A super puzzle, and not an easy one. Thank you Gozo.
Gozo puzzles are always both themed and educational, and today we have Geography again. All the answer are the names of places or rivers. By various fortunate coincidences I knew all the places named, but I can imagine non-UK solvers would struggle without the aid of Wikipedia.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LOMOND | Wise king therefore left daughter on loch (6) |
| soLOMON (wise king) missing SO (therefore) then D (daughter) | ||
| 4 | BALMORAL | Healing ointment spoken of at castle (8) |
| BALM (healing ointment) and ORAL (spoken of) | ||
| 9 | MINERA | Remain around township near Wrexham (6) |
| REMAIN* anagram=around | ||
| 10 | ANGLESEY | Island off Senegal, unknown (8) |
| anagram (off) of SENEGAL and Y (unknown, maths) | ||
| 11 | SURREY | Posh car came in. Yes! Reversed into coach in county (6) |
| U (posh) RR (Rolls Royce, posh car) inside (came in) YES reversed – two definitions | ||
| 12 | PEMBROKE | Pressure to take measure against bankrupt Welsh market town (8) |
| P (presure) with EM (measure, printing) then BROKE (bankrupt) | ||
| 13 | WEM | Call back in Shropshire town (3) |
| MEW (call) reversed (back) | ||
| 14 | OSSETT | Oil refiner backed race in Yorkshire market town (6) |
| ESSO (oil refiner) reversed (backed) then TT (race) | ||
| 17 | HAMBURG | Meat and food generally brought back to German port (7) |
| HAM (meat) and GRUB (food, generally=slang) reversed (brought back) | ||
| 21 | EUROPE | Lands a part in amateur opera (6) |
| found in amatEUR OPEra | ||
| 25 | DEE | Tailless stag on celebrated salmon-fishing river (3) |
| DEEr (stag, tailless) | ||
| 26 | CALVADOS | Two states having parties for department (8) |
| CAL (california) and VA (Virginia) having DOS (parties) – department of France | ||
| 27 | BRUGES | Little brother, initially uncertain, gets time off in Belgian city (6) |
| BR (brother, little=abbr) then Uncertain (initial letter of) and GEtS missing T (time) | ||
| 28 | LEINSTER | Tin reels sorted in province (8) |
| anagram (srted) of TIN RELS – provice of Ireland | ||
| 29 | KILLIN | Eastender’s murder in village on Loch 15 (6) |
| KILLIN’ (murder, east London accent) | ||
| 30 | SYRACUSE | Grant’s returned to employment at Sicilian port (8) |
| CARY’S (Grant’s) reversed with USE (employment) | ||
| 31 | MALAWI | Note about a statute in African country (6) |
| MI (note, music) contains (about) A LAW (statute) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LIMASSOL | Capital’s got the sun in Cyprus (8) |
| LIMA’S (capital’s) with SOL (the sun) – city in Cyprus | ||
| 2 | MONTROSE | Royal burgh and resort churlish about conservationists (8) |
| MOROSE (churlish) containing (about) NT (National Trust, conservationists) | ||
| 3 | NARBERTH | Runs into the barn, drunk, in 12’s county (8) |
| R (runs) inside (THE BARN)* anagram=drunk – a town in Pembrokeshire (12’s county) | ||
| 5 | ARNHEM | Ran around edge of Dutch city (6) |
| RAN* anagram=around then HEM (edge) | ||
| 6 | MALIBU | Amateur politician blocking letter in West Coast resort (6) |
| A (amateur) LIB (Liberal, politician) inside (blocking) MU (Greek letter) | ||
| 7 | ROSTOV | Russian town having roots around Volga, originally (6) |
| ROOTS* anagram=around and Volga (originally, first letter of) | ||
| 8 | LEYDEN | Field study in Dutch city (6) |
| LEY (field) and DEN (study) | ||
| 12 | PEEBLES | Bleepers haven’t started ringing out in another royal burgh (7) |
| anagram (out) of BLEEPErS missing Ringing (starting letter of) | ||
| 15 | TAY | Another noted salmon river in west Ayrshire (3) |
| found inside wesT AYrshire | ||
| 16 | URE | Quartet regularly at Wensleydale river (3) |
| qUaRtEt (regular selection from) | ||
| 18 | GUERNICA | Oil painting of first and last halves of islands and Basque city (8) |
| GUERnsey (island, first half) and domiNICA (island, last half) – two definitions | ||
