Scorpion is this week’s occupier of the Thursday slot, although I am more accustomed to seeing his work appear on Tuesdays.
I thought this was pitched at the right level for a mid-week cryptic, being neither too easy nor too hard. I scoured the perimeter and the completed grid for a theme and/or Nina, but I didn’t spot anything. I do not particularly like this grid, since it contains an abundance of 6-, 7- and 8-letter words, with no really short or long entries to add variety.
The toughest part of the puzzle for me was the SE quadrant, where I made the mistake of entering ALBERT at 26, with “alert” for “reminder”. Once I had realised and corrected my mistake, I solved 17 and then 24 from its wordplay, since the entry itself was unfamiliar to me.
My favourite clues today were 1, for its surface and misdirection; 24, for its use of Argos as Greek location and/or UK catalogue shop; and 27, for its surface.
(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 08 | LASAGNE | Dish with beef perhaps Neal spilt around sink
SAG (=sink, drop, as verb) in *(NEAL); “spilt” is anagram indicator |
| 09 | RIDING | Type of boot makes loud noise disturbing doctor
DIN (=loud noise) in RIG (=doctor, fix e.g. results of elections) |
| 10 | STREET | Somerset community elder perhaps occupies empty seat
TREE (=elder perhaps) in S<ea>T (“empty” means all but first and last letters are dropped) |
| 11 | ORINOCO | Womble circles, collecting rubbish primarily in front third of Common
{[R<ubbish> (“primarily” means first letter only) + IN] in O O (=circles, i.e. 2 x letter “o”)} + CO<mmon> (“first third” means first 2 of 6 letters only are used); Orinoco is one of the Wombles in the children’s books by Elisabeth Beresford and their TV adaptation |
| 12 | MAMMA MIA | Relative twice joined Tina, regularly selecting Abba song
MAM MAM (=relative; “twice” means x 2) + <t>I<n>A (“regularly” means alternate letters only) |
| 13 | EUSTON | No time to meet girl around railway station
NO + T (=time) + SUE (=girl, i.e. girl’s name): “around” indicates (full) reversal |
| 14 | SPARE | Water source soldier’s not required
SPA (=water source) + RE (=soldier, i.e. Royal Engineer) |
| 16 | CANDY | Loo duly vacated, revealing drug
CAN (=loo, lav) + D<ul>Y (“vacated” means all but first and last letters are dropped); candy is any hard drug, e.g. cocaine |
| 21 | BRUGES | Black wig one’s half-exposed somewhere in Belgium
B (=black) + RUG (=wig, colloquially) + <on>E’S (“half-exposed” means only half the letters are used) |
| 23 | SARACENS | Competition’s boring without English RU team
RACE (=competition) in SANS (=without, in French) |
| 25 | WINSTON | Succeed with poser, essentially having to name Orwell character
WIN (=succeed) + <po>S<er> (“essentially” means middle letter only) + TO + N (=name); Winston Smith is the main character in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four |
| 26 | EUCHRE | Royal husband given reminder about card game
ER (=royal, i.e. Elizabeth Regina) + H (=husband) + CUE (=reminder); “about” indicates (full) reversal |
| 27 | TANNER | Much of Roman emperor seen on bronze coin from the past
TAN (=bronze, e.g. in the sun) + NER<o> (=Roman emperor; “much of” means last letter dropped) |
| 28 | MADEIRA | On reflection, varied amount when cutting cake
Reversed (“on reflection”) and hidden (“when cutting”) in “vARIED AMount” |
| Down | ||
| 01 | FLAT CAP | Headwear’s better with uniform
FLAT (=uniform, even) + CAP (=better, surpass) |
| 02 | ESTEEM | High value letter put alongside tees in Scrabble?
*(TEES) + EM (=letter, of alphabet); “in Scrabble” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | EGG TIMER | Gadget peripherally used during cooking regime?
