This is the first Gemelo “special” that calls upon the solver to manipulate the solutions in some unconventional fashion. The puzzle opens with these instructions:
Half & Half – In Seattle last year, I accidentally drank tea with “half & half” in it. It inspired this puzzle, in which half of the across answers are too long for their entries and continue in a down entry. The across clues for these provide definition and wordplay for their entries; the related down clues provide wordplay for their entries. Enumerations relate to the entry space.
As often happens with a lot of “special” instructions, this preamble requires a bit of cold-solving before making much sense. There are eighteen across and eighteen down clues, so it became apparent pretty quickly that nine of the across clues would pair with nine of the down clues to form the solutions indicated by the definitions provided in the “special” across clues, and in each case that neither the across nor the down components suggested by the wordplay were themselves actual words. For the “special” clues, I have provided the complete solution with the across clue, and provided cross-references with the associated down clue. Here is a list of the “special” pairs:
9A + 29D
11A + 3D
17A + 7D
18A + 22D
20A + 6D
23A + 14D
30A + 27D
32A + 1D
33A + 4D
I assumed that the remaining nine across and nine down clues were going to be “normal” (even though the preamble does not indicate one way or the other), and so they turned out to be.
I enjoyed this challenge. I suppose the result is a variant of the jigsaw-style puzzle, since we are left to infer where the latter portion of the “special” solutions must fit. Gemelo’s achievement is formidable, considering that he has resorted to only a few obscure words to fill out the grid, which includes one 21-letter word, the sesquipedalian chestnut ESTABLISHMENTARIANISM.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | LEGITIMATELY |
Really early to adopt alternative technology after phase one (12)
|
| LEG (phase) + I (one) + {TIMELY (early) around (to adopt) AT (alternative technology)} | ||
| 9 | SEAS |
Unit in army base divides cellar contents (4)
|
| E (base) inside (divides) SAS (unit in army)
9A + 29D = SEA SALT. Chambers lists this as two words; compare the enumeration provided for 30A and 32A. |
||
| 10 | ACIERATE |
Make steel that is following current standard (8)
|
| AC ([alternating] current) + I.E. (that is) + RATE (standard) | ||
| 11 | HIBERN |
Hawaiian Islands to the west of capital city rendered Irish (6)
|
| HI (Hawaiian Islands) + BERN (capital city [of Switzerland])
11A + 3D = HIBERNISED |
||
| 12 | VIEWS |
Struggle with second opinions (5)
|
| VIE (struggle) + W (with) + S (second) | ||
| 15 | KATANA |
Weapon used in attack at an airport (6)
|
| Hidden in (used in) [ATTAC]K AT AN A[IRPORT] | ||
| 17 | IRIDAC |
Judge watercolourists over group of flowers (6)
|
| {CADI ([Islamic] judge) + RI (watercolourists, i.e, [Member of the] Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours)} all reversed (over)
17A + 7D = IRIDACEAE |
||
| 18 | OVE |
Develop too much content for novel (3)
|
| Inside letters of (content for) [N]OVE[L]
18A + 22D = OVERRIPEN |
||
| 19 | UNCROWNED |
Multinational group boasted about navy having de facto power (9)
|
| UN (multinational group) + CROWED (boasted) around (about) N (navy) | ||
| 20 | POSTINDUS |
Tips sound rubbish after significant work? (9)
|
| Anagram of (rubbish) TIPS SOUND
20A + 6D = POSTINDUSTRIAL |
||
| 23 | INT |
Small amount of east London covering different districts (3)
|
| [H]INT (small amount, with Cockney pronunciation, “of east London,” thus unaspirated)
23A + 14D = INTERZONAL |
||
| 25 | OVATOR |
I cheer speaker overcoming resistance with volume (6)
|
| O[R]ATOR (speaker) substituting (overcoming) R (resistance) with V (volume) | ||
| 26 | ANIMUS |
Intention of game that separates two kinds of American (6)
|
| NIM (game) inside (that separates) {A + US} (two kinds of American) | ||
| 28 | FLAKE |
Cocaine and fine wine in large quantity? (5)
|
