A twisted devious challenge from WANDERER, which was a delight to grapple with.
A nina running along the sides with the 2 H’s in the centre of the grid adding a nice touch.
FF: 10 DD: 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HICCOUGH | Temporary setback in hotel, the first caught by evidence of virus (8) |
| H ( hotel ) I ( first ) C ( caught ) COUGH ( evidence of virus ) | ||
| 6 | SPLASH | Prince covered by hack’s prominent news story (6) |
| P ( prince ) covered by SLASH ( hack ) | ||
| 9 | IDIOTS | Do PE? Go on, without a break! (Wanderer would, so it must be organised) (6) |
| cryptic def; read as DOPE, GOON ( without a break -> read as one word ) ; I’D ( wanderer would ) [ SO IT ]* | ||
| 10 | THROTTLE | Choke? It regulates flow of an engine’s fuel/air mixture (8) |
| double def | ||
| 11 | GEAR | Tackle large Arctic bears (4) |
| hidden in “..larGE ARctic..” | ||
| 12 | ABLE BODIED | Seabird’s fit and healthy (4-6) |
| expansion of AB in “seABird..”; i am parsing ‘fit’ to indicate a part of ‘seabird’; wiki here | ||
| 14 | HABANERA | Dance in background after flipping expression of contempt (8) |
| HAB ( reverse of BAH , expression of contempt ) ANERA ( reverse { back } of ARENA – ground ) | ||
| 16 | SAGO | Pudding ingredient, perhaps – a gooseberry’s involved (4) |
| hidden in “..perhapS A GOoseberry..” | ||
| 18 | LOOT | Spoils appearance of Double-O-Seven (4) |
| answer to 7d is LOT , with the single ‘ O ‘ replaced by ‘ OO ‘ ( double-O ) | ||
| 19 | IN UNISON | Agreeing with one sister: it’s found only intermittently (2,6) |
| I ( one ) NUN ( sister ) ISON ( It’S fOuNd, intermittently i.e. alternate letters ) | ||
| 21 | ITERATIONS | Repeats things almost any cryptic crossword contains, but not every one of them (10) |
| allITERATIONS [ ( “..almost any..”, “..cryptic crossword..”; things contained by these phrases, without ALL ( not every one of them ) ] | ||
| 22 | ACAI | Two articles, one being about first appearance of Chuck Berry (4) |
| [ A A ( two articles ) I ( one ) ] around C ( Chuck , first letter ) | ||
| 24 | FULL MOON | Occasional shower at night before working satisfied doctor (4,4) |
| FULL ( satisfied ) MO ( doctor ) ON ( working ) | ||
| 26 | CRISIS | Screams, abandoning European island in an emergency (6) |
| [ CRIeS ( screams, without E – European ) ] IS ( island ) | ||
| 27 | ENRAGE | Anger badly and infuriate, ultimately? (6) |
| &lit; [ ANGER ]* E ( infuriatE, ultimately ) | ||
| 28 | ACTINIUM | Something found in each radioactive element (8) |
| chemical name for AC, found in ‘..eACh..” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | INDIE | Using base for a country music label (5) |
| E ( base ) replacing A in INDIA ( country ) | ||
| 3 | CHOIRMASTER | One who conducts disorderly marches riots endlessly (11) |
| [ MARCHES RIOTs ( endlessly ) ]* | ||
| 4 | UNSHAVEN | Beginning to sink in a foreign harbour? That’s hairy! (8) |
| UN ( a , foreign ) S ( beginning to Sink ) HAVEN ( harbour ) | ||
| 5 | HOTEL CALIFORNIA | Iconic 70s album and title track, abbreviated in each case (5,10) |
| expansion of “..eacH CAse”; H ( Hotel ) CA ( California ) | ||
| 6 | STROBE | Robert’s topless boobs flasher (6) |
| [ rOBERT’S ( topless, without first letter ) ]* | ||
| 7 | LOT | Chance portion is a great deal (3) |
| sLOT ( chance, portion of ) | ||
| 8 | SOLFEGGIO | Noted exercise fool’s arranged, having eaten breakfast food at lunchtime? (9) |
| [ FOOL’S ]* containing [ EGG ( breakfast food ) I ( one, lunchtime possibly – 1pm ) ] | ||
| 13 | DESTINATION | Change of diet’s turned into a new goal (11) |
| [ DIETS ]* [ INTO A ]* N ( new ) | ||
| 15 | ABOUT-TURN | Change of mind by residents of Oregon (5-4) |
| cryptic def; expansion of oREGOn ( residents of ) -> RE ( about ) GO ( turn ) | ||
| 17 | PUSSYCAT | Gentle, mild-mannered person’s tom- tom? (8) |
| PUSSY ( gentle, mild-mannered person ) CAT ( tom ) | ||
| 20 | AT-HOME | Party using a dodgy method? “Not the slightest bit dodgy” (2-4) |
| A [METHOd ( without D – slightest bit of Dodgy ) ]* | ||
| 23 | ADIEU | Spotted item in gold? Someone’s going to use it! (5) |
| DIE ( spotted item ) in AU ( gold ) | ||
| 25 | LEA | Two articles, one of which is in French meadow? (3) |
| LE ( french article ) A ( article ) | ||
I parsed 9 without working out the def-and I didnt even look for a nina.
