Radian’s latest puzzle graces the crossword page today.
I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle, which I think that I have solved correctly, but I am far from sure of my parsing of the last four letters of 8 – thanks, now amended! I would much appreciate input from fellow solvers on this.
I have not spotted a theme other than the inclusion of various geographical names, especially US states, but perhaps I am missing something.
My favourite clues today were 17, for the inclusion of “two papers”; 23, for the three ways of arriving at the solution; and 22, for smoothness of surface. Radian gets a bonus point from me for having 1 and 2 cross on a “z”.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in double-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | AZORES | Radical Aussie in the main fully backs islands
[R (=radical) + OZ (=Aussie)] in SEA (=the main); “fully backs” indicates full reversal |
| 05 | OBSIDIAN | Hard rock outside broadcast with two chaps
OB (=outside broadcast) + [SID + IAN (=two chaps, i.e. two male forenames)]; obsidian is a volcanic rock resembling bottle glass |
| 09 | MUSCADET | Wine and grape juice impressing old rebel
CADE (=old rebel, i.e. Jack Cade’s rebellion in 1450) in MUST (=grape juice) |
| 10 | OBLIGE | Round on major European controlling large force
O (=round, i.e. pictorially) + {L (=large, of sizes) in [BIG (=major) + E (=European)]} |
| 11 | POLE POSITION | Scott fell short of this perfect spot for Hamilton
Polar explorer Captain Scott literally fell, i.e. collapsed, on his first polar expedition before reaching the South Pole; a pole position is the perfect spot for F1 driver Lewis Hamilton to have in a race! |
| 13 | GAZA | Strip 1’s top couple entering Georgia
AZ<ores> (=entry at 1; “top couple” means first two letters only) in GA (=Georgia, in US) |
| 14 | FLAMBEAU | Meat in fine French drink for Chesterton’s criminal
LAMB (=meat) in [F (=fine) + EAU (=French drink, i.e. the French word for water)]; Hercules Flambeau is the master criminal in G K Chesterton’s Father Brown stories |
| 17 | FIFTIETH | Thief stupidly cases two papers for tiny part
[FT + (the) I (=two papers)] in *(THIEF); “stupidly” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | ROOD | Cross staff holding ring
O (=ring, i.e. pictorially) in ROD (=staff, pole) |
| 20 | COUNTRYWOMAN | Noble state of 19 covers tracks with rural resident
[RY (=tracks, i.e. railway) + W (=with)] in [COUNT (=noble, aristocrat) + OMAN (=state of Omanis, i.e. entry at 19)] |
| 23 | ANGERS | Leaderless team infuriates // French city
<r>ANGERS (=football team); “leaderless” means first letter is dropped |
| 24 | RINGSIDE | Call squad to get best place to watch contest
RING (=call, phone) + SIDE (=squad, team) |
| 25 | MARYLAND | State allowed to settle without Republican
R (=Republican) in [MAY LAND (=allowed to settle)] |
| 26 | SPARTA | Old city state’s role in South America
PART (=role) in SA (=South America) |
| Down | ||
| 02 | ZEUS | Eden’s nemesis lifted Olympian
SUEZ (=Eden’s nemesis, i.e. the Suez Crisis that ended Sir Anthony Eden’s premiership in 1957); “lifted” indicates vertical reversal |
| 03 | ROCK PLANT | Alpine factory bears shock
ROCK (=shock, destabilise) + PLANT (=factory); an alpine is a kind of rock plant |
| 03 | SADDLE | Both burden and support for rider
Double definition: to saddle is to burden with, offload onto AND a support for one on horseback |
| 05 | ON TOP OF THE WORLD | Where 11 is happiest
(the North) Pole position (=entry at 11) is, quite literally, on top of the world! |
| 06 | SCOTSMAN | Burns for one ugly mascot in tin
*(MASCOT) in SN (=tin, i.e. chemical symbol); ”ugly” is anagram indicator; the reference is to Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-96) |
| 07 | DELFT | Dutch left broken pottery they produced
D (=Dutch) + *(LEFT); “broken” is anagram indicator |
| 08 | ANGLO-SAXON | Translate a long special transmitter’s crude language
*(A LONG) + S (=special) + AXON (=nerve transmitter, in anatomy); “translate” is anagram indicator; Anglo-Saxon is very direct English that uses taboo words, hence “crude language”. |
| 12 | CALIFORNIA | State clubs provided last of Ohio sailors inter alia
C (=clubs, in cards) + {[IF (=provided, as conjunction) + <ohi>O (“last of” means last letter only) + RN (=sailors, i.e. Royal Navy)] in ALIA} |
| 15 | BERING SEA | Carry round energy drink and lots of cold water
[E (=enrgy) in BRING (=carry)] + SEA (=(the) drink) |
| 16 | NEBRASKA | A 6 raised supporters inside state
BRAS (=supporters) in NEKA (A + KEN (=Scotsman, entry at 6, i.e. a male forename of Gaelic origin; “raised” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 19 | OMANIS | Ordinary bloke’s guarding island for some Arabs
O (=ordinary, as in O levels) + [I (=island) in MAN’S (=blokes)] |
| 21 | NEEDY | Wanting marshal to capture east Germany
[E (=east) + D (=Germany, i.e. Deutschland, in IVR)] in NEY (=marshal, i.e. French military commander Michel Ney (1769-1815)) |
| 22 | ADIT | Entrance a duke with vermouth
A + D (=duke) + IT (=(Italian) vermouth, as a gin and It.); an adit is an entrance, especially to a mine |
An AXON is a nerve transmitter (8d).
