The Observer crossword from Dec 22, 2019.
‘A festive treat’ from Everyman (see 4d and 9d, and more).
Whether it was a real treat, that’s a matter of taste.
We (my solving partner and I) liked this crossword, not having had any major hold-ups.
But again, there seem to be a lot of full anagram clues (8, actually).
- As this is my last blog of the year, I would like to wish everyone:
A Happy New Year.
[on a personal level – don’t know where the UK ends up]
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PRESS-UPS | President grandly dines, leading to gym session (5-3) |
| PRES (President, abbreviated) + SUPS (grandly dines) | ||
| 5 | VELCRO | Invention that secures part of level crossing (6) |
| Hidden solution [part of]: level crossing | ||
| 10 | SHEBANG | Report following that woman’s affair (7) |
| BANG (report) coming after SHE (that woman) | ||
| 11 | RAVIOLI | Russia’s banks fiddle endlessly with cases from Italy (7) |
| R[ussi]A + VIOLI[n] (fiddle, minus the last letter) Everyman uses ‘cases’ because of the shape of ravioli. |
||
| 12 | BATIK | A little dab at Ikea fabric (5) |
| Hidden solution [a little]: dab at Ikea “An originally Indonesian method of producing designs on cloth by covering with wax, for each successive dipping, those parts that are to be protected from the dye” (Chambers). |
||
| 13 | IN NO SENSE | Dislocated nine noses? Definitely not (2,2,5) |
| Anagram [dislocated] of NINE NOSES | ||
| 14 | DOUBLE WHISKY | Why so blue, kid? Regrettably, it’s the drink (6,6) |
| Anagram [regrettably] of WHY SO BLUE KID | ||
| 18 | SOUND BARRIER | Uninjured, rare bird almost crashed into something met at high speed (5,7) |
| SOUND (uninjured), followed by an anagram [crashed] of RARE BIRD minus the D at the end | ||
| 21 | CRAB CAKES | Recklessly races back for pescatarian’s dish (4,5) |
| Anagram [recklessly] of RACES BACK | ||
| 23 | NAVEL | Next to west section of church, left a kind of orange (5) |
| NAVE (west section of church) + L (left) Perfectly all right clue. See several comments below. |
||
| 24 | OF A SORT | Oaf’s to run about, in a way (2,1,4) |
| Anagram [about] of: OAF’S TO + R (run) | ||
| 25 | UNCORKS | Opens a French port and sips (to begin with) (7) |
| UN (a, in French) + CORK (port, in Ireland) + S[ips] | ||
| 26 | TASTED | Shocked? About time to become experienced (6) |
| TASED (shocked, used a taser) around T (time) I was surprised to find that ‘tased’ is a valid alternative to ‘tasered’ (at least for Collins). |
||
| 27 | VERY GOOD | So splendid (4,4) |
| Double definition, I assume Last one in but I found this clue not really what the solution tells me. |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PASS BY | Ignore eyewitness without hesitation (4.2) |
| PASSER BY (eyewitness) minus ER (hesitation) | ||
| 2 | EGESTS | Lets out what a Cockney comic does, we’re told (6) |
| Homophone [we’re told] of ‘E JESTS (what a comic does – if a Cockney (normal people say ‘he jests’)) | ||
| 3 | SNACK FOOD | Cask of don drunk with crisps, etc (5,4) |
| Anagram [drunk] of CASK OF DON Never heard anyone using the term ‘snack food’ (Chambers, Collins and the SOED agree with me). |
||
| 4 | PIGS IN BLANKETS | Silk pants being laid out as festive treat (4,2,8) |
| Anagram [laid out] of SILK PANTS BEING Festive treat? Yes, but not for the veggies among us. |
||
| 6 | ELVIS | Tolkien’s language not hard, reveals the King (5) |
| ELVISH (Tolkien’s language) minus H (hard) Elvis Presley, of course. |
||
| 7 | COOLNESS | Colonel ingests oxygen atop headland, showing aplomb (8) |
| COL (colonel) around O (oxygen), followed by NESS (headland) | ||
| 8 | OLIVE OYL | Cartoon character sounded kind of fat (5,3) |
| Homophone [sounded] of OLIVE OIL (kind of fat) One of these clues that actually annoy me. The indicator’s in the middle and therefore I had to wait for 14ac. Some might argue that ‘oil’ and ‘fat’ are not the same. |
||
| 9 | CRANBERRY SAUCE | A curry, beer cans laid out as festive treat (9.5) |
| Anagram [laid out] of A CURRY BEER CANS The companion clue to 4d, in more than one respect. Veggies won’t object to this one! |
||
| 15 | HUE AND CRY | Tint with blubber, leading to commotion (3,3,3) |
| HUE (tint) + AND (with) + CRY (blubber) | ||
| 16 | PSYCH OUT | Intimidate and turn spy with touch (5,3) |
| Anagram [turn] of: SPY + TOUCH | ||
| 17 | CURACAOS | Alcoholic aficionado on vacation, scoundrel’s drinking orangey liqueurs (8) |
| CUR’S (scoundrel’s) around A[lcoholi]C A[ficionad]O (both ‘on vacation’, emptied out) | ||
| 19 | EVER SO | Clever? Solomon? To some extent? To a huge extent! (4,2) |
| Hidden solution [to some extent]: Clever Solomon One has to ignore the first question mark (which is, of course, fine). |
||
| 20 | CLOSED | Miss getting into album? Shut up (6) |
| LOSE (miss) inside CD (album) As one from a certain age, I recall an ‘album’ being an LP rather than a CD. In today’s world of streaming, is there still something like an album? That said, I’m OK with it – I wouldn’t want to go back to the days of just vinyl. I clearly remember me buying The Eagles’ Hotel California in December 1976 and then having to return it because of cracks in the first track! |
||
| 22 | CLOVE | What goes in mulled wine? Bit of cinnamon, dear (5) |
| C[innamon] + LOVE (dear) | ||
Thank you Sil, I liked your Christmassy colour scheme for the PIGS IN BLANKETS and CRANBERRY SAUCE. Some might have included DOUBLE WHISKY, CURACAOS, UNCORKS, SNACK FOOD and CLOVE among the festive treats, and of course the verdict (TASTED VERY GOOD) along the bottom.
