I think this is my first blog of an Atrica puzzle even though the setter first appeared nearly three years ago.
Recently, I have been blogging puzzles ripe for a message round the perimeter, but rarely finding one. However, today’s the day, with the phrase HIT THE GROUND FROM DAY ONE reading clockwise round the perimeter from the H in 1 down. The phrase was helpful to me towards the end of the puzzle
I am not sure of the exact entry at 21 across as it seems to me that TORE INTO and TORN INTO both satisfy the clue. Perhaps there will be a grammarian commenting who can explain the difference between TORE and TORN. I think could write I TORE INTO something and attacked it or something was TORN INTO and attacked.
One of my little bugbears came up today where the clue at 10 across referred to a northern city which is a couple of hundred miles south of where I write the blog.
Overall though I enjoyed the solve including one of the crossword world’s favourite State capitals. There was a good mix of entries that will be well known to most solvers.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 6 |
Silly space cadet undressed in prank (8) ESCAPADE (mischievous adventure; prank) Anagram of (silly) SPACE + CADET excluding the outer letters (undressed) C and T ESCAP* ADE |
| 8 |
Extremely rough gang shifting ring and diamond (5) RHOMB (equilateral parallelogram; shape of a diamond) RH (outer letters of [extremely] ROUGH + MOB (gang) with the O (ring-shaped character) moving to the front (shifting) to form OMB RH OMB |
| 10 |
Invalid‘s physician finally taking over from hospital in northern city (4) NULL (invalid) HULL (northern city in England) with N (last letter of [finally] PHYSICIAN) replacing (taking over from) H (hospital) N ULL |
| 11 |
State capital, but no-go area not entirely cleaned up (5,5) BATON ROUGE (State capital of Louisiana) Anagram of (cleaned up) BUT NO-GO and AREA excluding the final letter (not entirely) A BATON ROUGE* |
| 12 |
Oddly calmer after boats at sea in difficulty (8) OBSTACLE (difficulty) Anagram of (at sea) BOATS + CLE (letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] of CALMER) OBSTA* CLE |
| 14 |
Coming to terms with sports rulemakers policing the second half (6) FACING (accepting or dealing with something; coming to terms with) FA (Football Association; rulemakers for football in England) + CING (final four letters [second half] POLICING) FA CING |
| 16 |
Way back when? In the end, I couldn’t care less (4) YAWN (an exaggerated expression of boredom by someone indicating they couldn’t care less) WAY reversed (back) + N (last letter of [in the end] WHEN) YAW N |
| 18 |
Part of chair — place covered by planted bottom (5) SPLIT (break; part) PL (place) contained in SIT (when you plant your bottom on a chair you SIT) S (PL) IT Correction, thanks to Hovis at comment 1 below: This should be SPLAT (thin strip forming the upright middle part of a chair-back) PL (place) contained in (covered by) SAT (planted bottom) S (PL) AT |
| 19 |
Close to being a miser (4) NEAR (close to) NEAR (parsimonious; being like a miser) double definition NEAR |
| 20 |
Bully someone doing sit-ups (6) ABUSER (bully) AB USER (one using ABdominal muscles in exercises such as sit-ups) AB USER |
| 21 |
Attacked and split down the middle, abandoned by wife (4,4) TORN INTO (attacked) or TORE INTO (attacked) TORN IN TWO or TORE IN TWO (split down the middle) excluding (abandoned by) W (wife) TORN IN TO Update: I note that the Independent website gives the entry as TORE INTO |
| 24 |
Pour cold water on plate and put away recipe cutting (10) DISHEARTEN (discourage; pour cold water on) DISH (plate of food) + (R [recipe] contained in [cutting] EATEN) DISH EA (R) TEN |
| 27 |
Joshua selfishly holds back Abraham’s grandson (4) ESAU (son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham) ESAU (reversed [back] hidden word in [holds] JOSHUA SELFISHLY) ESAU< |
| 28 |
Superhuman Olympians seen around the centre of Milan: what do they want? (5) GOLDS (Competitors in the Olympics want to win GOLD medals [GOLDS] at the Games) GODS (in Greek mythology, superhuman beings from Mount Olympus containing (seen around) L (middle letter of [centre of] MILAN) GO (L) DS |
| 29 |
Soldiers feel I’m out of place in the Navy (8) RIFLEMEN (soldiers) Anagram of (out of place) FEEL I’M contained in (in) RN ([Royal] Navy]) R (IFLEME*) N |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Cold shower lashes into drunk (10) HAILSTONES (frozen rain; cold shower) Anagram of (drunk) LASHES INTO HAILSTONES* |
| 2 |
Atrica could go either way about using feet (6) IAMBIC (using IAMBIC verse which has feet of two syllables) I (Atrica, the crossword setter) + AM + BI (attracted to both sexes; could go either way) + C (circa; about) I AM BI C |
| 3 |
What’s written about female in the next message (4) TEXT (to message on a smartphone for instance) The letters TEXT contain (written about) HEN (female) in the words THE NEXT TEXT |
| 4 |
Unhealthy substance controlled in unusually fast time (5,3) TRANS FAT (acid formed when unsaturated fats are converted into saturated fats by hydrogenation, and now thought to be harmful) (RAN [managed; controlled] contained in [in] an anagram of [unusually] FAST) + T (time) T (RAN) S FA* T |
| 5 |
Derelict old boy I see turning up (4) HOBO (homeless, penniless person rejected by society; derelict) (OB [old boy] + OH! [expression indicating ‘I get it’; ‘I see’]) all reversed (turning up; down entry) (HO BO)< |
| 7 |
Ink-maker with bottom becoming black in lampoon (5) SQUIB (a lampoon) SQUID (mollusc that produces an inky liquid) with the final letter (bottom) D replaced by (becoming ) B (black, in description of lead pencils) SQUIB |
| 9 |
