A light challenge from ZAMORCA today
FF: 8 DD: 5
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BOUNCE |
Recoil from black cat (6)
|
| B ( black ) OUNCE ( cat ) | ||
| 4 | CHESSMAN |
One on board ship seized by revolutionary worker (8)
|
| SS ( ship ) in [ CHE ( revolutionary ) MAN ( worker ) ] | ||
| 9 | NODULE |
Lump has to drop off then you’ll report (6)
|
| NOD ( drop off ) ULE ( sounds like you’ll ) | ||
| 10 | FOLLOWER |
Fan of Orwell work (8)
|
| [ OF ORWELL ]* | ||
| 12 | HARANGUE |
Managed to stop a huge angry tirade (8)
|
| RAN ( managed ) in [ A HUGE ]* | ||
| 13 | ON EDGE |
Nervous about creep (2,4)
|
| ON ( about ) EDGE ( creep ) | ||
| 15 | EYED |
Enthralled by education in the past, you studied (4)
|
| YE ( you, old english ) in ED ( education ) | ||
| 16 | SCRAPING BY |
Just managing with son at home eating rubbish grub. Disheartened? Yes (8,2)
|
| { CRAP ( rubbish ) in [ S ( son ) IN ( at home ) ] } GB ( GruB, disheartened i.e. without inner letters ) Y ( yes ) | ||
| 19 | STRAWBERRY |
Fruit with unsightly growths recalled, make a mistake by accepting (10)
|
| reverse of WARTS ( unsightly growth ) [ ERR ( make a mistake ) in BY ] | ||
| 20 | CALM |
Briefly turned up bringing in money collected (4)
|
| CAMe ( turned up, briefly ) containing L ( money , pound ) | ||
| 23 | HOAXER |
A hex or trick reveals prankster (6)
|
| [ A HEX OR ]* | ||
| 25 | DOES WELL |
With Spring coming on female deer thrives (4,4)
|
| DOES ( female deer ) WELL ( spring ) | ||
| 27 | LOGGED ON |
Signed in to record professor in conversation (6,2)
|
| LOGGE ( sounds like LOG, record ) DON ( professor ) | ||
| 28 | SOLVER |
Only one securing victory’s right for you (6)
|
| [ SOLE ( only one ) containing V ( victory ) ] R ( right ) | ||
| 29 | ROOF TILE |
Jumper fellow left during match is found on top of building (4,4)
|
| ROO ( jumper ) F ( fellow ) [ L ( left ) in TIE ( match ) ] | ||
| 30 | STOREY |
Alternative energy source in farm building floor (6)
|
| [ OR ( alterative ) E ( Energy, first letter ) ] in STY ( farm building ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BANSHEE |
Forbids leader to excuse supporting ambassador’s howler (7)
|
| BANS ( forbids ) HE ( ambassador, His Excellency ) E ( Excuse, first letter ) | ||
| 2 | UNDERWEAR |
For the most part unrewarded, cracked combinations (9)
|
| [ UNREWARDEd ( mostly ) ]* ; learnt this today | ||
| 3 | COLONY |
Settlement of intestine requiring surgery in the end (6)
|
| COLON ( intestine ) Y ( surgerY, last letter ) | ||
| 5 | HOOK |
Hampshire’s opener gets duck with fine catch (4)
|
| H ( Hampshire, first letter ) O ( duck ) OK ( fine ) | ||
| 6 | SPLENDID |
Great seeing special student finish papers (8)
|
| SP ( special ) L ( student ) END ( finish ) ID ( papers ) | ||
| 7 | MOWED |
Under obligation after Mike cut the grass (5)
|
| M ( mike ) OWED ( under obligation ) | ||
| 8 | NURSERY |
Market garden runs analysis on rye variety (7)
|
| [ RUNS ]* [ RYE ]* ; i wasnt happy with this because there doesn’t seem to be clear anagrind for RUNS so i googled and saw that URS is short for User Requirement Specifications in business analysis , and this cant be the parse either so i am going with the first attempt. | ||
| 11 | QUICKEN |
Hurry to question writer endlessly (7)
|
| QU ( question ) dICKENs ( writer, endlessly ) | ||
| 14 | WARRIOR |
