When the Serpent emerges from under a rock on a Saturday, will there be a venomous bite, or a death-rattle in the tail?…
After the first pass through the Across clues I had solved just three – QUINCE, JERKED and CHINTZ – when I had a sudden (and rare) moment of clarity…those look suspiciously like pangram fodder – J, Q, Z – AND they are all on the perimeter…shurely shomething shuspicious going on here?…
I then counted the perimeter cells, to find there were indeed 26 of them, and my suspicions seemed to be grounded…is Senor Serpent going for ‘perimetral alphabet’? A feat I may have seen a couple of times, but never stumbled across so early in the process…
Well, so it proved to be, and this helped in some cases, as I ticked off the letters and discounted possibilities where the perimeter letter had already been used.
My LOI was STRIPLING/STRIKING at 15D, and my solving notes commended 10A (DOES!), 25A – the EVENT-FUL Olympics! – and 15D – with TRUE BLUE Conservative Nationalists creating TURBULENCE…topical, or what! I also enjoyed 17D, with the MOSQUITO as an (Olivia) de Havilland production – nice juxtaposition/mislead in the surface read!
Thanks are due to the S, for an impressive feat of construction, and also to ‘ser-p-endipity’, as I might not otherwise have spotted the pangra-meter until the first comments appeared below…
NB.1. As it turns out, from a quick search through the site, it looks like Serpent has form – Indy 9608, blogged by Twencelas back in 2017 is an example, although I wouldn’t have solved that as, since they stopped it being a prize puzzle, I only solve my 5-weekly Saturday Indy for this blog.
Also, an Araucaria from back in 2010 – Grauniad Prize 25,167 – which I probably would have solved, so may be the one that tweaked my memory nodes…although in this case the preamble actually told the solver that the perimeter was a pangram.
NB. 2. As with several recent puzzles I have blogged there is a reference (in 22d) to ‘MAY’ as PM – although current events have overtaken the setting process/publication time lag. Should editors be inserting a judicious ‘ex-‘ into these clues, or is it valid to refer to, say, the Vicar (TB), the Thatch, Macmillan, Churchill etc. as PMs, even after they have been dispatched from the despatch box? Discuss…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 7A | QUINCE | Question concerned with church bears fruit (6) | fruit / QU (question) + IN (concerned with) + CE (Church of England) |
|
| 8A | PILCHARD | One with memory like a goldfish perhaps recalled excerpt with difficulty (8) | one with memory like a goldfish, perhaps / PILC (clip, or excerpt, recalled, or reversed) + HARD (with difficulty) |
|
| 9A | MEDIATED | Tried to make peace as I’m leaving next day (8) | tried to make peace / ( |
|
| 10A | WAPITI | What contributes to how a pit initially does? (6) | does (female deer!) / hidden word, i.e. what contributes to, in ‘hoW A PIT Initially’ |
|
| 11A | HANDLE | Exposed crime writer’s name (6) | name / ( |
|
| 12A | NITROGEN | Ring tone playing part of air (8) | part of air / anag, i.e. playing, of RING TONE |
|
| 14A | PERSIST | Last sibling gets fresh clothing (7) | last / PER_T (fresh) around (clothing) SIS (sister, sibling) |
|
| 16A | GRANDMA | Nanny imposing end to extra pocket money (7) | nanny / GRAND (imposing) + A (end letter of extrA), around (pocketing) M (money) |
|
| 19A | BETRAYAL | Sell-out show unintentionally disheartened everybody (8) | sell out / BETRAY (show, unintentionally) + A( |
|
| 21A | UNMASK | Reveal state accepts new degree courses (6) | reveal / U_K (the UK, a state) around (accepting) N (new) + MAS (MAs, degree courses) |
|
| 23A | JERKED | Derek Jarman’s premére could be pulled abruptly (6) | pulled abruptly / anag, i.e. could be, of DEREK + J (first, or premiére, letter of Jarman) |
|
| 25A | EVENTFUL | Memorable description of the Olympics? (8) | memorable / (or possibly a double defn.?) – the Olympics could be described as full of events, or EVENTFUL |
|
| 26A | VIGNETTE | Vetting procedure ultimately generates brief character study (8) | brief character study / anag, i.e. generates, of VETTING + E (ultimate letter of procedurE) |
|
| 27A | CHINTZ | First pair of Czech trousers tailored thin material (6) | material / C_Z ( first pair of letters of CZech) around (trousering) HINT (anag, i.e, tailored, of THIN) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | TUTELAGE | Leaders of the Temperance League organised training (8) | training / anag, i.e. organised, of TT (leading letters of The + Temperance) + LEAGUE |
|
| 2D | UNKIND | Heartless family supporting article in Le Monde (6) | heartless / UN (indefinite article, French, i.e. in ‘Le Monde’) + KIND (related people, family) |
|
| 3D | RESTLESSLY | Having lost weight, fights Stallone’s predecessor with nervous energy (10) | with nervous energy / ( |
|
| 4D | FLEW | Went on air and broadcast complaint (4) | went on air / homophone, i.e. broadcast – FLEW (went by air) sounds like FLU (medical complaint) |
|
