Aardvark serves up a Thursday morning treat.
Not only was this puzzle full of clever clues, it was also a pangram (in fact, it was nearly a double pangram).
There were some excellent clues in this puzzle, although a newbie may have found some of them a bit tricky to parse.
On my first read through of the across clues, I could only get 4-5 solutions, but the long down answers gave me some checking letters that helped on the next run-through. The NW corner held me up th elongest, with 1ac my LOI.
I do have one quibble though, as I don’t think 21dn’s definition is right (but as aw=lways I stand to be corrected!)
Thanks, Aardvark.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SUSSEX | South American relations found somewhere in the south (6) |
| S (South) + US (American) + SEX (“relations”) | ||
| 4 | JUNK MAIL | Spam Irishman knocked back on boat (4,4) |
| <=LIAM (“Irishman”, knocked back) on JUNK (“boat”) | ||
| 9 | TILDE | Mark, in language education books, retrospective (5) |
| <=ED. LIT. (“education books” retrospective) | ||
| 10 | MAYFLOWER | Can fellow reduce the price of spring plant? (9) |
| MAY (“can”) + F (fellow) + LOWER (“reduce the price”) | ||
| 11 | OARLESS | Restricted by a particular map, Earl’s up the creek without a paddle (7) |
| Restricted by OS (Ordnance Survey, “a particular map”), *(earls) | ||
| 12 | SHARMAN | Astronaut’s injury seen in sick bay (7) |
| HARM (“injury”) seen in SAN (sanatorium, so “sick bay”)
In 1991, Helen Sharman was the first British person to go into space. |
||
| 13 | ERIK | Male Norwegian writer I knew somewhat (4) |
| Hidden in [somewhat] “writER I Knew” | ||
| 14 | BEDSTEAD | Graduate wrongly dates a piece of furniture (8) |
| B Ed (Bachelor of Education, so “graduate) + *(dates) | ||
| 17 | GRAY SAGE | Good beams of light mature plant in US (4,4) |
| G (good) + RAYS (“beams of light”) + AGE (“mature”) | ||
| 19 | FETA | It’s a performance, making American the ultimate cheese (4) |
| FET(e>A) (“a performance”) making A (American) [the ultimate] (i.e. changing the last letter to A) | ||
| 22 | UNCOUTH | Company united in disorderly hunt, using coarse language? (7) |
| CO (company) + U (united) in *(hunt) | ||
| 24 | AVARICE | Expert holds religious class on Bible about sin (7) |
| ACE (“expert”) holds RI (Religious Instruction, so “religious class”) on AV (Authorised Version of “Bible”) | ||
| 25 | INTERDICT | Prohibition police backed after Italian club trashed at front (9) |
| <=CID (“police”, backed) after INTER (Milan) (“Italian club”) + T(rashed) [at front] | ||
| 26 | ICILY | Son’s removed from European island in a chilling way (5) |
| S (son) removed from (s)ICILY (“European island”) | ||
| 27 | SCHMALTZ | Mike, during school dance, initially lacking sentimentality (8) |
| M (Mike) during SCH (school) + (w)ALTZ (“dance”, initially lacking) | ||
| 28 | QUINCE | One in five children outwardly consume fruit (6) |
| QUIN (“one in five children”) + [outwardly] C(onsume)E | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ST TROPEZ | Paddy’s conserving time and energy on unknown Mediterranean resort (2,6) |
| STROP (“paddy”) conserving T (time) and E (energy) on Z (“unknown” in maths) | ||
| 2 | SPLURGING | Roger inside gulps gin, flagrantly having a binge (9) |
| R (Roger) inside *(gulps gin) | ||
| 3 | ELEVEN | Archdeacon supports celeb swiping boundaries for cricket team (6) |
| Ven. (Venerable, “archdeacon”) supports (c)ELE(b) [swiping boundaries] | ||
| 5 | ULYSSES S GRANT | Novel, small gift for president (7,1,5) |
| ULYSSES (James Joyce “novel”) + S (small) + GRANT (“gift”) | ||
| 6 | KILDARE | Dotty liked to tour yearly, essentially a county in Eire (7) |
| *(liked) to tour (ye)AR(ly) [essentially] | ||
| 7 | ASWIM | Afloat, plan to keep foundations of business somehow (5) |
