A fine crossword from Neo.
This was a classic Neo puzzle, full of erudition and fun, with a little general knowledge required to complete the grid, but everything clued in such a way that even if you hadn’t heard of say O’BRIEN or ASTARTE, the wordplay and crossers left you in little doubt as to what the answer is. Someone will no doubt point out that the NATO phonetic letter for J is Juliett (with two Ts), but Juliet is prevalent in internet searches, so fair game in Crosswordland.
Thanks, Neo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | ABERDONIAN |
Old Nandi bear mauled Granite Citizen (10)
|
| *(o nandi bear) [anag:mauled] where O = old
Aberdeen is known as the Granite City because many of its buildings are made from granite, and the Nandi bear is a legendary Kenyan animal. |
||
| 9 | BALI |
Indonesian location covered in cruciverbalists (4)
|
| Hidden in [covered by] “cruciverBALIsts” | ||
| 10 | KITCHENS |
Galleys long about which 8 knows? (8)
|
| ITCH (“long”), about which KENS (“knows” in Scots, so to an ABERDONIAN (answer to 8 ac)) | ||
| 11 | EUCLID |
Suggestion backed top mathematician (6)
|
| <=CUE (“suggestion”, backed) + LID (“top”) | ||
| 12 | OAR |
Maybe stroke acceleration among men (3)
|
| A (acceleration) among OR (other ranks, so “men”) | ||
| 13 | UNCLE SAM |
Pawnbroker finally makes a million in America (5,3)
|
| UNCLE (slang for a “pawnbroker”) + [finally] (make)S + A + M (milllion) | ||
| 15 | RUBRIC |
Massage deep — not hard instructions (6)
|
| RUB (“massage”) + RIC(h) (“deep”, not H (hard)) | ||
| 16 | TEA TRAY |
A treaty in motion that carries (3,4)
|
| *(a treaty) [anag:in motion] | ||
| 18 | AGAINST |
Not wanting a good person to invest profit (7)
|
| A + St. (saint, so “good person”) to invest GAIN (“profit”) | ||
| 21 | ANIMAL |
Savage mania uncontrolled — lithium used initially (6)
|
| *(mania) [anag:uncontrolled] + L(ithium) [used initially] | ||
| 22 | SPANIARD |
Spring tax returns for Nadal? (8)
|
| SPA (“spring”) + <=DRAIN (“tax”, returns) | ||
| 24 | SAT |
Lucifer leaving article on chair (3)
|
| SAT(an) (“Lucifer”) leaving AN (“article”) | ||
| 25 | OPEN UP |
Publisher engaging writer to speak freely (4,2)
|
| OUP (Oxford Univeristy Press) engaging PEN (“writer”) | ||
| 26 | ARACHNID |
A Hindu queen died bearing child — mite, say (8)
|
| A + RANI (“Hindu queen”) + D (died) bearing Ch. (child) | ||
| 28 | NAIF |
Green enthusiast sent west across island (4)
|
| <=FAN (“enthusist”, sent west) across I (island) | ||
| 29 | COTTAGE PIE |
Perhaps sheltered pig ate nuts for meal (7,3)
|
| *(pig ate) [anag:nuts] in COTE (“shelter”, as in dovecote) so “perhaps sheltered” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | O’BRIEN |
Novelist in advance consuming cheese (6)
|
| ON (“advance”) consuming BRIE (“cheese”)
Edna O’Brien, who died two years ago, was an Irish novelist, playwright and poet. |
||
| 2 | BRACELET |
Pair suffer in charmed circle? (8)
|
| BRACE (“pair”) + LET (“suffer”) | ||
| 3 | TOPE |
Finest European booze (4)
|
| TOP (“finest”) + E (European) | ||
| 4 | WINSOME |
Enchanting pair happen to disavow origins (7)
|
| ((t)WINS (“pair”) + (c)OME (“happen”)) [to disavow origins (i.e. initial letters)] | ||
| 5 | INTERREGNA |
Bury hot displeasure rising in periods without leader (10)
|
| INTER (“bury”) + <=ANGER (“hot displeasure”, rising) | ||
| 6 | CAULDRON |
Scam involves old Scots river vessel (8)
|
| CON (“scam”) involves AULD (“old” in “Scots”) + R (river) | ||
| 7 | VINDICATED |
Rude sign shown to be justified (10)
|
| V (“rude sign”) + INDICATED (“shown”) | ||
| 13 | ULTRASOUND |
Extremely safe medical scan (10)
|
| ULTRA (“extremely”) + SOUND (“safe”) | ||
| 14 | SNAIL’S PACE |
In slow motion bring pins down into room (6,4)
|
| NAILS (“pins down”) into SPACE (“room”) | ||
| 17 | AS I SEE IT |
In my view unchanged, heartless Irish fool (2,1,3,2)
|
| AS IS (“unchanged”) + [heartless] EE(j)IT (“Irish” idiot or “fool”) | ||
| 19 | IRISH SEA |
Man’s situation is as heir ruined (5,3)
|
| *(is as heir) [anag:ruined]
The Isle of Man is situated in the Irish Sea. |
||
| 20 | ASTARTE |
Ancient deity (answer beginning with E) (7)
|
| A (answer, as in Q&A) + START (“beginning”) with E
Astarte was a Middle Eastern fertility goddess. |
||
| 23 | RAISIN |
Fruit is eaten by cats and dogs? (6)
|
| IS eaten by RAIN (“cats and dogs”) | ||
| 27 | AJAX |
Juliet in sober group with kiss for hero (4)
|
| J (Juliet, in the NATO phonetc alphabet) in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) (“sober group”) with X (kiss) |
The publisher in 25ac is surely Oxford University Press – full disclosure; I used to work there!