Fighter, with terrible roar, tackling Irish uprising (7)
|
| W ( with ) { [ ROAR ]* containing reverse of IR ( irish ) } | ||
| 17 | GLAZE OVER |
Lose interest with half of government going round idle (5,4)
|
| LAZE ( idle ) in GOVERnment ( half of ) | ||
| 18 | SWEETEST |
Most sugary foods finally getting negligible tax (8)
|
| S ( foodS, last letter ) WEE ( negligible ) TEST ( tax ) | ||
| 19 | SCHOLAR |
Academic child’s also crazy about reading (7)
|
| { [ ALSO ]* around CH ( child ) } R ( reading ) | ||
| 21 | MALARKY |
Nonsense chit-chat from mummy bird leading young (7)
|
| MA ( mummy ) LARK ( bird ) Y ( Young, first letter ) | ||
| 22 | ESCORT |
Guide key soldiers back to front (6)
|
| ESC ( key ) OR ( soldiers ) T ( fronT, back of i.e. last letter ) | ||
| 24 | AGGRO |
Run out after badly written gag’s hostile reaction (5)
|
| [ GAG ]* R ( run ) O ( out ) | ||
| 26 | JOWL |
Judge has low sufferance for cheek (4)
|
| J ( judge ) [ OWL ]* |
I made steady progress clockwise around the grid. I liked BOUNCE for its neat surface. ON EDGE, and MALARKY
UNDERWEAR = combination was new to me too, and I do not like vague directions such as “for the most part” that do not tell you which part or how much of it. Not sure lose interest (referring to a person) is the same as GLAZE OVER (referring to eyes). And for ESCORT, I do not understand ORT. Your solution ignores the word “back”.
Thanks Zamorca and Turbolegs
Hi Martyn,
It was a clever misdirection. I fixed the blog now.
Regards,
TL
Ah, now I get ESCORT. thank you. I for one was misled by the misdirection.
A nice puzzle, especially because I noticed it was shaping up as a pangram and solved jowl by seeing there was no other spot for the necessary j.
Liked follower, strawberry, underwear, colony. (Another extra letter creating a lovely difference in meaning after yesterday’s chancer(y) beaut).
8d I took analysis to be the anagram indicator for runs
17d to glaze over is to become obviously bored in my book Martyn
Struggled with bounce (yes, I know ounce is a crossword staple but it never comes to mind) and storey which is obvious when you have the answer.
Good explanation of escort.
Thx all.
Most enjoyable. UNDERWEAR/combinations was a head scratcher.
Nice and light as our blogger says.
Favourites were FOLLOWER, QUICKEN, GLAZE OVER and UNDERWEAR.
Knowing Zamorca’s penchant for pangrams didn’t help today since I’d secured the a-z with more than half of the clues remaining but it was a kind grid after all.
Thanks to Zamorca and Turbolegs.
For 8d I took URS (Umpire Review System) as the previous reference to DRS (Decision Review System) in cricket, hence analysis of runs
As said, reasonably gentle… I go with James P@ re “analysis” as “anagrind”… joins a long list of improbables… also happy with “glaze over”, the stage before nodding off n drooling.
Needed the blog for the little things like EYED, n “disheartened grub” rather than “disheartened Yes”, which left a very unsatisfactory S n no GB.. doh…
Thanks Zamorca n Turbolegs
Agree with comments (and Turbolegs) about parsing of NURSERY. For those of us who don’t like nouns as anagrinds two in the same clue are doubly provocative. And how does ‘analysis’ suggest a rearrangement of the component letters?
Analysis = breaking down into component parts so perfectly sensible as an anagram signal IMO. And why shouldn’t it be a noun?
