This puzzle had what seemed a rather daunting preamble: across entries intersecting the unclued 12D had to lose ‘something’ which could be construed as a ‘mistake’, replaced by a letter to help form 12D, and leaving real words in all cases. In addition, there were two other thematic entries, clued without definition, which represented a third type of ‘No no’. On first reading there seemed to be something missing – where is the ‘second’ level between the initial ‘mistakes’ and the ‘third’ type of ‘no-no’?
In the end, it proved a relatively ‘gettable’ theme and solveable puzzle – in my case by initially ignoring 12D and getting as many down and (non-intersecting) across answers as I could first, and then using the resulting structure as the bones to hang the meat of 12D upon.
I then spotted early on that several of the intersecting answers had constituent parts which could be seen as hesitations – UM in PREMIUM and VOLUME, ER in HINDER, ERM in ERMINES, HA in GEISHA, WELL in DOWELLED, UR in URANIAN. I also had the two undefined answers – ITERANT and REPEAT.
However, not being a particular fan of the show, it took me a while and a bit of guesswork to come up with ‘JUST A MINUTE’ as 12D. When I say ‘not a particular fan’, I mean ‘having never listened to an episode of the show, but vaguely being aware of its existence’. I knew that hesitation and repeating oneself were not allowed – but it needed some Wiki-research to discover the second no-no – deviation, from the topic in question. Which explained the other two omissions – YAW in YAWLING and ERROR in TERRORISM.
I solved this while on holiday in Australia, travelling around in a camper van, wrote up most of the parsing on my laptop on the plane back (through as mist of time-zones and free gin-and-tonics), and have finished it off just before publication deadline, suffering from jetlag – so apologies for any errors or omissions – or repetition or hesitation!
Given that I hardly knew of the the program in the theme, I thought this was a very accessible puzzle – maybe easier to more dedicated fans? – and thanks to Syd Lexis for some enjoyable holiday solving…
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | ‘Mistake’, or thematic connection | Entry | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 2A | (Thematic No-No) | ITERANT | Wandering, not at home (7) / (no definition) ITinERANT (wandering, without IN – at home) |
| 7A | INGOT | Reveal up north the unfinished mass (5) / INGO (a hidden door, or reveal, Scottish) + T (Northern contraction of ‘the’) – INGOT being an ‘unwrought’ mass of metal, especially gold or silver) |
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| 11A | OCHRE | Chain’s in precious metal – gold (5) / ORE (poetic for precious metal) around H (chain) – OCHRE being a yellow pigment, but also ‘gold’ in slang |
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| 12A | (UR)ANIAN | (J)ANIAN | Greek goddess’s repository hides a Scot perhaps (6) / URN (repository) around A, then IAN (Scotsman, perhaps) |
| 13A | UTIS | Shakespearean clamour confused suit (4) / anag (i.e. confused) of SUIT |
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| 14A | T(ERROR)ISM | T(U)ISM | Iran’s back, engulfed by terrible tremors, organized violence and intimidation (5) / anag (i.e. terrible) of TREMORS, around RI (IR, Iran, back) |
| 15A | USE | An ordinary experience for William – look away from an old contemptible person (3) / loUSE – LOUSE, contemptible person, without LO – interjection, look) |
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| 16A | GENTLE | Falcon’s low down, let off (6) / GEN (low-down, information) + TLE (anag, i.e. off, of LET) |
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| 17A | (YAW)LING | (S)LING | Ship’s small boat’s starting to immerse; no good crying! (5) / YAWL (ship’s small boat) + ING (first letters of Immerse, No Good) |
| 18A | GEIS(HA) | GEIS(T) | Goddess I upset has trained girls to entertain men (5) / GE (Ge or Gaea, earth goddess) + I + SHA (anag, i.e. trained) of HAS – GEISHA being a plural as well as singular) |
| 19A | SETA | Bristle at son, returning having taken ecstasy! (4) / STA (AT + S – son, returning) around (having taken) E (ecstasy) |
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| 20A | DIODE | Gods force electronic valve (5) / DI (gods, plural of ‘deus’) + OD (Reichenbach-ian ‘force’) + E (electronic) |
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| 22A | (Thematic No-No) | REPEAT | Old radiation unit’s to corrode (6) / (no definition) REP (radiation unit, Rontgen Equivalent Physical, now superseded by ‘rad’) + EAT (corrode) |
| 24A | UNDO | Wavy, lacking energy with nothing to solve earlier (4) / UNDe (UNDE, wavy, without E – energy) + O (zero, nothing) – UNDO having an archaic meaning of ‘to solve’) |
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| 25A | DO(WELL)ED | DO(M)ED | Pinned in Paris she is trapped by a badly dressed woman (5) / DOWD (badly dressed woman) around ELLE (‘she’, in Paris, i.e. French) |
| 27A | APSE | Recess in passage having no length (4) / APSE = LAPSE (passage) minus L – length |
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| 28A | BESTIR | Outwit one’s right to stimulate (6) / BEST (outwit, beat) + I (one) + R (right) |
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| 30A | YEAST | Variable drainage channels in the fens need time to ferment (5) / Y (mathematics, variable) + EAS (plural of ‘ea’, generally ‘runnning water’ but more specifically a drainage channel in the Fens, i.e. Norfolk ) + T (time) |
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| 32A | ESSE | Being minor, left out; not right! (4) / ESSE (existence, being) = LESSER (minor) without its left-most or right-most letters, which, coincidentally, are L – Left and R – right!) |
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| 36A | (ERM)INES | (N)INES | White furs belonging to me held by climber (5) / ERS (vetch, climbing plant of the pea family) around MINE (belonging to me) |
