Kite returns to the Prize slot, three months after his puzzle themed on the Artemis Moon Mission,
which I also blogged. Given that this puzzle was published on the Fourth of July, I was more than half expecting another themed offering and I was not surprised to see UNITED STATES DECLARATION INDEPENDENCE SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL emerging pretty promptly after the broad hint in the last clue at 22,23,1. I thought there might be other, less obvious, references (Founding Fathers / signatories?) but the only others I could see were THIRTEEN COLONIES – did you find more?
Apart from that mild disappointment, there were some clever clues here, with some deft devices / constructions, a few smiles and generally smooth, meaningful surfaces. I particularly liked CRITERIA, UNITED STATES, ART MUSEUM, COLONIES, INDEPENDENCE, TOTS, DASH, LAY HANDS ON and SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL.
Thanks to Kite for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Spies admitting author’s missing the first tests (8)
CRITERIA
CIA (spies) round [w]RITER (author) minus the initial letter
5, 10 Country dictator’s honoured after Posh and principally Scary Spice’s gallery opening (6,6)
UNITED STATES
U (posh) + NITED – sounds like (dictator’s) knighted (honoured) + TATE (gallery) in (opening) first letters (principally) of S[cary] S[pice]
9 See drain broken facing the kerb (8)
NEARSIDE
An anagram (broken) of SEE DRAIN
12 Bats get in palace restaurant perhaps (6,5)
EATING PLACE
An easy anagram (bats) of GET IN PALACE
15 Book Christmas drinks – vodka at the start (5)
NOVEL
NOEL (Christmas) round (drinks) V[odka]
17 One with no issue is invalid sitting next to one short diver (9)
NULLIPARA
NULL (invalid) + I (one) + PARA (short for PARAtrooper – (sky)diver)
A perhaps less familiar word: -PARA is a suffix referring to delivery, parturition being the medical term for childbirth, from the Latin verb parere, to bring forth: for instance, women can be described as primipara, giving birth for the first time, multipara, having given birth to multiple children – or NULLIPARA, never having given birth (‘having given birth to none’)
18 Old are with mother, describing operation where hangings occur (3,6)
ART MUSEUM
ART (old form of ‘are’) + MUM (mother) round USE (operation) – I always enjoy the old are / art trick
19 Chart Viagra Pharmaceuticals supplies (5)
GRAPH
Hidden in viaGRA PHarmaceuticals
20 Month with City helping to make announcement (11)
DECLARATION
DEC (month + LA (city) + RATION (helping)
24 Avoided crazy duel with journalist (6)
ELUDED
An anagram (crazy) of DUEL + ED (journalist)
25 Possessions: last of batteries including that is … (8)
COLONIES
: (colon) + [batterie]S round IE (that is) – a neat use of punctuation and ellipses, which I always enjoy
26 … 11 ones easy to charge (6)
IONISE
An anagram (easy – as in ‘relaxed’) of II (eleven) ONES
27 Their ten bananas or bakers’ 12 (8)
THIRTEEN
An anagram (bananas) of THEIR TEN – a reference to ‘baker’s dozen’, possibly relating to this practice