Thanks Zamorca and Turbolegs. I liked the use of “back to front” in 22dn for the last letter of the word fronT.
27ac: I think the soundalike probably reads best if taken as LOG DON sounding like LOGGED ON as a whole, rather than trying to separate the two words.
8dn: “analyse” appears in the list of Anagram indicators starting on page 51 of the Wordgame Companion which interrupts the entry for maiden in Chambers 2011, but I am not convinced that this list has the same authority as the dictionary entries themselves. The suggestion by Hugswings@7 does not work for me, as DRS is mainly concerned with the question of whether a batter is out or not out, and it does not seem to account for the N in the answer.
Thanks Undrell and JamesP. So you would say “I glazed over” meaning “I lost interest”? It is good to learn
Agree with your comments, Pelham @11, re ‘back to front’ and LOG DON.
Thanks Turbolegs and Zamora,
As you opened, a light puzzle, but I rushed 14d with PATRIOT for fighter and Irish (PAT) uprising (RIOT)
For me, this wasn’t easy, esp. NW – but got there in the end without parsing EYED and ESCORT. The puzzle being a pangram helped with QUICKEN (LOI) as I missed the Q. AGGRO, NODULE and JOWL were completely new to me. Thanks Zamorca and Turbolegs!
Straightforward puzzles three days running. Who will it be tomorrow?
I wasn’t sure what purpose was served by the word “source” in 30.
PB@11 The anagram list from Chambers 2011 that you mention is, I think, just a compilation that someone made of words that had been used as such in crosswords. I suspect it is the same as the list that appears in Chambers Crossword Dictionary. There is some pretty dodgy stuff in there, which cannot really be justified by reference to the meanings given in Chambers Dictionary. A much more reliable list is given by the Clue Clinic https://www.clueclinic.com/index.php/anagram-indicators/ .
As far as 8D is concerned, I don’t think it works at all. The wordplay “runs analysis on rye variety” is intended to place an anagram of “runs” above (in a down clue) an anagram of “rye”. Even if “analysis” could be an anagram indicator (which seems pretty dubious to me), to make grammatical sense the construction would need to be something like “analysis of runs”. Similarly, for the second anagram, “rye variety” doesn’t really mean “variety of rye”.
I don’t understand the kerfuffle over “analysis” as anagrind in 8d NURSERY. My rule is that If you figure out that a clue is an anagram and there is a word in the clue that you can’t account for, that is by definition your anagrind.
A fun party game is to pick a verb at random and come up with a plausible anagrind justification.
Thanks Z&T for the zesty and tasteful puzzle and blog.
Cellomaniac @18 Clearly, you don’t regard clue-setting as a skill. The construction of a concise clue which is grammatically correct for both the cryptic reading and the surface reading is a demanding exercise which can require considerable ingenuity. It is not simply a matter of assembling a few words including a definition and a loose sort of grammatically incorrect wordplay in the hope that solvers will adopt inspired guesswork to unravel them. You might find it instructive if you were to start analysing the clues of Ximenean setters (such as Monk) to see how they are structured. As far as anagram indicators are concerned, in order to pass muster they need to indicate in some way that a rearrangement of the anagram fodder is made. What sense of the word “analysis” serves that purpose?
😂😂😂😂😂
Rudolph@19, clearly you didn’t spot the tongue that was firmly embedded in my cheek.
C @ 21 You’re right. Are we to take it, then, that other “anything goes” comments of the kind you frequently post on this site (see, for example, No 22 on FT 18,198 earlier this week) are intended to be similarly ironic?
I enjoyed completing this doable puzzle but could not parse BANSHEE or ESCORT. Being Irish means i know more about banshees than ambassadors, regiments or cricket (but dont think the suggested 8D obscure cricket acronyms were relevant). Can’t see any problem with 8D anagram indicators- clearly written with nouns to read better and be less obvious than eg …analyses runs on varied rye …