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My first Gemelo.
This was my first attempt at a Gemelo (due to time constraints, I only solve Azed/Gemelo when it’s my turn to blog). At first, I thought it was going to be easier than a typical Azed, but I struggled to complete it, and it took a couple of visits 24 hours apart to complete it. Even then, I was left with three unparsed entries. The first turned out to be wrong, as I had chucked in SCOTT rather than SCATT, having failed to read the clue properly. I have to thank fellow blogger Andrew for the parsing of the second, WEMBLEY. Staring at the clue for REINS eventually led to me seeing that REINSURE without URE works, although Andrew pointed out that it is REINSURE that is bypassing URE, not the other way round. A minor issue, and not heinous enough to spoil my enjoyment of the puzzle.
Thanks Gemelo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | WORLD WIDE WEB |
Net bowler struggling to get to grips with dead wicket, stuck with bad ball (12, 3 words)
|
| *(bowler) [anag:struggling] to get to grips with D (dead) + W (wicket, in cricket), stuck with WIDE (“bad ball”, in cricket), so WORL(D(WIDE)W)EB | ||
| 9 | ICE AGE |
When we have sheets of paper and pen, hiding tablet (6, 2 words)
|
| i (news”paper”) and CAGE (“pen”), hiding E (ecstasy, so “tablet”)
The sheets referred to would therefore be sheets of ice. |
||
| 10 | SATIRE |
Dr. Strangelove perhaps brooded with anger (6)
|
| SAT (“brooded”) with IRE (“anger”) | ||
| 11 | CHIASMA |
Intersection I found in opening year (7)
|
| I found in CHASM (“opening”) + A (annum, so “year”) | ||
| 12 | OSSA |
Pit yielding foot bones (4)
|
| (F)OSSA (“pit”) yielding F (feet) | ||
| 14 | KANGA |
African cloth jumper associated with Winnie-the-Pooh (5)
|
| Double definition, the second mildly cryptic as Kanga was a kangaroo (“jumper”) | ||
| 16 | YALTA |
End of ebony table trimmed for conference venue (5)
|
| [end of] (ebon)Y + ALTA(r) (“table”, trimmed)
The Yalta Conference, held in February 1945, attended by Churchill, FDR and Stalin, discussed arrangements for postwar Germany. |
||
| 17 | SLOBBISH |
Lazy lump following Sabbath by mistake (8)
|
| LOB (“lump”) following S (Sabbath) by BISH (“mistake”) | ||
| 18 | DECREE |
Order to undo softening effect of water, as it were? (6)
|
| CREE means to soften water, so DE-CREE could be the opposite. | ||
| 24 | ISAIAH |
Book’s Scottish issue captivating nursemaid (6)
|
| ISH (“Scottish” word for “issue”) captivating AIA (“nursemaid” in certain colonies) | ||
| 26 | HANDS OFF |
Let go of remote (8, 2 words)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | SCATT |
Explorer dropping round for a one-time tribute (5)
|
| (Robert Falcon) SC(o)TT (“explorer”) dropping O (round) for A becomes SC(A)TT | ||
| 30 | OXEYE |
In recess for a while, they exonerate Daisy (5)
|
| Hidden in [in recess for while] “thEY EXOnerate” | ||
| 31 | ETEN |
Huge figure no longer in base 10 (4)
|
| e (the “base” of natural system of logarithms, in maths) + TEN (10)
Eten is an old word for a giant. |
||
| 32 | REDPOLL |
Ignoring answer, interpret survey for flier (7)
|
| Ignoring A, RE(a)D (“interpret”) + POLL (“survey”) | ||
| 33 | PAPYRI |
Pulp your international manuscripts (6)
|
| PAP (“pulp”) + yr. (your) + I (international) | ||
| 34 | ELANCE |
Pitch extremely high, formerly missing opening to throw (6)
|
| E-LA (“pitch extremely high”) + (o)NCE (“formerly”, missing opening (letter)) | ||
| 35 | OUT ON ONE’S EAR |
First – but not second – brand by Open University swiftly dismissed (12, 4 words)
|
| By OU (Open University) (second) TO NONE [but not second] (“first”) + SEAR (“brand”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | WICKED |
Musical film’s John and Edward (6)
|
| (John) WICK + ED (Edward)
“film’s John” refers to John Wick, the eponymous hero of a series of action films. |
||
| 2 | REINS |
Outdated operation bypasses cover over kidneys (5)
|
