A fun puzzle today from Neo . . .
. . . and a near-pangram, missing “Q,” without straining too hard with weird clues.
I am not 100% sure on my parsing of 17A and 26A. Update: See comment from Neo@10.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WHISKY MAC |
Ask why I’m smashed with Conservative supplying drink? (6,3)
|
| Anagram of (smashed) ASK WHY I’M + C (Conservative) | ||
| 6 | RIGID |
Austere American soldier with free admission? (5)
|
| GI (American soldier) inside (with . . . admission) RID (free) | ||
| 9 | OCEANIC |
Overwhelming when cocaine’s distributed (7)
|
| Anagram of (distributed) COCAINE | ||
| 10 | PROBLEM |
Dilemma for British leaving en masse for starters (7)
|
| PRO (for) + B (British) + first letters of (“for starters”) L[EAVING] E[N] M[ASSE] | ||
| 11 | GRASS |
19 across surrounding King Sargon’s principal informer (5)
|
| GAS (solution to 19 across) around (surrounding) R (king) + S (first letter of Sargon (“Sargon’s principal”) | ||
| 12 | EDGBASTON |
Nick almost bowled when century witnessed here? (9)
|
| EDG[E] (nick “almost”) + B (bowled) + AS (when) + TON (century), referring to the cricket ground there. Semi-&lit. | ||
| 14 | RUT |
Routine when animals do it? (3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | ZIMMER FRAME |
Dylan won’t need staff to design walker’s aid (6,5)
|
| ZIMMER[MAN] ([Bob] Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, minus [“won’t need”] “man” [staff]) + FRAME (to design) | ||
| 17 | MALADJUSTED |
Neurotic mummy’s boy lately seen with editor (11)
|
| I think this parses as: MA LAD (mummy’s boy) + JUST (lately) + ED (editor) | ||
| 19 | GAS |
Empty talk in managing assets (3)
|
| Hidden in (in) [MANAGIN]G AS[SETS] | ||
| 20 | SERENGETI |
Green site destroyed in African park (9)
|
| Anagram of (destroyed) GREEN SITE | ||
| 22 | CLOWN |
Amusing performer gloomy in cold north (5)
|
| LOW (gloomy) inside (in) C (cold) + N (north) | ||
| 24 | ELECTOR |
European Court function’s reversed to cover voter (7)
|
| ROLE (function) reversed (reversed) around (to cover) (E [European] + CT [Court]) | ||
| 26 | CHAMBER |
Hard for bank to invest in legislative assembly (7)
|
| H (hard) inside (for . . . to invest in) CAMBER (bank)? I think this works better as “Hard to invest in bank for legislative assembly,” but I am willing to listen to the wise counsel of the comments? | ||
| 27 | KETCH |
Old executioner shows craft (5)
|
| Double definition, referring to Jack Ketch | ||
| 28 | ACETYLENE |
Elect any maladroit imbecile — ultimately it’s a 19 across! (9)
|
| Anagram of (maladroit) ELECT ANY + [IMBECIL]E (last letter of [“ultimately”] imbecile), referring to solution of 19 across GAS | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WRONG |
Wife right on — and good — but there’s wickedness? (5)
|
| W (wife) + R (right) + O (on) + N (and, as in “mac ‘n’ cheese”) + G (good). See John@13 for an alternate (plausible) parsing. | ||
| 2 | INEXACT |
Muddled in topless instance of rumpy- pumpy? (7)
|
| IN + [S]EX ACT (instance of rumpy-pumpy, minus first letter S [“topless”]) | ||
| 3 | KING-SIZED |
As Henry VIII eventually was, aptly? (4- 5)
|
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 4 | MICKEY MOUSE |
Worthless audio device has important second application (6,5)
|
| MIC (audio device) + KEY (important) + MO (second) + USE (application) | ||
| 5 | COP |
Flatfoot beginning to compromise operation (3)
|
| C (first letter of [beginning to] compromise) + OP (operation) | ||
| 6 | RIOJA |
Spanish red I love in damaged jar (5)
|
| I + O (love) inside (in) anagram of (damaged) JAR | ||
| 7 | GALATIA |
Festival — it lifted a Roman province (7)
|
| GALA (festival) + IT inverted (lifted) + A | ||
| 8 | DOMINEERS |
Bosses and actors around pit (9)
|
| DOERS (actors) around (around) MINE (pit) | ||
| 13 | GREAT CIRCLE |
Terrific band that goes right round the globe (5,6)
|
| GREAT (terrific) + CIRCLE (band) | ||
| 14 | RUMP STEAK |
Female leaves dowdy women with wood cut (4,5)
|
| [F]RUMPS (dowdy women, minus F [female leaving]) + TEAK (wood) | ||
| 16 | FIDUCIARY |
Involving trust, one copper’s about to stop Friday rioting (9)
|
| (I [one] + CU [copper]) reversed (about) inside (to stop [up]) anagram of (rioting) FRIDAY | ||
| 18 | LARGEST |
Most enormous knotted rag brought inside in case (7)
|
| Anagram of (knotted) RAG inside (brought inside) LEST (in case) | ||
| 19 | GOODBYE |
Farewell bargain announced (7)
|
| Homophone of (announced) GOOD BUY (bargain) | ||
| 21 | NOTCH |
Score, in first place, nine over the closing holes (5)
|
| The first letters of (“in first place”) N[INE] + O[VER] + T[HE] + C[LOSING] + H[OLES] | ||
| 23 | NERVE |
Bottle perhaps attached to optic? (5)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 25 | RYA |
Scandinavian rug Mary Astor keeps (3)
|
| Hidden in (keeps) [MA]RY A[STOR] |
Just the right balance between challenging and easy, and with a fair number of smiles. I hadn’t heard of “oceanic” being used to mean “overwhelming”, but sure enough, it’s in the dictionary. I couldn’t parse ZIMMER FRAME, KETCH (never having heard of Jack), or INEXACT, the latter eliciting a smile when I discovered how it worked.