Quite a demanding puzzle-very good
Thanks all
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Lots of testing clues. Had a few different parsings. In 12a, I took the ‘s as the inclusion indicator; in 7d, I took it to be a triple definition; in 17d, I took the definition as “Gentle, mild-mannered person” with Tom = pussy and Tom = cat. Don’t get the definition for ADIEU, hopefully someone will explain. The nina helped me get 21a. Thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Excellent puzzle, even if it was a real challenge. Plenty of clues I found difficult, eg HABANERA, and the parsing of others was even tougher. I’d given up on the parsing of several such as ACTINIUM and ABLE-BODIED, until I saw they were “hidden abbreviations”, like the central 5d.
Cleverest clues for me were the wordplay for IDIOTS at 9a, (ALL)ITERATIONS at 21a and ABOUT-TURN at 15d.
Good to have the Nina appear at the end as a reward for some hard work. Maybe Wanderer will drop in to explain its significance.
A big thanks to Wanderer and Turbolegs
Hello Hovis@2, I just parsed ADIEU as ‘Someone’s going to use it’ = someone who is going (leaving) will say ADIEU. Sort of worked for me anyway.
Hi Hovis@2,
For 23ac, “someone’s going..” is to be interpreted as someone is leaving, and therefore would bid adieu.
For 17d, i toyed with that parsing as well but chambers didnt quite cooperate with that line of thinking.
A fun puzzle indeed.
Regards,
TL
Wordplodder@3,
Funnily enough, for 15d, i was thinking of this place called BEND in Oregon and was wondering whether that had anything to do with the solve (by the time I reached that clue, I had already run into some real wicked clues and so wouldn’t have put it past wanderer to go down that path).
I see our posts crossed for comments 4 and 5.
Regards,
TL
Thanks for the ADIEU explanation. So obvious in hindsight.
I went with Hovis on my parsings of 7D and 17D. Thanks to TL and WordPlodder for explaining ADIEU def. The ninas are the lifestyle described in the song “Hotel California,” the Eagles have said in the years since. Thanks to Wanderer for the challenge and the entertainment.
So much to chew over and much yet to learn, particularly those tricky expansions.
ITERATIONS and ADIEU posed no real problem but the parsing of ABOUT-TURN eluded me and I was caught out by ‘shower’ (24a) and SOLFEGGIO.
Spotted the right-hand Nina which meant looking again on the left to see where I’d gone wrong.
Still, I enjoyed exercising the grey matter and was entertained reading blog and comments here.
Thanks ub for the ‘Hotel California’ insight.
Cheers also to Wanderer and Turbolegs.
Phew! – that was hard, but so rewarding.
Turbolegs @5 – re 17dn: I parsed it as Hovis did. Collins has ‘PUSSYCAT: an endearing or gentle person.’ I also agree that 7dn is a triple definition: I don’t understand your ‘sLOT’ parsing.
I had so many ticks, accompanied by oohs and ahs and smiles of recognition – as a member of two choirs, I chortled at CHOIRMASTER. Other favourites were IDIOTS, LOOT, ITERATIONS, UNSHAVEN, SOLFEGGIO and AT-HOME.