| URE (“outdated” word for “operation”) bypasses REINS(ure) (“cover over” i.e. again) | ||
| 3 | LAAGERS |
A German penetrating the Spanish defensive formations (7)
|
| A + GER(man) penetrating LAS (“the” in “Spanish”) | ||
| 4 | WEMBLEY |
Cry about bleak part of London (7)
|
| <=MEW (“cry”, about) + BLEY (another name for the “bleak”, a small fish) | ||
| 5 | I SAY |
Goodness is always forgotten (4, 2 words)
|
| IS + AY (archaic form [forgotten] of “always”) | ||
| 6 | DATABUS |
Lend a little to overturn highway (7)
|
| [to overturn] <=(SUB (“lend”) + A + TAD (“little”))
In computing, a databus is a path for transferring data. |
||
| 7 | WISTITI |
Excitedly I sit with tailless marmoset (7)
|
| *(i sit wit) [anag:excitedly] where WIT is WIT(h) [tailless] | ||
| 8 | BEACHY |
Stoned through drinking a pop (6)
|
| BY (“through”) drinking EACH (“a pop”) | ||
| 13 | SASSABY |
Antelope, for example, consuming inner bark from the base (7)
|
| SAY (“for example”) consuming <=BASS (“inner bark”, especially of lime, from the base. i.e. up)
The sassaby is a large African antelope. |
||
| 15 | AGELAST |
I never crack up and stay youthful the longest? (7)
|
| AGE LAST (“stay youthful the longest?”)
An agelast is someone who never laughs. |
||
| 19 | CONCEPT |
Invention of photoelectric cell certainly not getting raised in court (7)
|
| <=(PEC (photoelectric cell) + NO (“certainly not”), getting raised) in Ct. (court) | ||
| 20 | EASTERN |
Perhaps Japanese taser shot into space (7)
|
| *(taser) [anag:shot] into EN (printer’s “space”) | ||
| 21 | FIFTEEN |
Hand over newspaper with extremely elusive tennis score (7)
|
| FIN (slang word for “hand”) over FT (Financial Times, so “newspaper”) with [extremely] E(lusiv)E | ||
| 22 | FAUX PAS |
Opposition caught old men’s blunder (7, 2 words)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [caught] of FOE (“opposition”) + PA’S (“old man’s”) | ||
| 23 | SHEEPO |
Australian penning Gothic novel, adapting Poe (6)
|
| SHE (“Gothic novel” BY H Rider Haggard) + *(poe) [anag:adapting]
A sheepo is an Australian sheep farmer. |
||
| 25 | HEELER |
One faithfully following medic on the radio? (6)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [on the radio] of HEALER (“medic”) | ||
| 27 | LEONE |
African rhino in Leicester city centre? (5)
|
| LE1 (LE ONE) is the postcode for “Leicester city centre”)
The “rhino” in the clue refers to money, and the leone is the standard currency of Sierra Leone. |
||
| 29 | TRIO |
Wild revelry raising temperature for Beastie Boys? (4)
|
| RIO(t) (“wild revelry”) raising T (temperature) becomes (T)RIO
The Beastie Boys were a group of three hip-hop artists. |
I found this quite challenging, reminiscent of my first attempts at solving Azed.
I think there may be an error in the parsing of DECREE: CREE means to use water to soften grain.
Overall I found this a little harder than a typical Azed, but that may in part be due to unfamiliarity with this setter’s style. It’s certainly of a comparable standard. Using his Twin alias, Colin Thomas has set a remarkable puzzle in the current edition of The Magpie, with every clue (and the preamble) constructed of phrases whose initial letters spell out the word MAGPIE.
The trickiest Gemelo to date, I thought. An unusual feature (which I don’t think I saw in Azed) was the presence of two fully checked six letter solutions in the grid.
Took several days on and off so I’m still trying to get on G’s wavelength.
I wrote SCOTT thinking no further because I knew scot was to do with taxes, careless.
Two clues with religious references – I hope they’re not being shoehorned in but that’s three weeks in a row – leave the theeing and thouing for people who care about such things. Ugh!
I quibble about the use of chambersy words being used, removed, REINS(ure) for example. I don’t think it’s fair, the obscure word needs to be discoverable from the wordplay.
I’m also trying to get to grips with his homophone indicators – ‘on the radio’ is strained IMHO.
