A very good crossword that, with a little editing, could have made even better
This crossword from Redshank had some brilliant clues in it – I particularly liked 14ac, 25 ac, 27ac and 1dn – but there were a couple of issues elsewhere that took the overall shine off the puzzle.
The enumeration for 5ac should read (1-5) – a fairly minor transgression. More seriously (and as usual, I'll preface this with an apology if I have misunderstood the clue), "down" is doing double duty in 8dn, and, in my opinion, so is "pressure" in 21 ac. In 8dn, I cannot think of any way that SADDENED can simply be "got" – it has to be "got down", but the "down" is required to reverse EDDAS. In 21 ac "sudden low" doesn't seem enough to define AIR POCKET and probably needs "pressure" as part of the definition, however "pressure" is needed in the clue to indicate the P of "pocket", so I think "pressure" may also be doing double duty.
I also learned (or maybe relearned?) a couple of things ("cast" for "colour" and "chase" for etch).
Thanks, Redshank
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | CHANCERY | Opening lines in court (8) |
|
CHANCE ("opening") + Ry. (railway, so "lines") |
||
| 5 | A-SIDES | A team’s more popular numbers (6) |
|
A + SIDE'S ("teams") The enumeration in the clue should be (1-5) |
||
| 10 | GASTRIC | Stomach’s wind spasm overcomes resistance (7) |
|
GAS ("wind") + TIC ("spasm") overcomes R (resistance) |
||
| 11 | UNBOWED | Like a new fiddle that’s free? (7) |
|
A new fiddle may not yet have had a bow used on it, so therefore could be described as UNBOWED |
||
| 12 | NEEDS | Wants current reversed between poles (5) |
|
(River) <=DEE ("current", reversed) between N and S (North and South "poles") |
||
| 13 | ROYAL BLUE | Two blokes reportedly wasted cast (5,4) |
|
ROY + AL ("two blokes") + homophone [reportedly] of BLEW ("wasted") Until I checked Chambers, I don't think I was aware that one of the meanings of "cast" was "colour" |
||
| 14 | CARBOHYDRATE | Deborah and Tracy misused source of energy (12) |
|
*(deborah tracy) [anag:misused] |
||
| 18 | STEEPLECHASE | Pricey French article to engrave for obstacle race (12) |
|
STEEP ("pricey") + LE ("French article") + CHASE ("engrave") |
||
| 21 | AIR POCKET | Sudden low pressure stopping top-class missile (3,6) |
|
P (pressure) stopping A1 ("top-class") + ROCKET ("missile") |
||
| 23 | EVADE | Bypass English Channel on return trip (5) |
|
<=(E (English) + DAVE (TV "channel")) on return trip (i.e. reversed) |
||
| 24 | SURGEON | Theatre worker and caviar supplier short of time (7) |
|
S(t)URGEON ("caviar supplier", short of T (time)) |
||
| 25 | HOSTAGE | Head office put on The Prisoner for money (7) |
|
HO (Head Office) + STAGE ("put on") |
||
| 26 | NEPHEW | Record husband visiting latest relative (6) |
|
EP (extended play "record") + H (husband) visiting NEW ("latest") |
||
| 27 | STEADILY | Member of CID’s in nick with Yankee regularly (8) |
|
DI (Detective Inspector, so "member of CID") in STEAL ("nick") with Y (Yankee, in the phonetic alphabet) |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | COGENT | Persuasive businessman (6) |
|
Co. (company or "business") + GENT ("man") |
||
| 2 | ANSWER | Arab accepts all the main headings in reply (6) |
|
Ar. (Arab) accepts NSWE (North, South, West, East, i.e. "all the main headings") |
||
| 3 | CARD SHARP | Pack instrument for trickster (4,5) |
|
("pack" of) CARDS + HARP ("instrument") |
||
| 4 | RECORD-BREAKING | Film burglary by leader of gang raising the bar (6-8) |
|
RECORD ("film") + BREAK-IN ("burglary") by [leader of] G(ang) |
||
| 6 | SIBYL | Forecaster is over beside lake (5) |
|
<=IS [over] + BY ("beside") + L (lake) A sibyl was a prophet in Greek mythology. |
||
| 7 | DOWNLOAD | Transfer county charge (8) |
|
(county) DOWN + LOAD ("charge") |
||
| 8 | SADDENED | Got down old Scandi books by new editor (8) |
|
[down] <=EDDAS ("old Scandi books") by N (new) + Ed. (editor) I have a problem with this clue as it appears to me that "down" is doing double duty in this clue, as it is required both for the definition and as a reversal indicator for "eddas") |
||
| 9 | BURY THE HATCHET | Stop fighting, polish up still, hiding where the drink goes (4,3,7) |
|
<=RUB ("polish" up) + YET ("still") hiding THE HATCH ("where the drink goes, as in "down the hatch") |
||
| 15 | DYSPEPSIA | Spent days downing cola for wind problem (9) |
|
*(days) [anag:spent] downing PEPSI ("cola") |
||
| 16 | ASSASSIN | Two idiots batting hit man (8) |
|
ASS + ASS ("two idiots") + IN ("batting" in cricket) |
||
| 17 | TEARDROP | Rent reduction causing little sign of emotion (8) |
|
TEAR ("rent") + DROP ("reduction") |
||
| 19 | SALAMI | Writer’s regrettably given up Italian food (6) |
|
<=(I'M ("writer's") + ALAS ("regrettably")) given up |
||
| 20 | CELERY | Plant needs IT installed for speed (6) |
|
In order for CELERY ("plant") to become CELERITY, it needs "IT installed" |
||
| 22 | OBESE | One gets this often by eating something enticing initially (5) |
|
O(ften) B(y) E(ating) S(omething) E(nticing) [initially] |
||
A curate’s egg for me. Got held up a little by the erroneous enumeration for 5a, which was annoying. I can just about accept “sudden low” in 21a but can’t see any way to parse 8d. It doesn’t even seem that “down” is doing double duty because “eddas” is going up without any reversal indicator.
