It’s always a bit worrying for a blogger to see Enigmatist’s name on a puzzle, especially a Genius, but here I was lucky to spot the theme almost immediately, when I tentatively solved 18d, helped by the fact that the constellation had been an answer in a Qaos puzzle a couple of days before this one appeared (clued as “European capital holds up gold stars”). This gave RIGA as the unindicated “sequence of letters”, suggesting that these were going to be capital cities, as indeed turned out to be the case. It’s remarkable that the setter managed to find 13 suitable words, with most of the capitals being pretty well known. I’ve indicated them LIKE THIS in the answers below, and added the countries that they are capitals of. Thanks to Enigmatist.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1. | ESCAPE | Turning head, see about top issue (6) CAP (top) in ESE (SEE with its “head turned”) |
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| 4. | GO-SLOWS Norway |
Good, Devon and Cornwall overturned action (2-5) G + reverse of SW |
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| 9,23. | WHAM-BAM | Women on stage overdoing hoax savage in act (4-3) W + HAM (overdoing things on stage + BAM (a hoax – this was new to me) – a reference to the phrase “wham, bam, thank you Ma’am”, defined in Chambers as “quick impersonal sexual intercourse that brings speedy satisfaction to the male” , hence “savage in act” |
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| 10. | HIPPODROME Italy |
Circus in school (10) HIP (in, fashionable) + POD (school, of whales etc) |
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| 11. | INCA | Old ruler conspiring with night owl cries off (4) IN CA[HOOTS] |
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| 12. | CROCODILIA East Timor |
Thick-skinned types take in hot drink (10) R in COCOA |
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| 14. | INIQUITOUSLY Ecuador |
Admitted to “retro” University, one’s exhibiting cunning with wickedness (12) I in reverse of UNI, + SLY |
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| 17. | ROCKING STONE Jamaica |
Commander cracks on the subject of something finely poised (7,5) OC in RE |
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| 19. | RUSSIAN SPY | Perhaps SPECTRE agent is an oddball, wearing dodgy syrups (7,3) (IS AN)* in SYRUPS* |
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| 21. | CITY | Business centre revolutionised by ticking boxes (4) Hidden in (“boxed by”) reverse of bY TICking |
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| 22. | TIMBER-LINE Germany |
Prison sentence’s upper limit (10) TIME (prison sentence) |
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| 25. | PEEP | Leak: phosphorus beginning to appear (4) PEE (leak) + P |
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| 26. | TAMMANY Jordan |
Attempt to evacuate corrupt politicians (7) T[R]Y |
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| 27. | CAPIAS Samoa |
Order something that’s silvery-white on the table (6) CS is the chemical symbol for Caesium, a silvery-white metal |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1. | ETHANOIC Vietnam |
Sort of acid (blah, blah, blah)(8) ETC |
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| 2. | COMPARISONS France |
Day visiting Greek island? They’ll likely be drawn (11) MON in COS |
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| 3. | PAH | Way to waste time that is contemptible! (3) PATH less T |
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| 5. | OVOLO | Architectural feature’s old, very old, look! (5) O V O LO |
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| 6. | LAR | American’s apparently neutral deity (3) A “between L[eft] and R[ight]” |
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| 7. | WIMMIN | Greer’s kind in pool not making either end? (6) [S]WIMMIN[G] – though I don’t know whether Germaine Greer has ever been one to use this particular kind of feminist language. |
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| 8. | OPPORTUNISTIC Tunisia |
Calculating pair admitting love, opening whisky dispenser (13) O in PR, all in OPTIC |
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| 12. | CHUNK | $100 on head of sex god’s a sizeable wedge (5) C + HUNK |
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| 13. | ISLE OF CAPRI | “Part of Campania” is sign over football club on day of pranks (4,2,5) IS + LEO + FC + APR I (April Fools’ Day) |
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| 15. | UNSAY | Withdraw organisation with HQ in New York, perhaps (5) UN (has HQ in New York) + SAY (perhaps) |
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| 16. | HEATHENS Greece |
What lifts non-Christians? (8) Reverse of EH (“what?”) |
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| 18. | AURIGA Latvia |
Gold stars … (6) AU. Auriga is a constellation, the name meaning “charioteer”. |
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| 20. | APRON | … for separating an area, of course (5) PRO in AN. Apparent;y an apron is the name for an area next to the green on a golf course, though Chambers doesn’t give this meaning. |
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| 24. | ETA | The taxman’s covering letter (3) Hidden in thE TAxman |
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Thanks Andrew. We only realised yesterday that we hadn’t looked at the Genius. We’ve been completing the grid during the day but were stumped by 26ac, 20d and 27ac.
Our favourite was 10ac which we guessed and then parsed.
Like you, we guessed the theme after solving 18d fairly early on.
Thanks Enigmatist -.great fun!
Thanks Andrew. I also got the theme quite quickly through 18d, but it was still a tough challenge. There were a couple of cases where the theme came to my rescue as I guessed the capital from the crossers and then worked out the answer around it. Many thanks to Enigmatist.
A great crossword, however I’d just like to say, if Enigmatist reads this, that it never occurred to me that the clue for 9,23 referred to sexual violence (savage in act). The Chambers definition doesn’t and I don’t think it’s OK.
18d was also our first one in!
Unfortunately I couldn’t parse 12a, and put CROCODILIC in, though it doesn’t really work even if it was a word…
As Andrew says, for Enigmatist, this was surprisingly tractable, though still a challenge.
Did anyone else log in early in the month (2nd or 3rd?) and see a completely different puzzle?
I printed one out that had no attribution or instructions, and many of the word counts didn’t match the grid. We struggled with it a while before giving up, then checked in and found Enigmatist… Grauniad gremlins again?