Steven @ 1 – of course it is, now edited. I’m currently working in the Higher Education sector, so an unforgivable typo on my part.
Learnt some more things British — the Irish idiot and Granite City, for example. Other than a couple of synonyms that had me scratching my head, this was good fun.
Liked UNCLE SAM, SPANIARD, COTTAGE PIE (liked ‘sheltered’ for ‘in COTE),
WINSOME and IRISH SEA.
KITCHENS
Is the cryptic grammar all right?
ITCH about which KENS
OBRIEN
Should we consider ‘in advance’ as ON?
Thanks loonapick and Neo.
Marvellous and fair crossword.
Raisin and Astarte were my last two in; NHO the latter but an excellent clue.
Ken(s) is also new to me so I will try and remember….😳
Came across Euclid and similar clue somewhere else very recently.
Thanks for the blog , very neat set of clues . ULTRASOUND also defined by the whole clue . I spend a lot of time in the IRISH SEA and sometimes see the IOM ferry . Quite happy to see Juliet=J , the double t would remove any possible deception .
My inability to spell proper names came to my rescue today. Thinking of the seafaring novelist Patrick O’B, I confidently entered O’BRIEN at 1d, not realizing that I was misspelling his name.
I also didn’t know eejit (neither does the autocorrect), but the answer to 17d AS I SEE IT was obvious from the crossers and enumeration.
Thanks Neo and Loonapick for the fun crossword and helpful blog.
I agree there were several new terms and strange synonyms, but it was a solid set of clues and enjoyable. I found it on the difficult side.
I best liked NAIF, SPANIARD, and RAISIN.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Thanks Neo for a reliably good crossword with my favourites being SPANIARD, BRACELET, CAULDRON, and IRISH SEA (great definition). There were bits of info unknown to me but nothing that hindered my solve. Thanks loonapick for the blog.
All good fun and fairly clued but the novelist who came to my mind was the incomparable Flann O’Brien, pen name of Brian Ó Nualláin and author of “The Third Policeman” among others. But then one man’s GK is another’s NHO (as Edna was to me).
Lovely clues with a few getting some major shrugs and hard stares before moving on to ones I could make sense of, but they all added up once a few crossers got my brain working the right way.
Many thanks Neo and loonapick.
Thanks Neo and Loonapick
27dn further to Roz@6: “Juliett” may be the “official” NATO code, but the dictionaries go by usage among the general population. As far as I can remember, all the usual ones have the entry under Juliet and described as something like “radio communications code” with no reference to NATO. (I am away from home now until some time on Monday.)
NATO and ICAO added an extra T to Juliet to stop people thinking it should be pronounced ‘jew-lee-ay’ apparently (why is a mystery as we still get the J sound). It survives as Juliet in Chambers and Collins, and in the DT and Times single-letter indication lists.
Cheers all, cheers LUna.
November Echo Oscar
A bit trickier than some of Neo’s puzzles but we got it all in the end. Couldn’t parse KITCHENS (we remembered ‘auld’ for ‘old’ but not ‘ken’ for ‘know’) and only saw the parsing of ARACHNID at the last minute. Favourite was ULTRASOUND.
Further to Juliet[t], A is officially Alfa (to avoid difficulty with ‘ph’) but I can see no good reason why W has to be Whiskey with en e.
Thanks, Neo and loonapick.
Big Al @13: because the NATO alphabet was invented largely by Americans and Canadians, so the more common North American spelling of whiskey was chosen.
—
I do still wonder what the women in His Majesty’s Armed Forces think of OR = “men,” but none of them have stopped in to tell us. Until then, I refuse to file a formal complaint on their behalf.
Thanks Neo and loonapick, I am Kenyan but never heard of Nandi Bear.
I’m surprised to have finished that one. I never felt on top of it but I was also watching TV. Almost every solution seemed easy after the event. There were a couple I didn’t fully parse though, COTTAGE PIE and AS I SEE IT.
Thanks all.
RE Juliet, I agree with Roz et al. The NATO alphabet is an oral alphabet, and so whether W is bourbon or scotch is irrelevant. But I still think the word for L should be Lagavulin.