossicle of the middle ear) |
| 9 | Evergreen tree hampering attempt to climb (6) |
(ELM [tree] containing [hampering] TRY [attempt]) all reversed (to climb; down clue) (M (YRT) LE)< |
MYRTLE (any of various evergreen shrubs of the genus Myrtus) |
| 15 | Dogmatic author’s raising good point about rule of law (9) |
I regret that I am unable to even begin to understand the wordplay here |
ASSERTIVE (dogmatic) |
| 16 | Impervious to irony tainting start of record by reformed Four Tops (9) |
R (first letter of [start of] RECORD) + an anagram of (reformed) FOUR TOPS) R USTPROOF* |
RUSTPROOF (impervious to IRON being tainted by a reddish brown as a result of being exposed to moisture [rusting]; impervious to IRONY tainting)) |
| 18 | Patient rushed to occupy lavatory after I left (8) |
RAN (rushed) contained in (to occupy) TOILET excluding (after … left) I TOLE (RAN) T |
TOLERANT (patient) |
| 19 | Withdraw decree requiring revision (6) |
Anagram of (requiring revision) DECREE RECEDE* |
RECEDE (withdraw) |
| 21 | Chubby Checker’s last hit leads to other dancers using new twist (6) |
R (final letter of [‘s last] CHECKER) + an anagram of (twist) TODUN (first letters of [leads] each of TO, OTHER, DANCERS, USING and NEW) R OTUND* |
ROTUND (chubby) |
| 22 | Make a pretence of wager Irishman’s accepted (4,2) |
LAY (place a bet; wager) contained in (accepted) PAT (name often used for Irish males) P (LAY) AT |
PLAY AT (make a pretence of) |
| 24 | The West Indies supply wine (5) |
Anagram of (supply; from the word ‘supple’) THE and WI (West Indies) WHITE* |
WHITE (descriptive of types of many types of wine) |
| 26 | Former French island for Napoleon (5) |
EX (former) + ILE (French word for island) EX ILE |
EXILE (Napoleon ended his life in EXILE on the island of St Helena) |
Thanks Duncan
I think 17ac is a homophone (to those attending) of ‘tied’ (restricted). My parsing of 15dn was ASSET (good point) around R (rule of law) supported by (raising) I’VE (author’s).
Perhaps it’s worth mentioning that there is a theme. At least 12 entries can be preceded by or follow a certain word relevant to this time of year.
Thanks for pointing out the the theme Gaufrid which I couldn’t get despite knowing there must be one. No excuses except for just being thick.
I agree about TIDE, with ‘those attending’ (=’audience’) as the homophone indicator.
I like those punctuation as part of the wordplay clues, so COMMON was my favourite today with the quad def. STAND close behind.
Thanks to Serpent and Duncan
I spotted the theme quite early on, which is unusual for me
Lots to enjoy as is usual with Serpent. Thanks to him and Duncan and Gaufrid
Didn’t know STAPES but parsed ASSERTIVE similarly to Gaufrid. Like Duncan I can’t explain the LE in 28ac, other than the start and end of ‘larvae’. Thanks and festive greets to S and B and all those attending.
Duncan and Paul A – re 28a drawn can mean eviscerated or with the insides removed (apologies to anyone eating a late Boxing Day breakfast!)
Great puzzle and blog-agree with Gaufrid on ASSERTIVE (who on earth would argue with him?!)
I counted about 13 themers.Thanks all.
Thanks Serpent; lovely seasonal fare.
Thanks Duncan and Gaufrid; like crypticsue I took ‘drawn’ to mean eviscerated.
Unlike the blogger, I thought this was fairly easy for a Serpent, and it didn’t take me very long. But I missed the theme as usual, and I can only count to 9. I wouldn’t have known 8d had it not appeared in the most recent Inquisitor.
Thanks to Serpent and Duncan and Gaufrid.
We just about got it all. We thought 8dn had to be an ear bone though we needed Google to tell us that the stirrup (which we did know of) is the STAPES, but failing to separate ‘fossil’ and ‘record’ we couldn’t parse it. And we only saw the parsing of ISLAND after we biffed it as one of only three or four possible answers. As for TIED and ASSERTIVE, we couldn’t parse those either, although we wondered if the rule of law bit had anything to do with the contention that ‘the law is an ass’. And we failed to spot the theme, but that’s nothing unusual.
But a great crossword. Favourites were CORN LAW and BEETLE.
Thanks, Serpent and Duncan.
As always it seems with Serpent an excellent crossword. I was defeated by 17ac; when you have _I_E there are many possibilities, and I went for WISE (is in we); we = those attending is tenuous, and even more tenuous is wise for ‘in the main, movement’. I thought it had something to do with clockwise etc, and might be a nautical term.