Set aside a bit of time for this one.
I confidently put in the first two across answers, and thought to myself that this may be easier than a normal Basilisk puzzle, but then his stony stare got me in its grasp, and I struggled from then on in. I completed the top half within a few minutes, but the bottom half remained resolutely empty. (Minor gripe – I didn’t like the grid pattern – it felt like two puzzles joined tenuously by only two solutions).
Second minor gripe – the clue for NAUSEATE was very convoluted – fair, but convoluted.
Eventually, the south west corner revealed itself to me and I felt that perhaps the Basilisk had at last released me from his stare, but no, the south east corner continued to resist. I went and had breakfast, and emboldened by toast and coffee, shoved in DEPOSITION without parsing it and gradually completed the rest of the puzzle, although I am not at all convinced of my parsing for SNAPSHOT (Hovis @2 has put me right on this one – thanks, Hovis.)
With relief, I therefore present to you my parsing of what I hope you will agree was a tough crossword. If, on the other hand, you found it straightforward, keep that information to yourself – I don’t want to think that it was just me!
Thanks, Basilisk.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | FASTENER |
Catch person not eating around middle of Lent (8)
|
| FASTER (“person not eating”) around [middle of] (l)EN(t) | ||
| 5 | IGNORE |
Neglect run-down region (6)
|
| *(region) [anag:run-down] | ||
| 9 | NARRATED |
North American runs well regarded, related events (8)
|
| N (North) + A (American) + R (runs, in cricket) + RATED (“well regarded”) | ||
| 10 | ARTIST |
Musician perhaps succeeded, having left Dire Straits (6)
|
| *(strait) [anag:dire] where STRAIT is S(succeeded) [having left] STRAIT(s) | ||
| 11 | NAUSEATE |
Disgust leads to Unionists executing those imprisoned in Peasants’ Revolt (8)
|
| *(ueeasant) [anag:revolt] where UE is [leads to] U(nionists) E(xecuting) and EASANT is [those imprisoned in] (p)EASANT(s) | ||
| 12 | CERISE |
Tone of church is encapsulated by religious teaching (6)
|
| CE (“Church” of England) + IS [encapsulated by] RE (Religious Education, so “religious teaching’) | ||
| 14 | IRRELEVANT |
Criminal trial never reveals material? Absolutely not! (10)
|
| *(trial never) [anag:criminal] | ||
| 18 | ADMIRATION |
Publicity helping to secure revolutionary author’s respect (10)
|
| AD (“publicity”) + RATION (“helping”) to secure [revolutionary] <=I’M (“author’s”) | ||
| 22 | LAUNCH |
Start to eat without beginning to ask (6)
|
| LUNCH (“to eat”) without [beginning to] A(sk) | ||
| 23 | TIME SLOT |
When something should happen by fate (4,4)
|
| TIMES (by, in mathematics) + LOT (“fate”) | ||
| 24 | ICECAP |
Police captain displays really cool head (6)
|
| Hidden in [displays] “polICE CAPtain” | ||
| 25 | MISPLACE |
Lose young female fish we caught (8)
|
| Homophone [we caught] of (MISS (“young female”) + PLAICE (“fish”)) | ||
| 26 | ENTOMB |
Inter Milan’s wingers to be fouled (6)
|
| *(mn to be) [anag:fouled] where MN is M(ila)N [‘s wingers] | ||
| 27 | SNAPSHOT |
Cracks in picture exposed with little consideration (8)
|
| SNAPS (“cracks”) + HOT (in) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | FINING |
Heartless verdict is punishing financially (6)
|
| [heartless] FIN(d)ING (“verdict”) | ||
| 2 | SPROUT |
Shoot up in drunken stupor (6)
|
| *(stupor) [anag:drunken] | ||
| 3 | ENAMEL |
Staff in shelter turned over protective cover (6)
|
| <=(MAN (“staff”) in LEE (“shelter”)) [turned over] | ||
| 4 | ELECTORATE |
Those who have a say choose to speak (10)
|
| ELECT (“choose”) + ORATE (“to speak”) | ||
| 6 | GARDENER |
Terrible danger exposed hero as person involved in plot? (8)
|
| *(danger) [anag:terrible] + [exposed] (h)ER(o) | ||
| 7 | ORIGINAL |
First soldier stopping at home gets spoken about (8)
|
| GI (“soldier”) stopping IN (“at home”) gets ORAL (“spoken”) about | ||
| 8 | ENTREATY |
Terms of service weaken formal agreement’s appeal (8)
|
| [terms of] (i.e. ends of) (servic)E (weake)N + TREATY (“formal agreement”) | ||
| 13 | DEPOSITION |
Removal from office put down ultimately to wearing skirts (10)
|
| DEPOSIT (“put down”) + IN (“wearing”) skirts (t)O [ultimately] | ||
| 15 | NAIL FILE |
What can enhance digital presentation and fix Powerpoint document? (4,4)
|
| NAIL (“fix”) + FILE (“Powerpoint document?”)
