A funny one, this. I’ll be interested to see what everyone made of it.
After breezing through the NW corner, thinking this was going to be an absolute doddle, I was brought up short rather sharply by an unwarrantedly devious 16ac., an obscure allusion at 14ac. and a loosely-connected grid that, in the end, left me feeling that I’d been working at two different puzzles. No real grumbles, though – thank-you, Gozo.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SAFARI | Wild Africa’s not caught on trek (6) |
| Anagram of Africas minus c [caught] | ||
| 4 | LOBBYIST | Throw up by leading political campaigner (8) |
| Lob [throw up] by Ist [first, leading] | ||
| 9 | ENOUGH | One hug should prove sufficient (6) |
| Anagram of one hug | ||
| 10 | FLUORITE | Mineral took to the air okay, Cockney said (8) |
| Sounds like flew [took to the air] all right [okay] in Cockney | ||
| 12 | PARMESAN | Me, not I, in capital with an Italian cheese (8) |
| Me within Par(i)s an | ||
| 13 | SETTLE | Get comfortable and pay the bill (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | OWNS | Has snow melted? (4) |
| Anagram of snow | ||
| 16 | UNKEMPT | Rough on the seabed, holding nothing, containers missing (7) |
| (S)unk [on the seabed] empt(y) [holding nothing] | ||
| 20 | CAESURA | Break in line may be cause of rail accidents, initially (7) |
| Anagram of cause r(ail) a(ccidents) | ||
| 21 | ALTO | Chorister in Walton’s embrace (4) |
| Hidden in wALTOn | ||
| 25 | HOLDER | Noddy greeting lord and queen (6) |
| Ho [greeting] ld [lord] ER [Elizabeth Regina, queen] | ||
| 26 | PENTACLE | Charm for small festival made out of lace (8) |
| Pent(ecost) [festival] anagram of lace | ||
| 28 | DEMOCRAT | Politician at public protest with heartless European (8) |
| Demo [public protest] Cr(o)at [European] | ||
| 29 | CREATE | Establish academy in island setting (6) |
| A [academy] within Crete [island] | ||
| 30 | DESCANTS | Top lines of the French anthems – not hard (8) |
| Des [‘of’ in French] chants [anthems] minus h [hard] | ||
| 31 | BELT UP | “Clunk, Click – and do stop talking!” (4,2) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHEEPDOG | Triallist herding Herdwicks? (8) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 2 | FLOORING | Interminable deluge – call for lino, maybe (8) |
| Floo(d) [deluge] ring [call] | ||
| 3 | RAGGED | Worn casing of knife exchanged (6) |
| Dagger [knife] with the ‘casing’ reversed | ||
| 5 | OSLO | Some school’s out up in capital (4) |
| Hidden in reversal of schoOL’S Out | ||
| 6 | BOOZE-UPS | Catcalls heard at successes for benders (5-3) |
| Booze [sounds like boos, catcalls] ups [successes] | ||
| 7 | IDIOTS | Dictator books small chumps (6) |
| Idi [Amin, dictator] OT [Old Testament, books] s [small] | ||
| 8 | THEBES | Almost top ancient city (6) |
| The bes(t) [top] | ||
| 11 | GAYNESS | Frivolity. Yes! Having sang out! (7) |
| Anagram of yes sang | ||
| 14 | MERRIER | More tipsy right after German’s England (7) |
| Merrie [England, alluding to Edward German’s opera Merrie England] R [right] | ||
| 17 | VALENCIA | Goodbye. Can I move to city in Spain? (8) |
| Vale [goodbye] anagram of can I | ||
| 18 | BLACK ART | Baronet admits need for necromancy (5,3) |
| Lack [need] within Bart. [baronet] | ||
| 19 | HOME HELP | Carer having seat on May Day! (4,4) |
| Home [seat] help [mayday] | ||
| 22 | SHADED | Sheltered, quiet, dead worried (6) |
| Sh [quiet] anagram of dead | ||
| 23 | FLAMES | Insulting emails from your exes! (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | STARVE | Ward off consuming last bit of dinner – and suffer thus? (6) |
| (Dinne)r within stave [ward off] | ||
| 27 | OAST | Where to cook the joint right away (4) |
| (R)oast [joint] | ||
I don’t think the reference in 14 down is obscure at all, given the frequency with which setters employ it. Always makes fro a nice bit of misdirection.
