On Track by Phi
Nineteen clues are unnumbered and their answers are to be entered where they will fit, after being treated. The mode of treatment is hinted at by the three words spelled out by the initial letters of the nineteen answers in the presented order. Other clues and answers are normal and will assist with placement.
The words “after being treated” in the preamble always strike fear. Then seeing that we need the initial letters of those answers made me think that they were going to be tricky to solve. But that turned out to not be the case and I managed to solve quite a few on my first pass.
Looking at the first letters of the first few I solved: OM?IUM, a bell rang in the back of my mind. It’s a word I’d heard while watching Olympic cycling and it’s OMNIUM. The other word I remember from cycling is KEIRAN (sic) so I go searching for it and, sure enough, it’s there in the last 6 clues. Except that I can’t really justify ACHOR in the penultimate clue. Ah well, it’s bound to sort itself out in the wash!
Spotting OMNIUM early on, coupled with the puzzle’s title confirmed that we were looking for cycling disciplines: OMNIUM, MADISON and KEIRIN. And that made think that these entries were to be cycled before entry, though I did have this fear that it might mean that they were to be anagrammatised.
I found the regular across and down clues to be a little more tricky though I’m not quite sure why. It took quite a few passes until something actually gave way. 1a eventually fell and that gave me a chance to put IMPIGNORATE, tentatively, in the grid. This then helped with a few of the crossing answers and, before long, the grid was completely filled.
I still hadn’t justified ACHOR and, would you believe it, the A ended up in an unchecked cell just to add to the frustration.
I know very little about Olympic cycling (or perhaps, more correctly) track cycling but I have marvelled a few times at the Keirin. As a complete outsider, I find it fascinating as the cyclist follow what looks like a bowler-hatted city gent on his motorcycle for a few laps. He then peels off the track and the cyclists all start racing. All very bizarre. I did often wonder about the wisdom of having a polluting motorcycle trundling along in front of very fit athletes. And lo and behold, when I saw the Keirin in Tokyo 2020, the polluting machine had been replaced by an electric cycle.
It wasn’t until doing this blog that I bothered to check the spelling, giving me ICHOR instead of the erroneous ACHOR. I guess I was thinking of the Irish name Kieran all the time.
All-in-all, a nice gentle, fun puzzle despite my initial misgivings. Many thanks to Phi.
| Across |
||
| Clue |
Entry |
Wordplay |
| 1 Saves European investing in small gambling game (7) |
SCRAPES | Small+CRAPS (gambling game) around European |
| 6 Ass with energy is mount for cowboy? (5) |
BUTTE | BUTT (ass)+Energy |
| 14 Parts of Latvian city will involve male in hassles (10) |
RIGMAROLES | RIGA ROLES (parts in Latvian city) around Male |
| 22 Moving more slowly is occurring after one gets eye problem (6) |
IRITIS | I (one)+RITenuto (or RITardando)+IS |
| 23 Baffled Queen going round a simple place? (6) |
GOTHAM | GOT (baffled)+HM (queen: Ber Majesty) around A (as in Wise Men of Gotham) |
| 32 Chap on boat heading off sailors in sultanate (7) |
OARSMAN | OMAN (sultanate) around [t]ARS (sailors; heading off) |
| 33 Embroidery material provided by British in California (5) |
BINCA | British+IN+CAlifornia |
| 34 Further exam one’s held back in return (5) |
RESIT | I‘S (one’s; rev: held back) in RETurn |
| Down | ||
| 1 Public figure taking Ecstasy (5) | STATE | STATistic (figure)+Ecstasy |
| 2 Pouch in New York church getting copper money (5) |
CECUM | CE (church)+CU (copper)+Money |
| 3 Answer limiting situation for foreigners (6) |
ALIENS | LIE (situation) inside ANSwer |
| 5 Long Island, in the beginning, not well illuminated (7) |
STARLIT | START (the beginning) around L[ong] I[sland] (in the beginning) |
| 8 Skilful story on record, nothing less (8) |
TALENTED | TALE (story)+N[o]TED (on record; minus O (nothing)) |
| 9 Leaf-shaped decoration for tile is misplaced (7) |
TREFOIL | FOR TILE (anag: misplaced) |
| 17 Goes well over local expenses applied to people involved in row (8) |
OUTSOARS | OUTS (local expenses)+OARS (people involved in row) outs: Chambers noun number 7 A paying out, esp (in pl) rates and taxes, etc (dialect) |
| 20 My answer is to be found in undivided glowing regions (7) |
CORONAE | COR (my)+Answer inside ONE (undivided) |
| 24 Monstrous wolf near one in wild, almost all invisible (6) |
FENRIR | NR (near)+I (one) inside FER[al] (wild; minus (almost) AL[l]) |
| Unnumbered | |||
| Clue |
Entry |
Wordplay |
|
| pos | word | ||
| • Old ass turned over herb (7) | 19d | OREGANO EGANOOR |
Old+ONAGER (ass; rev: turned over) |
| • Purple merchant vessel carrying gold east (5) |
28d | MAUVE VEMAU |
MV (merchant vessel) around AU (gold) followed by East |
| • No cure for Scots heading to Wick? (7) |
30a | NOR’-EAST ASTNORE |
NO+REAST (cure; Scottish) |
| • Demands for payment not foremost misfortunes (4) |