Down
2 To stop from working during start of play, 5 brew tea (10)
INACTIVATE
IN ACT I (during start of play) + V (five) + an anagram (brew) of TEA
3 Directions for European city (5).
ESSEN
A combination of compass points (directions)
4 Trendy state with former vice-president accepting objective is home rule (12)
INDEPENDENCE
IN (trendy) + DE (Delaware – state) + (Mike) PENCE (former US vice-president) round END (objective)
6 Smashing knight, as bachelor, is having a chat (9)
NATTERING
bATTERING (smashing) with the b (bachelor) replaced by N (knight, in chess notation)
7 Babies’ fingers (4)
TOTS
Double definition – fingers as (approximate) measures of alcohol, especially whisky, when pouring into a glass – my husband tended to have rather fat fingers when using this ‘approximation’
8 Depressed about Charles the Second ruin (4)
DASH
A reversal (about) of SAD (depressed) + cHarles (second letter of) – definition as in having one’s hopes dashed
11 Bloody selfish Officer Commanding hospital seen in ancient Scottish settlement (12)
BALLYMEANOCH
This may look complicated but it’s a simple charade: we just need to follow the directions on the tin
BALLY (bloody) + MEAN (selfish) + OC (Officer Commanding) + H (hospital) – it looks like an interesting place to visit
13 Cool, a jerk I almost recognise gets to become obsessive (10)
FANATICISE
FAN (cool) + A TIC (a jerk) + I SE[e] (almost recognise)
14 Seize and confirm (3,5,2)
LAY HANDS ON
Double definition, the second as in the ecclesiastical service of Confirmation
16 Lamela discontented with strip’s cleaner (9)
LAUNDRESS
L[amel]A + UNDRESS (strip) – I always enjoy looking up unknown (to me) names in clues, to see why they were chosen; googling revealed that Lamela was a footballer, hence the ‘strip’
21 Fling mail that’s not readable on the front (5)
AMOUR
A[r]MOUR (mail) minus first letter of readable – ‘on the front’ sounds rather awkward to me
22, 23, 1 Quiet men in line can initially start getting excited for significant anniversary (18)
SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL
A clever anagram ( getting excited) of QUIET MEN IN LINE CAN S[tart]
My apologies – published slightly early, in error: I pushed the wrong button. I’m afraid my brain is even more frazzled than usual: I’ve never been good in the heat 🙁
No worries Eileen. I rescheduled it for midnight
Never apologise Eileen, you’re the Teflon doyenne (I’ve been listening to a podcast on John Gotti this week). I got the theme early as well with the big SQC taking a while to sort out, but like you I couldn’t find any other references. BALLYMEANOCH was loi but coming from NI, it could only be BALLY in the end and then the rest followed. NULLIPARA worked out from the wordplay.
(Roz, I’ve no idea what the KPR reference is, in anticipation).
Ta Kite and as always, Eileen.
I share your husband’s fat fingers with Bushmills 🤣
Nice puzzle, nice blog. Eileen, it looks like your write-up for 13d FANATICISE has been corrupted.
Nho the B place, but pieced it together readily enough.
Tx
Middling difficulty for me.
I ticked NOVEL, and LAUNDRESS. Otherwise, Kite seemed to struggle a bit to produce nice surfaces.
I could not parse UNITED STATES or NATTERING, and I am afraid I thought 11 down and NULLIPARA were both awful.
Thanks Kite and Eileen
Sorry about the heat Eileen. It does frazzle the best of us it would seem. Anyway, your blog for this puzzle hit the nail on the head as ever. I particularly enjoyed your full explanation on NULLIPARA: this kind of extra etymological info is what we wordy people like (at least this one does 😉).
Also grateful for the link you gave for BALLYMEANOCH which I’d never heard of either. In fact, I’d left this clue unfilled, mainly because I had never heard of “bally” as a synonym for “bloody”and so was unlikely to solve this one in a month of Bally Sundays!
[another unfamiliar synonym I chanced on in Collins was bally=thumb: apparently Northern dialect but maybe my adopted home of Manchester is still rightly considered southern for such purposes]
Thanks to Kite for the puzzle: I’d include TOTS and NATTERING in my list of ticks.
Stay cool everyone. Maybe Krakatoa (other volcanoes are available) will erupt and rebalance things for a while and give us humans an opportunity to focus on something useful for ourselves for a change.
Enjoyable challenge that took a few sittings. Short a few parsings, and couldn’t solve 1a CRITERIA (because I now see I had INACTIVATE for 2d DEACTIVATE), so dnf. The theme was pretty clear if you thought to look for it…and I did! Belated Happy SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL everyone!
Favourites 19a GRAPH (good container), 25a COLONIES (cleverly hidden “:”)
Many thanks Eileen for a great blog, and Kite for the entertaining puzzle
[AlanC@3, I suspect the reference is in 17a, though it should rightfully be plural…]
[…I should add that diving in ice hockey is not only frowned upon, it will also get you a two-minute penalty…]
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues and the theme is fair enough given the date .
ART MUSEUM is very neat wordplay and definition , the same for COLONIES , I always like use of a symbol and the same trick appeared in the FT a few days later , many more fine clues , LAUNDRESS flows so smoothly .
Minor quibble for AMOUR , we are not told which R to remove and a severe Paddington stare for IONISE .
For NULLIPARA I suspect the second part refers to Emil PARA , former KPR striker famous for being 5foot2 in old money . Mig@10 was getting close .
