A fine Bank Holiday offering from Bard
This is, I believe, my first time blogging a Bard puzzle, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. One thing I thought might possibly appear was a theme connected to today being May the Fourth – known in fan circles as Star Wars Day – but I had to wait until 29ac before anything of that sort showed up. No matter, since I’m not a member of that particular fandom, as the young people call it. What we do have, however, are a number of excellently worked clues, as well as a pangram (which I only noticed after the last solution went in, so it didn’t really help me with the solve).
I have a couple of quibblets here and there, as noted below, but overall this was a very pleasingly constructed puzzle. I was particularly impressed by the long anagram for 9/5dn, as well as that for 22ac, and the idea of ENEMAS being concealed within a serene massage made me chuckle. Thanks to Bard.
Moh’s cruciverbal hardness scale rating: Gypsum
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ENEMAS |
Serene massage involves cleansing processes (6)
|
| Hidden in (involves) serENE MASsage | ||
| 4 | APPROACH |
Method applied by swimmer (8)
|
| APP (applied) + ROACH (fish) | ||
| 10 | HEARTBURN |
Pick up complaint on vessel, getting chest pain (9)
|
| HEAR (pick up) + TB (complaint) + URN (vessel) | ||
| 11 | QUAIL |
Queen to feel poorly and lose heart (5)
|
| QU (queen) + AIL | ||
| 12 | MAT |
Art graduate finally got uniform paint finish (3)
|
| MA (art graduate, or perhaps preferably arts graduate) + last letter (finally) of goT. I’m more used to the spelling ‘matt’, but Chambers assures me both ‘mat’ and ‘matte’ are acceptable | ||
| 13 | CROWN JEWELS |
Show off national treasure’s privates (5,6)
|
| CROW (show off) + N (national) + JEWEL‘S (treasure’s) | ||
| 14 | DEFEAT |
Ruin découpage – fine artist gutted (6)
|
| First and last letters (gutted) respectively of DecoupagE FinE ArtisT | ||
| 16 | OUTWARD |
Good to leave swollen toe unit – that’s obvious (7)
|
| You might whimsically describe a gout ward in a hospital as a ‘swollen toe unit’. Remove the G (good to leave) and you have OUTWARD | ||
| 19 | FATIGUE |
Weary and overweight, I suppose not having any seconds (7)
|
| FAT (overweight) + I GUE[ss] (I suppose with no Ss), ‘weary’ as a verb | ||
| 20 | HIDDEN |
Hotel ordered bachelor to leave unseen (6)
|
| H (hotel) + [b]IDDEN (ordered, without B for bachelor) | ||
| 22 | UNDERCROFTS |
Rector’s fund repaired crypts (11)
|
| Anagram (repaired) of RECTORS FUND | ||
| 25 | DIP |
Reduction in leak from tap – water ultimately drained (3)
|
| D[r]IP (leak from tap, minus R – water ultimately) | ||
| 26 | GRAVE |
Severe German adjudicators overturned referee’s conclusion (5)
|
| G (German) + RAV (reversal (overturned) of VAR (video assistant referee in football, so ‘adjudicators’, though perhaps the singular would be better as there is only one VAR in any given match, along with three assistants, known as AVARs)) + E (refereE’s conclusion) | ||
| 27 | IRRIGATED |
Tried unsuccessfully to go around Baltic city flooded with water (9)
|
| Anagram (unsuccessfully) of TRIED around RIGA | ||
| 28 | DRESSAGE |
Ensemble on time for event (8)
|
| DRESS (ensemble or outfit) + AGE, for one of the events in three-day eventing | ||
| 29 | STASIS |
Skywalker too arrogant initially, gaining sister and balance in the Force? (6)
|
| First letters (initially) of Skywalker Too Arrogant + SIS (gaining sister) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | EXHUME |
Bring up former lover, Northern Irish politician (6)
|
| EX (former lover) + HUME (John Hume, former leader of Northern Ireland’s Social Democratic and Labour Party. This might seem somewhat arcane GK particularly to overseas solvers, but Hume was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 for his work on the Good Friday Agreement). | ||
| 2 | ENACTMENT |