G<adge>T (“peripherally” means outer letters only are used) in *(REGIME); “cooking” is anagram indicator |
| 04 | MEN-O-WAR | Ships today active in French sea
[NOW (=today) + A (=active)] in MER (=French sea, i.e. the French word for “sea”) |
| 05 | ERMINE | Carnivore taking head off rats etc with minimum of effort
<v>ERMIN (=rats etc; “taking head off” means first letter dropped) + E<ffort> (“minimum of” means first letter only) |
| 06 | ADDORSED | Notice retired male staff placed back to back
AD (=notice, advert) + DORSED (DES=male, i.e. Desmond, man’s name + ROD=staff; “retired” indicates reversal); addorsed is a term used in heraldry |
| 07 | ON TOP OF | In addition to running surgery, upper-class type mostly travels around
ON (=running) + [OP (=surgery) in TOF<f> (=upper-class type; “mostly” means last letter dropped)] |
| 15 | PAGANINI | Old musician’s sandwiches have extremely appetising filling
A<ppetisin>G (“extremely” means first and letters only) in PANINI (=sandwiches); the reference is to Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) |
| 17 | AIRHEADS | Whiff nuts and lemons
AIR (=whiff, smell) + NUTS (=heads, colloquially) |
| 18 | GROW-BAG | One helps budding graduate after terraced property in edges of Goring
[ROW (=terraced property) + BA (=graduate)] in G<orin>G (“edges of” means first and last letter only) |
| 19 | TSUNAMI | Wave at nursing students northbound on motorway
TSUNA (NUS (=students) in AT; “northbound” indicates vertical reversal) + M1 (=motorway) |
| 20 | ON TRIAL | Oscar runs through Latin, randomly being tested
O (=Oscar, in radio telecommunications) + [R (=runs) in *(LATIN)]; “randomly” indicates anagram |
| 22 | SATURN | Heavenly body modelled to make money, we hear
SAT (=modelled) + homophone (“we hear”) of “earn” (=to make money) |
| 24 | COCHIN | Character from Argos impregnates party hen
CHI (=character from Argos, i.e. letter of Greek alphabet) in CON (=party, i.e. Conservative); a cochin is a large feathery-legged domestic hen |
Against 27a, we have: NER (=Roman emperor; “much of” means first letter dropped). You meant to say “last letter”‘ didn’t you?
Thanks RR, made exactly the same error with Albert.
26ac caused me problems too; I had the crossing letters and all I could think of was ESCORT. Why, even if escort = husband, it should be royal I had no idea, and of course I couldn’t parse it. Then EUCHRE surfaced from my subconscious but even then it took a while to see the parsing. And I needed the blog to understand some of the other parsings, particularly SARACENS where I took ‘English’ to be part of the wordplay referring to the E in the answer. But I’d agree this was pitched about the right level for the customary Thursday challenge.
Thanks, Scorpion and RatkojaRiku
I enjoyed the puzzle but I confess I was a little surprised it didn’t have the obvious theme. If I had ever come across ADDORSED before I had forgotten it, and I was grateful for its reasonably clear wordplay. I musat have been on Scorpion’s wavelength today because I had no trouble with any of the parsings.
Thanks for spotting the mistake, Rishi, now corrected 😉
In the end the bottom right corner defeated me (I was out this evening, but I don’t think I would have completed it even with more time).
Seems to me there was an anti-theme. The first words of 14ac and 16ac were Water and Loo, 8ac was a beef dish that wasn’t beef Wellington, 9ac was a boot but not a Wellington boot. 12ac was an Abba song, but not Waterloo, similarly 13ac a London station, but not Waterloo. 21ac was a place in Belgium, but not Waterloo. Any others?
Well spotted, Dormouse @6. I’ve seen such a thing before, and never would have done this time either.
I can add that Wellington is a town in Somerset (10a), there’s a Womble called Wellington (11a), and there’s a Waterloo FC rugby union team (23a). Looks like there must be connections in all the across clues.
Oops, make that “never seen”. And Loo, for the card game (26a). And of course, much respect to Scorpion for the excellent construction and successful double bluff!
Brilliant – so original. Thanks Scorpion and thanks to RR and Dormouse for spotting the connection.
There’s a Napoleon cake and coin for the connections in the last two across clues.
Oh well done, that Dormouse (clearly not sleeping on the job!). I have to confess I was a little disappointed by the celerity at which this fell given it’s a Thursday puzzle…. But now I see the sparkle – well, more fool me for lack of faith and not looking further.
There’s something to be said for solving – and visiting fifteensquared – late; just like Dac’s second April fool Nina, I wonder how many prompter callers missed some joy?
So a hearty congratulations to Scorpion (and appreciation for RR’s dutiful work)
I spotted the Napoleon ones as I was getting ready for bed last night, but resisted the temptation to fire up the computer to add them. I will add that Napoleon is a card game and a character in Animal Farm. I did the latter for O-level, so I should have remembered that. (I didn’t know the rugby team.)18
It’s odd, I usually don’t spot themes, but as soon as I got 12 and 13ac, very early on, I spotted the anti-theme. Not sure what this says about my mental processes.
B&J @9, thanks for filling in those blanks. Given those, I’ll change my opinion to Nap for the card game. That means the clues are actually in order too: 4 WELLINGTONs at the north, 5 WATERLOOs in the middle, and 4 NAPOLEONs in the south.
Of course, geographically, it should have been Waterloo at the top. Wellington’s forces were deployed south of Waterloo, and Napoleon was south of him. (Visited the battlefield a few years ago and was most disappointed that Waterloo doesn’t have a station. Had to get of at Braine L’Alleud and walk to the battlefield.)