I blogged a Rodriguez puzzle fairly recently but I’m quite happy to blog another one.
Rodriguez’ makes you think, as the definition is not always straightforward. I like clues where the definition is not just lifted straight from the dictionary.
I’m not sure why we had an alternative spelling of TEHERAN rather than the more common TEHRAN. I realise that the letter pattern T blank H blank R blank N is not very helpful, but I wonder if there is some theme in the puzzle that I am missing that forced Rodriguez into a corner with TEHERAN.
It took me a long time to work out the parsing for INEBRIATE, but I think I have got there in the end.
There were some very smooth surfaces in the clues to day, but the one for ANTENATAL seemed a bit forced with the use of ‘van of Amazon figure’.
It was a pleasant change to have a Trump reference that wasn’t directly to Donald or his actions.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 1 |
Perhaps cursory work for the young (7,5) NURSERY RHYME (a traditional song, poem or verse known to young children) NURSERY RHYME (CURSORY is a RHYME for NURSERY) cryptic definition NURSERY RHYME |
| 8 |
Drop of continental perfume(7) DESCENT (motion or progress downwards; drop) DE (French [continental] for ‘of’) + SCENT (perfume) DE SCENT |
| 9 |
Picked up grass with garden tool – I’m resigned to it! (5-2) HEIGH HO (an exclamation expressive of weariness or resignation) HEIGH (sounds like [picked up] HAY [grass]) + HO (sounds like [picked up] HOE [garden tool]) HEIGH HO |
| 11 |
Attraction, touring Spain, is relaxation (7) LEISURE (relaxation) LURE (attraction) containing (touring) (E [International Vehicle Registration of Spain {Espana}] + IS) L (E IS) URE |
| 12 |
Character’s lost outside after 31 days in band (7) OCTETTE (group of eight) OCT (OCTober, a month of 31 days) + LETTER (character) excluding the outer letters (lost outside) L and R OCT ETTE |
| 13 |
Cheer, say, with drink getting knocked back (3,2) EGG ON (encourage; cheer) EG (exempli gratia; for example) + NOG ( eggNOG or a similar drink; alternatively an old term for a Norwich strong ale) reversed (getting knocked back) EG G ON< |
| 14 |
Soak Britain later in seawater, island swallowed (9) INEBRIATE (drunk person; a SOAK is defined as a heavy drinker) BRINE (seawater) with BR (Britain) placed at the end (later) to form INEBR + I (island) + ATE (swallowed) INEBR I ATE |
| 16 |
Van of Amazon figure in old African region before delivery (9) ANTENATAL (before birth; before delivery) A (first letter of [van {vanguard; foremost}] AMAZON) + (TEN [a figure] contained in [in] NATAL [the previous name for the South Africa province of Kwazulu-NATAL]) A N (TEN) ATAL |
| 19 |
Work to keep little animal outside window (3-2) POP-UP (reference POP-UP windows on computer screens which are additional windows, usually containing an advertisement, that appear when accessing a particular website) OP (opus; work) contained in (to keep … outside) PUP (little animal) P (OP) UP |
| 21 |
Come into home solitary maiden leaves (7) INHERIT (get possession of as heir; come into [money, for example]) IN ([at] home) + HERMIT (solitary [person]) excluding (leaves) M (maiden over in cricket) IN HERIT |
| 23 |
One remarkably animated in party, given drink (7) GALATEA (a name popularly applied to the statue carved of ivory by Pygmalion of Cyprus, which then came to life in Greek mythology; one remarkably animated) GALA (party) + TEA (drink) GALA TEA |
| 24 |
Two different versions of European material (7) GERMANE (relevant; material) GERMAN (example of a European) + E (European) illustrating two different versions of European GERMAN E |
| 25 |
Stops short on theory, oddly (7) TERMINI (plural of TERMINUS; stops) TER (letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] of THEORY) + MINI (something small or short [when describing a skirt for example]) TER MINI |
| 26 |