It did seem to me to be two different puzzles merged – one nice and straightforward and the other half making me work a bit more.
Thanks to Gozo and Ringo too
Just as you say Ringo, an odd mix of easy and hard clues – good fun though. Thanks both Gozo and Ringo.
I had exactly the same experience as Ringo and crypticsue. Worth the effort, though, for the more obscure ones. 16ac was well worth sweating over. Thanks, Gozo and Ringo.
Thanks for the blog, Ringo. This was another puzzle of four quarters, using the same unfriendly grid as yesterday’s Aardvark, where the four corners only intersect with each other at a single letter.
I found it a bit of a slow solve, but looking through the blog, I can’t really see what the problem was. UNKEMPT was the last one in, as I had trouble parsing it, but again, with hindsight, I don’t really know why.
Thanks for the comments so far from you all. This puzzle is very much different from my traditional thematic fare which usually appears on Wednesdays. Whilst the grid may be “unfriendly” to a solver, it is a boon to the setter who wishes to compile a thematic (it is a grid which I regularly choose for my Wednesday puzzles, as the four quarters enable the theme to be easily presented throughout the across solutions.
But this time there is no obvious theme — or is there? I challenge you to discover five different guises hidden there.
Well, now that I know I’m looking for something….
I have indeed found all five of your guises, but will not spoil it for others by naming them.
Thanks for the puzzle, and to Ringo for the blog.
Well, I found only four but I am not well up on this.
Missed it (of course) whilst solving.
A mixture of easy clues and some real brain teasers of which I liked UNKEMPT (16ac) most.
I entered SHUT UP at 31ac (no-one else?) and therefore my SE became a bit of a mess.
I couldn’t find CAESURA (20ac) and I think that is because the word “of” in the clue stands in the way. It really shouldn’t break the anagram fodder in two.
I also wasn’t a big fan of the construction of PENTACLE (26ac).
No complaints about the grid [I never complain about a grid, I just solve the puzzle]. It is a grid that is very commonly used in the FT, not just a favourite of Gozo but also one of Dante’s.
Many thanks to Ringo and Gozo.
Please explain how “noddy” is a “holder”. Is it a kind of mug? Other than the friend of Big Ears, “noddy” appears to refer to a fool.
Hi Yves
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noddy_Holder
If anyone is wondering what is hidden in the grid see here… and here
Sil @8 – caesura is CAUSE* + RA so of is not breaking the anagram fodder. I agree that ‘of’ is a bit stranded though.
The word ‘of’ is “a bit stranded”?
It’s right in the middle of CAUSE and RA and shouldn’t be there.
I am quite sure Gozo doesn’t like it either, with hindsight.
If I were in a malicious mood, I would even say it’s cryptically wrong.
But I am not. 🙂
PeeDee and Sil
The “of” in 20ac made me stop for a second or two when solving.
Chambers Dictionary and some thesauruses give “with” as a possible meaning of the word “of”.
‘A man of means’ and ‘the coat of many colours’ come to mind.
I wonder if Gozo’s “of” could be justified in the cryptic reading
of this clue in a similar way?
Hi Sil,
I can’t figure out what you mean by ‘of’ being right in the middle of cause.
“Break in line may be cause of rail accidents, initially” gives
“Break in line” (the definition) then CAUSE* (anagram=may be) followed by (with, of) R A (initial letters of rail accidents). Equating ‘of’ and ‘with’ is a bit dicey, but apart form that it all seems pretty straightforward. What am I missing?
Yes, you’re right PeeDee, I saw CAUSE+RA as the anagram fodder and was blinded by it until the very end. But RA is indeed not part of the anagram.
Yet, I still do not like the use of ‘of’ at all, also not in the Mike04 way.
So, PeeDee, you’re not missing anything.
I know, of=with didn’t feel right to me either. But if it is in the dictionary then fair enough.
For 16ac, I parsed it as (b)unk for “seabed”.
I suppose that does not quite explain “on”