Law bringing back tool of corporal punishment – people taken in by empty threat (9)
|
| Reversal (bringing back) of CANE + insertion (taken in) of MEN (people. Well, some people are men. And some men are people…) inside T[hrea]T | ||
| 3 | AZTEC |
Central American once held in Alcatraz, technically (5)
|
| Hidden in (held in) alcatrAZ TEChnically. A stern-ish eyebrow has been raised at the description of Aztecs as “Central American once”. Their capital, Tenochtitlán, was in what is now central Mexico, which is part of the North American continent. But their empire did stretch as far as modern-day Guatemala, so perhaps we can let it pass. It would have been more accurate, I think, to refer to them as Mesoamericans | ||
| 5 |
See 9D
|
|
| 6 | REQUESTED |
Sought adventure amidst long grass (9)
|
| Insertion (amidst) of QUEST inside REED | ||
| 7 | AMAZE |
Athletic Bard taking in area around Grand Canyon – wow! (5)
|
| A (athletic) + ME (the setter, Bard) around (taking in) AZ (Arizona, area around Grand Canyon) | ||
| 8 | HILLSIDE |
Problems in birdwatching hut’s sloping surface (8)
|
| ILLS (problems) inside HIDE | ||
| 9/5 | OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE |
Heat not off hero yet – Putin firing indiscriminately as things go from bad to worse (3,2,3,6,3,4,3,4)
|
| Anagram (indiscriminately) of HEAT NOT OFF HERO YET PUTIN FIRING | ||
| 15 | EAGERNESS |
Sees anger somehow as enthusiasm (9)
|
| Anagram (somehow) of SEES ANGER | ||
| 17 | ANECDOTES |
Tales told about Midlands conference venue – ecstasy dropped into … (9)
|
| A (about) + NEC (the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham, so Midlands conference venue) + E (ecstasy) inserted (dropped into) DOTS (…) | ||
| 18 | EFFULGED |
… elderflower fizz for union leaders – giggling at first, journalist was beaming (8)
|
| Initial letters (at first) of Elderflower Fizz For Union Leaders Giggling + ED | ||
| 21 | SPADES |
Euros accepted by special advisors in Westminster – they help dig up dirt (6)
|
| E (euros) inside (accepted by) SPADS (parliamentary special advisors in Westminster) | ||
| 23 | DRAKE |
Rapper Dr Dre’s latest (featuring Akon) not working (5)
|
| DR (from surface) + [dr]E (Dre’s latest) around (featuring) AK[on] (minus ‘on’ for not working). I have actually heard of Dr Dre, though not of either Akon or Drake, but the clue is perfectly clear | ||
| 24 | SIGHT |
Attraction of evening swapping partners (5)
|
| [n]IGHT (evening) with an S instead of an N (North and South are partners in bridge, hence ‘swapping partners’). One could quibble about whether evening and night are quite synonymous, but that would perhaps be somewhat petty. And miserable as I am, I do try to draw a line this side of pettiness |
I queried MAT, 12(ac), when I first saw it, since when I’ve seen it again at least half-a-dozen times. It’s “one of those”, annoying but legit.
16(ac) I just went (G)OUT, then unit = WARD. Same result, both.
28(ac), I liked the allusion of “ensemble on time” being a dressage horse and rider, an event that demands perfect timing from both.
17(d), about = A…what’s that about? But the … device was a neat trick.
24(d), nope, evening is not night.
It’s a very fine puzzle, the anagram at 9/5 is a joy, as are many other clues. Pangram clever too, since no clues suffered in the making of this production.
Thumbs up, with thanks, Bard & moh
Nice approachable puzzle – the long anagram is very clever but I could not do that one in my head. As pretty much everything else went in on the first pass through the puzzle, it was very satisfying to back to it with all the crossers in place. Yeah, MAT is a tricky one – certainly not how I would normally spell the paint but it has dictionary backing. My podium is FATIGUE, DRESSAGE and REQUESTED.
Thanks both
ENB@1: ‘about’ = A is in Chambers but not in Collins. Couldn’t tell you what justifies it as an abbreviation though.