Fractious Mourinho in, as fans out (12) INHARMONIOUS (marked by disagreement and discord; fractious) Anagram of (out) MOURINHO IN AS INHARMONIOUS* |
| Down | |
| 1 |
We’re told any singer’s building a tree house (7) NESTING (building a home for birds; building a tree house) NE (saying the letters N E individually sounds like (we’re told) ANY) + STING (reference STING [Gordon Sumner, born 1950], former lead singer with the band Police) N E STING |
| 2 |
Painter‘s awful ear injury (7) RAEBURN (reference Sir Henry RAEBURN [1756-1823], Scottish portrait painter, after whom my School house was named) Anagram of (awful) EAR + BURN (a type of injury) RAE* BURN |
| 3 |
Hardliner wants exit terms renegotiated (9) EXTREMIST (hardliner who holds very forceful views, usually out of step with mainstream thinking) Anagram of (renegotiated) EXIT TERMS EXTREMIST* |
| 4 |
Ruffian provides company online (5) YAHOO (brutal or boorish lout) YAHOO! (an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and owned by Verizon Media) double definition YAHOO |
| 5 |
Guy involved in job there is at work (7) HEISTER (some who takes part in a, usually armed, robbery [criminal job]) Anagram of (at work) THERE IS HEISTER* |
| 6 |
Sage Derby, say, eaten by parent (7) MAHATMA (religious sage) HAT (a Derby is a bowler hat) contained in (eaten by) MAMA (mother; parent) MA (HAT) MA |
| 7 |
Mixing English in sign a film’s unsuitable for kids? (12) ADULTERATING (mixing with something inferior or spurious) E (English) contained in ADULT RATING (if a film is given an ADULT RATING it is considered unsuitable for children) ADULT (E) RATING |
| 10 |
To do with politician stopping as he is suffering too much stress (12) OVEREMPHASIS (too much stress) OVER (in relation to; to do with) + (MP [Member of Parliament; politician] contained in [stopping] an anagram of [suffering] AS HE IS) OVER (E (MP) HASIS*) |
| 15 |
Gutted Estonian to cheer up and act as informer (9) ENLIGHTEN (shed light on; tell about; inform) EN (letters remaining in ESTONIAN when the central letters STONIA are removed [gutted]) + LIGHTEN (cheer up) EN LIGHTEN |
| 17 |
What monarch wears brown in the capital? (7) TEHERAN (alternative spelling of TEHRAN, capital city of Iran) (EH [what?] + ER [Elizabeth Regina; queen; monarch]) contained in (wears) TAN (brown) T (EH ER) AN |
| 18 |
Trump’s head enhaloed in near bliss (7) NIRVANA (blissful state) IVANA (reference IVANA Trump [born 1949], first wife of ex-President Donald Trump, and mother of Ivanka Trump) with the first letter (head) I contained in (enhaloed in) NR (near) N (I) R VANA |
| 19 |
In more need of sunshine, doctor in seaside city (7) PALERMO (seaside city in Sicily) PALER (lacking colour, perhaps in more need of sunshine) + MO (medical officer; doctor) PALER MO |
| 20 |
Pastries with excessive filling where toddlers go (7) POTTIES (where young children learn toilet training; where toddlers go) PIES (pastries) containing (with … filling) OTT (over the top; excessive) P (OTT) IES |
| 22 |
A certain military group getting some heat (5) THERM (measurement unit of heat) THE (definite; specific one; a certain one) + RM (Royal Marines; military group) THE RM |
Thought this was superb. INEBRIATE was my last to parse. Shan’t list favourites because I enjoyed the lot. I wouldn’t read anything into the TEHERAN spelling – have seen this multiple times in cryptics.
What a great day! Rodriguez as a starter followed by Vlad.
Oysters followed by Sole Meuniere!
Alas too early to open the Ramonet-but I cant afford his wines
Making do with Muscadet now!
Thanks all
I really enjoyed this. Some of the parsing was quite challenging, but it all came out in the wash. With mostly very nice smooth surfaces throughout, I agree with Duncan that 16a stuck out like a sore thumb in this respect.
I took “fans out” rather than simply “out” to be the anagram indicator in 26a. I thought the painter in 2d was rather obscure – but that’s probably only because I’ve never heard of him!