Aside from the gripes above it was still fun to solve. Looking forward to todays AZED back on more familiar territory!
I agree with all the above except perhaps Mike’s dismay at two “religious” clues. I think you have to take a setter as you find him. It doesn’t, for instance, bother me that Azed includes fairly frequent clues based on cricket because of his enjoyment of the game. (Admittedly I enjoy cricket too.)
Never heard of John Wick, and had to resort to Wikipedia for that one.
A typical AZED takes me a day or two whereas this took all week, and even then I was defeated by ICE AGE even though I had four letters! I’m bound to say I’m not enjoying Gemelo nearly as much, but I’m assuming that that is simply because I’m not yet attuned to his style.
I didn’t help myself by pencilling in 1dn as LOOTED. I knew it was a film and thought it might be a musical – the rest of the wordplay seemed to fit. As a result, I didn’t get 1ac, 9ac, 11ac or 14ac, which had further knock-on effects! Eventually I realised it must be WORLD WIDE WEB at the top, but I excused myself a little for the slowness, as the WWW is NOT synonymous with the internet (that’s a bit like identifying a building with the road you take to get to it). ICE AGE also stumped me for a while – despite (like Babbler@6) missing only two letters! It’s no doubt a reflection of my interests that I thought of ICE AXE before I got the correct answer.
Like Mike@5, I’m not a fan of obscure words being used in the wordplay to obscure answers, but URE is fairly common crossword fodder. As for the “religious” references, there were two film references, one of them more than 60 years old, but I wouldn’t complain about that.
Does anyone know how we can find today’s Azed competition puzzle? I have always found it by going to the Observer website where it offers you the day’s puzzle. But today the last Azed it offers is the one from June 29. Apart from buying the paper, is there any way of getting it?
Wil@7, the main puzzle page here takes you to today’s Azed Competition puzzle 2769.
Just in case here is a link to the pdf.
Many thanks Jay. I never went to the main puzzle page because I was unaware of its existence!
I thought ‘outdated operation’ in 2d was “obviously” URE, but that still one of the last few clues I solved because I was trying to include it rather than remove it from something else. It didn’t help that 9a was one of the other clues I struggled with. I also had trouble with the top right corner where I only entered WISTITI from the wordplay and generous checking, and didn’t know the required meaning of BASS in 13d.
The word AGELAST always seems to make me smile.
#Babbler, I thoroughly object to religious proselytising, I escaped from all that pernicious nonsense when I left school! ‘She’ was somewhat niche but I shouldn’t nitpick too much – I’m forever moaning about obscure references but I’m sure people would complain about my own niche general knowledge!
I’ve got a few more gripes but I’m keeping them under my hat for now – the first three have been excellent otherwise.
Mike – I am as anti-religion as the next fellow, but I have no objection to clues or solutions that include religious terms, treating them simply as words in the English language and/or sphere of general knowledge. I would, however, have an issue if there was some form of preaching going on (creator = God, for example).
#Matthew I completely agree, if URE was in the answer that’s perfectly fine but as a removed word it’s unfair. I can’t remember Azed doing it. Perhaps we need a new set of unwritten rules!?
slight topic change: has gemelo #4 been published? if so, where?
Probably not, as it was an Azed competition puzzle this week in the paper.
#Loonapick – I was trying to put it in such a way as to not offend regular religious people. All and any Biblical/religious references are fair game (Azed uses them frequently) but it’s objectionable if it tips over into proselytising.
#Loonapick – I was trying to put it in such a way as to not offend regular religious people. Put much better than me, thanks!
A little light relief, from a search (entered without quotation marks) about 2d: “AI Overview
The term “menu reins” likely refers to a specific type of reins used in equestrian contexts. These could be reins made from a specific material, like rubber or leather, or they could be designed for a particular purpose, such as lunging or long reining. Additionally, “menu reins” could potentially refer to a type of horse menu within a game or simulation, or even a “table d’hôte” menu in a restaurant.”
Mike, I’ve not even noticed any religiosity in this one, or the previous two; though for repetition I did discover that the two caught’s I’d seen as homophone indicator, fine as they are, turned out to be both from Gemelo. But if asked for repetitions that could get wearing, my vote would definitely be for Spenserianisms. If it hadn’t been for the later C20th boom in scholarship I wonder if half of them would even be in current Chambers editions.