This really set me back and I spent ages on it, eventually giving up and using aids. But as always of course with Serpent it is pretty good. I have no excuses but my own incompetence.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
With all those unchecked letters at the edges it looks as if there is a message of some sort. And yes I see it now: reading clockwise: egg caterpillar larva pupa adult, although why Serpent repeats ‘caterpillar’ and ‘larva’ I don’t know, and if he’s going to have Latin words like ‘larva’ then he should have a Latin word like ‘imago’ — probably making rather a difficult grid fill and a crossword that is even harder than it is already.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | LUPINE | Marshal, on horseback, going west like a wild animal (6) |
| Well it fits, and it means ‘like a wolf’, ie ‘like a wild animal’, but how the wordplay works is beyond me I’m afraid (but see the end of this rambling) — perhaps there is a fictional marshal of whom I’m unaware called ‘Enipul’, but probably not — more likely it’s l up [on horseback] in E somehow — I have to admit that I only got this from the Nina, and had an equally uncomfortable answer before — ah, just seen it now: it’s line up [marshal] with the up [on horseback] moving to the west | ||
| 9 | PARANOIA | Soldier on holiday regularly experienced irrational fear (8) |
| para {o}n {h}o{l}i{d}a{y} | ||
| 10 | RIDDANCE | Candid shot about to receive clearance (8) |
| (candid)* in re — ‘about to receive’ means ‘about (re) is receiving’ | ||
| 11 | PLASMA | What’s the matter as lamp melts? (6) |
| (as lamp)* — I’m a bit vague about this: is it an &lit.? No doubt someone will be able to explain the science here; some connection with a plasma lamp — and is this the definition or is it ‘What’s the matter’? | ||
| 12 | ANTEDATING | Taking place before start of day disrupts aardvark’s normal activity? (10) |
| ante(d{ay})ating | ||
| 15 | FIND | Discover auditor’s penalised (4) |
| “fined” | ||
| 16 | LEAD | Live electrical cable? (4) |
| 2 defs | ||
| 18 | ONION | Bulb‘s working, subject to receiving current (5) |
| on (I) on — both ‘working’ and ‘subject to’ = ‘on’ | ||
| 19 | LIEU | Place where one goes to be heard (4) |
| “loo” — I suppose it’s this, although I (and Collins) would pronounce it ‘lyoo’ — Collins has ‘loo’ for the American pronunciation — but is Serpent American? Is this crossword for the American public? | ||
| 21 | LAMA | Innocent bishop to become a priest (4) |
| in ‘lamb’ [innocent] the letter b becomes a | ||
| 23 | EXTRAMURAL | Run artist’s work affiliated with university (10) |
| extra [run, cricket] mural | ||
| 25 | ICONIC | Nico repeated shows having symbolic quality (6) |
| Hidden in NICO NICo | ||
| 26 | STEEPEST | Most costly stones cut by revolutionary blade (8) |
| st. ((epee)rev.) st. | ||
| 28 | POISONED | Embittered lives one school nurtures (8) |
| po(is one)d — is = lives | ||
| 29 | EQUINE | Horse covered in spangles almost from nose to tail (6) |
| {s}equine{d} | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | AUDIENCE | Interview expert about article in Die Welt probing multinational organisation (8) |
| a(U(die)N)ce — the article in Die Welt is a German article, definite in this case (I think the fact that ‘Die’ appears in the title of the publication is just an unfortunate coincidence, but it could easily have been avoided, so does it signify something?) | ||
| 2 | RIDDLE | I’m half of 10 plus half of 16: what am I? (6) |
| ridd{ance} le{ad} — easy enough once you have 10 and 16 | ||
| 3 | VEIN | Something exploited by extractive industries? (4) |
| Hidden in extractiVE INdustries | ||
| 4 | APSE | Recess leads to pupils enjoying awesome spring break (4) |
| (p{upils} e{njoying} a{wesome} s{pring})* | ||
| 5 | PROPAGANDA | Thorough scrutiny of dictator’s publicity material (10) |
| “proper gander”, the homophone indicated by ‘of dictator’ | ||
| 6 | UNLAWFUL | Not allowed except when half-dropping pants (8) |
| unl{ess} awful [pants] | ||
| 7 | PITMAN | Underground worker at empty platform in Barking (6) |
| (at p{latfor}m in)* | ||
| 13 | ADOLESCENT | Young person‘s allowance preserved by rise (10) |
| a(dole)scent | ||
| 14 | IDIOT | Clipped manner of speaking ultimately felt stupid (5) |
| idio{m} {fel}t — ‘stupid’ a noun, or ‘idiot’ an adjective | ||
| 17 | DIAGNOSE | Recognise complaint raising appropriation of tune by on-line charity (8) |
| song in e-aid, all reversed — does e-aid exist? I can’t see that it does, in which case should there not have been a ? at the end? | ||
| 20 | ELAPSING | Passing round drinks at home for example (8) |
| e(laps in)g | ||
| 22 | ANCHOR | Host slicing Iberian chorizo (6) |
| Hidden in IberiAN CHORizo | ||
| 24 | UNPLUG | Take out 16 guns after shelling Cork? (6) |
| 16 being ‘lead’, this is {g}un{s} plug [cork] | ||
| 26 | SODA | Author leaving upset farewell drink (4) |
| (ad{I}os)rev. | ||
| 27 | EXEC | Former City boss? (4) |
| ex [former] EC | ||
I love Serpent puzzles and when they are over half completed I always look for his “signature” which often as not provides a first letter of a clue I was struggling with.ADOLESCENT blends with the perimeter.I dare say there are more.