29d | ILLS LLSI |
[b]ILLS (demands for payment; minus first letter) |
| • Hurt now, badly, and of no value (7) |
35a | UNWORTH NWORTHU |
HURT NOW (anag: badly) |
| • Regular items in meal menu revised: accepted Pacific pigeon (7) |
21d | MANUMEA UMEAMAN |
M[e]A[l] (regular items)+MENU (anag: revised)+Accepted |
| • Spy maintaining revolutionary deception? One sees through it (7) |
16a | MONOCLE EMONOCL |
MOLE (spy) around CON (deception; rev: revolutionary) |
| • Colourful flower mother covered in a storm (7) |
12a | AMARANT NTAMARA |
A+MA (mother)+RANT (storm) |
| • Seaport curtailed flying toy that’s removed head of this seabird (7) |
26a | DOVEKIE EKIEDOV |
DOVE[r] (seaport; curtailed)+KI[t]E (flying toy; minus T[his] (head of)) |
| • Scottish mortgage setter’s operating badly (11) |
4d | IMPIGNORATE PIGNORATEIM |
I‘M (setter’s)+OPERATING (anag: badly) |
| • Indian instrument is returned – a poor specimen on reflection (5) |
25a | SITAR ARSIT |
IS (rev: returned)+RAT (a poor specimen; rev: on reflection) |
| • Egg of vulture usually malleable at the outset (4) |
7d | OVUM UMOV |
O[f] V[ulture] U[sually] M[alleable] (at the outset) |
| • Heritage body hosting a certain chamber group (5) |
18a | NONET ETNON |
NT (National Trust) around ONE (a certain) |
| • Watersport enthusiast always accepting meals in pursuit of equipment (11) |
13d | KITEBOARDER ARDERKITEBO |
KIT (equipment)+BOARD (meals) inside E‘ER (always) |
| • Cream eclair initially with fewer calories (5) |
11a | ELITE TEELI |
E[clair] (intially)+LITE (fewer calories) |
| • Aloof sovereign taking offspring in place of one (10) |
31a | IMPERSONAL ONALIMPERS |
IMPER[i]AL (sovereign) with SON (offspring) replacing I (one) |
| • A lot of the others surrounding a native in the grounds (7) |
10d | REASONS EASONSR |
RES[t] (others; a lot of) around A SON (a native) |
| • Discharge one tedious task? Not entirely (5) |
27d | ICHOR ORICH |
I (one)+CHOR[e] (tedious task; almost) |
| • Encourage race, backing English track, after reflection (7) |
15a | NURTURE TURENUR |
English+RUT (track)+RUN (race) all rev: after reflection |
Yes, a fun puzzle that was on the gentle side. A lucky guess from the outset that “treated” would mean cycling of the answers and enough crossing letters in place to confirm certainly helped, but this was a rare Inquisitor that I sort of ambled through without any major hold-ups.
This was an excellent puzzle that I thought at one point I was not going to finish. Without knowing how the answers to the unnumbered clues should be ‘treated’ it was not possible to place any of those that I had. I saw the possibility that they could be anagrams, but if that was the case it would have made completion of the puzzle too arduous and probably impossible.
It was spotting the possibility that both MONOCLE and IMPIGNORATE could both be cycled rather than jumbled that led me to believe that I had found the key, and when a couple more answers could be entered in that way I became certain of it. (And the puzzle was called On Track.) The three types of cycle race that revealed themselves via the unnumbered clues served as confirmation: I would have needed them sooner if I had not been lucky enough to spot the ‘treatment’ when I did.
The puzzle was well-pitched, well-designed and well-clued. Thanks to Phi, and to kenmac for the blog.
I find that offerings from Phi tend to sit at the easier end of the spectrum, and this one proved to be no exception. Only 36 clues in a 12×12 grid made it a pretty straightforward task. All clues were parsed OK once again, with a simple device allowing the answers to the nineteen unnumbered clues to be placed quite easily. A fun, straightforward puzzle.
Thanks, as always, to both setter and blogger.
I spotted omnium quickly and immediately thought of Madison and Keirin. I regret the passing of the Gurney bike – it looked and sounded so incongruous. I was held up for a while as I misspelled Kierin and consequently couldn’t cycle those two entries properly. I also failed to spot My = Cor which meant I had coronae as a possibility, but couldn’t justify it until right at the end. Nice puzzle, requiring no use of Google. The first for a while. Thanks to Phi and Kenmac.
I also got to Omnium fairly quickly, but presumed a Latin motto would follow. I needed to have figured out entries were being cycled in order to get to a point where I could identify the sports, so, strictly speaking, it was a redundant add-on. But a nice solve all the same.
Thanks to Phi and kenmac
The usual setter’s blog (if a tad on the short side) is here: http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/on-track/
A neat, enjoyable puzzle from Phi this week. We have an interest in cycling so no googling needed. Loved watching the cycling during London prepares. We couldn’t believe the gradients of the track.
Sorry to both kenmac and Phi – we forgot our manners. Thanks for the blog and puzzle!
A fun puzzle, but we’ve been so spoilt recently that I was mildly disappointed not to have a couple of famous cyclists to highlight in the final grid 🙂