A crossword from the unpronounceable one today.
This took me way longer than I anticipated to finish, and I’m still not sure about AWAY at 15 across because I can’t parse it to my satisfaction (see Diane’s comment @4 below for a good parsing). Most of the clues in the puzzle fall into the very good category, but I really needed WIENER SCHNITZEL to open up the grid, as my first two passes led to 5-6 solutions and a very empty looking grid.
Thanks, Phssthpok
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BEAVER AWAY |
Work hard when dam is neglected? (6,4)
|
| Cryptic definition; if the beaver is absent, the dam may be neglected. | ||
| 7 | IGBO |
Moon occupied by British people (4)
|
| IO (“moon” of Jupiter) occupied by GB (Great Britain, so “British”)
The Igbo are a people of Eastern Nigeria. |
||
| 9 | TIER |
Level one is binding (4)
|
| A TIER could be someone who is binding | ||
| 10 | SWEAR BLIND |
Insist surgeon firstly put on mask (5,5)
|
| S(urgeon) [firstly] + WEAR (“put on”) + BLIND (“mask”) | ||
| 11 | LEGEND |
Foot clue to fake identity (6)
|
| In espionage, a LEGEND is a “fake identity”, and LEG END could be a “clue” for “foot”. | ||
| 12 | EVENTING |
Horse-riding after dark takes time (8)
|
| EVENING (“after dark”) takes T (time)
Not convinced that “evening” equals “after dark”, especially in the summer. |
||
| 13 | JEGGINGS |
Judge urging small trousers (8)
|
| J (judge) + EGGING (“urging”) + S (small) | ||
| 15 | AWAY |
Missing a trick (4)
|
| I can’t parse this, as I can’t find a way of defining “WAY” as “trick”. | ||
| 17 | LAVA |
Liquid rocks a toilet first (4)
|
| A with LAV (“toilet”) first | ||
| 19 | HORSEFLY |
Beastly or fleshy insect (8)
|
| *(or fleshy) [anag:beastly] | ||
| 22 | MARIACHI |
Is slice of calamari a Chinese or Mexican tradition? (8)
|
| Hidden in [is slice of] “calaMARI A CHInese” | ||
| 23 | GLOOMY |
Shelter from snow after I shook off my cold (6)
|
| (i)GLOO (“shelter from snow” after I is shook off) + MY | ||
| 25 | VICTIMIZED |
American defrauded two men with one final letter (10)
|
| VIC + TIM (“two men”) with I (one) + ZED (“final letter”) | ||
| 26 | OMEN |
Sign describing hen party? (4)
|
| A hen party is for girls only, so O (zero) MEN | ||
| 27 | TEAR |
Drop rent (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | ILLUSTRATE |
Ornament to suit taller bust (10)
|
| *(suit taller) [anag:bust] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | EVIL EYE |
Curse I uttered after running back (4,3)
|
| Homophone [uttered] of I after <=LIVE (“running”) [back] | ||
| 3 | VERGE |
Official detailed boundary (5)
|
| VERGE(r) (church “official”, detailed) | ||
| 4 | RESIDENT |
Local team score at either end (8)
|
| SIDE (“team”) with RENT (“score”) at either end | ||
| 5 | WIENER SCHNITZEL |
Regional dish cooked in Winchester with lemon zest and endive tips (6,9)
|
| *(in winchester lze) [anag:cooked] where LZE is L(emon) Z(est) and E(ndive) [tips] | ||
| 6 | YORKER |
Queen attends royal house for ball (6)
|
| ER (Elizabeth Regina, so “queen”) attends YORK (“royal house”)
In cricket, a Yorker is a full-length ball bowled in such a way that it is intended to bounce on or near the batsman’s crease. |
||
| 7 | ILL AT EASE |
I will get a flirt uncomfortable (3,2,4)
|
| I’LL (“I will”) get A TEASE (“flirt”) | ||
| 8 | BONANZA |
British spy and Commonwealth soldier nearly got jackpot (7)
|
| BON(d) (“British spy”) and ANZA(c) (“Commonwealth soldier”) [nearly] | ||
| 14 | GLADIATOR |
Happy pilot released a very old fighter (9)
|
| GLAD (“happy”) + A + V (very) released from (av)IATOR | ||
| 16 | BRIGADES |
Parts of army, not married, made to occupy warships (8)
|
| (m)ADE (not M (married)) to occupy BRIGS (“warships”) | ||
| 18 | AVARICE |
Greed is a depravity without a recognised origin (7)
|
| A + VICE (“deparavity”) without A + R(ecognised) [origin] | ||
| 20 | LAMBENT |
Bright line surrounding island deleted (7)
|
| L (line) + AMB(i)ENT (“surrounding”) with I (island) deleted | ||
| 21 | SCAMPI |
Silicon nets affected prawns (6)
|
| Si (chemical symbol for “silicon”) nets CAMP (“affected”) | ||
| 24 | ODOUR |
Love austere character (5)
|
| O (love, in tennis) + DOUR (“austere”) |
Couldn’t parse BONANZA (obvious now). Hadn’t heard of IGBO, JEGGINGS, LAMBENT. Otherwise good fun. There’s a typo in the blog for LAMBENT.