| 19 | MONGOLIA | Marks on top-class trademark raised around new country (8) |
| M (marks) then AI (A1, top class) LOGO (trademark) both reversed (raised) containing (around) N (new) | ||
| 20 | HELSINKI | Chap left to abandon one capital (8) |
| HE (chap) L (left) SINK (to abandon) I (one) | ||
| 22 | ECCLES | Book sliced in half Greater Manchester (6) |
| ECCLESiastes (book, of Bible) cut in half – town in Greater Manchester. This might have benefitted from an indication that only part of Greater Manchester is required. | ||
| 23 | ALLIER | Department one has to go round in France (6) |
| I (one) inside (with…round) ALLER (to go, French) – department of France | ||
| 24 | BARSAC | British, current holders of Rome’s art in wine-making region (6) |
| B (British) AC (current) contianing (holders of) ARS (art in Latin, Rome’s art) | ||
| 25 | DONETS | 7’s river set around river in Ukraine (6) |
| DON (Rostov’s river) and SET* anagram=around | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Not a fan of this. It is too much like general knowledge quiz.
In the end I got it all out or rather my friend Professor Google and his companion Mr Wikipedia
Thanks, PeeDee.
I’d heard of all the answers except the river in Ukraine, where the wordplay was impeccable. It was nice to be reminded of KILLIN, which I visited about thirty years ago, and I’m always glad to see my beloved Wensleydale and its river.
I particularly liked the clues for SYRACUSE, GUERNICA and BARSAC.
Many thanks, Gozo – I enjoyed the tour!
I thoroughly enjoyed this, but felt that (apart from the unhelpful grid)it wasn’t Gozo at his most wicked: if like me and Eileen you knew the place names it was a doddle; if you didn’t, but used electronic aids, it was even simpler. But thanks, Gozo, for the pleasure and your sheer panache, and PeeDee for the blog. I think this is the first time I’ve disagreed with PeeDee.
Hornbeam – maybe I should have written ‘I didn’t find it easy’ rather than ‘the puzzle was not easy’. That way we have nothing to disagree about.
Sorry but this was 0% cryptic and 100% themed + GK.
You should not have to carry an atlas around to do a proper cryptic.
Binned
This caused me a lot of work in consulting reference books, but that’s one of my favourite hobbies so I didn’t mind – it’s a good job I’m an early riser! Hadn’t heard of many of the places but the excellent wordplay meant that wasn’t a problem. Even managed to discover the theme very early on!
All in all I enjoyed the exercise, so many thanks to GOZO. Thanks too to PeeDee for the blog.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Firstly congratulations to Gozo for being able to put together a puzzle in which every answer is a part of the theme.
Am afraid that for me this came down to a bit of a slog in the end – didn’t mind the search for the various locations for the start, but it did become a little tiresome just trawling through Wiki … and in fact resorted to word finders to help get some. Funny how some odd places do stick – I always know about OSSETT for some reason – first coming across it in a Sullivan’s crossword in the 1980’s !!!
Anyway, the geography lesson came to rest in the NE corner with ANGLESEY, BALMORAL and MALIBU the last one in.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee.
I like to think that my geography is pretty good and indeed I only had to look up MINERA, ALLIER, and the river DONETS – although I suspected the latter from knowing of DONETSK.
I was also pleased to parse the particularly difficult GUERNICA and ECCLES.
My one bug bear is spelling. With foreign place names there are often a variety which can be used for a bit of fanugling – in this case I thought LEYDEN rather than LEIDEN was somewhat obscure. The Dutch spell it EI and I recall the twinning signs on the way into Oxford do too.
It brings to mind the Raymond Luxury-Yacht interview on Monty Python’s Flying Circus:
“It’s spelled Luxury-Yacht but pronounced Throat-Wobbler-Mangrove!”