The first thing that struck me about this puzzle was the amount of white space amongst the clues – combined with the identity of the setter, Anax, this was enough to strike fear into the heart of the blogger: it is going to be one of those fiercely difficult prize crosswords – with short, succinct and hard to fathom clues…
On closer inspection, part of the reason for the brevity was the number of longer and combined entries – and it turned out not to be that fierce after all, although it took me a while to get going. After popping in 1 across it took an entire run through the rest of the clues – and some cherry-picking – before things started dropping in to place.
There were quite a few long/compound anagrams – TASMANIAN DEVILS, TURN A BLIND EYE TO, OPTICAL SPECTRA, (GOO)DNESS GRACIOUS ME – which were nicely clued and which, once solved, gave plenty of crossing letters to help with other entries.
The two 4-word clues at 5/6D and 12A were particularly enjoyable. I’d fitted the answer to 5/6D in from the Shakespeare reference and the enumeration well before I realised the significance of ‘play on’ – but the laugh-out-loud moment was 12A, where it took even longer to twig the double use (double entendre?!) of ‘the other’…
I couldn’t see any ninas or themes – I’m sure there’ll be plenty enough of those over the coming festive period anyway – but this was just a very enjoyable mental workout. A masterclass in clueing brevity – six clues of only 4 words, four more of just 5 – and anagrammatical fecundity…
Thanks, Anax, and a Merry Xmas/Happy New Year to you all.
(Update: There was a gremlin/Ralph at work in the paper version, I believe, as there were two clues numbered 20A…but the grid numbering seemed correct – thanks to flashling below for reminding me.)
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 1A | LOOM | John and Mike are menacing (4) | are menacing / LOO (toilet, ‘john”) + M (Mike, phonetic alphabet) |
| 4A | THIMBLEFUL | Amount of liquid retained in sewer cover (10) | &lit? / amount of liquid / a thimble, cover for a sewer (one who sews, not an underground pipe), can hold a (small) amount of liquid |
| 9A | HAIL FROM | Semi-gypsy rings one, making call home (4,4) | call (somewhere) home / HALF (semi-) plus ROM (half of Romany, gypsy), around I (one) |
| 10A | TOGGLE | Exchange goods left in part of golf club (6) | exchange / TOE (part of a golf club) around GG (good, plural) + L (left) |
| 11A | OPTICAL SPECTRA | To accept April showers, firstly fashion rainbows (7,7) | rainbows / anag (i.e. fashion) or TO ACCEPT APRIL + S (first of Showers) |
| 12A | YOUR PLACE OR MINE | Where’s the other venue? (4,5,2,4) | &lit/CD? / (dated?) chat-up line – which venue shall we use for a bit of ‘the other’? |
| 14A | TASMANIAN DEVILS | They may display lividness at a circling bloke? (9,6) | &lit? / they may display lividness / TAS—IAN DEVILS – anag (i.e. circling, or display?) of LIVIDNESS AT A – around (circling, again?) MAN (bloke) |
| 18A | BOX JELLYFISHES | Boyfriend keeping cattle stock reduced – is he beginning to stock sea creatures? (3,11) | sea creatures / BF (boyfriend, txt spk?) around OX (cattle) + JELL (stock, or jell-y, reduced), plus IS + HE + S (beginning to stock) |
| 20A | STABLE | Bishop wearing old uniform (6) | uniform / STALE (old) around B (bishop) |
| GOODNESS | /22 Song based on grunge, and in some cases drug abuse? (8 & 8,2) | song / GOO (grunge) + anag (i.e. abuse) of IN SOME CASES DRUG |
|
| GRACIOUS ME | See 21 (8,2) | see 21 / see 21 |
|
| 23A | NOCK | Score from innings, say (4) | score (as in notch) / homophone – NOCK (score, notch) sounds like KNOCK (innings, in cricket) |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
| 2D | ON APPRO | Old card game for … for testing? (2,5) | for testing (on approval) / O (old) NAP (card game) + PRO (for) |
| 3D | MILLIGRAM | Fighter boxing poorly, hit offering not much weight (9) | not much weight / MIG (fighter plane) around (boxing) ILL (poorly) + RAM (hit) |
| 4D | TURN A BLIND EYE TO | In trouble, and yet disposed to overlook (4,1,5,3,2) | overlook / anag (i.e. disposed) of IN TROUBLE AND YET |
| 5D | IF MUSIC | /6 Orsino’s play on words (2,5 & 2,3,4,2,4) | &lit/CD? / Shakespeare – quote from Orsino, followed by the words ‘…play on’ |
| 6D | BE THE FOOD OF LOVE | See 5 (2,3,4,2,4) | See 5 / |
| 7D | EIGHT | Leaderless authority? What’s next? (5) | what’s next (after 7, i.e. this clue) / (W)EIGHT (authority, without leading letter) |
| 8D | UNLEARN | Forget about Holland’s university merit (7) | forget / U (university) + NL (Holland, Netherlands) + EARN (merit) |
| 13D | MOVES IN ON | Idle nurses have wrong approaches (5,2,2) | approaches / MOON (idle, laze around) around (nursing) VE (contraction of have) + SIN (wrong) |
| 15D | ARBITER | Judge arrives, without effect (7) | judge / ARR (arrives) around (without) BITE (effect) |
| 16D | ALLEGES | Holds drinks while keeping upright (7) | holds (or claims, accuses) / ALES (drinkg) holding LEG (support, upright) |
| 17D | LOESSIC | Veins of ore without copper, thus made of clay (7) | made of clay / LO(D)ES (veins of ore, without D – penny, or copper) + SIC (thus) |
| 19D | XEBEC | Pirate ship wants location of treasure on map to lie in city (5) | pirate ship / X (marks the spot!) + EC (city) around BE (to lie) |
I did wonder a little about 20 and 20/21 and no 22. Just a setting error or something more going on?
Ah yes – I did notice that, but I just assumed it was a typo/glitch and wrote 21/22 on my working copy…then forgot to transcribe it to the blog…
I really enjoyed this. Agree about 12ac and 5/6dn and loved the anagram in 4dn. Think these are probably the definitive clues to those particular answers.
Superb puzzle. 1a went straight in and I thought I was finally onto Anax’s wavelength… no chance! 4d and 8d were particular favourites and I hope others enjoyed it as much as I did. Took me ages, but certainly well worth the time and effort! Bravo!
Many thanks for the great blog mc, and to all for your comments.
Hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year.
We completed this on the train journey back from London last Saturday. No electronic help required thank goodness!
Thanks Anax – another splendid puzzle.
Thanks mc_rapper67 for the blog!
Merry Christmas to one and all.
Nice – thanks both.
In 9a ROM alone is OK for gypsy – otherwise “semi” would be doing double duty.