Egbert has become quite a household name at S&B events over the years.
Very nice crossword, one you might want to have a go at, in case you missed it.
There is no ‘inside information’ needed.
See the post above which tells you where to find it.
Some may have seen this crossword before as it was previously written on/for another occasion.
There’s a lot to like here, even if I added a couple of (minor) question marks below.
A satisfying puzzle with a very neatly worked out nina (which is highlighted in the grid at the end of this blog).
Many thanks to Egbert (who wasn’t there in person last Saturday but there will be always be a next time).
| Across | ||
| 7 | LUNCHEON | Introduce and promote energy company with a free meal (8) |
That is, I think, how one has to look at what’s going on here. At first, I was a bit confused by the order of things, thinking that ‘without’ instead of ‘with’ would have been better. However, that wouldn’t make sense for the surface. Anyway, I got the answer without too much fuss and that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Many thanks to Allan & Alan to wake me up! They made clear that ‘with … free’ indicates the removal (of ‘a’). It was, I think now, the word ‘with’ that caused the confusion. Also, ‘free’ is therefore not part of the definition, obvious now! |
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| 9 | HOUSES | Weeds seen around American lodges (6) |
| HOES (weeds) around US (American) | ||
| 10 | KEEPER | Guard‘s about to take a quick look around (6) |
| Reversal [around] of: RE (about) + PEEK (take a quick look) | ||
| 11 | RUST BELT | Industrial area hit by decay (4,4) |
| RUST (decay) followed by BELT (hit) | ||
| 12 | JITTERED | Was nervous, tired, suffering with jet lag, half-cut (8) |
| Anagram [suffering] of TIRED + JET [lag] One has to see ‘jet lag’ as a whole before cutting it in two. |
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| 15 | CACHOU | Take a bit of coriander with a cabbage – it will counteract halitosis (6) |
| C[oriander] + A + CHOU (cabbage) My last one in, not being familiar with ‘chou’ nor ‘cachou’. Sometimes, dictionaries can be handy! |
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| 16 | ICON | Heroic figure in housing company (4) |
| IN around CO (company) | ||
| 17 | MORAL | Ethical point initially made by word of mouth (5) |
| M[ade] + ORAL (by word of mouth) | ||
| 18 | SLAV | Split personality typically revealed in gents’ lavatory (4) |
| Hidden answer [revealed in]: gent’s lavatory ‘Split personality’ = ‘a person from Split, which is in Croatia’ = ‘Croat’. And a Croat is ‘typically’ an example of a Slav, someone who speaks a Slavonic language. |
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| 19 | HEROIN | Smack leading lady in audition (6) |
| Homophone [in audition] of HEROINE (leading lady) ‘Smack’ is a slang word for the infamous drug. |
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| 21 | CAP SCREW | International players boasted about special fixture (3,5) |
| CAPS (international players) + CREW (boasted Initially, this clue wrongfooted me completely. While I made the link ‘cap’/’international’, I took the players as ‘crew’, and put the lot around S (‘special’). Leaving me, of course, with ‘boasted’ for whatever reason. I didn’t take ‘cap’ as the player him/herself but more in the sense of having played in an international game, e.g. ‘he has four caps’. |
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| 23 | GIVE ODDS | Bookmakers do this to produce overdrawn day-trippers on vacation (4,4) |
| GIVE (produce) + OD (overdrawn, abbreviation) + D[ay-tripper]S | ||
| 25 | SURTAX | Additional duty announced for knights and baronets? (6) |
| Homophone [announced] of SIR TAX Knights and baronets wear the title ‘sir’, which justifies the homophone. The second word in the clue is needed for both the definition and the wordplay; a case of, er, ‘double duty’. |
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| 27 | FLYERS | Hesitates to follow insidious leaflets (6) |
| ERS (hesitates) placed after FLY (insidious) | ||
| 28 | ALTAR BOY | Acolyte‘s key opens entrances to archbishop’s residence, bishop’s office and back of vestry (5,3) |
| ALT (key) coming before [opens] the first letters [entrances] of “archbishop’s residence bishop’s office”, then + [vestr]Y | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MUSE | Ponder upcoming European problem (4) |
| Reversal [upcoming] of: E (European) + SUM (problem) Well, we keep on pondering … |
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| 2 | NEARER | More closely related to one born with rare disorder (6) |
| NE (born) + an anagram [disorder] of RARE | ||
| 3 | ONER | Big lie, like Johnson’s last two to the queen? (4) |
| [Johns]ON + ER (the Queen) How topical! |
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| 4 | PHYSICAL | Materialistic, like some jerks (8) |
| Double definition The second part of the clue is about ‘physical jerks’. Let’s get physical (like in the 80s Olivia Newton-John). |
