If there’s one thing that is notable about a Jambazi puzzle, it is that every clue surface reading makes sense, but not necessarily one that helps solve the clue much…
… which is why I rate his puzzles as on the hard end of the scale.
So, knowing I was down to blogging this one I reserved some time to solve it “properly”.
I was delighted to make a start with the second clue read – 17/5A. This was a very satisfying anagram to crack – I remember when ‘Blondes’ appeared out of the fodder. The penny drop was great, plus the knowledge that it would deliver a handful of first letters. That didn’t help much – I got 6 OMAN on the back of it, no more. But shortly I got 16D, another clearly signalled anagram, with its quartet of first letters. The letters gained from that led to all their answers soon enough.
One of the measures I use, when I take the trouble to take note, is how many answers are left unsolved (or how few solved!) after the “First pass” of the clues. That is, when all clues are read and attempted at least once. When solving a puzzle at leisure, taking time to fiddle with anagrams and ponder synonyms, (and look up unknowns) this measure fails to reflect the puzzle’s difficulty. When I say there were (only) 10 answers to get after the “First pass” it makes it sound like it was a walk in the park. I believe that walk took a good hour, and led me down pleasurable side alleys. So I didn’t notice time slipping by.
The Bottom Right and then finally the Top Left quadrant was where the final skirmishes took place, and for some of those I need more enlightenment from the fifteensquared hive-mind.
It wasn’t until writing up the blog I realised that I’d failed to be on the lookout for a theme.
But what’s this? No theme discernible? What am I missing? I fear I’m going to be hugely embarrassed if there is one.
Help with wordplay on 9A, 2D and 5D please
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | HAMBURG | Hard in the morning? Recall good massage place (7) H[ard] A.M. G[ood] RUB< Jambazi giving the clue’s surface a reference to the place’s seamier reputation |
| 9 | NONET | Group and artist short of a line? (5) This was the last answer I entered and I still cannot see the wordplay – is there an artist whose name is “Nonet” with an L inserted somewhere? Edit: See comments: The line to add is a little extra downward line on the initial N to make an M and thus turn NONET to MONET |
| 11 | SPRINGTIDE | Bound to polish around this time of year? (10) SPRING (bound) EDIT< Reverse indicator: around. No not this time of year. I did try to make “autumntide” fit. Was this puzzle intended to appear on the other side of the Earth’s orbit? |
| 12 | SEMI | Penultimate contest from Times: its number one going back (4) [t]IMES< Sort of partial reverse hidden |
| 14 | CLOWNISHNESS | Nemo’s kind, not strong with head for stupidity (12) CLOWN[f]ISH (Nemo is a Clownfish – remove F for strong) NESS (head) |
| 18 | PALINGENESIS | Python group’s rebirth (12) PALIN (Python – in fact, everyone’s favourite Python – those that have met him that is, which is most of the world) GENESIS (group – 1970s Prog Rock. Hurray!) I won’t pretend I knew this word for rebirth before I looked it up |
| 21 | IOTA | Hint found in audiotape (4) Hidden in audIOTApe. 9th letter of Greek alphabet is the smallest, probably |
| 22 | PERCUSSION | Sunrise, cop wandering section of beat? (10) (SUBRISE COP)* AInd: wandering |
| 25 | KINESCOPE | Families manage to catch English bit on US TV (9) E[nglish] inside (catch) KINS COPE (families manage). Another I won’t pretend I knew before … “noun 1. the US name for television tube” |
| 26 | OILER | Mathematician caught ship (5) Ship that carries crude oil, homophone [Leonhard] “Euler” the Swiss mathematician and physicist. Jambazi showing he knows how Euler’s name is pronounced |
| 27 | EN MASSE | As seen cycling over motorway, collectively (2,5) (AS SEEN) with the EN shifted to the front (cycling) and M[otorway] inserted |
| 28 | EYE DROP | It might help you see doctor: ring before work? (3,4) EYE (ring – as in eye of a needle) before DR (doctor) OP (work) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | HONEST | Charlton working to go up — straight up (6) Charlton HESTON is being referenced here, with his ON (working) shifting up a few spaces |
| 2 | MANTRA | Repeated words in piece to cut corner (6) Cannot see wordplay here: What is the piece we have to cut the corner of? A Mantrap? Edit: See comments. MAN (piece, as in e.g. chess) TRA[p] (corner, as a verb, cut) |
| 3 | UNTANGLING | Releasing what’s caught? Turn fishing net (that’s empty) over (10) U (turn) ANGLING (fishing) N[e]T last two parts, ANGLING and NT, swapped (over) |
| 4/19 | GIANT KILLER | Harry, Ken, Rita, Gill and David? (5,6) (KEN RITA GILL)* AInd: Harry. I liked that clue. |
| 5 | BREADLINE | Poor family eats on _______ ? (9) Somehow the answer seems obvious with enough crossing letters. I wrote it in early on. But how does this work? We can sort of ‘fill in the blank’, or is that a “bread” line somehow? (If so I’ve got trouble trying to underline it as the Def.) Edit: See comments. BAD LINE (poor family) around (eats) RE (on). The underlining is the highly cryptic(?) def. |
| 6 | OMAN | Country girl going topless (4) [w]OMAN. I feel like I’ve seen this device recently. Second answer in! |
| 7 | DODDERED | End of routine? Sore after comedian went on (8) [Ken] DODD (comedian) before [routin]E RED (sore) That Def. “went on” seems weak for the answer – Am I missing something? |
| 8 | SEAMIEST | Main film without dialogue, ultimately is most sordid (8) SEA (main) MIST (film) around [dialogu]E |
