At last I get to blog a puzzle from one of my favourite setters, which features a number of his trademark long anagrams. I enjoyed the challenge, despite the religious theme being at variance with my beliefs, and have ticks against quite a few clues, with a double tick for 16ac and 3dn.
I spent longer trying to parse 4dn than I did finishing the rest of the puzzle and have still failed to come up with a satisfactory explanation so if anyone has worked it out I would be glad to be enlightened.
Across
1 Taunt about smell awkward for cathedral city (10)
BIRMINGHAM – RIB (taunt) reversed (about) MING (smell) HAM (awkward)
6 Place of worship, minus the dangerous chemical (4)
ALAR – AL[t]AR (place of worship, minus the) – the chemical daminozide, formerly used as a spray to prevent blemishes and to delay the ripening of apples, but withdrawn when discovered to be carcinogenic. (Chambers)
10 Old English priest in control, sexually abnormal (7)
OEDIPAL – OE (Old English) P (priest) in DIAL (control)
11 Antichrist showing hands on introduction to God? (3,4)
THE OMEN – THEO- (introduction to God) MEN (hands) – this film or its remake
12 Religious festival in Colon? (8)
PASSOVER – PASS (col) OVER (on)
14 Accepted by church after extremely fearful start (6)
FLINCH – F[earful]L (extremely fearful) IN (accepted) CH (church)
16 It’s potentially unique as Moslem place of worship (8,6)
SULEIMAN MOSQUE – anagram (it’s potentially) of UNIQUE AS MOSLEM – an excellent clue because I could also have underlined ‘Moslem’ as part of the definition or even the whole clue as an &lit.
18 ‘Unholy’ Christ made in actual religious building (5,9)
REIMS CATHEDRAL – anagram (‘unholy’) of CHRIST MADE in REAL (actual)
20 Spirit enthralling to God’s evangelist (6)
GIDEON – GIN (spirit) around (enthralling) DEO (to God) – the evangelist from whom the bible distributors took their name
21 Project tackled by a clergyman (8)
PREACHER – REACH (project) in (tackled by) PER (a) – are ‘reach’ and ‘project’ synonymous?
23 Bethlehem visitors, those associated with a couple opening gifts (3,4)
THE MAGI – THEM (those) A GI[fts) (couple opening gifts) – I don’t think the gold, frankincense and myrrh would have been wrapped in fancy paper, so the happy couple with a newborn child would not have needed to open the gifts. In any case, according to Matthew, only Mary was present when the three wise men came to pay homage to her son and it was they who opened their treasure chests. However, I still enjoyed the image portrayed by the surface of this clue.
24 Gospel fell flat at first (7)
MATTHEW – MATT (flat) HEW (fell {chop down})
26 Resurrection is covered by bible class (4)
RISE – IS in (covered by) RE (bible class)
27 Sort of parish post (10)
PASTORSHIP – anagram of (sort of) PARISH POST – &lit
Down
1 Roll in bunk making howling noises (6)
BLOOPS – LOOP (roll) in BS (bunk {bullshit}) – howling sounds on a soundtrack or made by a radio (Chambers)
2 Part of production staff (3)
ROD – hidden in (part of) ‘pRODuction’
3 Playing a sport is no life for a qualified geek (2,12)
IT PROFESSIONAL – anagram (playing) of A SPORT IS NO LIFE
4 Government’s lost cause – moderation? (6,4)
GOLDEN MEAN – I cannot see this being G (government) OLDEN (lost) MEAN (cause) because I haven’t been able to justify the synonyms to my satisfaction. One of the definitions for ‘golden mean’ in Chambers, and elsewhere, is ‘moderation’ and it also means “the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency” so perhaps the ‘lost cause’ is a government’s inability to achieve this.
5 Regularly fails to register (4)
ALTO – [f]A[i]L[s] (regularly fails) TO
7 Awful slum, one – without question – needing a quiet drink (5,6)
LEMON SQUASH – anagram (awful) of SLUM ONE around (without) Q (question) A SH (quiet)
8 US farmers went to collect new award given by yours truly (8)
RANCHMEN – RAN (went) around (to collect) N (new) CH (award given) ME (yours truly)
9 Force floodgate open to create buoyancy? (4-4,6)
FEEL-GOOD FACTOR – anagram (open) of FORCE FLOODGATE
13 Boss curiously needs to fill in one’s application? (11)
STUDIEDNESS – STUD (boss) anagram (curiously) of NEEDS in (to fill in) I’S (one’s)
15 Possibly a slave of female porn, this could turn pink (10)
ANTHERSMUT – ANT (possibly a slave) HER (of female) SMUT (porn) – a fungus (Ustilago violacea) causing a disease affecting plants of the carnation and pink family, in which the anthers produce the fungus spores instead of pollen. (Chambers)
17 Fast car requires care when reversing over street (8)
DRAGSTER – REGARD (care) reversed around (over) ST (street)
19 Mature wife’s pierced body (4,2)
GROW UP – W (wife) in (‘s pierced) GROUP (body)
22 She demands sex in trailer that’s turned up (4)
DIVA – VI (sex) in AD (trailer) reversed (turned up)
25 First signs of hair under her … what? (3)
HUH – H[air] U[nder] H[er] (first signs of hair under her)
25dn is a little risqué or is it my mind that thinks so?
