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Radian provides today’s puzzle.
I failed to spot a Shakespearean theme in the last Radian puzzle I blogged. I’ve had a good look at the words in this one and googled a bit without tracking down a Shakespeare link. No doubt I will be told if I’ve missed a theme again.
There are a few jobs or roles in the grid – BUILDER, SOLDIER, INTERPRETER, SCIENTIST and STUDENTS, but I don’t think there are enough to form a theme.
I’m a bit confused by the word ‘about’ in the clue for WISTERIA as I can’t see exactly what role it is playing. Novel seems to indicate the anagram of WRITES and the anagram is not containing (about) anything, nor is anything reversed (about). The A is provided by the first letter (primarily) and not by about.
I’ve never associated CARBUNCLE with gem, but the dictionaries give that definition.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Developer buried rocks across lake (7) |
Anagram of (rocks) BURIED containing (across) L (lake) BUI (L) DER* |
BUILDER (developer) |
| 5 | Sister nurses veteran MOD employee (7) |
SR (Sister) contains (nurses) OLDIE (veteran) S (OLDIE) R |
SOLDIER (person engaged in military service; frequently an employee of a country’s Ministry of Defence [MOD]) |
| 9 | Relative‘s fashionable wife touring city (2-3) |
(IN [fashionable] + W [wife]) containing (touring) LA (Los Angeles; American city) IN (LA) W |
IN-LAW (relative by marriage) |
| 10 | I’d got into mishaps at sea halfway into vessel (9) |
I’D contained in (got into) an anagram of (at sea) MISHAPS AM (ID) SHIPS* |
AMIDSHIPS (in, near or towards the middle [halfway into] of a ship lengthwise |
| 11 | Following improvement, saw contradiction (10) |
GAIN (improvement) + SAYING (proverb; saw) GAIN SAYING |
GAINSAYING (opposition; contradiction) |
| 12 | Musicians prohibited on radio (4) |
BAND (sounds like [on radio] BANNED [prohibited]) BAND |
BAND (group of musicians) |
| 14 | Lorry carrying cold drink that’s reportedly getting warmer? (6,5) |
(ARTIC [ARTICulated lorry] containing [carrying] C [cold]) + OCEAN (‘the drink’ is an informal term for the sea; ocean) AR (C) TIC OCEAN |
ARCTIC OCEAN (an area of planet Earth that scientific measurements indicate is getting warmer) |
| 18 | Bury Republican in safe job in Strasbourg? (11) |
INTER (bury) + (R [Republican] contained in [in] PETER [a safe]) INTER P (R) ETER |
INTERPRETER (many INTERPRETERs are employed by the European Parliament in Strasbourg) |
| 21 | Dorothy rejected love, creating hoo-ha (2-2) |
DOT (Dorothy) reversed (rejected) + O (zero; love score in tennis) TO D< O |
TO-DO (commotion; hoo-ha) |
| 22 | Revolutionary cutter, craft carrying large old container (10) |
GUILE (cunning; craft) containing (carrying) (L [large] + O [old] + TIN [container]) GUIL (L O TIN) E |
GUILLOTINE (device used to cut off heads during the French Revolution) |
| 25 | Gave up, visibly embarrassed about new cat (9) |
RED (colour of face that indicates embarrassment) containing (about) (N [new] + OUNCE [a big cat of Asia]) RE (N OUNCE) D |
RENOUNCED (gave up) |
| 26 | Try to get a lift in East Humberside (5) |
THUMB (hidden word in [in] EAST HUMBERSIDE) THUMB |
THUMB (seek a lift) |
| 27 | Free from responsibility, sailor loves getting drunk (7) |
AB (able seaman; sailor) + an anagram of (getting drunk) LOVES AB SOLVE* |
ABSOLVE (free from guilt or responsibility) |
| 28 | Listeners welcome piano as sleeping aid (7) |
(EAR [listener] + LUG [ear [listener]) giving listeners, containing (welcome) P (piano) EAR (P) LUG |
EARPLUG (something worn to shut out sound and aid sleep) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Go over Black Mountains (6) |
B (black, on lead pencils to indicate softness) + RIDGE (descriptive of a feature of mountainous terrain) B RIDGE |
BRIDGE (go over) |
| 2 | Like some flooring? Ring province up (6) |
(DIAL [call] + NI [reference the province of Northern Ireland] all reversed (up; down clue) (IN LAID)< |
INLAID (descriptive of a type of flooring) |
| 3 | Glum celebs commandeer current servants’ quarters (10) |
DOWN (sad; glum) + (STARS [celebrities] containing [commandeer] I [electric current]) DOWN STA (I) RS |
DOWNSTAIRS (where the servants quarters were / are located) |
| 4 | Look through last of my cash (5) |
READ (look through) + Y (final letter of [last of] MY) READ Y |
READY (informal term for cash) |
| 5 | Exotic insect is beginning to torment boffin (9) |
Anagram of (exotic) INSECT + IS + T (first letter of [beginning to] TORMENT) SCIENT* IS T |
SCIENTIST (expert; brain; boffin) |