At least it has tempted AlanC back to the Prize .
The big themed clue was obvious and made things easier. I’m not one of the enthusiastic theme spotters but fair enough if a setter like Brockwell pushes the boat out. To have just a handful of themed clues feels disappointing, as our esteemed blogger so tactfully put it. Irritating maybe. Choosing the day of an apparent theme to plonk in an unrelated, obscure, prehistoric Scottish settlement seemed somewhat disjointed.
Anyway, all good. Thanks Kite and Eileen.
[They’ve redesigned and trashed the crossword app today. It doesn’t work. Only a third of the keyboard and no delete button. Aargh! I’ll have to make do with the FT.]
Martin@12 , it is hardly making do . The FT today is Rosa Klebb ( Arachne ) , hard to beat .
I have been to BALLYMEANOCH , quite a trek , we like to renew our handfasting vows every year and a day and preferably in a stone circle , however small .
Started last Saturday but didn’t get far. Realised I’d fogotten to finish it yesterday evening and went back to it. Didn’t get the ancient settlement and a couple of others.
Liked the very long anagram and CRITERIA, ART MUSEUM, INACTIVATE, FANATICISE
Thanks Kite and Eileen
I really don’t know how COLONIES managed to be my last in. Especially given the obvious theme, and THIRTEEN just sitting there lonely at bottom right. I did enjoy the symbol play – once I realised how it worked. It hadn’t helped that FANATICISE held out for so long and that I couldn’t parse AMOUR – mail = armour – so obvious now! But I was pleased to deduce the existence of BALLYMEANOCH from crossers and wordplay and surprised to find that it was real. I thought IONISE was neat, too. Thanks to Kite, and to Eileen for the informative blog.
Good morning, everyone – another hot one already. Thanks for the comments so far – and special thanks to Admin and Dr Whatson: I don’t know how the gremlins got into 13dn – amended now.
Good fun and nothing too hard. Nho BALLEANOCH but worked it out and then verified it on the web. Also nho NULLIPARA but have come across primipara so could deduce it (thanks Eileen for the etymology). Took a bit of time to get the semi quin but obvious when I took centennial out of the anagram (for which I needed pencil and paper).
I had deactivate but it didn’t parse. Took a bit of time for the penny to drop.
Thanks Eileen and Kite.
[Hi Roz. Yes, good news. I hadn’t looked.
That’s an admirable tradition. Thanks for sharing.]
My faves: NULLIPARA, COLONIES, IONISE, NATTERING and AMOUR.
Thanks Kite and Eileen.
Did this just now and took ages over the semiquin bits, having already forgotten the special July 4, despite hearing lots about it during the lead-up. Otherwise quite fun and no real probs, ta Kite and Eileen.
Missed out on COLONIES and AMOUR, otherwise my fastest ever solve for a Prize with the long themed clues and most anagrams going straight in. Enjoyable though. Thanks to Kite and the incomparable Eileen
Hello first time posting so go easy on me please – why was “helping to make” RATION in 20a, am I missing something obvious?
Thank you so much for this blog, I’ve learnt so much from it since I started doing this crossword a few months ago!
Kiriakoo #22: a RATION can be a HELPING of food and « to make » is part of the surface
Kiriakoo @22 – Welcome!
My apologies: I should have written, ‘DEC (month + LA (city) + RATION (helping)’ – ‘helping’ as a noun. I’ll amend the blog now. (Thanks, Everpuzzled – sorry for the crossing.)
I hope we’ll see more of you. 😉
Mostly enjoyed this as a crossword, but the theme….”The Clash said it all – a ribosome width shute collapses” (2,2,5,4,3,3)
Not familiar with the religious ritual so had bunged in GET HANDS ON for 14D. This led to getting NULLIDALE for 17A with a shortened DALEY for the diver. So was hoping to find an obscure dale whose river was no longer flowing. Still looking.
Helping = ration – seems really obvious now! Thank you 🙂
It actually turns up quite a lot in crosswords, which is probably why I omitted to highlight it – worth filing away.