Digital here refers to the finger, more specifically the fingernail. |
||
| 16 | IMPUDENT |
Lose resistance to rash affecting lip and cheek? (8)
|
| IMP(r)UDENT (“rash”, losing R (resistance)) | ||
| 17 | PROCLAIM |
Officially announce reason for backing £100 target (8)
|
| PRO (“reason for asking”) + C (100) + L (£) + AIM (“target”) | ||
| 19 | KEEP UP |
Recipe for butcher’s preserve? (4,2)
|
| A butcher’s is a look (rhyming slang: butcher’s hook), therefore KEEP UP is a recipe for (i.e. an instruction for how to make) PEEK (“butcher’s”) | ||
| 20 | BLEACH |
Humble achievement has to fade (6)
|
| Hidden in [has] “humBLE ACHievement” | ||
| 21 | ATTEST |
Provide evidence of case for adult trial (6)
|
| [case for] A(dul)T + TEST (“trial”) |
Thanks for the blog, tough but mainly fair is my assessment and agree about the grid.
SNAPSHOT I agree with you but do not like it, PHOTO is a substitution and then EXPOSED. 6D has exposed HERO with no substitution , much fairer.
Did not like TERMS as ENDS but checked in Chambers and it is the first definition so I was wrong.
KEEP UP was my favourite.
I had SNAPS = cracks + HOT = in and the rest as definition. Need the FT nina to get 9a & 11a.
I took ages to get 1A as I was hung up on DIETER but I got there in the end.
I have a small quibble with 24A as I know this as two words.
I agree with Roz about the abbreviation “TERMS” – to me that is a school period; I don’t have a Chambers dictionary and generally don’t like using dictionaries to complete crosswords so had to guess the answer from the filled in letters.
Thanks, Hovis – I thought my version didn’t look right. Will edit.
Just to add to me @2, I’d like to add that I’m always amazed at this setter’s ingenuity and flair. I’ll never understand how he manages to construct such clever clues and still be able to include mind-boggling ninas. (If you are still looking – spoiler alert – it is the first letters of the across solutions.)
Well done Hovis @2 I will withdraw my objection.
Peter@3 I did not like TERMS as ends but was still easy to solve, I did check Chambers after and clearly nothing wrong with it, my objection was invalid.
Posers in each corner except the NE made this very tricky and online help was needed for a few such as DEPOSITION but this was one of my best efforts at a Basilisk yet.
Always much to admire from the clever IRRELEVANT to those smaller, seemingly inoffensive ones like IGNORE, ARTIST, ICE-CAP and SPROUT that are hiding in plain sight.
Thanks for a proper workout Basilisk and for a much-needed blog, Loonapick. Oh and well-spotted, Hovis. Great stuff.
Many thanks to loonapick for the excellent blog and to everyone who has been kind enough to comment, especially Hovis for explaining the parsing of SNAPSHOT and the kind words.
We struggled at times but eventually got it all. We weren’t keen on the grid pattern either; to us it felt like four mini-crosswords once we’d got 14 & 18 across and 4 & 13 down. Last to fall was the NW corner with one of our last ones in being FASTENER – we were stuck for ages thinking of ‘catch’ as the verb.
Plenty to like, though, including CERISE, TIME SLOT, DEPOSITION and NAIL FILE.
Thanks, Basilisk and loonapick.
No, Loonapick, you were definitely not the only one! I have only finished this with my breakfast coffee so needed an overnight brain reset to get it all. Many thanks for the unravelling. Basilisk, thank you for the challenge and I really found it one. Lots of smiles as clues unpacked too.
Despite this being a DNF I enjoyed much of it. I thought ELECTORATE was a super clue — a perfectly apt surface that contained beautifully simple parsing elements. I also ticked ARTIST, ADMIRATION, MISPLACE, ENTOMB, and ENAMEL as favourites. There’s no way I would have ever solved KEEP UP — both the clue and I are too dense. Thanks to both.
I had the same impression as Allan @9 about the 4 mini crosswords. Perhaps that’s why Basilisk fashioned that splendid nina for a sense of greater cohesion.
Thanks Basilisk and loonapick
Think that I have failed with the past few puzzles by this setter – even the ones that were repeated ! This was tough but very fair and took most of today (the day after) to winkle the last few in the SE corner out.
Had the same feeling of solving four separate puzzles – oddly enough the first four entries were one in each of those quadrants and proceeded to finish each corner going clockwise from the SW around clockwise to the SE. The hardest thing was to get that second clue and get the flow started.
Not sure how the clever people can pick up such a subtle nina, so well done Hovis to spot it here !
Was pleased to finally sort out SNAPSHOT and KEEP UP as the last two in and to have parsed them all.
Very late thanks loonapick, I have not seen terms = ends before and will try to remember it now. I also solved this almost as 4 separate sections. Thanks also Hovis for the NINA reveal, I would never have seen that. Obviously this took me quite a number of repeat visits but I kept going because it was rewarding rather than a slog, several post-entry-parses felt like getting extra value for money eg the penny drop when KEEP UP finally made sense after some long hard stares. But ENTOMB was my favourite for a lovely misleading surface, thanks Basilisk.