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The stalwart Zamorca today offers us a puzzle that mixes easier clues with a few proper head-scratchers…
I don’t know if I was just a bit slow to get going today but while I found about half of this fairly easy, with some very straightforward anagrams and charades, the other half had me quite perplexed at times – thanks to some well disguised and/or less obvious indicators, and some tricksy, convoluted constructions that might make strict grammar pedants wince. But all seems fair to me and it made for an enjoyable tussle. I particularly liked 9 across for its clever surface reading. As ever with Zamorca, the puzzle is a pangram.
Thanks, Zamorca!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HUMOROUS |
Funny smell, primarily rotten eggs, engulfing us (8)
|
| HUM (funny smell) + first letter (primarily) of Rotten, which OO (eggs) are “engulfing” + US | ||
| 5 | JENSON |
Button edges of jerkin one’s embarrassed wearing (6)
|
| First and last letters (edges) of JerkiN which an anagram (embarrassed) of ONE’S is “wearing”
Formula 1 racing driver Jenson Button |
||
| 9 | RAMBUTAN |
Miranda’s head swathed in a turban sporting tropical fruit (8)
|
| First letter (head) of Miranda “swathed in” an anagram (sporting) of A TURBAN
The surface alludes to Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda |
||
| 10 | SPRANG |
Vaulted with pole having minor accident (6)
|
| S (south = pole) + PRANG (minor accident) | ||
| 12 | LISTENING |
Attending to space within data series (9)
|
| EN (space) “within” LISTING (data series) | ||
| 13 | OF AGE |
Say a fellow’s old making comeback? Old enough (2,3)
|
| EG (say) + A + F (fellow) + O (old), all reversed (making a comeback) | ||
| 14 | DOZE |
Caught female deer having sleep (4)
|
| Sounds like (caught) “DOES” (female deer) | ||
| 16 | EMINENT |
Ultimate puzzle setter’s books getting famous (7)
|
| Last letter (ultimate) of puzzlE + MINE (setter’s) + NT (New Testament = books) | ||
| 19 | UNLEASH |
Liberate sick houseplant removing pot (7)
|
| Anagram (sick) of HOUSEPLANT removing the letters POT | ||
| 21 | LYNX |
Wildcat found in chains we hear (4)
|
| Sounds like (we hear) “LINKS” (chains) | ||
| 24 | ERODE |
Gradually weaken before admitting party u-turn (5)
|
| ERE (before) containing (admitting) DO (party) reversed (u-turn) | ||
| 25 | WITHSTAND |
Bear uses intelligence opening hamburger kiosk (9)
|
| WIT (intelligence) + first letter (opening) of Hamburger + STAND (kiosk) | ||
| 27 | ENTRAP |
Painter’s not one falling for trick (6)
|
| Anagram (falling) of PAINTER less I (not one) | ||
| 28 | POSITIVE |
Optimistic stance about channel island investing (8)
|
Edit: Thanks to my ‘phone a friend’ lifeline, I now have an alternative, much more convincing parsing… |
||
| 29 | SODDEN |
Nose vaguely around depths getting very wet (6)
|
| Anagram (vaguely) of NOSE around DD (D for depth x2) | ||
| 30 | INSTINCT |
Gut feeling criminal isn’t in court (8)
|
| Anagram (criminal) of ISN’T + IN + CT (court) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HURTLE |
Race shown by RTL in colour (6)
|
| RTL in HUE (colour) | ||
| 2 | MIMOSA |
Mum drinks writer’s huge cocktail (6)
|
| MA (mum) contains (drinks) I’M (writer’s) + OS (huge) | ||
| 3 | ROUTE |
Announced radical travel plan (5)
|
| Sounds like (announced) “ROOT” (radical) | ||
| 4 | UNALIKE |
Luke and Ian turn out very different (7)
|
| Anagram (turn out) of LUKE and IAN | ||
| 6 | EXPLOSION |
Boom in appalling loonies obstructing vote on President (9)
|
| Anagram (appalling) of LOONIES containing (obstructing) X (vote) + P (President) | ||
| 7 | SEAFARER |
Quickly fry food to fill sailor (8)
|
| SEAR (quickly fry) which FARE (food) “fills” | ||
| 8 | NEGLECTS |
Ignores information about permits college introduced (8)
|
| GEN (information) reversed (about) + LETS (permits) with C (college) “introduced” | ||
| 11 | OGLE |
Eye up Lego building (4)
|
| Anagram (building) of LEGO | ||