| 6 | Keep going when officer lags (4) |
LT (Lieutenant; officer) containing (lags) AS (when) L (AS) T |
LAST (endure; keep going) |
| 7 | Sent up writer’s papers covering gallery (8) |
I’M (I am [writer is; writer’s]) + ID [identity papers]) containing (covering) TATE (reference TATE [one of a number of art galleries with the name TATE around Britain]) IM I (TATE) D |
IMITATED (did an impression of or caricatured someone else; sent up) |
| 8 | Leader heading off local (8) |
PRESIDENT (leader) excluding the first letter (heading off) P RESIDENT |
RESIDENT (a local person) |
| 13 | Posh bed for accommodating posh blogger (4-6) |
FOR containing (accommodating) U (posh) + POSTER (a blogger is someone who posts a journal or story or description of how to solve specific crosswords on websites or social media) FO (U) R POSTER |
FOUR-POSTER (upmarket [posh] type of bed) |
| 15 | All but pair up with pawnbroker to obtain gem (9) |
BRACE (pair) reversed (up; down clue) excluding the final letter (all but) E + UNCLE (slang word for pawnbroker) CARB< UNCLE |
CARBUNCLE (mythical self-luminous gem) |
| 16 | Climber writes novel about one alp primarily (8) |
Anagram of (novel about) WRITES + I (Roman numeral for one) + A (first letter of [primarily] ALP) WISTER* I A |
WISTERIA (climbing plant) |
| 17 | Bosses recruit European theatre trainees (8) |
STUDS (bosses) containing (recruit) (E [European] + NT [National Theatre]) STUD (E NT) S |
STUDENTS (trainees) |
| 19 | Form of worship adopted by spiritualists (6) |
RITUAL (hidden word in [adopted by] SPIRITUALISTS) RITUAL |
RITUAL (form of religious ceremony) |
| 20 | Label describing each book leaves container (3,3) |
TAG (label) containing (describing) (EA [each] + B [book]) T (EA B) AG |
TEA BAG (container of leaves) |
| 23 | Submit box containing diamonds (5) |
LOGE (a box in the theatre or opera house) containing (containing) D (diamonds) LO (D) GE |
LODGE (submit a document or a claim, for example) |
| 24 | Result of dispute expected by end of April (4) |
DUE (expected) + L (last letter of [end of] APRIL) DUE L |
DUEL (prearranged fight between two people under fixed conditions and generally on an affair of honour; in olden days, a dispute may have been resolved in such a manner) |
Morning Duncan. For WISTERIA, I had (WRITES)* about (around) I followed by A.
Good puzzle as always from Radian (and thorough and entertaining blog too).
I just thought ‘about’ in the WISTERIA clue was there to make the surface work, unless the second ‘I’ in the answer is meant to come from the ‘writes’ anagram, which is therefore ‘about’ (or contains) the first ‘I’ coming from ‘one’. Sorry, clumsily expressed and probably wrong to boot.
The ‘gem’ sense of CARBUNCLE was interesting and I liked GUILLOTINE for ‘Revolutionary cutter’.
I was a bit uneasy about the apparent lack of a theme apart from the roles as suggested by Duncan. Maybe someone will be able to spot something else.
Thanks to Radian and Duncan
Thanks Radian and DS
“The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle” was one of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holme short stories.
I also had an anagram of WRITES about the first I followed by A.
LOGE was new to me and I wasn’t keen on mountains = ridge in 1d.
Thanks to Radian and Duncan.
Well, we looked for a Shakespearean theme thinking BAND might come from ‘band of brothers’ in Henty V. But no, and we eventually spotted a Sherlock Holmes theme: The Norwood BUILDER, The Speckled BAND, The Greek INTERPRETER, The Engineer’s THUMB, Thor BRIDGE, The RESIDENT Patient, The Blue CARBUNCLE, WISTERIA LODGE, The Three STUDENTS and The Musgrave RITUAL. Also, a guillotine features in The Red Widow, one of the stories developed by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr from supposed references in the original stories to other cases.
EARPLUG was one of our favourites.
Thanks, Radian and Duncan.
Thanks for the blog Duncan – we hadn’t come across the meaning of carbuncle before. Prince Charles described the extension to the National Gallery as a carbuncle on the face of an old friend. We don’t think he was likening it to a gem!
Thanks allan_c for finding the theme which we missed totally. Mind you, our first thought, like Duncan’s was also in terms of Shakespeare.
An impressive number of thematic words – thanks Radian.
Well done allan_c. I’ve read all the Holmes stories more than once and didn’t spot it.
Fine clueing. Not a criticism, but I found this the easiest Radian, as well as the easiest Tuesday, puzzle ever.
Thanks to Radian and duncanshiell.