The only reference I can find for Amoeba as a setter on fifteensquared relate to puzzles supplied by him at the last three Slogggers & Betters get together in York, so I am guessing this puzzle is his first offering in a national daily.
I made reasonable progress solving this puzzle but slowed down a bit at the intersection of 20 across and 20 down which I think are GLORY and GOSSIP. I had the most difficulty with the parsing of GOSSIP as I struggled to relate SSIP to a Glasgow pronunciation of SLIP. However I may have completely misparsed the entry.
Today is Thursday so there may be a theme, but if there is, it has passed me by.
I liked the clues for IMPS, BLUENOSES, BISCUIT, NEED and PREGNANT The full blog below has a couple of comments on the clues for BLUENOSES and GOSSIP.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 7 | Heads for vegetarian food (3,4)
NUT LOAF (example of a vegetarian food) NUT (informal term for the head) + LOAF (the head) giving two heads NUT LOAF |
| 8 | Indicate live drag demonstration’s ending (7)
BETOKEN (show by a sign; indicate) BE (exist; live) + TOKE (puff on a cigarette; drag) + N (last letter of [ending] DEMONSTRATION) BE TOKE N |
| 9 | Console son, ultimately missing having exes around (4)
XBOX (a console for playing video games) (BOY [somebody’s son] excluding the final letter [ultimately missing] Y) contained in (having … around) XX [two letter X]) X (BO) X |
| 10 | Thought a lot of especially shocking treatment described by communist (9)
RESPECTED (showed esteem; thought a lot of) (ESP [especially] + ECT [electroconvulsive therapy; shocking treatment]) contained in (described by) RED (communist) R (ESP ECT) ED |
| 12 | Deliberately lose argument following hollow triumph (5)
THROW (lose a contest deliberately) TH (letters remaining in TRIUMPH when the central letters RIUMP are removed [hollow]) + ROW (argument) TH ROW |
| 13 | Goes back over roads blocked by a tree that’s collapsed (8)
RETREADS (goes back over) RDS (roads) containing (blocked by) an anagram of (that’s collapsed) A TREE R (ETREA*) DS |
| 15 | Is drinking in the afternoon in retirement causing terrors? (4)
IMPS (wicked spirits; terrors) IS containing (drinking) PM (in the afternoon) reversed (in retirement) I (MP<) S |
| 16 | Judges criticise deals every now and then (5)
PANEL (a group of people chosen as judges for a competition) PAN (criticise) + EL (letters 2 and 4 [every now and then] of DEALS) PAN EL |
| 17 | Commoner disregarding article in French organ (4)
WOMB (female organ) WOMBLE (reference the WOMBLES of Wimbledon Common [Commoners]) excluding [disregarding] LE (one of the French forms of the definite article) WOMB |
| 18 | It could be sweet air, so to speak (2,2,4)
AS IT WERE (so to speak) Anagram of (it could be) SWEET AIR AS IT WERE* |
| 20 | Introduction to Lily Savage overwhelms celebrity (5)
GLORY (celebrity) GORY (savage) containing (overwhelms) L (first letter of [introduction to] LILY) – Lily Savage was a drag queen creation of Paul O’Grady [1955 – 2023] G (L) ORY |
| 21 | In New York, prudes depressed by Hooters (9)
BLUENOSES (American [New York] straitlaced or puritanical people; Hooters restaurants are staffed by ladies who have to adhere who a strict dress code that displays designed to display their ‘attractiveness’) BLUE (sad; depressed) + NOSES (hooters) BLUE NOSES |
| 22 | Bitter root, extremely coarse leaves (4)
SOUR (bitter) SOURCE (derivation; beginning; root) excluding (leaves) CE (outer letters of [extremely] COARSE) SOUR |
| 24 | Some of our distant relatives sobbing uncontrollably (7)
GIBBONS (South East Asian anthropoid apes with very long arms; distant relatives of humans) Anagram of (uncontrollably) SOBBING GIBBONS* |
| 25 | Book is abridged, plugged by newspaper – a cracker? (7)
BISCUIT (a cracker is a form of BISCUIT) B + IS + (CUT [abridged] containing [plugged by] I [a British newspaper]) B IS CU (I) T |
| Down | |
| 1 | Dull song Queen once released (4)
NUMB (to dull) NUMBER (a song) excluding (released) ER (Elizabeth Regina, former [once] Queen) NUMB |
| 2 | Following fancy car overtaking on bends (8)
FLEXURES (bends, turns or folds) F (following) + (LEXUS [luxury {fancy} model of car] containing (overtaking) RE (with reference to; about; on) F LEXU (RE) S |
| 3 | Show respect when describing a bishop’s burial mound (6)
BARROW (ancient burial mound) BOW (show respect) containing (when describing [tracing out]) (A + RR [Right Reverend; bishop]) B (A RR) OW |