Thanks Neo & Cineraria.
MALADJUST and CHAMBER:
Your explanations seem perfect to me.
I agree with KVa @2 , for CHAMBER I took invest= besiege / surround for CAMBER round H , with IN as a link word or even part of the definition.
I think you are quite right for MALADJUSTED but the ‘s seems to have gone missing for the clue to work properly.
Thanks for the blog, very tidy set of clues. I liked ZIMMER FRAME very much . KING-SIZED took a bit of thought. RUMP STEAK flowed very neatly.
RYA was obscure for me but a very fair hidden answer.
I think Roz said it all. I’ll just add a thumbs up for the MICKEY MOUSE clue.
SERENGETI has been round the block a few times but chapeau to EDGBASTON and ZIMMER FRAME
Thanks, Neo – with Vlad in the Guardian and Bluth in tricky mode in the Indy, this was a welcome bit of relatively light relief. Agree with Hovis that MICKEY MOUSE is the standout clue, but it was all enjoyable and tightly clued as we expect.
And thanks for the blog, Cineraria. As per KvA and Roz, I think your parsing is sound – I had to think for a few moments about “invest” but it works.
Yes, a bit gentler than Bluth and Vlad elsewhere today, but none the less enjoyable for that. I didn’t know Jack KETCH as an ‘Old executioner’ and RYA was new. I agree that CHAMBER was a bit confusing, but I justified it by adding a couple of commas to the surface – ‘Hard, for bank to invest, in …’ – which is the same thing as Roz @3’s parsing.
Same favourites as others, with EDGBASTON winning by a nose.
Thanks to Neo and Cineraria
Thanks Neo and Cineraria
17ac: I took this as “mother has” with the “has” an indication for “is followed by”
26ac: I am in complete agreement with Roz@3: the “in” is not part of the wordplay.
Hello! I have a hangover now (see Tees blog yesterday, or rather my comment on it this morning). Will probably be going for it again on Thursday as that’s my birthday. I would prefer to have been born in the summer, frankly. At 40c.
The CHAMBER one is ‘H for CAMBER to invest’ (as pointed out, invest as in lay siege to), and the IN is a link-word. The ‘S in MALAJUSTED is also per comments, in my mind standing for HAS, so MA has LAD+JUST+ED with seen with also bunged in for link. I could have squeezed around that construction I suppose, but wanted to get the mummy’s boy thing in.
Thanks to all, esp Cineraria for the emblogment.
I guess, in crosswordland, Neo is a tipsy One 🙂
Thank you Neo@10 for weighing in with those further explanations. It is always a pleasure to receive feedback from the setters. Both 17A and 26A were entirely “gettable” from the clues, whether I completely understood how they worked or not.
Many thanks also for the constructive observations of the other commenters in this thread.
Minor quibble, I parsed 1 down as W(ife) R(ight) ON G(ood). Thanks Neo and Cineraria.
#11 LOL. My friend John Halpern uses a different anagrind for that!
#13 yes, that’s it John.
Thanks Neo for the fun. My top choices were MICKEY MOUSE, CLOWN, and RUMP STEAK. I revealed EDGBASTON, not knowing the cricket field or that century = TON. Thanks Cinearia for filling in my parsing gaps.
Happy birthday, Neo.
[Eno treatment for musician-setter (3)]
Nice one Neo, lots of good ones, my fave also MICKEY.
I’m wondering if there’s any reason it’s a Q-lipogram?!?!?!?!
lady gewgaw @16, wot, no inside information?
Anyway, a crossword without a q is not a lipogram, it just doesn’t have a q, like most crosswords.
I concur with 17 that a crossword grid without a Q is not automatically a lipogram, and that most grids omit Q – but also J and/or X, Z, and so on.
But if, via conscious planning, a grid omits only Q, I think it fair to call it a Q-lipogram.
Actually, on reflection, I should have added “- just my opinion” to the end of my comment 18. I could then have omitted the J from the end of the first sentence. I trust the reason for the temporary alteration to the form in which I have given my name will now be apparent (if it was not clear already).
I wish I could say I had consciously planned this puzzle as a Q-lipo, but no. It is as close as I have ever come to compiling an unconscious pangram, however. As far as I know …
There was a spate of how many alphabets can you fit into your 15×15 a few years ago, which was fun. Two of us (me and Monk) managed three, then someone trumped the lot of us with a (really brilliant) four. So I’ve gone off that idea now.
There is a video on YouTube of Simon Anthony solving a quintuple pangram (Independent?) crossword.
I’ve never noticed a pangram until I’ve come here — sorry if I’m boring but I just do the crosswords. Seld9m notice themes either. 🙁
GeoffDownUnder: Qaos always has a theme, Serpent always has a nina, and Zamorca always has a pangram. They are three setters on my “must do” list.
I’ll try to remember, Tony.
I am with Geoff @22 , I am struggling to find anything in the whole wide world that I care less about than Ninas and Pangrams. Not really interested in themes either unless it is a science theme, we get one one about once a decade.
Gauntlet.