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| 5 | QUEBEC | Short question in international radio communication (6) |
| ‘Question’ can be shortened to Q, which in the NATO alphabet stands for ‘Quebec’ Not sure what to underline here, not sure how to call this either. My penultimate one in. |
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| 6 | REALLOCATE | Proper place to make a new assignment (10) |
| REAL (proper) + LOCATE (place) | ||
| 8 | CAPSTAN | Recorder’s winding mechanism can hold different tapes with no end of storage (7) |
| CAN around an anagram [different] of TAPES minus E (the end of storagE) The Grammar Police for which, at times, I do some freelance work, may object to the use of ‘hold’. However, if you see ‘can’ as ‘c,a,n’ (three things, i.e. something plural), or alternatively take ‘hold’ as the imperative form of the verb, they might keep shtum. |
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| 13 | INCREDIBLE | Leading chef’s recipe’s not fit to eat outside! Extraordinary! (10) |
| C[hef] + R (recipe), together inside INEDIBLE (not fit to eat) | ||
| 14 | DORIC | Ancient Greek theology lessons taken by physician (5) |
| RI (theology lessons, Religious Instructions) inside DOC (physician) | ||
| 17 | MINIDISC | Record shows spy chief is caught without up-to-date papers (8) |
| M (spy chief, in James Bond films) + IS + C (caught), together around {IN (up-to-date) + ID (papers)} I bought myself once a minidisc recorder. In the days before streaming, it was actually quite a brilliant piece of technology. You were able to record digitally and delete, add and even move tracks (which was not even all possible with a CD-RW). Unfortunately, it never really took off. |
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| 18 | SECURER | Cures developed by US hospital department are safer (7) |
| Anagram [developed] of CURES, followed by ER (US hospital department, Emergency Room) | ||
| 20 | OPENED | Started to write in reference book (6) |
| PEN (to write) inside OED (reference book, Oxford English Dictionary) | ||
| 22 | PESETA | Foreign capital once visited back in late September (6) |
| Hidden [visited] in: late September, then reversed [back] which gives you the answer to the clue The former currency of Spain and Andorra. |
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| 24 | SCAB | Scoundrel sets up online banking system (4) |
| Reversal [… sets up] of BACS (online banking system, Bankers Automated Clearing Service) | ||
| 26 | A-TO-Z | Street map shows the outskirts around here (1-2-1) |
| Double definition … …but for the second one you’ll need to look at the perimeter of the grid, highlighted in yellow below. |
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Finished at home after the event and we spotted the pangram/nina in time to help. We have a slightly different parsing for 7ac; ‘with a free’ indicates removing ‘a’ from ‘launch’ and the definition is simply ‘meal’.
Peripheral pangrams are rare enough, one in order is extremely so – although Nimrod had one in qwerty… order a few years ago in the Indy. Well done, Egbert, and we missed you yesterday.
And thanks, Sil, for the blog.
The nina is truly an astonishing technical achievement. Serpent recently had all the alphabet in the perimeter, but Egbert has them in alphabetical order.
And you didn’t need to know any of that. It was not even hinted at by the inclusion of obscure words. In fact it was highly approachable, with excellent surfaces – some like 18, laugh out loud funny.
Thanks Egbert and Sil.
High time Egbert was snapped up by one of the dailies.
I couldn’t be at the event, but it was pleasing to see the familiar names on this forum with crosswords attached.
This was an interesting and not a quick solve. I got all except SCAB, which I would have got if I had spotted the rather obvious ‘pangram’.
I parsed LUNCHEON the way allan_c did – a good clue that I could solve only with all the crossers. I needed all the crossers for CAP SCREW too, which I haven’t come cross before. CREW in that sense was new to me too, but all’s fair – another good clue.
I had no difficulty with QUEBEC, but like Sil I would not know what to underline! Perhaps the whole clue.
I liked CACHOU, for which (without references) I had to plumb the depths of my knowledge – for both chou and cachou.
Thanks to both setter and blogger.
A really enjoyable crossword, and it was good to see Sil, and everyone else, at York yesterday.
Thanks to Sil van den Hoek and Egbert
Very nice crossword, but the grammar police may revoke your licence for not querying “leading chef”.
One minor point – isn’t “crew” simply “boasted”?
Dansar, I don’t think they will.
Sometimes one has reasons to be perhaps a bit more flexible.
IAnd it’s surely not as ‘bad’ (if it is, anyway) as W =’woman’, for example.
Yes, you’re right about ‘boasted’ – I will change/update that.
A TO Z was my first in, and having noticed the spacings would suit the ordered perimeter, the rest fell into place surprisingly quickly. All very enjoyable, and an impressive gridfill.
Thanks to Egbert and Sil