| 15 | ON AVERAGE |
Generally state’s cutting working time (2,7)
|
| AVER (state) inserted into (cutting) ON (working) + AGE (time) | ||
| 17 | QUIETENS |
Calms down with techniques for relaxation when child’s absent (8)
|
| Anagram (for relaxation) of TECHNIQUES when CH (child) is absent | ||
| 18 | ALLOTTED |
Gutted the day after vote ousting leader is set aside (8)
|
| T[h]E less the middle letter (gutted) + D (day) after [b]ALLOT (vote) less the first letter (ousting leader) | ||
| 20 | HOWL |
First to hear bird of prey’s cry (4)
|
| First letter of Hear + OWL (bird of prey) | ||
| 21 | LETDOWN |
Told new treatment’s a disappointment (7)
|
| Anagram (treatment) of TOLD NEW | ||
| 22 | RATION |
Reason for omitting beer in food allowance (6)
|
| RATION[ale] (reason) omitting ALE (beer) | ||
| 23 | ADVENT |
Notice express is coming (6)
|
| AD (notice) + VENT (express) | ||
| 26 | SHIRT |
Top his training run time (5)
|
| Anagram (training) of HIS + R (run) + T (time) |
Another enjoyable panagram-laced puzzle with some lovely surfaces throughout.
RAMBUTAN was a standout for its great surface – they’re in season here too! QUIETENS, UNALIKE and UNLEASH all read well too.
No ripples in this solve though it took me a while to spot the former F1 driver in 5.
Yes, that’s how I parsed POSITIVE but it took a while to remember ITV, seemed quaint somehow.
Thanks for keeping me amused, Zamorca, and Widdersbel for the blog.
More or less what Diane said (but where are (nho) RAMBUTANs in season?) with the pangram helping with loi POSITIVE, which I couldn’t parse. Struggled with the grammar of SEAFARER but it was strangely pleasing to see the (much abused (geddit?)) ‘sailor’ getting a starring role for a change.
[I am attributing the paucity of comments to recent website issues. Shame, because I thought the puzzle was top notch.]
Alphalpha @2,
They’re here in the markets of Hong Kong, not unlike lychees.
Not much to add to Widdersbel’s summary and Diane’s blog.
Diane, I hope you rode out the typhoon safely.
I adore rambutan. They rank along side mangosteens and mangoes as my favourite fruit
Oh, and is “quickly fry” really the same as sear?
A steady solve with no real problems, helped by knowing it was a pangram when UNLEASH in 19ac meant 17dn was the only place to put a Q. LOI was JENSON after a delayed PDM.
Thanks, Zamorca and Widdersbel.
Martyn@5: I think ‘quickly fry’ can be the same as ‘sear’ in that if you sear something you usually put it into hot fat for a few seconds (prior to cooking by some other means). I’m open to correction by more experienced chefs.
Thanks, Martyn! Yes, the sound effects were scary but we’re safe and sound! And I like RAMBUTAN, too, though my local colleagues always warn against eating too many of these, or lychees, as they’re a ‘heating’ food!
Rambutans were on sale last week in Miami. With that in my head, I got the answer from the crossings before I figured out the parsing.
I enjoyed this, but – while I wouldn’t call myself a strict grammar pedant – I’m not keen on some of these “convoluted constructions”. Eg “opening hamburger” (and similarly “ultimate puzzle”): “hamburger opening” would be fine, but “opening hamburger” seems one degree of abstraction too far. Perhaps not unfair, as such, but imo inelegant at least.
But, as I said, I enjoyed the puzzle despite that quibble. Thanks both.
Diane@3: now I know. Tvm
Beginner here.
Love the blogs helping me get into cryptics.
For (12) why is space (EN)? This seemed a tough clue.
Ian @ 11 – it’s a typesetting term, an en space (or just en) is a space about the width of a normal letter. You also have ems, which are wider. The terms are probably slightly better known when referring to an en-dash (–) and em-dash (—).
Ian@11: EN for ‘space’ is a printing term. An EN is a blank space the width of a letter N and there is a wider space, an EM, the width of, you guessed it, a letter M. There are also dashes, longer than a hyphen, known as en-dashes and em-dashes.