Maize fills the Saturday slot this week.
We expect Saturday puzzles to be a bit trickier than most weekdays and this produced a lot of head-scratching.
1ac is the key to the puzzle’s amazing construction. The solution seemed pretty obvious, but we were reluctant to enter it until we had some crossing letters as we couldn’t figure out the wordplay. It was only when we had solved several more clues that we realised that there is no wordplay in the traditional sense in 1ac – ‘having enough characters to fill all this’ tells the solver that all the other entries are made up with the letters in SENORITA.
Maize has constructed the grid brilliantly with this self-imposed restriction, and has managed to avoid any unusual words.
That said, knowing the limited letters available for the answers helped with some of the clues – help which was much needed with the crafty wordplay and occasional unusual definitions.
Thanks Maize for stirring the old grey matter today.
SENORITA has all the letters that are required to fill the whole grid. We guessed it from the definition but we only parsed it when we had solved a number of other clues and realised what was going on.
ART (Shakespearean way of saying ‘are’ in the second person) IST (first)
IN (popular) + a homophone (‘speaker’s’) of TENSION (pulling power)
TIT (bird) with A N (first letters or ‘origins’ of Arabian Nights)
RESIgN (quit) without or ‘wasting’ the ‘g’ (good)
N N (new twice or ‘news’) in TEES (supports, as in golf) + SEE (witness)
OR (other ranks – ‘soldiers’) in or ‘among’ RESTERS (those on furlough)
Alternate letters or ‘odd glimpses’ of StAtIoN + T (last letter or ‘terminus’ of Fleet)
ENTERitis (disease of the intestine – 7d) with ‘it is’ missing or ‘absent’
hASTINESS (speed) with the ‘h’ (first letter or ‘start’ of Hamilton) replaced by T (time)
An anagram (‘turns’) of TO SNORE IN
Armchairs are designed to be SAT IN
ESS (the letter ‘s’) EN (the letter ‘n’) – Sn is the chemical symbol for tin
ANTI (against) in or ‘bridged by’ ASTRA (Vauxhall car)
A homophone (‘pronounced sound’) of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Agency – ‘astronaut’s body’) – a reference to the former president of Egypt
NIT (parasite) in I I (‘eyes’ as a homophone – ‘via the ear’) ATE (feasted)
Double definition
If the Times Educational Supplement (TES – newspaper for teachers) is undelivered there would be NO TES in the staffroom
An anagram (‘turbulent’) of R (first letter or ‘start’ of Russian) and NATION
T (last or ‘final’ letter of document) AIN’T (isn’t)
R (river) OTTERS (‘mammals in river’)
INSTINct (first six letters or ‘three-quarters’) round T E (first and last or ‘outer’ letters of tangible) + E (energy)
mINI (car) without the first letter or ‘roof’ (in a down clue) in TEST (competition)
An anagram (‘designed’) of SANcTIONS without the ‘c’ (first or ‘foremost’ letter of caber)
An anagram (‘sprinkled’) of IS IT and STARS
STONE with the last letter moved to the front or ‘circling’ + I (one) AN (one)
EA (each) STERN (ship’s back) – a reference to the Great Eastern, the iron sailing ship designed by Brunel
Hidden (‘held by’) and reversed (‘up) in EuropEAN IT ERrors
spINSTer without the outer four letters or ‘stripped naked’ + ANT (‘six-footer’)
This one had us really puzzled although the definition was fairly obvious. Joyce vaguely remembered the Japanese word for a teacher in martial arts as SENSEI but she pronounced (‘said’) it ‘SENSE I’ which didn’t help. A check in Chambers revealed that it is apparently pronounced ‘sensay’. You then have to add TimE with ‘I’m’ omitted or ‘going’.
A palindrome (‘yo-yoing’)
TEA (meal) round or ‘including’ TendeR (without the middle letters or ‘filleted’)
Wow! Waited until I had completed the grid before looking at 1a again and seeing what was happening. Truly remarkable and managed with a lot of brilliant clues to boot. Had to check “dope” could be a resin and that “blood” as a verb could mean initiate. A few head scratchers (such as NOTES) but all satisfactorily parsed. The surface for 30a is superb (but makes me feel a bit queasy). Wonder if anybody will object to 9d – I liked it.
I had no idea what was going on until I read this! Themes, Ninas,Pangrams and now whatever this sort of carry-on is called are all beyond me! I just assumed I couldn’t parse 1a (as usual)
Favourites include INITIATE, EASTERN and NASSER
No issue from me with the Hoskins-esque 9d I couldn’t quite remember the exact word but wasn’t about to Google it incase safe search was off !
Needed a little help with amongst other the Flower (although in hindsight perfectly workoutable) and similar issues with SENSATE as B&J
Amazing (A-Maize-ing?) stuff thanks a lot Maize and thanks to BertandJoyce for the fun blog
Wow! Respect! This was a tour de force. It was great fun and very challenging, although fortunately I twigged what was going on fairly early on which helped a lot.
I’m not sure about RESTERS being “those on furlough” but that’s just splitting hairs, and I didn’t know the flower in 28a but Mrs RD did.
There were too many superb clues to think about selecting a favourite.
Many thanks to Maize and to B&J.