Anyway, I came to ask whether the clue will not be an improvement with a dash after the ellipsis.
I say this because the statement up to ellipsis is by one and the redound ‘What?’ is by another. In fact, I would expect it to be ‘What?” (with an initial capital).
Gaufrid, I parsed 4dn the same way as you with identical reservations.
I found this puzzle very tricky and was more than happy when I got the congratulatory message after I entered my LOI, ANTHERSMUT, from the wordplay. It also took me a long time to see BLOOPS and ALAR. I thought 16ac and 18ac were excellent clues, and I was surprised by how much I actually knew about the themed clues and answers despite having only a passing interest in the subject.
Definitely a challenge from Anax today, but an enjoyable one.
T think 4d is simply as you suggest G + OLDEN + MEAN. I take LOST in terms of a LOST or bygone/olden civilisation’ Chambers Thesaurus gives cause as a synonym for MEAN
Beaten again. Anthersmut and alar both unknown to me but enjoyed the rest if it. Several really lovely clues. Another here who parsed 4D just as you did, which I thought was fine.
Re 6a ALAR. It was the def. ‘dangerous chemical’, that was new to me. This word appears frequently in US non-cryptic puzzles with the def. ‘relating to a wing’.
Fine stuff and quite a few smiles as anagrams fell out. 3d as one I can relate to the surface 🙂
Thanks Gaufrid and Anax.
Just about managed this one, and enjoyed it. I still find this setter tough, but he’d put enough accessible stuff in here to enable me to get going, which is a help. I didn’t mind the religious theme, although I’m of the same persuasion as Gaufrid. I thought REIMS CATHEDRAL was a good clue, and also smiled at DIVA. Got the MOSQUE bit of 16ac, but needed all the crossing letters to work out the rest of the anagram.
People working in IT are geeks? Noooo … balanced, sociable and all-round top people. Except if you’re stuck on a train with one for three hours. Or, as the old joke goes, and with apologies to flashling:
Q: What’s an IT professional’s usual form of contraception?
A: His personality.
Thanks to S&B.
As an IT professional, I must admit to a raising of the hackles at 3 down. I demand that the same treatment be meeted out to other professions – how about qualified bores for accountants or professional liars for politicians ? Although we might already have had that last one…
This was on the edge of my solving limits with a few too many words that were either obscure or used obscure definitions (such as bloops for howling on radios – don’t we all have DAB now?) Anthersmut was my LOI – the big problem there was thinking that the “female porn” was “her SM” (her S&M) and it was only after I’d discounted all other vowels as the penultimate letter that the penny dropped.
Thanks for a top blog Gaufrid and to all for your comments.
I hope no-one really took offence at ‘geek’. There was a time, I’m sure, when the term would have been classified as ‘banter’, but in recent years it’s become rather complimentary – in fact fashionistas regard geek chic as very much an in thing.
23A Thanks to Anax and Gaufrid, defeated by 15D, although I thought it must end in “SMUT”, couldn’t find the word even in an on-line search.
Gaufrid, I don’t see the problem with 23A unless, as it seems, you want to treat it as an &lit that just fails due to the word “opening”. I suppose Anax could have used “of” instead of “opening”, but the former is imprecise and the latter assists the wordplay.
Thanks again to both.
Sorry, I’m being very thick here and I’m sure it’s obvious, but VI For ‘sex’ in 22? I’ve come across IT for ‘sex’ before, but can’t work out VI. Despite Kathryn’s Dad@7 comments, maybe anax was being doubly complimentary in describing the abilities of 3d’s!
Hi gwep @ 10
I didn’t have a problem with 23ac, in fact it was one of the clues that I ticked. I was merely pointing out that the excellent surface wasn’t exactly correct according to the relevant gospel.
Hi Wordplodder @11
We have had it several times in recent months, which is why I didn’t spell it out in the blog, but ‘sex’ is the Latin for ‘six’ or, in Roman numerals, VI.
Beautiful puzzle.
I have to say this is first puzzle in 2014 (Indie or Guardian) where a clue has defeated me. Twice!! To wit – ‘alar’ and ‘anthersmut’. Like the hackneyed buses, I’m now expecting a third.
I wonder whether Anax has a scientific (botanical) background….?
Sorry very late response. Thanks for taking the trouble to reply Gaufrid. Yes, I was doubly thick in not being able to work out VI and for not having remembered that I’ve seen it at least once before in the last few months.
BTW, I really loved ANTHERSMUT. Some true words are much more outlandish than any neologism one might dream up!
Thanks Gaufrid for standing in for us! We are glad that you managed to blog an Anax puzzle!
The religious theme was a bit alien to us even though we were in a devout Buddhist region when we were solving the puzzle!
Anyway thanks also to Anax for another good challenge!
In taking the i paper this is the worst crossword I have ever tried to do. Only for the experts, not one for a national paper.for the general readership. If this was the norm I will go back the Dandy
I agree with the tortoise, some of the parsing of these clues was tortuous and impenetrable. The type of crossword which used to give them a bad name and which I thought we had hopefully seen the back of
I agree with Guinness Mick and the tortoise. Birmingham has a cathedral but it is not a “cathedral city” as it was granted city status for different reasons.