My page is littered with ticks, and I’ll give special mention to NURSERY RHYME, GERMANE, TERMINI, MAHATMA, TEHERAN and POTTIES.
Many thanks to Rodriguez and to Duncan.
Couldn’t parse NIRVANA, so thanks , duncanshiell for that. A thoroughly enjoyable start to the day, thanks Rodriguez. Lots of good clues, NURSERY RHYME probably favourite, though HEIGH HO was fun too
An enjoyable crossword thank you Rodriguez – hard to pick just one favourite as there are so many good clues
Thanks also to Duncan
Great stuff! I would have spelled TEHERAN, and have often seen it thus, but it’s Tehran in my atlas. Loved POTTIES. Thanks Rodriguez and Duncan.
For anyone who’s seen the Premier League’s grumpiest manager talking to the press after a bad match, 26a is sheer brilliance. (And I agree with Rabbit Dave @3 that “fans out” is the anagram indicator.)
A most enjoyable solve with HEIGH HO, GERMANE & INHARMONIOUS taking the medals here.
Thanks to Rodriguez and to Duncan for the review.
Thanks to Rodriguez and Duncan.
It was pleasant to be reminded of my times in Teheran – as a hippie in the 60s and working there in the 70s. The English spelling always had two e’s and the pronunciation was more or less /tay thran/ (the th sound is as close as I can get to a very strong h without access to the IPA).
How or why the spelling changed is a mystery to me.
I found this challenging, but managed to make steady progress, though quite a few answers came from seeing what fitted without being able to get the parsing but I didn’t need as much help as I normally do.
When light dawned I was impressed by the cluing, particularly 6D.
Agree with others as to the quality and enjoyment value of this puzzle. Grid completed correctly, but a few unparsed (eg NIRVANA) and many others took a lot of nutting out.
Thanks to Rodriguez for such a good challenge (second in two days – we’re spoilt) and to Duncan for explaining it all so clearly
26ac and 3dn were both brilliant. As Hovis says TEHERAN keeps cropping up with its superfluous E. [Dicho @9 I was there for the start of the revolution in 1979, so some happy memories but some mixed ones for me]
A steady and satisfying solve, although it required more than a couple of passes and we couldn’t parse INEBRIATES or NIRVANA.
We liked RAEBURN with the surface of the clue suggesting a totally different painter, but our CoD was NURSERY RHYME, a real aha -and ha ha! – moment when we got it.
Thanks, Rodriguez and Duncan.
Petert @12 Yes 1979. I recall hiding under a table in the hotel restaurant as the gunfire sounded in the streets. As a distraction we told knock-knock jokes. The Germans, also hiding, said “Vie do the English have no sense of humor?” Happy days.
Another great puzzle that I found more of a challenge than Vlad. I didn’t parse 1a – another sort of reverse clue? Like someone commented on the Vlad puzzle we need a better name for this type – especially as they seem to appearing more often. 26a is a great surface as Quirister@7 says. I spent ages trying to make an anagram for 7d before DESCENT (lovely clue) put paid to it and the answer became obvious. I didn’t know (or get) GALITEA and hadn’t come across OCTETTE with the extra TE. Many thanks to Rodriguez and Duncan.
Painter’s awful ear injury reminds me of Bradman’s famous duck, another beaut
Definitely a crossword of two halves, in that I got most of the bottom half, and almost nothing in the top half.
No problem with the second E in TEHERAN for me either.
I also delighted with the Vlad/Rod double; special start for POTTIES and TERMINI; failed to see the HERMIT and not too keen on the OVER, but definitely many thanks to Rodriguez and to duncanshiell.
Oops – ‘start’ should be ‘star’.
Had a few visits to this and finished with another “Team Tombs” as me and my son worked though the second half (he alleged I’d already got the easy ones) – plenty of help needed from reveal letter by the end though with some words we just didn’t know
I’d always assumed it was Hey-Ho but no-one else has mentioned it so just me then! And we too struggled to fit TEHERAN in
ANTENATAL our favourite
Thanks to Rodriguez and duncansheill (without whom I couldn’t have began to explain Nursery Rhyme!)