| 38A | HIND(ER) | HIND(U) | Last in Wick to keep back (5) / double defn. HINDER being the last, hindmost, in Scotland, i.e. Wick, or, more familiarly, to keep back |
| 39A | DAPHNE | Scandinavian retains power with hydrogen plant (6) / DANE (Scandinavian) around P (power) + H (hydrogen) |
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| 40A | OLE | Expression of triumph – print lacks nothing (3) / OLE = OLEO (print, oleograph) missing O (nothing) |
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| 41A | VOL(UM)E | VOL(T)E | Roll Scottish hat in creek in Shetland (5) / VOE (creek in Orkney, Shetland) around LUM (chimney pot hat) – ROLL being a roll or scroll, precursor of a book, or volume |
| 42A | MITE | A small amount – just two notes (4) / MI + TE (two notes from do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti) |
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| 43A | PREMI(UM) | PREMI(E) | Umpire’s upset about money prize (6) / anag (i.e. upset) of UMPIRE, around M – money |
| 44A | INNED | Rejected bishop, thrown out, put up (5) / INNED (past tense of ‘in’, entered, put up for) = BINNED (rejected) without B – bishop |
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| 45A | SADLY | Remark about lord, returning unhappily (5) / SAY (remark) around DL (ld, lord, returning) |
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| 46A | BOTCHER | Worry about Conservative bungler (7) / BOTHER (worry) around (about) C (conservative – with a small or large C, depending on your prference!) |
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| Down | |||
| Clue No | N/a | Entry | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1D | GOUGED | Chiselled Scott’s wench and daughter (6) / GOUGE (obsolete, wench, Walter Scott?) + D (daughter) |
|
| 2D | ICTERINE | Yellowish inert cuckoo covered in frozen liquid (8) / ICE (frozen liquid) around TERIN – anag (i.e cuckoo) of INERT |
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| 3D | THING | Lliving creature – meagre and close to dying (5) / THIN (meagre) + G (last letter of, i.e close to, dyinG) |
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| 4D | REPLIED | Reprobate made false statement, answered a plea (7) / REP (abbrev. reprobate) + LIED (made false statement) |
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| 5D | ATTESTOR | One witnessing a non-drinker is in France getting nothing right (8) / A + TT (teetotal, non-drinker) + EST (‘is’, in French) + O (nothing) + R (right) |
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| 6D | TAILS | In Perth herds limited section (5) / TAIL (legal, limited inheritance) + S (section) – to tail being Aussie slang (i.e. Perth) for herding (livestock) |
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| 7D | INSIDE | One born to hold back, deserted, and is imprisoned (6) / I (one) + NE (née, born) around SID (D – deserted, plus IS, all back, reversed) |
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| 8D | GAUGE | Measure Indian hemp (5) / double defn – GAUGE meaning to measure and (more usually GAGE?) marijuana or hemp (not sure where ‘Indian’ comes in?) |
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| 9D | ONSET | Once locally concealing electronic beginning (5) / ONST (dialect, once) around E (electronic) |
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| 10D | THECATE | Having a case Spenser’s to prosper, housing jazz fan (7) / THEE (Spenserian, to prosper) around CAT (jazz fan) |
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| 12D | JUST A MINUTE | See preamble (11, three words) / thematic derivation (well, guess at first…!) |
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| 19D | SPAE | Divine flood without it (4) / SPAtE (flood, without T – contraction of ‘it’)) |
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| 21D | DOTE | Very small object on earth is to decay (4) / DOT (small object) + E (earth) |
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| 22D | RESIDENT | Division in fissure is not moving (8) / RENT (fissure) around SIDE (division) |
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| 23D | ASSENTER | Fool’s to admit one who agrees (8) / ASS (fool) + ENTER (to admit, allow to enter) |
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| 24D | UBEROUS | Rarely abounding rubes confused about the open university (7) / anag (i.e. confused) of RUBES, around OU (the Open University) |
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| 26D | DYNAMIC | Pattern of change in Benin, now with vassal back in charge (7) / DY (Dahomey, former name of Benin) + NAM (man, or vassal, backwards) + IC (in charge) |
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| 29D | IGNOMY | One obscure banker fails to end yen’s humiliation (6) / I (one) + GNOM (gnome, or banker – of Zurich – failing to end) + Y (yen) |
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| 31D | TWEEDS | Clothes sentimentally pretty daughter’s son (6) / TWEE (sentimentally pretty) + D (daughter) + S (son) |
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| 33D | SALPA | Plankton is active, returning, apparently, with luminance (5) / S (contraction of ‘is’) + A (active) + LPA (AP – apparently = plus L, luminance, all returning) |
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| 34D | SHERD | Take in split boundary water (5) / SHED (split) around R (take) – SHERD being archaic for ‘boundary water’) |
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| 35D | AD-LIB | After date book is impromptu (5, hyphenated) / AD (abbrev. after date) + LIB (libris, book) |
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| 37D | SHINE | Female’s around in early party (5) / SHE (female) around IN – SHINE being old slang for a party |
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