Huge thanks to Wanderer for the tussle and to Turbolegs for the blog – rather you than me this time. 😉
I am quite proud that I solved this one after close to 2 hours of tenacity. But unlike others I found plenty to dislike in this crossword. To each their own.
Thanks Wanderer for the work-out. Eventually most of this unveiled itself to me, mainly by definitions and crossings. Without the blog, however, I could never figure out some of the parsing — thanks Turbolegs for that. Favourites were IN UNISON and ADIEU.
Thanks to WANDERER for allowing me to lose so much time yesterday. And to Turbolegs for telling me where I went wrong. I am another of the triple definitions for LOT. I got there in the end but it was a struggle.
Wow, that was tough! I couldn’t understand quite a few until TL mentioned hidden abbreviations – I don’t recall so many in one puzzle though. Still don’t quite get 20d as well.
Plaudits to both anyway.
Yes, Jaydee, Wanderer and hidden abbreviations, you get used to them if you regularly solve his puzzles.
I agree though that there was an overdose of it today, with 12ac not the most successful of them all.
Yesterday Wanderer’s alter ego in the Independent, Hob, had a hidden abbreviation for osmium (Os), today there was Ac (for Actinium).
I think it would be better if what should be capitalised (the O in Os and the A in Ac) were in upper case. But you can’t have it all.
HOTEL CALIFORNIA (5dn) was more or less my first one in, meaning Wanderer can’t/won’t fool me.
I found 21ac (ITERATIONS) just a bit too wordy.
Only a week ago Vlad (in the Guardian) had the same idea, executing it better.
On the other hand, 9ac (IDIOTS) and the definition of 23dn’s ADIEU were gorgeous.
All in all, a crossword that scored high on the scale of inventiveness.
FF high but DD certainly less than 9 (as I found this actually not too hard).
Many thanks to Turbolegs & Wanderer.
Jaydee @ 14
Re 20d
Party using a dodgy method? “Not the slightest bit dodgy”
I look at it this way. The first sentence is an interrogative statement. I would like it to be enclosed in quotes The second one is an answer. As indicated in the blog, ‘party’ is the def., ‘dodgy’ is anag. ind.. and ‘method’ is fodder. The answer requires us to delete d which is an extra in the fodder. ‘slightest bit’ suggests that we need to remove just one letter. so
A + T HOME (anag of ‘method’ after deleting D.
Of course. some may argue that the clue doesn’t tell precisely which bit. What if we take away any letter other than D?
Thanks Sil and Rishi for your comments. I actually did work out the construction but don’t see how Party = At-home. Perhaps I’m too old to get the reference? Any elucidation would be gratefully received 🙂
I am not a native speaker of English yet I have known ‘at home’ as party because it was in use some decades ago. My father was an RIAF/IAF officer and I as a boy must have seen invites to him from fellow officers mentioning ‘At Home’.
Jaydee @17
PS I got the reference because I am of a certain age (77 years to be precise)!
PS 2 ‘At Home’ is a social gathering at one’s own home (usually in the afternoon). This party, as we can guess from the very term, is not held in any hotel or convention centre.
Excuse me if this is too obvious a statement that needn’t be told.
PS 3 I hope this will not be considered Spamming.
Actually an officer’s wife may have invited other officers’ wives to an ‘At Home’ (The grapevine imust have been abuzz!)
I may add that my mother was too orthodox and homebound. She is quite unlikely to have attended such a party.
I interpreted 17d as Hovis did.
I must be slipping; I’d give this one a DD of 11! It was entertaining, though.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Found this seriously difficult and was pleased to actually get the grid filled correctly even if spanned across a couple of days. Couldn’t parse 12a, 21a, 15d or 20d though … and missed the nina. Interesting to see the multiple use of the hidden abbreviation device and disappointing that I didn’t see two of them.
Liked it when the ‘iconic 70’s album and title single’ penny dropped, but unlike others it was about mid-solve.
Finally finished in the SW corner with the bunged in ITERATIONS and the previously unknown party term, AT-HOME. Satisfying to get it completed, but don’t know if I enjoyed it as much as the usual Wanderer puzzle.