On 23a NAVEL, I interpreted ‘west section of church’ as the definition for NAVE rather than seeing ‘west’ as a position indicator. As you say the clue doesn’t really need it, but it is correct, and arguably it makes the surface reading more natural-sounding. People will differ on this, but I don’t mind the odd extra word thrown in for the sake of elegance.
And I’m more comfortable than you with the dd in 27a VERY GOOD. I use ‘very good’ / ‘very well’ / ‘so’ pretty much interchangeably to convey the idea of ‘Right, that’s that dealt with, let’s get on to the next item’.
A very Happy New Year to you, Everyman, and all who contribute to this site.
Thanks Sil and Everyman for this seasonal crossword.
But I agree with @essexboy that ‘west’ is not superfluous in 23ac. It’s a tighter definition and rules out other parts of a church (if that were necessary) such as chancel, choir, sanctuary.
Like Sil, I had to wait for 14ac before filling in 8d.
I’ve always understood a taser to be a thing that tases, so tased would be fine in that case.
A really nice Christmas crossword. I entirely agree with essexboy @1 regarding the other linked answers (especially 26a 27a), and about the appropriateness of “west” in 23a, the nave of course being (normally) the main western part of a church.
Of the non-themed clues, I particularly liked 6d ELVIS and 19d EVER SO for their clever surfaces.
Many thanks Everyman and Sil.
We still seem to be struggling to come up to the standard we expect of everyman. I thought some of the anagram indicators were very obvious and three hidden solutions in one puzzle is too many to my kind.
Hello all. Yes indeed: a feast of anagrams! For those puzzles published when more of the lapsed or ocassional solvers turn to that page of the paper, I do marginally favour the devices they prefer. Regarding westgate: with much of the puzzle reflecting the secular side of the season, it seemed only fair to offer a spot of sacerdotal detail (plus I liked the surface). Happy New Year Sil and all.
As someone who is not really interested in any form of religion, I am obviously not the right person to tell you where, in a church, to find the ‘nave’. Which explains my ‘it-doesn’t-make-sense’ remarks at 23ac.
Thanks to several commenters, including @4 the Lord Himself, for putting me right.
Blog amended.
A delightful christmassy puzzle – and over the past week I’ve been happily ingesting all the food & drink items mentioned, except crab cakes and ravioli. Even had slices of navel oranges in the mulled wine. Thanks to Sil for the blog and to Everyman for a seasonal treat. Happy new year, all (though I share your worries, Sil, about Britain’s future. Fingers crossed it won’t be too horrendous…)
Many thanks to both and all the best for the season. Here, 4d is not such a common phrase as we call them sausage rolls.
I split 27 so each word gave one word of the answer and then they also gave the overall phrase together. Bit messy, but it seemed to add more depth to the clue.
Sil, I agree with your comment about OYL too – I was unsure what letter went in the middle until I had solved the crosser. And from a Chemistry background, I can assure you fats and oils are different substances but everyday usage blurs definitions.
Rather to my chagrin, I found that this was a DNF for me, as I had ‘ejects’ for ‘egests’ at 2d, can’t help thinking my answer was plausible, although my version did involve a deliberate mispronunciation. Otherwise, enjoyable and reasonably straightforward, although there was some discussion on another site of ‘navew’, a type of turnip, I’m told, as a possible answer to 23a. That of course, would leave an unaccounted orange in the parsing area.
Re. 1down Can someone tell me why there is a full stop and not a comma in the brackets to indicate the word lengths? When before the setter has used commas to indicate abbreviations…I am confused and still cannot enjoy my Sunday crosswords…grumpy from Tremeven!
Jacky @ 11
Hadn’t even noticed that! I think it’s just a typo,
I enjoyed this mostly, but was grateful for seceral explanations. In the blog SOUND is uninjured (you have injured) at 18ac and the anagram needs NOSES not ROSES at 12ac.
Vielen Dank, B.@13.
Blog (once more) amended.
However, 12ac should be 13ac …. ?
This was fine apart from the high anagram count. A greater variety of cluing devices please Everyman.
Thank you.
I didn’t mind this, and I don’t mind anagrams. Of course Christmas is long over here, but nevertheless I almost finished this one. Never heard of Curacaos, and Pigs in Blankets are sausage rolls as someone else said.
Happy New Year everyone.
We finished this by peeking at the answer for 16d,didn’t think it would be yet another anagram but overall happy with this one. Almost end of January here in Auckland and it’s boiling already. Why are we a month behind with these crosswords now??!
Excellent puzzle. Struggled, but got it all out, with no wildcard dictionary assistance. Had to look up “egests” (2 down) to be sure about it, and was surprised to find that this word is not in my New Oxford Dictionary. (Had to use the web to find it.)
Thanks to Everyman and Sil.
Enjoyed this puzzle but had never heard of egests. Interestingly my computer autocorrected it to exerts.
Snack food is a common expression in New Zealand.
Very enjoyable. Especially liked the cryptic definition of ravioli in 11ac & although 6d was pretty easy I thought it had a great surface. I have no issue with 8d. Considering the three macro-nutrients: fats, proteins and carbs, olive oil is most definitely a type of fat. I also thought the homophone order was fairly clear from the wording of the clue.
Thanks Sil & Everyman.