| AIM (“plan”) to keep [foundations of] (busines)S (someho)W | ||
| 8 | LARYNX | Vocal band careless about track name (6) |
| LAX (“careless”) about RY (railway, so “track”) + N (name) | ||
| 10 | MESSERSCHMITT | Fighter plane’s gentlemen maintaining electronic check by hand (13) |
| MESSRS (“gentlemen”) maintaining E (electronic) + CH (check) by MITT (“hand”) | ||
| 15 | DIETITIAN | The German and Italian painter one advises about greens? (9) |
| DIE (“the” in German) + TITIAN (“Italian painter”) | ||
| 16 | JANE EYRE | Given a month, European told to publicise Victorian work (4,4) |
| Given JAN (January, “a month”), E (European) + homophone of [told] AIR (“to publicise”) | ||
| 18 | AQUARIA | In American university, Queen song tanks (7) |
| in A (American) U (university), Q (queen) + ARIA (“song”) | ||
| 20 | QUOITS | Throwing game ceases around two in morning (6) |
| QUITS (“ceases”) around O [(letter number) two in] (m)O(rning) | ||
| 21 | MALIBU | Doctor drinks the greatest, most superior cocktail (6) |
| MB (Bachelor of Medicine, so “doctor”) drinks (Mohammad) ALI (“The Greatest”) + U (“most superior”)
I’m a teetotaller, but I’m pretty sure Malibu is a coconut-flavoured rum that is an ingredient in many cocktails, but is not in itself a cocktail. |
||
| 23 | CATCH | Understand cat confused in Switzerland (5) |
| *(cat) in CH A bit unfortunate that CAT appears unscrambled in the answer. | ||
*anagram
Didn’t spot the pangram for once.
Spent a little while trying to parse STARMAN for 12a but eventually guessed it must be SHARMAN and then off to Google.
For 24a, I think we need to take the initial A to come from ACE so that RI is on VA, a reversal (about) of AV. Otherwise, “about” is superfluous.
Lots to enjoy here. Needed the cryptic fodder to help with the spelling for MESSERSCHMITT.
Thanks to Aardvark and loonapick.
Hovis; yes, on second thoughts, I think you’re right about AVARICE
I saw Q and X when I had hardly started then lost count as I was already pangrammed out with the themed one earlier this week. Puck, I think.
I always like Scorpion and this was no exception.
Thanks all
I stubbornly refused to change my knew-it -wasn’t-right ‘starman’ for the unheard of but knew-it-must-be-right SHARMAN so was a DNF in the end. I liked the almost double pangram – missed by that much – a J and a W.
I didn’t know INTERDICT as a noun and had to work out the US plant from the wordplay. My only minor quibble was LARYNX for ‘Vocal band’. It obviously works better for the surface, but the larynx is the voice box – anatomically ‘Vocal band’ suggests a vocal cord, rather than the larynx as a whole.
Thanks to Aardvark and loonapick
Great to read the parsing and commentary but yesterday and today we had puzzles that left mere mortals like me floundering! Perhaps one day I’ll get closer to the required competence for these super-hard (to me!) puzzles but I do feel that the level of difficulty has risen steeply this year.
I hope we can return to earth a few times a week.
Thanks to Aardvark and loonapick. I too had trouble with SHARMAN-starman and struggled with MALIBU but overall enjoyed this puzzle.
If you’ve ever heard Helen Sharman speak, you won’t forget her name. A truly inspirational lady. Worth seeking out if you can.
Most enjoyable puzzle which I’m pleased to have completed.
Thanks Aardvark and loonapick
An entertaining puzzle that I didn’t get to until the weekend over a very long coffee. I found that almost Tevery clue had to be thoroughly worked through until it fell with a good mix of seeing the definition and working out the wordplay and piecing together the cryptic bits and finding the word that was the definition.
The lady astronaut was the only new learning and finished in the SW corner with SCHMALTZ and QUOITS the last couple in.