Serpent provides today’s challenge
I found the biggest challenge today to be how to parse some of the clues. I am still left with three I can’t parse satisfactorily. These are all in the downs – RUDDY at 3 down, ALLURE at 8 down and BLISS at 24 down. All have double letters, but I suspect that is just a coincidence. Having said that though, there are a few others entries with double letters also. I’ve given some thoughts about the parsings in the detail of the blog, but I feel sure a few solvers will point out what I have missed.
I note that AUSTRAL (southern) is spelled out in most of the unchecked letters in row 2. There’s no other obvious word in the other unchecked letters, so I guess that is a coincidence as well.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Secret society of beer drinkers welcoming men (7) |
CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale; society of beer drinkers) containing (welcoming) OR (other ranks; men) CAM (OR) RA |
CAMORRA (Neapolitan secret society formed circa 1820, similar to the Mafia) |
| 5 | Product of plant making unconventional weapons (4,3) |
Anagram of (unconventional) WEAPONS SNOW PEA* |
SNOW PEA (mangetout; variety of pea cooked and eaten together with its pod; product of plant) |
| 9 | Put in a request when journalist buttonholes king (5) |
(AS [when] + ED [editor; journalist) containing (buttonholes) K (king) AS (K) ED |
ASKED (put in a request) |
| 10 | Routine work that’s laborious and cyclical in nature (9) |
TREADMILL (cylinder turned by treading on boards on its outside; a device that is cyclical in nature) TREADMILL |
TREADMILL (routine drudgery) double definition |
| 11 | Out of practice, one gets hammered drinking this (5,4) |
RUSTY (out of practice) + NAIL (an object that gets hit with a hammer) RUSTY NAIL |
RUSTY NAIL (alcoholic cocktail containing whisky and Drambuie, something that could get you drunk [hammered] if you over indulge) |
| 12 | What goes round and round without changing? (5) |
ROTOR (example of a palindrome; it can be reversed [goes round] to show the same word [without changing]) ROTOR or ROTOR< |
ROTOR (a part that goes round and round) |
| 13 | Silver, for example, can start to tarnish (4) |
TIN (can) + T (first letter of [start to] TARNISH) TIN T |
TINT (silver is an example of a colour, shade, tint) |
| 15 | Give one player on national team a penalty (8) |
HAND (pass; give) + I (Roman numeral for one) + CAP (official or symbolic headdress or one appropriated to a special class or use, academic, athletic, etc; an occasion of being selected for especially a national team, HAND I CAP |
HANDICAP (penalty) |
| 18 | Person trying really hard riddle ? (8) |
STRAINER (someone exerting maximum force; person trying really hard) STRAINER |
STRAINER (sieve; riddle) double definition |
| 19 | Individual pieces sought but not named (4) |
SOLI SOLI |
SOLI (plural of SOLO; individual pieces) |
| 22 | Complaint from lecturer at university backed leaders of Student Union (5) |
L (lecturer) + UP (at university) + SU (first letters of [leaders of] each of STUDENT and UNION) reversed (backed) L UP US< |
LUPUS ( chronic tuberculosis of the skin, medical complaint) |
| 24 | See someone, for the first time lacking in vision, become obsolete (5,4) |
BLIND (lacking in vision) + DATE (go out of fashion; become obsolete) BLIND DATE |
BLIND DATE (social engagement arranged for one, especially by a third party, with someone one has not met previously; see someone for the first time) |
| 26 | Obligations left one wanting special powers (9) |
ABILITIES |
ABILITIES (special talents; special powers) |
| 27 | Specialist hospital in pleasant surroundings (5) |
H (hospital) contained in (in) NICE (pleasant surroundings) NIC (H) E |
NICHE (specialist [area]) |
| 28 | Criminal hears about new opening for someone to control and exploit (7) |
(Anagram of [criminal] HEARS containing [about] N [new]) + S (first letter of [opening of] SOMEONE) HAR (N) ES* S |
HARNESS (control and exploit) |
| 29 | Suppresses issue related to new partner? (7) |
STEPS ON (suppresses) STEPSON |
STEPSON (existing child [issue] of a new partner in a relationship) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Tea chest raised important point spiritually (6) |
CHA (tea) + ARK (chest) reversed (raised; down clue) CHA KRA< |
CHAKRA (in yoga, one of the seven centres of spiritual power in the body; important point spiritually) |
| 2 | In Dr Spooner’s view, Arab leader upset temporary arrangement (9) |
MAKESHIFT – a Spoonerism of this would be SHEIKH (Arab leader) MIFFED (upset) MAKESHIFT |
MAKESHIFT (temporary expedient) |
| 3 | Red Queen replaces China’s leader (5) |
I can’t see what the wordplay is here. I can get R (Regina; Queen) for the first letter possibly replacing a C (first letter of [leader] CHINESE) but I have no idea where CUDDY or UDDY comes from. A CUDDY can be a horse. Is there a famous horse called RED QUEEN? R UDDY |