Same comments about the enumeration for A-SIDES, the iffy ‘Sudden low’ def for AIR POCKET if ‘pressure’ is not doing double duty and the lack of a reversal indicator for EDDAS in SADDENED; I would have expected such an indicator to be ‘up’ rather than ‘down’ as pointed out by Hovis @1.
Apart from these queries I liked many clues here. I took ages to see ‘cast’ as a colour; I think of it as a faint tinge you sometimes get on digital images which can annoyingly sometimes be more apparent on the hard copy print than the image seen on the computer screen. The nutritional and upper gastrointestinal related clues set the mind in search of a common connection, but to me it didn’t seem enough to constitute a theme.
Thanks to loonapick and Redshank.
So much to like here- shame about the blips.
Once again, Hamlet comes to the rescue (re ‘cast’), From his ‘To be or not to be’ speech:
‘Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought…’
I had ticks for CARBOHYDRATE (clever anagram and great surface), EVADE, COGENT, for its succinctness, SALAMI (another great surface) and CELERY.
Many thanks to Redshank for the fun and loonapick for a fine blog.
Wondering about 27a. Seems to work just as well without the “‘s”, ie. Member of CID in nick with Yankee regularly. No doubt I have missed something.
@diagacht: I think you can interpret the “ ‘s ” as “is”. I agree, however, that the clue could work without it.
Had the same problems as Loonapick with CAST and CHASE. NE corner proved tricky because of that and also since I’d thought of ASIDES and EDDAS and discounted them.
I thought HOSTAGE was familiar – it was in today’s Serpent.
We agree that the enumeration of 5ac should be (1-5). But that’s a minor issue compared to 8dn; in our opinion it simply lacks a reversal indicator for ‘eddas’. One can’t simply claim that ‘down’ is doing double duty – how can ‘down’ be a reversal indicator in a down clue? Reversal indicators in down clues may be ‘up’, ‘rising’, northwards, etc but surely not ‘down’? That would be anomalous to using ‘forward’ as a reversal indicator in an across clue!
And another minor point, the S[t]URGEON device, either inserting or omitting the T seems to becoming a bit of a cliché these days.
But the rest was mostly fine. In 27ac we liked ‘regularly’ for its being the definition rather than part of the wordplay. And we wondered if there was a bit of a theme with the food and digestion references.
Favourites included CARBOHYDRATE, STEADILY, COGENT and CELERY.
So thanks, Redshank and loonapick.
Thanks for the blog Loonapick – it really did resolve a few issues for me today.
I did not help myself by reading 9d. rapidly and putting in DOWN THE HATCHES (where the drink goes) and sorting that took some time. I really must learn to read properly when enjoying the afternoon sun.
But that pales alongside the 5a/8d mess. I only twigged to A-SIDES this morning.
Thanks for the rest Redshank, as I did enjoy that.
Re7: ‘anomalous’ should be ‘analogous’ and I can’t even blame predictive text unless my brain has that function too.
It seems every puzzle I look at these days has a surgeon/sturgeon clue in it!
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
An enjoyable solve across a single sitting and for some reason just worked both 8d and 21a without thinking enough to spot the problems with them. A-SIDES which was my last one in took ages to understand the “more popular numbers” part of the clue and liked it once I got it – would have become more of a write-in if the correct numbering had been used. Variations of the SURGEON / STURGEON clue have appeared both here and in the Times / Sunday Times puzzles that I have done recently – odd how they can converge like that – assume that setters all submit puzzles well before publishing date and the syndicated Times / Sunday Times ones are months after the published dates in England over here. Hadn’t heard of the ‘colour’ / ‘cast’ meaning previously.
Liked all of the long clues.