Crosophile provides our Tuesday challenge.
An enjoyable puzzle with a couple of tricky moments, mainly where the grammar of the surface and/or the construction is a bit contrived. I liked the “pair of Rovers” in 23a, the anagram in 28a/11a, “Al & Co” in 8d, and the neat construction of 15d.
Tuesday in the Independent normally means a theme or Nina, but I really can’t see one today. Perhaps it’s so obvious I can’t see the wood for the trees, or perhaps it’s just not my subject. I’m sure someone will put me right if necessary. Thanks Crosophile for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | THIGHS |
This contains growth hormone for parts of the body (6)
|
| THIS, containing GH (abbreviation for growth hormone). | ||
| 5 | SARCASM |
Scoffing a lot of jam’s a crass backsliding (7)
|
| Hidden answer (a lot of . . .), reversed (backsliding), in [ja]MS A CRAS[s].
Scoffing = laughing disparagingly; not quite the same as sarcasm, but not too far away. |
||
| 9 | OVERHEAR |
Unintentionally catch bird in undergrowth striking head (8)
|
| RHEA (flightless bird, a distant cousin of ostriches and emus), in [c]OVER (undergrowth) striking out the first letter (head). | ||
| 10 | PALATE |
Two friends, one rejecting maiden over a sense of taste (6)
|
| PAL + [m]ATE (two slang words for friend), with the M (maiden over, in cricket scoring) dropped from one of them. | ||
| 11 |
See 28
|
|
| 12 | RASHLY |
Artist withdrawn after snorting line recklessly (6)
|
| RA (Royal Academician = artist) + SHY (withdrawn), containing (snorting) L (abbreviation for line). | ||
| 13 | STOOL |
Son possibly saw somewhere to sit (5)
|
| S (abbreviation for son) + TOOL (definition by example: possibly a saw). | ||
| 14 | ILLEGAL |
Crooked pair of girls, Parisian one taking the lead (7)
|
| The pair of girls are [f]ILLE (French, so Parisian, for a girl) + GAL (slang); we have to take away the first letter (lead) from the French one.
As in “a crooked deal”. |
||
| 18 | ASCRIBE |
Give credit to memory aid in case unable to get started (7)
|
| CRIB (memory aid) in [c]ASE without its starting letter.
As in a quotation “ascribed to” a particular person, who may or may not have said it but gets the credit anyway. |
||
| 20 | WORRY |
Noise on backing tracks causing concern (5)
|
| ROW (noise) reversed (on backing) + RY (abbreviation for railway = tracks). | ||
| 23 | CARPET |
Covering a couple of Rovers maybe (6)
|
| CAR (perhaps made by Rover) + PET (perhaps a dog, for which Rover is a traditional nickname).
Floor covering, or metaphorically as in “a carpet of leaves” on the ground. |
||
| 25 | AQUATICS |
Amateur question-and-answer jerks and pond life (8)
|
| Lots of abbreviations, A (amateur) + QU (question) + A (answer), then TICS (jerks). | ||
| 26 | TERROR |
Troy’s mistake creating panic (6)
|
| T (abbreviation for troy, for example to indicate a “troy ounce” of precious metal rather than the standard imperial ounce measurement) + ERROR (mistake). | ||
| 27 | BEMOANED |
Regretted a sort of bad omen about earth (8)
|
| Anagram (sort) of BAD OMEN around E (abbreviation for earth, in electrical wiring). | ||
| 28/11 | NO STONE UNTURNED |
Every effort made by student working with one on run (2,5,8)
|
| Anagram (working) of STUDENT + ONE ON RUN. | ||
| 29 | GREASY |
Pieces of animal skin eaten by old fatty (6)
|
| First letters (pieces) of A[nimal] S[kin] contained in (eaten by) GREY (grey-haired and therefore assumed to be old). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | HAVE-NOTS |
Safe places to absorb books such as Les Misérables (4-4)
|
| HAVENS (safe places), absorbing OT (Old Testament = books).
The title of Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables could be translated as “those to be pitied” = people in poverty, have-nots in an unequal society. |
||
| 3 | GARRULOUS |
Babbling guru’s oral meandering (9)
|
| Anagram (meandering) of GURU’S ORAL.
Garrulous = babbling = chattering. |
||
| 4 | SEEING |
Recognising apparently missing millions (6)
|
| SEE[m]ING (apparently) without the M (millions). I thought initially that “apparently” should imply “seemingly”, but I think you could take “They wandered away, seeming unconcerned” and replace “seeming” with “apparently”. | ||
| 5 | STRUDEL |
Rustled up some pastry (7)
|
| Anagram (up) of RUSTLED.