RUDDY (red) |
| 4 | Fur hat and coat from Russian sank at sea (9) |
Anagram of (at sea) (HAT and RA [outer letters of {coat} RUSSIA] and SANK) ASTRAKHAN* |
ASTRAKHAN (fur) |
| 5 | Short trousers could be a real bargain (5) |
STEAL STEAL |
STEAL (bargain) |
| 6 | Military personnel regulate fake news? (9) |
ORDER (regulate) + LIES (stories; fake news) ORDER LIES |
ORDERLIES (non-commissioned officers who carry official messages for senior officers; military personnel) |
| 7 | Portray popular Irish male nurses (5) |
PAT (Irish man’s name) containing (nurses) IN (popular) PA (IN) T |
PAINT (portray) |
| 8 | Totally guaranteed to lack a trace of sex appeal (6) |
ALL (totally) + URE (I can’t see how the URE is arrived at. We could be looking at taking letters away from [lack] any one of ASSURED, ENSURED and INSURED which can all be synonyms for GUARANTEED, but I can’t see any that relate to A + trace of sex) I also looked at all synonyms for TOTALLY to see if any contained all of the letters of ALLURE somewhere, but I couldn’t find one. |
ALLURE (appeal) |
| 14 | Terrapins when swimming breathe through the skin (9) |
Anagram of (when swimming) TERRAPINS TRANSPIRE* |
TRANSPIRE (to exhale; to emit through the skin) |
| 16 | Carbon arc is suspended around plant (9) |
NARCISSUS (hidden word in [around] CARBON ARC IS SUSPENDED) NARCISSUS |
NARCISSUS (plant) |
| 17 | Insignificant relationships failing to begin meaningful ones (9) |
ALLIANCES |
ALLIANCES (important unions of like-minded groups, countries etc; more meaningful relationships) |
| 20 | Even bits of blues appropriated by composer to make Whiter Shade of Pale? (6) |
LE (letters 2 and 4 [even bits] of BLUE) contained in (appropriated by) BACH (reference one of the many BACHs classified as composers) B (LE) ACH |
BLEACH (make pale or white; create a whiter shade of pale) |
| 21 | Humble manner not associated with US (6) |
DEMEAN DEMEAN |
DEMEAN (humble) |
| 23 | One with power over men following religious instruction (5) |
P (power) + RI (religious instruction) + OR (other ranks; men) P RI OR |
PRIOR (head of a group of monks; one with power over men following religious instruction) &Lit clue |
| 24 | Wonderful feeling of insouciance reduced by then dropping ecstasy (5) |
BLISS Another one where I am struggling with the wordplay. There may be two definitions here – wonderful [feeling] and ecstasy. However, I don’t understand where the insouciance comes in. It’s not another definition of BLISS Perhaps L BLISS |
BLISS (wonderful feeling; ecstasy) |
| 25 | National Guards about to perform specific steps (5) |
DANE (native of Denmark; National) containing (guards) C (circa; about) DAN (C) E |
DANCE (perform a sequence of specific steps) |
Thanks, Duncan. If you carry on round the grid, you arrive at AUSTRALOPITHECUS ROBUSTUS. I’ve no idea of the relevance of our ancestor to Serpent but he came in handy to finish the last few lights.
Thanks for the parsing of SOLI, which I couldn’t see. In exchange, I offer: (b)UDDY as the “china plate” in 3dn; (s)URE as guaranteed without the first letter of sex; DEMEANOUR less “us”; BLISS from BLItheneSS (reduced by then and dropping ecstasy.)
Sorry. I meant “associated with us”!
NeilW @ 1,2 and 3
Thanks for pointing out what I missed and got wrong. Your parsing makes a lot of sense.
Not my finest hour!
I diodnt know the nina although I did my best to thread it together. It could have some reference to the current Australian government-or others for that matter. 20 was brilliant as well as being Nirvana’s first album
Thanks all for a spiffing puzzle
The usual enjoyable challenge from Serpent (and as usual I missed the Nina)
thanks to Serpent and Duncan
Managed to finish with all parsed. Took me a while to parse DEMEAN and had originally put in an unparsed SOLE for 19a. I then looked for and found the Nina which led to SOLI and 19a finally fell (never seen this plural before). CAMORRA was also unknown but guessed it right at the start from the wordplay. Don’t remember seeing that meaning for TRANSPIRE but it was an easy anagram.
Thanks to Serpent and Duncan.
All solved and parsed, although SOLI was our LOI after considering ‘self’ and ‘sole’ for ‘individual’ before the idea of ‘solo’ led us to the correct answer. Didn’t spot the nina as we didn’t think to look for one – we must remember in future that Serpent may have a nina just inside the perimeter with this type of grid. A minor gripe in that ‘men’ is used twice to clue OR (in CAMORRA and PRIOR).
Thanks, Serpent and Duncan
Thanks to duncanshiell and Serpent
Very nice.
I saw 21d as “demeanour” minus “our” – relating to us, though I can only think of constructions where “ours” would be the equivalent.
I’m not sure what “special” is doing in 26a
Many thanks to Duncan for the excellent blog and to everyone who took the time to comment.