Amazing! Congratulations to both Maize in constructing this and B&J for spotting what was going on. The things we have to look out for in cryptics! I’m afraid I needed a lot of online and wordlist help to complete, but I think of it as initiative rather than cheating! I did wonder whether ‘fillet’ would have done just as well as ‘fillets’ at 26D. Many thanks Maize and B&J.
My Goodness. Unlike the eagle eyed bloggers/Hovis/RD – which means in tandem with the increasingly confused Tombsy – I didn’t spot the brilliance of this until reading the preamble above. How clever that a setter can produce something like this, enabling me to achieve a complete solve and perhaps 85% parse without spotting there were only 8 letters in play! I thoroughly enjoyed the cheeky clues – in fact I’m going to be ballsy and nominate ONANISTS as my COTD, closely followed by SATIRISTS and ROTTERS (sounds a bit like Rowan Atkinson’s famous “Devil’s welcome to Hell” speech.) Other highlights included SATIN, NOTES, RAN INTO and TENNESSEE.
Maize, you set a high bar and consistently reach it. Thanks for the pleasure and to B&J for the excellent (as always) blog
Put me down as one who completely missed the significance of 1a and just bunged in the obvious answer with a question mark alongside it before moving on to solve the rest of the puzzle.
Some very clever entries but by the time I’d dealt with 9d I really couldn’t have cared less!
Apologies, Maize, still think you’re a brilliant setter, and thanks to B&J for the enlightening review.
Stunning. Like our bloggers I guessed 1a relatively quickly but didn’t enter it because I couldn’t see the word-play. When I finally twigged what was going on, I couldn’t quite believe it. Superb. 9d was daring.
Congratulations, Maize!
We thought all along that 1ac had to be SENORITA but even when we’d completed the grid we didn’t twig what was going on. And we beg to differ about ‘avoiding any unusual words’ – ASTRANTIA was new to us and we didn’t know the Japanese teacher in the clue to 22dn. We needed a wordfinder for INITIATE but having got it we did see the parsing.
A great puzzle, though; we liked SAINT, ESSEN and SATIRISTS among others.
Thanks, Maize and B&J
Maybe it’s just because it’s Maize and some of the stunning grids he’s produced I was on the alert for something and seeing 1a solution I immediately thought does this mean only these letters. It did make the puzzle much easier in truth. Beautiful piece of work maize, the effort put in far exceeds the payment reward.
Thanks Maize and BnJ
I was making slow progress with this, with a lightly-pencilled 1A, until, like our bloggers I suddenly realised what was going on. And even that realisation, while making the fodder apparent, didn’t particularly accelerate the solve.
Maize has come up with yet another stunning feat of gridfill (as I recall, his[?] first Indy puzzle was a quadruple [quintuple?] pangram) using a technique that I don’t think I’ve seen before.
Kudos, Maize, kudos!!
Wow… failed to spot the genius naturally .. until reading the blog.. the technical terminology of 9d always reminds me of Dorothy Parker’s canary… always makes me laugh.. thought there was a theme going on with INTESTINE, ENTER(ITIS), TASTINESS, SEROTONIN, n ESSEN, being German for eat.. but I’m guessing not.. masterful..
Thanks Maize n Bertandjoyce
You know when Maize is around, something is afoot. I could see there was a similarity in solutions, but I couldn’t spot the origin, then D’OH – 1a.
Always a pleasure.
Thanks to Maize and Bertandjoyce
Thanks to B&J and commenters.
I think it’s Anax who talks about the ‘Senorita letters’ – the ones that can sometimes be less than helpful when they’re all you’ve got in the crossing lights for a clue.
And didn’t someone once do a crossword with just one half of the alphabet? I only have a very vague recall, but I suppose this belongs to the same category – perhaps you could call it a multiple lipogram.
Totally failed to spot what was going on and failed to finish.
Nice work, Maize.
Following Maize’s comments (I think it’s great when the setter pops in) I have found this article from Anax
https://anaxcrosswords.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/grid-balance/
So not only did I have no clue what was going on , the fact that Maize chose the most common letters to build the grid was also lost on me!
PostMark@8 – my confusion knows no bounds!
Sigh… Postmark @5 even…
This is only the second Maize puzzle I’ve done and I think I commented then that I’d look out for more as it was a great puzzle. I solved this with lots of ticks and a ? against SENORITA – and I now know why. What a brilliant puzzle which completely stood up without seeing the device. And I now know how to pronounce SENSEI. Thanks to B&J for the blog and congratulations to all who understood the significance of 1a, and to Maize for an outstanding puzzle – bring on the next one.
Postmark @5 – I think you mean a complete solution!
Just got round to this today, as Eclogue kept me busy yesterday.
I completed the grid in a clockwise direction starting with 4d, so although I noticed there were still only 4 vowels and 4 consonants in the grid, I didn’t get round to 1a until very near the end.
Yet another super puzzle from Maize, one of my favourite setters.
Thought there was something afoot when my first three in were SAINT, TAINT and then TITAN. I had gathered a hint from the Guardian comments that Maize was amazing today. Didn’t actually get 1a until close to the end, but spotted early that SNRT were the only consonants and wondered what was the significance of that.
Masterly work from Maize, thank you!