| F (fine) + LAKE (wine in large quantity). Chambers defines “wine lake” as “a surplus of wine bought up by an economic community to prevent a fall in prices.” | ||
| 30 | FREESP |
Frequently, errors excepted with spelling: public right of say? (6, 2 words)
|
| FR (frequently) + EE (errors excepted) + SP. (spelling)
30A + 27D = FREE SPEECH |
||
| 31 | FOLK TALE |
Lecturer messed up talk, overshadowed by rival narrative (8, 2 words)
|
| {L (lecturer) + anagram of (messed up) TALK} inside (overshadowed by) FOE (rival) | ||
| 32 | CAME |
Brush material turned out (4, 2 words)
|
| CAME (turned out)
32A + 1D = CAMEL’S HAIR |
||
| 33 | ESTABLISHMEN |
Belief in State Assembly ultimately lost in the broadcast (12)
|
| Anagram of (broadcast) {ASSEMBL[Y] minus last letter (ultimately lost) + IN + THE}
33A + 4D = ESTABLISHMENTARIANISM |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | LSHAIR |
Scottish landowner mostly keeping quiet (6)
|
| LAIR[D] (Scottish landowner) minus last letter (mostly) around (keeping) SH (quiet). See 32A. | ||
| 2 | GABBIEST |
Extremely wordy dance music almost edged carnival (8)
|
| GABB[A] (dance music) minus last letter (almost) + [F]IEST[A] (carnival) minus outside letters (edged) | ||
| 3 | ISED |
From the south of India, genuinely (4)
|
| DESI (genuinely “of India,” i.e., Hindi for “authentically Asian”) inverted (from the south). See 11A. | ||
| 4 | TARIANISM |
A martini’s shaken or stirred (9)
|
| Anagram of (shaken or stirred) A MARTINI’S. See 33A. | ||
| 5 | MIDAIR |
Moroccan house surrounding garden one’s raised above the ground (6)
|
| {RIAD (Moroccan house surrounding garden) + I’M (one’s)} all inverted (raised) | ||
| 6 | TRIAL |
Comedic tenor (5)
|
| [Antoine] TRIAL (comedic tenor). See 20A. | ||
| 7 | EAE |
New Ager regularly getting ignored (3)
|
| Alternate letters of (regularly getting ignored) [N]E[W] A[G]E[R]. See 17A. | ||
| 8 | YESKED |
Local spat certainly nuisance for flock (6)
|
| YES (certainly) + KED (nuisance for flock, i.e., “a wingless fly that infests sheep”), listed in Chambers as “Scottish or dialect” for past tense of “spit,” thus “local” | ||
| 13 | WAVESON |
Stuff lost at sea rarely reached without birds (7)
|
| WON (reached) around (without) AVES ([taxonomically] birds). Listed in Chambers as “rare” | ||
| 14 | ERZONAL |
Layer next to skin not needed in Lanzarote, anyhow (7)
|
| Anagram of (anyhow) L[A]NZARO[T]E minus (not needed) the two letters (layer) next to the outermost letters (skin). See 23A. | ||
| 16 | TROUVÈRES |
Medieval poets composed overtures (9)
|
| Anagram of (composed) OVERTURES | ||
| 18 | ON-STREAM |
Statisticians set to accept rule in the pipeline (8)
|
| ONS (statisticians, i.e., Office for National Statistics) + {TEAM (set) around (to accept) R (rule)} | ||
| 20 | PIAFFE |
French singer with extremely fortunate move up? (6)
|
| [Édith] PIAF (French singer) + outside letters of (extremely) F[ORTUNAT]E, referring to a dressage movement | ||
| 21 | NOUNAL |
Religious figure carrying round Anglo-Latin of part of speech (6)
|
| NUN (religious figure) around (carrying) O (round) + AL (Anglo-Latin) | ||
| 22 | RRIPEN |
Standard charge to retain independent nurse (6)
|
| {RRP (standard price, i.e., recommended retail price) around (to retain) I (independent)} + EN ([enrolled] nurse). See 18A. | ||
| 24 | TIKKA |
Feature of Indian menu recalled Kit Kat briefly (5)
|
| KIT inverted (recalled) + KA[T] minus last letter (briefly), with capitalization misdirections | ||
| 27 | EECH |
Early English church (4)
|
| EE (early English) + CH. (church). See 30A. | ||
| 29 | ALT |
Lieutenant under head of army (3)
|
| First letter of (head of) A[RMY] + LT (lieutenant). See 9A. |
I really enjoyed solving this puzzle, but I expected I would after reading the instructions because I think there is much more enjoyment for the solver if a “special” puzzle has clues which aren’t normal cryptic clues. I had initially misread the instructions and thought that every across clue was “special” but I soon found a normal one and looked at the instructions again.