| 4 | Pet’s lead winding around foot (8)
PEDESTAL (the support of a column, statue, vase, washbasin; base; foot) Anagram of (winding) PET’S LEAD PEDESTAL* |
| 5 | Deliveryman playing Portishead, not working hard (6)
POSTIE (deliveryman) Anagram of (playing) PORTISHEAD excluding (not) an anagram of (working) HARD POSTIE* |
| 6 | Miss Marple finally visits Flanders (4)
NEED (require; miss) E (last letter of [finally] MARPLE) contained in (visits) NED (reference NED Flanders, a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons) N (E) ED – either E could be the one contained |
| 11 | Wandering star over North Germany primarily suggests aliens (9)
STRANGERS (aliens) Anagram of (wandering) STAR + N GER (North Germany) + S (first letter of [primarily] SUGGESTS) STRA* N GER S – as this is a down entry STRA is positioned over N GER S in the grid |
| 12 | Leader of Mysterons probes couples for ages (5)
TIMES (ages) M (first letter of [leader of] MYSTERONS) contained in (probes) TIES (joins; couples) TI (M) ES |
| 14 | Imitation diamonds found on decapitated corpse (5)
DUMMY (imitation) D (diamonds) + MUMMY (embalmed or otherwise preserved dead body; corpse) excluding the first letter (decapitated) M D UMMY |
| 16 | One wiped out from parenting, struggling with child (8)
PREGNANT (with child) Anagram of (struggling) PARENTING excluding (wiped out) I (Roman numeral for one) PREGNANT* |
| 17 | Court wants special elevated seat in the Lords (8)
WOOLSACK (the seat of the Lord Chancellor in the House of Lords, being a large square sack of wool covered with scarlet) WOO (court) + LACKS (wants) with the S (special) raised within this down constituent part to form LSACK WOO LSACK |
| 19 | Appendages like this broken by heartless mob (6)
THUMBS (appendages on the hands) THUS (like this) containing (broken by) MOB excluding the central letter (heartless) O THU (MB) S |
| 20 | Blether about wee mistake at Ibrox? (6)
GOSSIP (blether about) GO (urinate; wee) + SSIP (is this how Glasgow [Ibrox] people are thought to pronounce SLIP [mistake]?) GO SSIP |
| 21 | Bond in trouble after heading to Beijing (4)
BAIL (a security [usually monetary] lodged as a bond) B (first letter of [heading to] BEIJING) + AIL (trouble) B AIL |
| 23 | Force abandons out- of-shape group of soldiers (4)
UNIT (a group of soldiers) UNFIT (out-of-shape) excluding (abandons) F (force) UNIT |
20d is a reversal of PISS OG (own goal)
GOSSIP gave me some trouble as I thought the ‘about’ was containing something. I suspected OG and pee and the penny dropped when GLORY went in. Not too tricky a puzzle – NEED was LOI as I am decidedly not a Simpson fan so Ned Flanders was never going to come. I was stuck with either Michael or the battlefields, neither of which was of help which meant crunching through possible synonyms of ‘Miss’; nice to get the reference to the detective though. IMPS, GLORY, PEDESTAL, RETREADS, WOMB, NUMB, BARROW, PREGNANT and POSTIE earned my ticks today.
Thanks Amoeba and duncan
I spent a while at 7A searching online for a non-existent ‘nut bean’, but this was soon rectified. Otherwise all very clear and satisfactory so thanks (and welcome) Amoeba and Duncan.
Nice one Amoeba
I too failed to parse gossip but it had to be the correct answer. Couldn’t get past go for wee and didn’t spot the reversal of piss in the word.
I had a fair few ticks today and a crowded podium with NUT LOAF, THROW, IMPS (I can assure you it isn’t!), WOMB – a nice use of commoner, GIBBONS, PREGNANT, WOOLSACK and THUMBS all up there.
Thanks both.
There’s a ghost theme btw on a British group/album but you don’t need to know to solve, nice one Amoeba and well done on getting published in a national. Thanks DS
Andrew @ 1
Thanks for parsing GOSSIP properly. I just linked Ibrox to Glasgow and Scotland rather than football. I know full well that Ibrox is the home ground for Glasgow Rangers, so I din’t think the cl;ue through correctly.
flashling @ 5
Thanks – British group/albums are usually tricky for me even when the group name is spelt out, so ghost themes on that topic will usually pass me by. I’ll do a bit more research and see if I can track this down.
Thanks Amoeba and Duncan
That’s how I had gossip – piss og reversed.
Enjoyed this a lot. A consistent and tough workout. More of Amoeba please.
flashing @5: thanks for that. All now makes sense and well done Amoeba. Not a band I follow so no bells ringing but Mr Google has been my friend.
