Serpent has been providing puzzles for the Indy for many years and they appear on a Saturday about half the time. I am on a blogging schedule to cover the Saturday puzzle every 5th week. Weirdly I haven’t blogged a Saturday Serpent for 2 and a half years. Far too long.
The great thing about blogging as opposed to just solving a puzzle is that it forces you to study the setter’s work in great detail, rather than just being happy to have “spotted the answer”. With this puzzle that detailed study provides great pleasure as more meaning is revealed from the selection of words built into clues. For instance “inscription on an unknown soldier’s tomb?” , and that isn’t even the clue I marked down as by favourite.
This was not an easy crossword. I read through a lot of clues before finding one where I was sure of the answer, 14A, but then anagrams are like that. The nature of the grid which has four quadrants was enhanced by me solving those longer lights that meet in the middle earliest leaving 4 separated corners. Bottom left was the first corner to get filled in, but end of the first pass (all clues attempted at least once) I still had gaps in all 3 other corners.
Once I got the answers on the top row the first letters for crossing down lights helped the top two corners get finished.
So, bottom right needed more effort but that was certainly rewarded – that corner has more notable clues than the others, and finally, 25a completed the grid not sure why I found that one so hard.
Favourite clue has to be 12a STREET – a clue using novel clueing techniques that retains a meaningful, appropriate surface reading, and that isn’t terribly hard. Everyone feels good solving this.
Mind you there are a few others that need to be mentioned in dispatches:
22a DISCLAIM I have not seen this “merging” wordplay before
15d CROISSANT Another &Lit. perhaps losing a mark for that hackneyed old “social worker” wordplay
16d PARANOID Beautiful clue
23d CREPE definition referencing other stuff used in the clue. Mind you I had to look up REP to check it was another material
Edit: As mentioned in the comments there was a Nina in this so I have changed the picture of the grid to a version with a bit of slapdash highlighting. I found it tricky to see where “Smells Like Teen Spirit” appears even after having it described.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | FLATBOAT | Investing round figure in boring club is a punt? (8) O (round figure) inside (invested in) FLAT BAT (boring club) |
| 5 | TACTIC | Tense opening of play about plan of action? (6) T[ense] ACT I (opening of play) C (about) |
| 9 | SEAHORSE | Fish recognise husky by the sound of it (8) Homophone “See hoarse” (recognise husky) HInd: by the sound of it. |
| 10 | PLUCKY | Losing pawn in this game would be fortunate (6) A kind of reverse wordplay. Remove P[awn] from the answer (defined by game as an adjective meaning willing to do something) to make LUCKY (fortunate). |
| 11 | IMMODEST | Shameless married types having sex outside (8) M[arried] MODES (types) inside IT (sex) |
| 12 | STREET | What would be narrower if it weren’t tree-lined? (6) &Lit An &Lit reverse clue where we take TREE from the answer STREET to make an abbreviation for (narrower version of) the answer: ST |
| 14 | ASSOCIATIVE | As a voice it’s possibly helping to form union (11) (AS A VOICE IT’S)* AInd: possibly. First clue solved. |
| 18 | ORCHESTRATE | Cast three actors to create parts for musical? (11) (THREE ACTORS)* AInd: Cast. |
| 21 | STRESS | Pressure beginning to tell on son aboard ship (6) T[ell] RE (on) S[on] all inside (aboard) SS (ship) |
| 22 | DISCLAIM | Deny record demand following merger (8) DISC (record) CLAIM (demand) “merged” at the C. Neat, novel, new wordplay! |
| 24 | REVEAL | Celebrate hosting penultimate part of chat show (6) [ch]A[t] in REVEL (celebrate) |
| 25 | TELEPORT | Injury restricts footballer backing transfer immediately (8) TORT (injury) around (restricts) PELE< (footballer, backing). Last one in |
| 26 | RELATE | Half-hearted teller ordered checks for each recount (6) (TEL[l]ER)* AInd: ordered, making RELTE around (checks) A (for each) I am not very keen on using “for each” as wordplay for “A” though I believe I’ve seen similar before. |
| 27 | ASCENDED | Went upstairs perhaps when clubs closed (8) AS (when) C[lubs] ENDED (closed) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | FESTIVAL | Five last works for religious celebration (8) (FIVE LAST)* AInd: works. |
| 2 | ALARMIST | Scaremongering member divides elite group (8) ARM (member) inside (divides) A LIST (elite group). Member doing double duty as part of definition – to get the correct sense |
| 3 | BLOOD | Family bathroom designed primarily to accommodate toilet (5) B[athroom] D[esigned] around (to accommodate) LOO (toilet) |
| 4 | ASSISTANCE | American behind position supporting international aid (10) ASS (American behind) I[nternational] STANCE (position) |
| 6 | ALLOTMENT | Plot many intended to be overheard (9) Homophone of “a lot meant” HInd: to be overheard. |
| 7 | TICKER | Heart shown by benevolent examiner? (6) Cryptic Def.: I suppose a benevolent examiner would provide lots of ticks |
| 8 | COYOTE | Howler by athletics supremo about game making a comeback (6) COE (athletics supremo, ref. Seb Coe) around (about) TOY< (game, making a comeback) |
| 13 | TIMELINESS | State demonstrating prompt dispatch of minor punishment by guards (10) LINES (minor punishment) inside (guarded by) TIMES (by) |
| 15 | CROISSANT | What I fed to angry social worker? (9) &Lit I inside (fed to) CROSS, ANT (angry, social worker) |
| 16 | PARANOID | Suspicious inscription on unknown soldier’s tomb? (8) PARA (soldier) NO ID (unknown). Poignant surface reading |
| 17 | PERMUTED | Deranged Prince subdued following the Queen’s intervention (8) P[rince] MUTES (subdued) around ER (the Queen) |
| 19 | USURER | University rector inspired by person who employs one taking excessive interest (6) U[niversity] R[ector] inside (inspired by) USER (person who employs) |
| 20 | TRAVEL | Conclusion of modernist composer’s tour (6) [modernis]T RAVEL (composer) |
| 23 | CREPE | Coat of cashmere lined with one material or another (5) REP (one material) inside C[ashmer]E. Definition is “another material” |
DISCLAIM: An interesting device (new to me).
