Apologies for the delay in publication of the blog – enjoy!…
The preamble states that: “The unclued lights are linked to the title, two using the same thematic content.”
Madrigal produced a previous ‘What’s in a name’ puzzle a while back (before we started blogging the Spectator here) where the unclued lights were linked to constituent parts of MAD-RIG-AL.
This is a different treatment – after getting as much solved as I could, and (I am not ashamed to admit) after some liberal use of pattern-matching dictionary functionality, I finally twigged that the unclued lights all seemed to contain a capital city – CA_BERNE-T, JUBA-TE, etc. With BERN and BERNE using the ‘same thematic content‘ from the preamble, as I think they are the Swiss and French versions of the same place(?)
I came unstuck on 30A, originally entering DANDELION before I had solved 30D, and then settling on MANDYLION, and failing to see any capital in there. So a DNF for me, but I spotted, when I was writing up the blog, that there is an alternative spelling of the same word – MANDILION – which contains Dili, the capital of East Timor!
My thanks (with a grrrrr!) to Madrigal for a ‘capital’ puzzle! And I trust all is clear below…
** Update – thanks to Caran in the comments below for pointing out: What’s in a name? MAD-RIGA-L!!!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 11 | COMBATANTS | Search volunteer army among workers’ opponents (10)
COMB (search) + A_NTS (workers) around TA (Territorial Army, volunteer army) |
||
| 13 | NUMBS | Omitting king from good book stupefies (5)
NUMB( |
||
| 14 | CLOTH CAP | Sails outdo symbol of the working class? (5,3)
CLOTH (sails) + CAP (out do) |
||
| 17 | LEEWARD | Entice fish back to the sheltered side (7)
DRAW (entice) + EEL (fish), all back = LEEWARD |
||
| 18 | HORSIER | More equine shows after removing a problematic presenter initially from Repair Shop broadcast (7)
subtractive anagram. i.e. broadcast, of RE( |
||
| 19 | OSTENSIVE | Clearly demonstrating event is so misplaced (9)
anag, i.e. misplaced, of EVENT IS SO |
||
| 22 | HAD | Ate fish with head removed (3)
( |
||
| 23 | ORGASM | Soldiers’ garrulous talk heading for MOD release? (6)
OR (Other Ranks, soldiers, not officers) + GAS (garrulous talk) + M (heading, or first letter, of MOD) |
||
| 24 | EROTIC | Splitting compensation for turning blue (6)
ER_IC (blood fine, compensation) around (split by) OT (to, or for, turning) |
||
| 26 | IFS | Institute for Fiscal Studies provides conditions (3)
the Institute for Fiscal Studies is often reduces to IFS, in lower case, ifs, multiple conditions |
||
| 32 | ANISEED | Cordial one is found in poverty (7)
A (one) + N_EED (poverty) around IS |
||
| 33 | TUGBOAT | One on the water, mammal eats nothing after stomach upset (7)
TUG (gut, stomach, upset) + B_AT (mammal) around (eating) O (zero, nothing) |
||
| 36 | INTENDED | At home, nursed fiancé (8)
IN (at home) + TENDED (nursed) |
||
| 37 | KNEES | These joints reportedly make a sudden expiration (5)
homophone, i.e. reportedly – KNEES (these joints) can sound like NEESE, or NEEZE (sneeze, or sudden expiration) |
||
| 39 | GOD DAY | Edmund’s greeting is merry when rum is drunk (3,3)
G_AY (merry) around (drinking) OD_D (rum) |
||
| 40 | BUSTARDS | These birds might lead you to sard? (8)
a cryptic clue for ‘sard’ might be BUST ARDS! |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
||
| 2 | ACUTEST | Broadcasting a snooker challenge perhaps is most shrewd (7)
homophone, i.e. broadcasting – a snooker challenge might be A CUE TEST, which can sound like ACUTEST, most shrewd |
||
| 3 | EMBOWER | Give protection to one in parliament briefly adopted by leaderless MP (7)
( |
||
| 4 | NAMERS | They term bad manners heartless (6)
subtractive anagram or MAN( |
||
| 5 | TALK | Peel stems discourse (4)
( |
||
| 7 | UTTERERS | Speakers head off those covering toast perhaps (8)
those covering toast might be ( |
||
| 9 | TEASELS | Ultimately florist stands display plants (7)
T (ultimate letter of florisT) + EASELS (stands) |
||
| 10 | EXPERIMENTISTS | Testers’ questionable premises in text (14)
anag, i.e. questionable, of PREMISES IN TEXT |
||
| 12 | SHASH | Former band’s meaty dish lacks taste (5)
SHASH( [shash being a former spelling of sash, or band] |
||
| 15 | OBOE | Stop vessel before terminal (4)
OBO (oil tanker, vessel) + E (terminal letter of beforE) [oboe being an organ stop, of the same tone as the instrument, oboe…] |
