Hob’s definitely a setter that I find to be towards the more challenging end of the spectrum, but no less enjoyable for it.
This was a remarkably well put together puzzle, positively bursting with thematic material, and thankfully not the predictable 4th of July stuff that some papers went with.
I won’t list all the thematic bits here because you’ve spotted them already, including the peripheral Nina of EAT ME SHRINKS and DRINK ME GROWS and the rather nice double occurrence of CURIOUSER.
9 down still has me beaten, though I think the entry is clear enough, and I’m still a bit wobbly on 10 across.
| Across | ||
| 6 | DISALLOW | Say no to girl that’s 13, not 10 (8) |
| DI + SALLOW, the latter of which comes from [io]WAN. | ||
| 8 | ALTERS | 2 Diamonds discarded – outcome of rest changes (6) |
| AL[ice] + REST*. | ||
| 10 | ROOT | Starting point of book, by opening to rabbit hole (4) |
| I was a little tentative here. My best guess is that it’s R[abbit] + O + OT. I’ve not seen O clued as “hole” before but can sort of see it, and the Old Testament is usually considered to be books, plural. Maybe I’ve misunderstood anyway. | ||
| 11 | CONEY | Firm desire to go back after that rabbit (5) |
| CO + YEN<. | ||
| 12 | NIGH | Near darkness – no time to be seen (4) |
| NIGH[t]. | ||
| 13 | IOWAN | 10 to 1 broadcast for statesman (5) |
| 10 + homophone of “one”, though I imagine we’ll have the usual grumbles about how you don’t pronounce it like that in some specific accent or other. | ||
| 15 | CURIOUSER | More interested in bric-a-brac addict? (9) |
| CURIO + USER. | ||
| 18 | NEEDFUL | Dancing nude with elf, it’s essential (7) |
| (NUDE + ELF)*. | ||
| 19 | CEMBALI | Doctor entertained by 2 playing harpsichords (7) |
| MB in ALICE*. My last one in due to unfamiliarity. The wordplay was clear enough though. | ||
| 22 | KILOLITRE | Volume condensed into trickle (9) |
| Slightly odd one. The abbreviated or “condensed” version of KILOLITRE is KL, found in [tric]KL[e]. | ||
| 24 | ALIGN | Straighten a queue, say (5) |
| Homophone of “a line”. | ||
| 28 | UNMET | Not satisfied by Uncut’s content? Replace it with another music mag (5) |
| NME in U[ncu]T. | ||
| 29 | LEAK | Number one veg, reportedly (4) |
| Homophone of “leek”. | ||
| 30 | EMPIRE | Space probe started to anger group of countries under one ruler (6) |
| EM + P[robe] + IRE. | ||
| 31 | LIE-ABEDS | No larks, ordered Ed and Isabel (3-5) |
| (ED + ISABEL)*. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | EAST | At first, 2 set out in this direction (4) |
| (A[lice] + SET)*. | ||
| 2 | ALICE | After a piece of cake, no longer small – 15 and 17, she said (5) |
| A + [s]LICE. | ||
| 3 | TWIN-TUB | Tweedledum (or Tweedledee?) Save up for a washing machine (4-3) |
| TWIN + BUT<. My washing machine quite literally exploded last weekend. It was most unnerving. | ||
| 4 | MANY-SIDED | Crazy about Disney’s animation showing lots of faces (4-5) |
| DISNEY* in MAD. | ||
| 5 | ETON MESS | Most seen baked dessert (4,4) |
| (MOST SEEN)*. | ||
| 7 | ISOTOPE | One’s nothing to drink that might be radioactive (7) |
| 1‘S + 0 + TOPE. | ||
| 9 | ROGUE | Knave of Hearts in tarts story, fit to be beheaded (5) |
| No idea. | ||
| 14 | AUDIO | Sound of car wheel? (5) |
| AUDI (car) + O (looks a bit like a wheel). | ||
| 16 | UMBEL | Bit of a bloomer from stupid topless model, missing second day (5) |
| [d]UMB + [mo][d]EL. “Bloomer” as in “something that blooms”, in other words a flower. | ||
| 17 | CURIOUSER | Stranger wrecked our cruise (9) |
| (OUR CRUISE)*. | ||
| 20 | LAGGARD | Haul girl up who’s falling behind (7) |
| (DRAG + GAL)<. | ||
| 21 | TREMOLO | Lot more quavers in this musical effect (7) |
| (LOT MORE)*. | ||
| 23 | I-BEAM | Girder builder erected, starting in early morning according to Cheshire Cat’s statement? (1-4) |
| Quite a bit going on here. There’s I BEAM, as in grin, as in like a Cheshire Cat, but then you’ve also got B[uilder] E[rected] in 1AM | ||
| 25 | STREW | Scatter a little rosemary in casserole (5) |
| R[osemary] in STEW. | ||
| 27 | SWIG | Drink shorts with ice? Gin, primarily (4) |
| S[horts] W[ith] I[ce] G[in]. | ||
| 29 | LABS | Where scientists prove fat’s not fine (4) |
| [f]LAB‘S. I suspect scientists may object to this one, we’ll see. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
ROGUE: hearts in taRts stOry + (a)gue
A curiously disjointed anniversary tribute – 1865 was the date of publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 4 July was the date of the original boat-trip when it was narrated, but in 1862!
Well I never. Thanks, Phi. I wondered if there were some sort of date relevance, but gave up searching after ruling out things like Lewis Carroll’s birth/death dates etc.
I think this is an instant classic. Carroll would surely have loved it.
Very enjoyable indeed. I saw the possibility of the nina and it definitely helped me finish this puzzle a lot faster than a Hob puzzle usually takes me. KILOLITRE was my LOI. I parsed ROGUE the same way Phi did, and I agree with the parsing of ROOT in your blog Simon.
Great stuff, though I couldn’t quite follow the King’s advice (Begin at the beginning, go on till you come to the end, then stop) as I needed a couple of passes to complete the grid.
Re 10ac, Taking the Bible as a single book (“The Good Book”) rather than a series of books, the OT can be considered as the starting point.
Spotted the theme/nina for once, which helped to finish off the last few entries.
Thanks, Hob and Simon
Thanks, allan_c. Reading that clue again, I’m struck by just how good the surface is within the context of the theme. Terrific work from Hob, all told.
Isn’t 10a simply a cryptic definition of what Alice trips over when she falls down the hole at the start of the book?
Hooray! I spotted the nina soon enough to help me finish the puzzle! Spotted ninas are rarer than striped unicorns round here. Great puzzle, fine blog, thanks!