Thanks John and Serpent.
I liked the peripheral Nina which helped with LUPINE at the very end – well done for working out the parsing. I didn’t really get the PLASMA for ‘matter’ either, but looking it up post-solve, one sense of ‘plasma’ is ‘plasm’ = ‘a formative substance’ which I guess would do for ‘matter’. I had the same feeling for 1d that there might be something else going on, beyond clumsiness, with DIE as part of the wordplay and answer.
I parsed VEIN as an &lit. For DIAGNOSE, I just had a separate E for ‘on-line’ and AID for ‘charity’ without connecting them with a hyphen. Looks like Chambers gives either pronunciation for LIEU, without specifying one as American.
Thanks to John and Serpent
You’ve missed out EGG from nina. Starting with this you get EGG CATERPILLAR LARVA PUPA ADULT (then back to EGG as a life cycle).
I’ve always pronounced LIEU as LOO and live in England. Doesn’t mean to imply I was correct.
For 1d, I just took DIE to be the article in DIE WELT.
Thanks to Serpent and John.
I wish I’d seen the Nina an awful lot earlier as it would definitely have helped – a proper Serpentine battle – my particular favourite was 5a
Thanks to Serpent and John
Thanks Serpent and John
Well, Looe was my first one in and LIEU was almost the last. Should have known Looe was a bit too basic.
Very much enjoyed the RIDDLE and the ANT[d]EATING, but also had to wait for the L in larva to be sure about LUPINE and then understand it. RIDDANCE caused trouble because of the ‘about to receive’ coming after ‘candid shot’. I like the word order in ‘lives one school nurtures’ because you can read it in one go, but find the extra cutting up needed for ‘candid shot about to receive’ quite difficult.
Thanks Serpent and John
I always enjoy Serpent’s puzzles, even though I know I’m probably in for a tough struggle. That adds to the satisfaction on finishing, though.
Like James @ 5, I also entered LOOE initially, which as a clue I think works equally well, though of course in context it doesn’t.
We were definitely not on Serpent’s wavelength today and, with only about half finished, ended up having to cheat by revealing letters and in some cases words. It didn’t help that we initially put ‘wire’ and ‘Looe’ for 16 and 19. And we didn’t spot the nina, either. We did manage to parse eveything, though.
But we liked ANTEDATING and ICONIC (both got without help) and RIDDLE – the latter a nomination for CoD.
Thanks, Serpent and John.
I also put in Looe for 19A . I think it is a better answer as Serpent gives us no indication to think in “ foreign “. However I then lacked an answer for 20D. Doubts about wordplay for 10A.
Otherwise enjoyed the effort.
Thanks S and B
Plasma is simply a form of matter. The others are gas, liquid, solid.
This was hard. I still don’t understand 24.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Defeat for me. I couldn’t even get a toehold in the top left corner. I couldn’t get 19ac either, even though I do pronounce LOO and LIEU identically. (At my old work place, if you worked extra hours and didn’t want to claim overtime, you could take “time off in lieu”, and I was always making jokes about that.) Chambers doesn’t give that as American.
Blimey what a slog! Over an hour and a half and still defeated by 21a, so a DNF. Also could not parse ‘lupine’ though it seemed the only candidate – thanks John! Whew, off to bed now.
Many thanks to John for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to comment. Apologies for not spotting the alternative answer to LIEU.