| 13 | CHAIN STORE | Next is one from Bond Street — gold with gem in centre (5,5) CHAIN (Bond) ST[reet] OR (gold) [g]E[m] NEXT Wiki I am astonished to discover the NEXT is the largest clothing retailer by sales in the United Kingdom, having overtaken M&S in 2012 and 2014 |
| 15 | WOEBEGONE | Love through internet, as single person is sad (9) O (love) in WEB (internet) E.G. ONE (as single person is) |
| 16 | SPRINKLE | After broadcast, Perkins eats first piece of lemon drizzle (8) (PERKINS + L[emon])* AInd: broadcast. Clue surface containing allegation against @sueperkins. Is this allowed? (as ‘National Treasure’ status is burgeoning) |
| 17/5A | PLATINUM BLONDES | Women fancy Best, primarily (Man United’s poll) (8,7) (B[est] MAN UNITED’S POLL)* AInd: fancy. First answer in! |
| 20 | ENWRAP | Cover bottom of plate with prawn crackers (6) (PRAWN)* AInd: crackers, around [plat]E |
| 23/10 | CREWE ALEXANDRA | Clear earwax dislodged with end and side of match? (5,9) (CLEAR EARWAX + END)* AInd: Dislodged. Struggled with the correct fodder early on and gave up, waiting for a few crossing letters. Got it after getting the leading ‘A’ of Alexandra. Trouble was I didn’t know what I was looking for till I found it – ‘side of match’ is nicely misleading for a footie club |
| 24 | ASKS | Demands assignments without leader (4) [t]ASKS |
Thanks beermagnet and Jambazi – great blog and puzzle.
NONET becomes MONET if a line is added to the initial “N”.
B(RE)AD LINE
Re 9ac. The missing line is the one that would change N to M. Hence ‘nonet’ becomes ‘Monet’.
Ah Muffyword .. Snap!!
🙂
Many thanks for the superb blog, beermagnet. Interesting to see how you set about solving the puzzle.
John Halpern’s The Centenary of the Crossword Book* featured a competition in which lucky winners got to have a puzzle written about themselves. John asked me whether I would write a puzzle for one of his winners. I agreed but on the condition that I could send if for consideration for publication to the Indy or the Guardian. I was given details about the prize winner and his background and interests so I set about writing the puzzle in September 2014. It’s not my place to divulge the personal information but I did manage to reference quite a lot about the winner in this puzzle. The recipient seemed very pleased with the puzzle and suggested an improvement for one clue which I included. Mike kindly agreed to publish the puzzle.
Muffyword and Geebs are right about Monet. For SPRINGTIDE, I figured people “spring clean” so that seemed to fit. It is a little weak, admittedly. As Muffyword says, BREADLINE is BAD (poor) LINE (family) around (eats) RE (on): this is probably my favourite clue.
Doddered can mean “to go on” so, yes, “went on” is the definition. Ken Dodd is known for his shows going on.
My original clue for CREW ALEXANDRA featured “candle wax” but I could blend this with a neat enough definition.
Thanks again. Have a good weekend.
Neil
* available from all good bookshops (and some bad ones)
And 2dn? I still can’t see this one. Best I’ve come up with is MANTRAP being a corner, less P for pawn being a (chess) piece. A bit contrived.
2dn – I parsed it
Piece = man (in chess) and corner (verb) = trap (which is cut, losing the p)
2dn Cut ‘corner’ where corner = trap.
@Dormouse
MAN=PIECE, TRA(P)=CORNER
Of course! Nearly there. Thanks all.
I enjoyed this puzzle. My progress was slow but steady, and I would probably have been quicker had I realised how many charade clues there were. NONET was my LOI after HONEST and I couldn’t see how it was parsed so thanks for that. PALINGENESIS was unknown/unremembered but I had the GK to get it from the wordplay and checkers. At 26ac across I confidently entered EULER and didn’t revisit it until I couldn’t make 13dn work.
Lots of fun. I don’t recall finding this particularly difficult, though I do remember several pleasurable moments as the parsings dropped into place – several of those already mentioned: NONET, BREADLINE, MANTRA – and discovering the existence of PALINGENESIS.
The one clue I still had questions about was 12A – there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary padding in there, but as I look at it I’ve just realised what’s going on: Times without its number one becomes imes, which is then going back to become SEMI.
I’m the lucky winner of John Halpern’s competition for whom Jambazi created this fine puzzle (and thanks to him for his discretion in his post above, and for crediting me with improving the clue to 1dn).
The clues contain references to some of my interests outside the world of crosswords: film, particularly silent film (cf “film without dialogue” in 8d, “Sunrise” [my all-time favourite film] in 22ac, & parsing 14ac requires a familiarity with Finding Nemo);and football (my team is referred to in 17dn/5ac, & my original hometown team is the answer to 23/10. My professional career was referred to in 26ac, & my long-term participation in the Times Crossword Championship in 12ac. 4/19, as well as using my name as a definition, also includes my partner, Gill, and my late mother, Rita, who introduced me to cryptics in the mid-sixties & who would have been thrilled by this puzzle, had she lived to see it.
There are one or two references that I shall keep private – but, I hasten to add, none are in 1ac !!
I apologise to any solvers out there who felt deprived when they failed, unsurprisingly, to “spot the theme”.
Thanks to everyone for providing the mechanics of the clues I couldn’t understand, and particularly Jambazi himself and Dave Howells for looking in and explaining the deeper meaning. (At least it was a theme I could not have spotted.)