Liked TIMELINESS and PARANOID quite a bit.
Always worth looking for a nina in Serpent puzzles to help you out. Here it is the famous Nirvana song unusual having the two halves going round in opposite directions. This allowed me to complete the devious bottom right quadrant. Lovely stuff, as always.
Crikey Hovis @2 (and Serpent everywhere): what an incredible spot and, likewise, incredible achievement to fit that in. Before reading the blog, I went back to the puzzle and scoured the odd squares for meaningful phrases in every direction – or so I thought. I never spot a Serpent Nina!!!
Thanks for a thoughtful blog beermagnet. I loved the shared letter device and you might find this interesting to glance through. A week ago Bluth used the same device with very cunning signalling.
Over and above the two star solutions – aforementioned DISCOUNT and our blogger’s highlighted STREET, I had big ticks for PLUCKY, ORCHESTRATE, TELEPORT, COYOTE, TIMELINESS (lovely), CROISSANT and PARANOID. NO ID indeed!
Beermagnet – does ‘member’ have to do double duty in 2d? If ALARMIST is taken as adjective rather than noun, surely member only needs to serve as the insertion?
Thanks S&B
PS. Sorry beermagnet, should have said it’s 1d in the Bluth from a week ago.
I’m a great fan of Serpent’s puzzles, very clever and accurate, but I’m not thrilled by toy=game.
What PostMark said + I couldn’t decide whether “this game”, meaning presumably “this sense of game” was clever misdirection or not quite right.
Another great crossword from Serpent – I did look for a Nina but Nirvana songs are not one of my specialist subjects! My favourites were 15d and 22a (I have seen the device in that one used before)
Thanks to him for the crossword and to beermagnet for the blog
So effortless and unpretentious. Thats the setter-how about the solver.
It was flowing nicely until the bottom right-at this stage in a Serpent I generally go fishing-ah…SMELLS LIKE….so I played the track on You tube whilei finishing to find it was not a cyclic nina as such
Chapeau!
Thanks JC and beermagnet-great start to the day(with Dilmar tea)
Many thanks to Hovis @2 for pointing out the Nina. I never thought of looking for one within this grid design – I should have known better with Serpent. Mind you, it is not easy to see even after it is described so I have changed the blog’s picture.
Well done to anyone else who spotted it.
Blimey, over 30 years since that song was released. And Kurt Cobain now dead longer that he was alive. How to make people feel old.
PostMark @3: I take your point about “Alarmist” as an adjective. It is difficult for me to put the noun/person sense to one side – ain’t English wonderful.
Also, that Bluth puzzle – I intended to do it, put it up on the computer but never got a chance to tackle it that day. Probably the first Bluth I’ve missed. Doh!
A rare excursion to the Indie due to a non-standard guardian puzzle today, and very enjoyable it was too.
The LHS was fine, butbthe RHS needed a couple of reveals to keep going. 18d was particularly good.
Thanks both.
[bm @9: I hope I didn’t inadvertently lumber you with a spoiler if you had intended to revisit! I thought i’d be safe with a week’s gap. Though, if you’re at all like me, once put aside to do later, there’s a significant risk other things will get in the way. It’s well worth doing, as is always the case with Bluth.]
PostMark: Please don’t worry. Any puzzle that’s had its answers published is fair game for any comment. Besides, given the state of my memory lately even if I did it tomorrow I’d be surprised by the answer if I get it.
Also copmus #8: Your reference to Dilmar tea intrigued me. I’d never heard of it. Googling tells me it’s the most ethical tea on the planet. And I can get it at Sainsburys. I’m not a tea drinker, but grown-up daughter is a big tea fan, and a bit ethical fan (like father on that one). So tomorrow’s task is to get some for when she makes a rare visit on Monday. I hope it’s also tasty.
Thanks Serpent for the mental workout. I got most of this but I resorted to the check button in the SE corner to complete the grid. I did find the nina for once. Favourites included SEAHORSE, ORCHESTRATE, DISCLAIM, TELEPORT, ASSISTANCE, and PARANOID. Thanks beermagnet for the blog.
Many thanks to beermagnet for the excellent and thorough blog, and to everyone who has taken the time to solve and comment.