Nice one dadslad@25…
In full agreement
Many thanks Eileen for a super blog. There are nine themed entries, including the word splits. It’s sometimes difficult to get more in and avoid obscurities when some words are quite long (CENTENNIAL, DECLARATION, INDEPENDENCE). Thanks to all commenters. I did not know BALLYMEANOCH myself, although it looks like an interesting place. I thought the anagram for IONISE was OK as 11 in crosswordland is often given as II – I see the objection is that it could be XI but there are not many, common anagrams of XIONES – and none that would give ‘charge’, I think (?)
Thank you, Kite @30, for dropping in. It seems I didn’t miss anything, then. 😉
Much enjoyed. Many thanks, Kite. I suspected the theme from the anniversary so my first one in was SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL. Got me off to a rare flyer.
I know it’s risky to challenge Roz @11. So often there’s a double joke. But “Minor quibble for AMOUR , we are not told which R to remove” seems wrong. We are told to remove the one on the front.
Choldunk @32. No we’re not. We’re told to remove “R”, the front of readable. We have to decide whether to remove the first or the second “R” from armour, though it should be obvious.
Choldunk@32 I had it like Crispy @33 or we get double duty , just a very minor thing .
Not a SPOILER , please no discussion of the puzzle today or the clue , just a request for factual information .
In the paper for 15D we have – With Gr…….ace to summon ( and so on ) .But no dots .
It appears to be just a big smudge between Gr and ace , is it the same online ? has there been a correction ? It is solvable but would like confirmation for the smudge ??
Roz @34 – On line it just says Grace, no gap or smudge
Thank you very much Crispy , I thought so but was worried about something extra devious going on .
AMOUR. If ‘that’s not’ is read as ‘that has not’ I think it plausibly refers to just the inner R of ARMOUR.
‘Readable at first glance’ or similar would have been my choice of words.
Thanks Eileen and Kite – I wondered if DASH might be a nod to Paul Revere’s ride but see not.
Crispy @33 and Roz: In A(R)MOUR, I had R for readable and on the front to indicate to remove the earlier R. Not a big deal, I agree.
Lots of fun, and the topical ones are neat.
Dadslad@25 have mercy! what is the solution?
Thanks Kite and especially this time Eileen for engaging so delightfully with us.
I wondered if 22/23/1 was made up for the occasion; 250 = half a quincentennial indeed, though bicentquindecennial would be quite a mouthful.
Thanks to Kite and Eileen
Valentine @40 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'm_So_Bored_with_the_USA
Valentine @40 , I know nothing about the football world cup which is more than I want to know , but my family is sports mad despite having me as a role model . They tell me that the American people have been wonderful , welcoming teams and supporters from all over the world . The same in Mexico and Canada .
Roz @34: it might as well all be smudged, not sure I’m grateful for you encouraging me back to the prize again! Always happy to educate on football matters and I’m sure you will be watching England beat the rowers tonight.
AlanC@44 do not give up on it , you have all week to finish it , I had four goes at it .
I go to sleep at 9 , perfect for missing all the football and I get up early to swim .
Roz 45,
I manage to miss football – and almost everything else – whatever time it might be broadcast, but also go to sleep 2100-2200, usually having done the day’s crossword in bed. I also get up early, but not to swim.
I await tonight’s challenge with interest.
Roz @43
The American people might have been welcoming to all but the Govt were not.
A Somali referee was refused entry.
And whenever the Iranian team had a match in USA, they were only allowed to travel there a shorter time than other counties before the match not giving them enough time to train. – and several of the analysts for their team were denied entry.
Fiona@47 the behaviour of the authorities is very sad and perhaps the people have tried to make up for it .
Etu@46 surely the whole point of going to sleep early is to get up and swim in the sea before anyone is awake ?
AlanC@44 , I was not aware that Norwegians were particularly disputatious ?
Roz@44 to tell us how many attempts you had IS a spoiler as it indicates difficulty or otherwise.
And everyone, please no more football talk, especially without [brackets]. I suppose Trump talk is vaguely thematic.
This heat is making me tetchy.
Apologies for late comments due to travel. Thought puzzle was easier than average. Spotted the obvious smattering of thematic answers. Worked out 22d from crossers and obvious definition. Spotted BALLY bit of 11d from Irish place names. Ancient settlement long predated the place name?
Comment #51
Me#41
The OED online doesn’t recognise semiquincentennial so I’m guessing that it was invented for the occasion, though not by Kite! It’s certainly an unconventional way of creating a word meaning 250th.