OK – got it now. the grid contains a lot of references to band members and tracks from an album by a group mentioned in the clues. I am vaguely aware of the band.
Crackerjack debut, this. Cut-glass surfaces, great WP and a dollop of wit – and a timeless band/album to boot. I must applaud Duncan for his novel alternative parsing of GOSSIP Ingenious! Ticks all over the shop. IBROX, GLORY, IMPS, PREGNANT … I could go on. A lively mix of difficulty with some chew certainly (FLEXURES?!) but I loved the short, sweet ones too. NUMB and BAIL both read brilliantly. Many thanks to Amoeba and Duncan.
Portishead at Glastonbury 2013 is one of my GOAT gigs, so I loved this one. Great clues and a very impressive amount of theme material throughout. Congrats to Amoeba on the debut and thanks to Duncan for the blog
Congratulations to Amoeba and thanks to DuncanShiell for the blog.
I remember buying the CD of this album in Our Price Records in Welwyn Garden City in probably early 1995. I bunged it it the player and the first track crackled like hell so I took it back. The achingly cool bearded lad in the shop explained to me in as contempt-free a way as possible that this was an intended production effect.
Thanks all for the comments, and Duncan for the excellent blog. I’m not surprised the theme wasn’t spotted by everyone, but hope it didn’t impede the solve, and I’m glad it rang a bell for a couple of people!
Congratulations to Amoeba on a fine debut. The theme passed me by completely but, to the setter’s credit, that didn’t impede the solve (only my solving ability did that!). Podium: WOMB, PREGNANT & UNIT. Thanks Amoeba and Duncan.
Dummy was released on August 22 1994 (a 30th (Pearl) anniversary)
Great album, especially debut single Sour Times (No. 57 in 1994 & a No. 13 hit when re-released in 1995).
Liked the puzzle too. Stuck for quite some time on my L2i — the crossing 17a WOMB & 14d DUMMY — so they are my joint CsOTD.
Thanks A&DS
[Oops – Numb was the lead single from the band’s debut album, but it didn’t chart]
Very impressive debut from Amoeba with no necessity to know about the theme – I didn’t and probably wouldn’t want to! However, it would have helped if I’d known anything about that dire TV series – no chance of me ever watching that so it was a guess and move on moment.
Top of my pile were IMPS, GIBBONS, PREGNANT & WOOLSACK.
Thanks to Amoeba and to Duncan for the review.
POSTIE was a very clever way to hint at the theme. Moll Flanders comes more readily to my mind than Ned, but he eventually emerged from somewhere.
Nice one Amoeba. My daughter’s in-laws live in Portishead, but the theme passed me by. Great puzzle! Liked GOSSIP and WOOLSACK. I’m more familiar with Moll than Ned, although a bell tinkled in the recesses. Thanks to Duncan for the blog.
As well as the obvious supergroups, I heard some earlier UK musos .. folkies Jansch, Renbourne, Graham, groups like Small Faces, but over the decades there are hundreds who were innovative and well known that I’ve nho. Hey ho, ta A & d for the puzzle.
Thanks both. An enjoyable mixture of very approachable and difficult clues. Would not have seen the ghost theme if not alerted to it, and by its nature it was never likely to become anything akin to the recent TS Eliot debacle. As a confession, TV’s Wombles and Simpsons are far more me; regarding the latter, I would campaign it can be viewed on two levels, but I do accept if a yellow guy with a bushy moustache is not going to gain even your fleeting attention, it is probably not your thing.
Interesting that “Ibrox” in 20d has connections to (st)Rangers (11d), Bluenoses (21a) – a common term for supporters of Rangers, and Glory (20a) as in the club song “Glory, glory, Glasgow Rangers”.
Picture the scene: at some point, fairly on in the solve I’m looking at 11d and start singing* Wandering Star. Oh no, I have an earworm …
… sometime later, suddenly, oh how could I have missed that?! The theme hits me like a bit hitty thing. The grid is almost filled now, but it helps with a couple.
The theme is one of my favourite albums. It helps that it’s from about the right era; I wasn’t quite a teenager when it came out and wasn’t aware of it then, but a few years later I was introduced to it by friends.
Impressive how many of the tracks (plus band name and singer) you managed to fit into the grid, and nice use of the remaining songs in the clues.
Best experience of spotting a theme ever.
And the clues weren’t bad either.
Thanks Amoeba – you brought joy into my evening! Congratulations on the debut. And thanks to Duncan for the blog.
*for want of a better word
Thanks Amoeba, that was most enjoyable even without catching the theme. My favourites were NUT LOAF, IMPS, GIBBONS, NUMB, STRANGERS, PREGNANT (great surface), and UNIT. I missed POSTIE and WOOLSACK, new terms for me and I only guessed at GOSSIP and WOMB. Thanks Duncan for the blog.
We had Ned as abbreviation of Nederlands!