||
| 16 | RETROFITTED | Modified Benedetti forte requires sampling on reflection (11)
reversed hidden word, i.e. ‘sampling’ and ‘on reflection’, in ‘beneDETTI FORTE Requires’ [great hiding of word!] |
||
| 20 | IDEA | Thought middleman is appearing occasionally (4)
occasional letters of ‘mIdDlEmAn’ |
||
| 21 | VEIN | Report thoughtless streak (4)
homophone, i.e. reported – VEIN (streak) can sound like VAIN (thoughtless) |
||
| 25 | RUN INTO | Two leading members of Trade Union unexpectedly meet (3,4)
anag, i.e. unexpectedly, of TR (two leading letters of TRade) + UNION |
||
| 27 | ALBANIA | Country introducing prohibition as German leaves for another? (7)
AL( |
||
| 28 | GOATEED | Vigorously attack returning comedian Jack, bearded (7)
GO AT (vigorously attack) + EED (Jack DEE, comedian, returned) |
||
| 29 | ISLET | One’s rent is key (5)
IS (one’s) + LET (rent) |
||
| 30 | MEND | Cobble a city lying lost (4)
MEND( |
||
| 31 | DUPERS | Tricksters upset prudes (6)
anag, i.e. upset, of PRUDES |
||
| 34 | WEBB | Cliff’s original name is a fabrication reportedly (4)
homophone, i.e. reportedly – Cliff Richards’ original name is Harry WEBB, which sounds like WEB, or fabrication |
||
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet“.
Then we have ROMEO in the grid. Haha, clearly a Romeo and Juliet theme! But, no.
Oh well, that rabbit hole delayed me for a while, but otherwise straightforward with a bit of Googling to confirm DILI, JUBA, LOME and APIA.
I had BERN and BERN as simple repetition, but BERNE may be the intended thematic content. We will see on Thursday.
Thanks as always for the blog mc_rapper and to Madrigal for the challenge.
I enjoyed this., but didn’t find it particularly challenging at any point.I think the title impressed me more – the What’s In A Name being Mad RIGA l.
Good spot re the title, Caran, completely missed that.
Thanks, Jay.I admit I saw it only the day after I’d done the puzzle!
Good spot, Caran! Have added an update…
Our last one in was OBOE but only because it was the only word that fitted. A relief now to find it correct and the reason.
We have only come across this part of the site recently and it is most welcome as we regularly struggle with some of the parsing.
We always do the Spectator puzzle on its final weekend. That way we have a good chance to remember the puzzle 3 days later when this explanation appears, instead of a couple of weeks after as would be the case if we did it straight away.
I believe there are at least two errors in the solution published in the Spectator today. Ostentive/Namert for Ostensive/Namers, and Experimentises for Experimentists. Also, in 37A, how does Knees become Sneeze? I have seen Snee defined as street slang for a joint (i.e. marijuana cigarette, derived from sneezeweed), which would make a better fit.
OldGerry, in 37 A Knees sounds very like Neeze, or Neese, a sneeze, sudden expiration.
Thanks, Caran at #8 – yes, 37A is a homophone-type clue, as per the parsing in the blog.
Old Gerry at #7 – we have no editorial relationship with or control over the Spectator, so any complaints about publication errors should be directed to them.
I do however have control over the animated grid above, and I have just noticed that I put EXPERIMENTERSS rather than EXPERIMENTISTS, making KNEES KNEER, so my apologies for that – the blog was late and a bit of a rush, so sloppy on my part…if I get the time I might try and fix it…
mc_rapper #9, sorry about repeating your homophone information for 37 A. I obviously didn’t retain that from Tuesday , and yesterday looked only at the latest comments.
PS As an unobservant person, I would probably not have noticed your typos in the animated grid.
mc_rapper #9 – I didn’t imagine you had any control over Spectator errors – sorry if you thought I was complaining. I was merely pointing out to what I thought would be an interested (and possibly surprised) audience an unusual phenomenon, as one might remark upon a double rainbow or a sympathetic tax officer. I shan’t bother you again.
Couldn’t finish this. My best guess was that there was going to be an unclued answer to represent every letter of Madrigal – I had Romeo for R and Hibernia (=Ireland) for I…
… but in the end there were too many unchecked letters, in the absence of a bolt of inspiration. Well done to those who solved it.