I entered the three-letter entries before I knew their full answers, but at least for the across ones I thought the answers must start with OVER and INTER. I had entered EAE and ALT quite early and then forgot about them until I couldn’t solve some of the last across clues. When I entered CAME I thought I knew what the full answer was but search for a down clue leading to LHAIR was unsuccessful.
Thanks, Cineraria and Gemelo.
Thanks for the blog , a very clever idea and much better than specials that are really just for the setter , many clues were very neat . For once I started with the Downs thinking the wordplay only clues would be the easiest to identify and the normal ones went in fairly easily giving lots of letters .
Not keen on the Lanzarote anagram , next to skin is a nice idea but “layer” a bit of a stretch .
I also enjoyed this puzzle and had the same thought about the enumeration of SEA SALT. I solved this (in pencil!) in the printed paper before entering the competition by entering my answers in the online version in The Observer app. Somewhat confusingly, the enumerations in the online version were all duplicated (e.g. (6) (6)) and after I finished my submission I discovered that the correct parsings of the clues appeared in red.
I contacted The Observer about these glitches and received a response:
“The issue was caused by an update from our external puzzle platform provider. We identified and resolved it quickly once it was reported.
To clarify what happened: the explanations appeared only after a solver submitted a fully correct grid, with prizes drawn from all correct entries submitted via post and digitally. Given the brief window in late afternoon/early evening when this occurred and the fact that direct answers were not revealed, we plan to hold the random prize draw for Gemelo 21 as normal.”
The duplicate enumeration issue appears to have been platform-specific and has been addressed successfully, as today’s puzzle appears normal.
Enjoyed this one, though I also puzzled over the Lazarote anagram. I’ve given up with online entry. I may walk over to 22 Berners Street and hand it in personally in future!
Thanks to Cineraria and Gemelo.
I started looking at the clues before reading the instructions (as previous Gemelo specials have not directly affected the solver) and quickly solved 27dn and 29dn without understanding why there was no definition! Generally enjoyed it, once I knew what I was doing.
One quibble: 6dn TRIAL – the clue is not wordplay, as stated in the instructions, but a definition (of sorts). It would surely have been easy enough to come up with wordplay. It didn’t hold me up, as I solved 20ac and 6dn was the only place TRIAL would fit (I already had TIKKA), but I was puzzled over the parsing.
Great fun – but took much longer than previous Gemelos. The device used for LANZAROTE is unfamiliar to me but fortunately we don’t have to show our working. Thanks Gemelo, looking forward to more specials!
PS it’s a shame ANTEDIS couldn’t have been squeezed in somewhere
Matthew #1 – me too with CAMEL’S HAIR, and I had no idea that it was squirrel’s hair not from actual camels.
I much enjoyed this and it’s nice to see a Gemelo special where we actually have to do something more than admire his brilliance. But it did take me a long time and it seemed pretty hard. I’m not sure whether this is OK (after all The Listener has a huge entry) but I fear that perhaps newer solvers are being discouraged by this.
It struck me that Gemelo might have been kinder in his preamble: if they continue in a down entry then do they take up the whole entry or is the overhang just somewhere within another entry? Perhaps one could say that this was pretty easy to infer, but what about the statement “…provide definition and wordplay for their entries.” What does their mean? Is it referring to the down clues or the across clues? In 11ac for example the wordplay refers just to HIBERN but the definition refers to HIBERNISED. This is not all that easy to infer and for a while one is wondering what is going on. Perhaps this is intended (to mention The Listener again, that requires the solver to work things out) but I’m not so sure that in these puzzles it’s OK. Azed used when he produced Specials to spell things out in detail.
Wil@8 I did find the instructions fair , the Across clues have a definition but wordplay only for the Across bit (their entry) . Down clues have the rest of the wordplay for their entry . The definition gives both .
I think these puzzles should be hard and if anything make them harder . Torquemada had the right idea .