Regular solvers may remember Donk’s last puzzle, which we were very lucky to blog on January 9th – a real tour de force. In our opinion it would be very difficult to beat that one but today’s offering was very enjoyable. There were the usual slightly risqué surface readings and many DOH moments when we sorted out the parsings!
15ac was fairly easy once we had a few cross checking letters. That enabled us to finish the puzzle more quickly. We quite enjoy hidden themes and this one was rather obvious. It just meant that the enjoyment didn’t last as long as we would have liked!
We wondered when Donk submitted this puzzle – perhaps Eimi decided to publish it today because of the topical clues – 20ac and especially 6d. For those of you who have suffered with the latter we hope that things are now improving. Here in the East Midlands we seem to have avoided the worst (so far!).
| Across | ||
| 7 | Scientist’s miles cooler, one’s forced to conclude | |
| MARCONI | M (miles) + AIRCON (cooler) with I (one) moved to the end or ‘forced to conclude’ | |
| 8 | Poles following new currency – nervy things! | |
| NEURONS | N (new) + EURO (currency) + N S (poles as in North and South) | |
| 10 | I say, isn’t this cow’s skin? | |
| LOWER-CASE | This is a play on a cow being a ‘LOWER‘ and CASE for ‘skin’. I is an example of upper-case so it can’t be LOWER-CASE! | |
| 11 | Returns, not concerned with meeting place | |
| VENUE | ||
| 12 | Dismiss those occupying middle in next spell, conceding boundaries | |
| EXPEL | EX (letters occuping middle of nEXt) inside + |
|
| 14 | Made flat occasion less tense due to partying | |
| EVENED OUT | EVEN |
|
| 15 | Perhaps one that’s almost seen across answers on every other row | |
| WHOLE NUMBER | If you look across every other row you will find a WHOLE NUMBER hidden in the middle of the two answers. | |
| 20 | Negotiator of white descent set out lobbies’ tips for growth | |
| BOBSLEIGH | An anagram of LOBBIES + G |
|
| 23 | Problem with English unemployed shocks supplier | |
| TASER | T |
|
| 25 | Type of film from the east, providing topless photos | |
| SCI-FI | Reversed or ‘from the east’ IF (providing) + |
|
| 26 | Time in clever radical’s chamber | |
| VENTRICLE | An anagram of T (time) + IN CLEVER (anagrind is ‘radical’) | |
| 28 | Nuisance by river’s yawning more than the rest | |
| DEEPEST | DEE (river) + PEST (nuisance). | |
| 29 | Wrong books for right novice | |
| ENTRANT | E |
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | Body hiding wife’s age | |
| GROW UP | GROUP (body) around or ‘hiding’ W (wife) | |
| 2 | Caught irritating fly | |
| SOAR | Caught as in ‘sounds like’ SORE (irritating) | |
| 3 | Italian meals in renovated back of cafe | |
| MILANESE | An anagram of MEALS IN (anagrind is ‘renovated’)+ E (last letter or ‘back’ of cafE) | |
| 4 | Small joints reportedly suffer from cold? | |
| SNEEZE | S (small) + sounds like (‘reportedly’) KNEES (joints) | |
| 5 | Before contest, left on some light that’s affected player | |
| LUVVIE | L (left) + UV (some light) before VIE (contest) | |
| 6 | Have power cuts in dismal flood | |
| DOWNPOUR | OWN (have) + P (power) ‘cutting’ in DOUR (dismal) | |
| 7 | Was introduced to everyone inside club | |
| MALLET | MET (was introduced to) with ALL (everyone) inside | |
| 9 | Footsie stabilises, protecting rest of Santander? | |
| SIESTA | Hidden in or ‘protected by’ footSIE STAbilises. Santander is in Spain and if you want a rest there you would have a siesta! | |
| 13 | John spoils contracts | |
| LOO | LOO |
|
| 15 | More than one of those seen on-line goes round wobbly bits | |
| WEBSITES | WEES (goes!) around an anagram of BITS anagrind is ‘wobbly’ | |
| 16 | Unbalanced, why doors won’t open? | |
| UNHINGED | If a door didn’t have hinges it may not open! | |
| 17 | Save short-arse? | |
| BUT | BUT |
|
| 18 | Humiliated ace set | |
| ABASED | A (ace) + BASED (set) | |
| 19 | Pressing your gentleman’s part? | |
| URGENT | Hidden within the clue or a ‘part of’ yoUR GENTleman’s | |
| 21 | The other role-playing nurses hang around | |
| LOITER | IT (the other, as in sex) inside or ‘nursed by’ an anagram of ROLE – anagrind is ‘playing’ | |
| 22 | Like bra to vibrate? It’ll get you going | |
| INVITE | This is a play on the fact that BRA is hidden with VITE to make ‘vibrate’, so it could be said to be IN VITE! If you receive an invite, you may well go to the event! | |
| 24 | Do retired Hollywood stars note cut? | |
| SOCIAL | An reversal or ‘retirement’ of LA (Hollywood) + ICO |
|
| 27 | Cobblers start to arrange timetable | |
| ROTA | ROT (cobblers) + A (start to Arrange) | |
I think your comment about submission and timing may well be correct (and that’s all I’m saying 😉 )
Another fine puzzle from Donk and the usual fine explanations from B&J – thanks to all three.