| 5D | SHOPWORN | Hospital work that devoted nurses displayed too much? (8) | displayed too much? / S_WORN (devoted, adjective) around (nursing) H (hospital) + OP (opus, work) |
|
| 6D | WRITHE | Thrash youth’s backside in pen (6) | thrash / WRIT_E (pen) around H (back-side letter of youtH) |
|
| 8D | PEDANT | Stickler for the rules gasped following editor’s promotion (6) | stickler for the rules / PANT( |
|
| 13D | TURBULENCE | True Blue Conservative Nationalist creates turmoil (10) | turmoil / anag, i.e. creates, of TRUE + BLUE + C (Conservative) + N (Nationalist) |
|
| 15D | STRIKING | Handsome knight usurps youth’s place (8) | handsome / STRI( |
|
| 17D | MOSQUITO | The majority almost leave opening of Olivia de Havilland production (8) | de Havilland production / MOS( |
|
| 18D | SLEEVE | Cover of record by member of The Cardigans? (6) | cover of record / (or double defn-ish?) the SLEEVE of a cardigan could be the arm, or limb/member) |
|
| 20D | EMETIC | Quote author about gut-wrenching material (6) | gut-wrenching material / CITE (quote) + ME (the author), all reversed, or about = EMETIC |
|
| 22D | MATRIX | Announcement of Prime Minister deceives development agency (6) | development agency / homophone, i.e. announcement of – if the (now former) Prime Minister (Theresa) MAY deceives, or TRICKS, someone, it could sound like MA-TRIX |
|
| 24D | DUTY | Service charge levied on alcohol? (4) | double defn. / DUTY can mean service; and DUTY can also mean a charge levied on alcohol, amongst other things… |
|
Fantastic, as usual. Thought I was going to come up short today but got there in the end with the devious STRIKING being the last one to parse. Not helped by being so used to N for knight as in chess notation. I did notice the peripheral pangram which helped with 5d. Lots of clues I was really pleased to finally solve (smug, moi?).
Many thanks to Serpent and mc_rapper67.
A splendid feat of crossword setting – thank you Serpent. I too was definitely helped by noticing the possibility of a pangram round the end. My particular favourite was the ‘Havilland production’
Thanks to mc-rapper67 for an equally splendid feat of crossword blogging.
Great stuff, MEDIATED, SHOPWORN, GRANDMA my favourites. It almost seems a shame to mention previous similar puzzles, but the one I remember was by Picaroon a couple of years ago, without which I probably wouldn’t have spotted this one. I didn’t get the stripling bit of STRIKING.
Thanks Serpent, mc_rapper67
The pangram alarm went off quite early on, but it wasn’t till we’d finished, after a lot of help on the LHS, that we confirmed it was a pangram – although we didn’t spot that it was in the perimeter. Btw, does anyone recall when it was that there was a perimeter pangram following the typewriter/computer keyboard oreder, Q W E R T Y … etc?
As we said, a lot of help needed on the LHS, although once we got the words we wondered why we didn’t see them at once. And a real groan when we got SLEEVE.
But can anyone explain the significance of PILCHARD other than since it is a fish it’s memory is presumably similar to that of a goldfish? And it’s a fallacy that goldfish only have a 3-second memory see here for example. We did wonder if ‘pilchard’ might be a slang expression for someone with a short memory but all we could find was this item which gives a totally different meaning.
Thanks, Serpent and mc_rapper67.
Many thanks to mc_rapper67 for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to solve and comment on the puzzle.
The first puzzle I remember seeing with a perimeter pangram was by Otterden and appeared in the Guardian in early 2016. It contained 28 perimeter cells, so two letters were repeated in the perimeter. I decided to try to write a puzzle that contained each letter once in the perimeter. The puzzle was the first of mine to appear in the Independent (9252 in June 2016). I would love to see the puzzle in which the perimeter pangram follows the ordering on the QWERTY keyboard – that seems like a tough constraint – if anyone can direct me to it. In the meantime, I might try to replicate it…
Serpent@5 (and anyone else): I’ve tracked it down; the QWERTY perimeter nina was in a Nimrod puzzle from 2008 and can be found here
Thanks, Allan. That’s an incredible grid-fill, but it is Nimrod.
Just got round to this tonight, been doing the Inquisitor and the Listener.
Completed it ok, and spotted the pangram in the perimeter (after I’d finished).
Failed to parse GRANDMA and STRIKING.
Any chance of getting the clues for the Nimrod?
Thanks for all the comments/feedback – especially Serpent for the background on the inspiration for the puzzle, and to allan_c for the QWERTY detective work!…
NNI at #8 – the current Indy site only seems to go back to 2015, so I’m not sure where you would find the original puzzle/clues for Nimrod/6831 from 2008…someone, somewhere may have it…
allan_c at #4 – I took the PILCHARD clue to imply just that said fish might have the same memory/attention span as a goldfish because it is also a fish – the clue doesn’t actually opine either way as to whether the myth you refer to is true…sorry, what was the question again (?+>)