Layered pastry rolled around a filling, typically apples. |
||
| 6 | REPARTEE |
Cross-talk is concerning after installing component in electronics (8)
|
| PART (component) inserted into E E (abbreviation for electronic, twice = electronics), and then all that inserted into RE (concerning = on the subject of).
Cross-talk = repartee = quick and witty conversation, especially from a comedy double-act. |
||
| 7 | ATLAS |
Reference work is finally abridged (5)
|
| AT LAS[t] (finally), without the last letter (abridged = shortened). | ||
| 8 | METALS |
E.g. Al and Co, and others cited in written paper (6)
|
| ET AL (abbreviation for Latin et alii = and others) in MS (abbreviation for manuscript = written paper).
Metals include aluminium (chemical symbol Al) and cobalt (Co). |
||
| 15 | ABOUT-FACE |
An attack force, one making U-turn (5-4)
|
| A BOUT (an attack, as in “a bout of coughing”) + F (abbreviation for force) + ACE (one). | ||
| 16 | ORATORIO |
Setting for aria or air to new love (8)
|
| Anagram (new) of OR AIR TO, then O (zero = love, in tennis scoring).
A musical composition for singers and orchestra, usually including both solo sections (arias) and choruses. |
||
| 17 | CRACKERS |
Biscuits, nuts and bananas (8)
|
| Double definition: it looks like a triple but the latter two are the same meaning. Light crisp biscuits, usually savoury; or nuts = bananas = slang for crazy. | ||
| 19 | BRAMBLE |
Cause of spot of bother on country walk? (7)
|
| First letter (spot = a small amount) of B[other] + RAMBLE (country walk).
Clue-as-definition: brambles may be an obstacle when walking in the country. I think “cause of” is needed for the definition but it doesn’t contribute to the wordplay. |
||
| 21 | CAVERN |
Navy’s watch out over rocky hollow (6)
|
| RN (Royal Navy) with CAVE (watch out = an instruction to be careful, from Latin) before it (over, in a down clue). | ||
| 22 | NUTMEG |
Shot met gun shot between the legs (6)
|
| Anagram (shot) of MET GUN.
In football, a shot in which the ball is played to pass between an opposing player’s legs. |
||
| 24 | PARTS |
A sample of political wiles for constituents (5)
|
| First letter (a sample) of P[olitical] + ARTS (wiles = crafty ways). |
Thanks for the nice blog, Quirister. There IS a nina but it’s not very obvious perhaps. Hint: Consider the longest answer. 🙂
Thanks Crosophile. So perhaps we’re looking for “stones turned”? I can see STONE reversed in 2d, SLATE reversed in 8d, GEM reversed in 22d. Can anyone see more?
I couldn’t see the Nina and theme until Crosophile’s hint above (thanks) but I still don’t think I’ve seen it all. In addition to those mentioned by Quirister @2, I also spotted a close to GNEISS at 4d and a close to MARBLE at 19d but I doubt these count.
Entertaining puzzle which reminded me of the meaning of NUTMEG among other things. I liked the ‘old fatty’ at 29a, although maybe “liked” isn’t quite the right word!
Thanks to Crosophile and Quirister
All reversed, there’s RAG(stone) in 3d, MARBLE between 5d and 19d, BASALT between 7d and 15d. Very nice, so thanks Crosophile and Quirister.
2d overturned stone.
8d overturned slate
Gneiss one C
Oops sorry Q
Super slow typing today!
Growth=G
Hormone=H
Animal=A
Skin=S
Troy=T
Political=P
Enough to get one into bad solving habits
BUT loved Les Mis(Is Le Gavroche still alive and well?-as a restaurant I mean
All solved fairly quickly but we couldn’t see the theme/nina. We liked the misdirection in 6dn.
copmus@7: GH for growth hormone and T for troy (weight) are both in Chambers.
Thanks, Crosophile and Quirister.
There’s LAP stone ( shoemaker’s stone ) reversed in 10 ac. I wonder if Crosophile configured in ABOUT-FACE deliberately in 15 dn as an extra pointer to the hidden theme ?
I ASCRIBE the remark – A CRACKER of a puzzle, truly elegant for 15^2ers’ PALATEs. ( NUTMEGesque ? ).
Thank you Crosophile and Quirister.
Entertaining stuff. Thanks Crosophile and Quirister.
I justified 17d as a triple definition by thinking of nuts as ‘things you crack’ = crackers, but maybe that’s too much of a stretch.
Thanks for the comments and the blog. I think all the turned stones are now found, except 2 separate TRAPs [“any dark fine-grained columnar igneous rock (lying often in steps or terraces), esp basalt”] which appeared by accident!!
Thanks, Crosophile & Quirister. “An enjoyable puzzle with a couple of tricky moments” sums it up nicely for me. When I started solving this, I thought, “It’s Tuesday, must remember to look for a theme.” And promptly forgot. Doh!