Thanks for the blog, B and J – you must have had fun with this!
Bravo to Donk for following up his recent tour de force so quickly with another really classy puzzle.
Lots of excellent clues but I think my favourite has to be LOWER-CASE.
The whole numbers appearing at the end added both the icing and cherries to the cake [but I can’t see where UNZIPS in the fifth row fits in! 😉 ]
Perhaps I’m being a bit dim here, but surely there is a whole number hidden in the middle of the two across answers in every row, and not just every other row?
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, and B&J’s blog sums up very well my own experience.
With the exception of my LOI, SOAR (it took me ages to see that it was a homophone), I had the most trouble in the bottom half of the puzzle, and it took some time for me to unpick the clues for INVITE, LOITER, SOCIAL and TASER. There was a lot of inventiveness and humour in this puzzle.
K’s D@3 – I took “every other row” to mean the rows in which there were answers as opposed to the rows that contain checking letters.
As usual a brilliant and stylish puzzle from Donk!
K’s D, Andy @3,4: I took ‘every other row’ to mean every row except this one. There is no whole number in WHOLE NUMBER.
And particular thanks to B&J for the parsing of MARCONI. I stared at this for ages but it defeated me. Perhaps ‘forced to conclude’ is just a little strained …
Thanks to Andy B and Writinghawk for your replies to K’sD comment about the rows. We only saw it one way as in Andy B’s interpretation. It would be interesting to see what Donk intended!
Writinghawk@6 – Joyce loved 7ac but we agree with Eileen about 10ac which took a while to parse!
Just off to the office to print out my stupidity certificate. I did like Donk’s puzzle, but found it really hard. But then again I couldn’t finish Quixote yesterday. Bad hair week coming up.
Great setting and enjoyable solve.
Thanks Bertandjoyce; I didn’t see any problem with LOWER CASE but I couldn’t get the parsing of MARCONI.
With the welcome sprinkling of some scientific words I thought at first that the theme had something to do with science, doh! 🙁 I thought for 26 the anagrind was ‘clever’ and the fodder was T/RADICALS – needless to say, that didn’t work.
I liked the ‘Negotiator of white descent’ – I see ‘Cool Runnings’ are back again.
With all the crossing letters of 20ac I could suddenly see BABELFISH… O well
Tuesday’s are becoming Thursday-lite, but more fun. LOI SOAR
Thank b&j, odd i got Marconi straight off but social beat me. Been a long day. 🙂
cracking stuff from the Donk again.
Thanks B&J and Donk. Really enjoyed this one. Loved LOWER CASE, especially.
Excellent puzzle from Donk – fast becoming one of the setters whose puzzles I look forward to.
Cheers.
… look forward to the most! I look forward to puzzles from a great many setters.
Evening all,
Thanks for all the lovely comments, and also to B&J for the super blog! Pretty sure I meant for 15a to suggest every second row in the grid, but it seems to work in a couple of ways by happy accident. The original version of the clue was much shorter, but completely mind-melting! Delighted with the reception, nevertheless 🙂
All the best,
Donk