Chewy but very enjoyable. Favourites included BEAVER AWAY (surface) and LEGEND for the nod to Le Carré. Took an age to see GB instead of just B in 7a (not knowing the people) and my LOI – JEGGINGS – which, to my mind anyway, is a horrible word.
Everything parsed though 5d was tricky. First try seemed to be missing an ‘i’ and have an ‘e’ too many as I took all 6 tips of lemon, zest and endive and omitted ‘in’. My second attempt was as per the blog.
Thanks to Phssthpok and Cineraria.
I’m so sorry. I meant Loonapick not Cineraria.
Loonapick, for AWAY I thought of someone’s little ‘ways’ or ‘tricks’ to get a desired result, like a particular way or trick to get a dog, for instance, to obey.
Parsed AWAY as Diane did. Took ‘way’ as ‘trick’. loonapick has questioned this in the blog. Someone may have a better explanation.
BEAVER AWAY (loonapick has explained, but I thought I would just add this here)
A beaver dam or beaver impoundment is a dam built by beavers to create a pond that protects against predators such as coyotes, wolves and bears, and holds their food during winter.
Thanks, Phssthpok and loonapick!
GDU@1 – thanks for spotting the LAMBENT typo – now fixed.
Diane@4 – think that works, but I don’t particularly like it – too vague.
I found this quite hard although it was at about medium level difficulty for one of Phssthpok’s puzzles. Failed on IGBO which was new to me but I should have perhaps been able to solve it from the wordplay. Bunged in BRIGADES from the def so thanks for the parsing. Never heard of JEGGINGS (I agree with Diane @2, a pretty ordinary word) and looking it up afterwards, I’m sure I’ve never worn a pair!
I liked the neglected dam due to the BEAVER (being) AWAY.
Thanks to Phssthpok and loonapick
15a AWAY – weak clue, and jarring because of 1a BEAVER AWAY. It’s not as if the setter was spoilt for choice
ADAM would have worked nicely there.
15A would have worked if “trick” had been “track”. I agree with Loonapick that “trick” = WAY seems unconvincing – that is not to denigrate Diane’s suggestion for what the setter may have had in mind.
I agree, AWAY seems loose and perhaps noone’s automatic response were it not for BONANZA.
Thanks for the blog, following Diane, Chambers has TRICK=a characteristic habit, mannerism and almost the same for WAY .
For EVENTING I took after in the sense of once , once T is in EVENING we get EVENTING.
I really enjoyed the puzzle, MARIACHI was new to me so glad it was hidden , BONANZA was very neat.
I got through this in quarters, working slowly from the SW. I thought both that the clues were not that hard and that it sure was taking me a long time to solve them. I got held up by YORKER for a while–not familiar, and I finally figured that it must be cricket slang (*sigh*). I was another who was not really persuaded that “way” = “trick” or that “rent” = “score,” for that matter, but I shrugged and said “sort of, I guess?” to myself. Good job on the blog.
Thanks Phssthpok, that was a challenge. I missed JEGGINGS, IGBO, and LAMBENT (all unknowns to me) and I couldn’t parse TIER. I guessed SWEAR BLIND, an expression I hadn’t heard before. All in all this was a major DNF but I did enjoy clues like HORSEFLY, GLOOMY, VICTIMIZED, and ODOUR. Thanks loonapick for explaining it all.
Not heard of JEGGINGS before.
I’ve not seen COLD used as a synonym for GLOOMY before (and couldn’t find in either of my dictionaries).
I’m guessing the writers that describe historic old buildings as being “cold and gloomy” haven’t either 🙂