Thanks for explaining CADE in MUSCADET, RR; that was a dnk for me. Plenty of ticks: BERING SEA, DELFT (lovely), SADDLE, ROCK PLANT, COUNTRYWOMAN, POLE POSITION and OBSIDIAN were favourites. Two very small quiblets: linking POLE POSITION which was Scott’s (South) Pole with ON TOP OF THE WORLD identified as (North) Pole felt a bit odd (though, I guess, it’s only convention that puts North at the top) and, whilst I fully get that homophones are subjective, I do struggle with Exxon = AXON.
Thanks Radian and RR.
Shouldn’t 25 be something like “State IS allowed …”? I cannot see any grammatical way for merely “allowed” and “may” to be interchangeable.
I don’t think there is any need for EXXON in 8d. Crude language is the definition, ANGLO-SAXON being a (somewhat old-fashioned) way of describing swearing.
Sorry, Hovis. I see you are making the same point. I really liked the CADE in MUSCADET. It’s food ro have another rebel than CHE.
I was going to say it was a bit unfair to describe ANGLO-SAXON as a ‘crude language’ but I didn’t know the swearing / using words which are taboo in polite conversation sense of the term. Took me a while to see AXON for ‘transmitter’ but it’s fair enough.
I didn’t know ‘Alpine’ as a noun to describe a flower. Happy to remember CADE for ‘old rebel’; maybe we’ll have “Straw” next time instead of the usual “Che” as pointed out by Petert @5.
Thanks to Radian and RR
ANGLO-SAXON: Get it now. Thanks folks. Didn’t parse for me and, for once (sorry RR!), the blog parsing has led me astray. I’m slightly more familiar with ‘pardon my French’ for crude language (which is probably unfair on the French but at least they’re around to defend themselves 😀 )
Thanks to those who’ve helped me/us to understand 8D – I knew neither the “transmitter” nor the “crude language” elements! The blog has been updated accordingly.
Just having a Muscadet now-my default white-and we can get it in Australia
Muscadet all my troubles seem so far away (cont p 94)
Nice puzzle
Thanks for the prompt blog, RR, and Radian for an entertaining puzzle.
Just to add to the Anglo-Saxon discussion, Radian is on firm enough ground to clue it whimsically as ‘crude language’, since many people think that all our swear words are from that period and will preface swearing by saying things like ‘if I may lapse back into Anglo-Saxon …’ But the two words in modern English which most people consider the most offensive (the ones that start with F and C) didn’t really arrive until much later in Middle English, and would have meant nothing to the readers of Beowulf. So the story is a bit of an urban myth. Although shit and fart can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon if you want to perpetuate it.
Well, I found this much easier that yesterday’s (which was a DNF for me). My only problem was first entering SUEZ for 2dn and then getting stuck on the crossers.
That was enjoyable.
(I wrote that so many hours ago and then wandered distracted into life in general, only sitting down now to realise that I had posted nothing. But on reflection I don’t have a lot more to say – a very enjoyable puzzle and I might share an umbrella with PM@2 if allowed. The confusion between North and South poles is understandable since ‘top’ is such a subjective concept – in fact one cannot but be ‘ON TOP OF THE WORLD’ since one’s ‘top’ must perforce be directly underfoot. That being said, try persuading anyone that the moon is upside down in the southern hemisphere (which it is) – hours of (self-emollient) fun may ensue.)
Alphalpha @12: always a welcome under my brolly 😀 !
Of course, one is also famously ON TOP OF THE WORLD when summiting Everest! Though it can be very difficult to prevent one’s umbrella being blown inside out.
An enjoyable solve, but we puzzled a bit trying to see a theme; eventually like others we decided it must simply be the varios geographical locations. A little niggle about FLAMBEAU – in the original Father Brown stories (we wouldn’t know about the latest TV travesties) he is only a criminal in the first story, The Blue Cross; whenever he crops up in the later stories he is a reformed character. Nevertheless that was our favourite, with OBSIDIAN running it a close second.
Thanks, Radian and RatkojaRiku.
It does have that nagging sense of a missed theme – from the half-dozen or so geographic locations to the optimum positions – top of the world, pole, ringside – and the ‘fiftieth’ is unusual and hinting of an anniversary.
Other then discarded draft verses of ‘You’re the Top’, I got nothing, tho’. Perhaps the setter might swing by?