I began, stupidly, to hold love as something found in bed (7) BEGONIA (plant found in a flower bed) Anagram of (stupidly) I BEGAN containing (to hold) O (character representing zero [love score at tennis]) BEG (O) NIA* |
| 13 |
Uplifting story about college glory (5) ECLAT (splendour; glory) TALE (story) reversed (uplifting; down entry) containing (about) C (college) E (C) LAT< |
| 15 |
Believed to be embarrassed to support Tory team (10) CONSIDERED (believed to be) CON (Conservative; Tory) + SIDE (team) + RED (embarrassed) – as is this is a down entry the letters RED are ‘supporting’ the letters CONSIDE CON SIDE RED |
| 17 |
Taking a risk, giving up golf and going for a walk (7) AMBLING (going for a walk) GAMBLING (taking a risk) excluding (giving up) the letter G (golf is the International Radio Communication codeword for the letter G) AMBLING |
| 18 |
Seaweed found by idiot aboard small boat in Greek legend (8) SARGASSO (gulfweed; a floating mass or expanse of it, as in the SARGASSO Sea in the North Atlantic) ASS (idiot) contained in (aboard) (S [small] + ARGO (name of a boat in Greek legend, reference Jason and the ARGOnauts) S ARG (ASS) O |
| 22 |
Escape from Truss versus Sunak, perhaps (3,3) RUN OFF (escape from) RUN OFF (the final vote in the recent election for leader of the Conservative Party was a RUN-OFF between Rishi SUNAK and Liz TRUSS) double definition RUN OFF |
| 23 |
When drawing, cheat a bit (5) TRACE (rather than draw something freehand, TRACE it instead which maybe considered CHEATing) TRACE (a very small bit) double definition TRACE |
| 25 |
Constrained by underwhelming leadership (4) HELM (position of leadership or control) HELM (hidden word in [constrained by] UNDERWHELMING) HELM |
| 26 |
Religious writings brought up – bishop is under some pressure (4) TORR (a unit used in expressing very low pressures, 1/760 of a standard atmosphere, probably named after Evangelista TORRicelli [1608-1647], Italian physicist who invented the barometer) OT (Old Testament; religious writings) reversed (brought up; down entry) + RR (Right Reverend; form of address for a bishop) TO< RR |
I believe 18a should be SPLAT (part of a chair).
Really enjoyed this and learned a few new words: SPLAT & TORR (and wasn’t sure I remembered that meaning of SQUIB). Nearly ground to a halt a few times but got there in the end.
Hovis @ 1
Thanks – that makes a lot more sense, but I must admit that SPLAT is a new word to me in the sense of ‘part of a chair’. After your comment I also pressed the Reveal button for 21 across to find that the correct answer is TORE INTO
I’ll update the blog in the next few minutes.
I put in TORE INTO, not even thinking of TORN INTO which I agree also seems OK. For once the Nina (of obvious relevance today) was a hindrance more than anything, as after getting a few letters I was sure it was going to be “hit the ground running” and despite clearly not fitting, it wouldn’t budge until I had almost all of the peripheral letters in place.
I didn’t know SPLAT for ‘part of chair’ or the ‘lampoon’ sense of SQUIB (as opposed to the firework sense) either. I liked the wordplay for TEXT.
Thanks to Atrica and Duncan
The lack of “running” in the perimeter is a reference to a tweet Liz Truss put out during her election campaign when she posted as per the Nina – that got quite a bit of lampooning at the time that from day1 she would just hit the ground…
I was looking for a Nina around the edge from the start, since it’s Tuesday, and sure enough there it was, significantly enough referring to one of our new PM’s earlier bloomers – more to follow? How did Atrica know she would win? Surely he didn’t set this yesterday! Excellent puzzle anyway, so thanks Atrica and Duncan.
And SPLAT is the result of hitting the ground. Great puzzle, thanks.
Splat, ha ha. Good to put the boot in from day one. She’s looked like a safe bet for a while, but still a good punt on the puzzle, a week being a long time etc.
If Boris was Trumpish, will Liz be our Dubya?
Past tenses vs past participles I guess. And the E (or N) is an unch 🙁
Terribly sorry about 21A! It did not occur to me that the passive “I was attacked” could be “I was torn into”. I hope the new PM does not feel that way and wish her all the best, despite not having a great deal of hope.
Thanks both. Spotted the Nina relatively early, though it was a while before it assisted me, as I refuse to read anything party-political, so did not know the exact quote. Agree that Hull is unequivocally eastern, but barely northern by my compass, which is before we get pedantic and observe it is an in-use shortening of the correct name, and adding that amusingly the locals tend to further shorten it by dropping the H
It was a bit of a gamble, but looked the most likely scenario. Even more of a gamble for the country. Not for nothing was the long answer in yesterday’s i five-clue crossword GOD HELP US ALL. Better stock up on foreign cheeses anyhow.
Ignore the italics at the end of that
Thanks Duncan, and well played, Atrica!
We saw the nina for once, and it did help – once we realised it couldn’t be ‘hit the ground running’. Whatever one may think of the current political shenanigans one just has to enjoy the puzzle. And it was great stuff. Favourite was TORR which gave us a lovely ‘aha’ moment.
Thanks, Atrica and Duncan.
Whilst you can argue about the relative position of Hull to where you live surely anything North of the Midlands is Northern.
Other places may be more Northern but that doesn’t make Hull un-Northern…
Thanks to Duncan and Atrica for an entertaining diversion from the boring news.
Very nice puzzle wherein I too, for a change, realised what was happening around the perimeter before finishing the puzzle.
I’m grateful for the parsing of TEXT as that eluded me, so thanks to setter and blogger alike.