What a pleasure to see a crossword by Dimitry who has been setting them since at least 1983 – that’s when Dave Hennings’ records began. This will be his 31st in the records, including one set with three others as Listener No 4,000.
‘Pie’ a mysterious title – then we read a lovely short preamble that promises us just a straightforward solve with three 16-letter unclued lights and three cells to ultimately find and highlight. What a fine respite after some of our recent struggles.
The clues are relatively gentle and some earn smiles, ‘Brown soup finally put in porky dish with eggs (9)’ The wordplay gives us UMBER (sou)P in LIE, so LUMBER-PIE but I need Chambers to tell me that that is ‘A pie of meat or fish with eggs’. ‘Perhaps debunk where one may tan without sun (5)’ We take that S(un) away from a SUNBED and get a synonym for debunk (UNBED). ‘Artificial intelligence – new universal language (4)’ Is this a comment on the current fuss about AI taking over? No, I just take four letters A I N U and find a very old language.
Fairly early on FIRST AMONG EQUALS suggests itself from those letters on the top row but I’m puzzled about the other two unclued rows. Of course, seeing the Latin equivalent PRIMUS INTER PARES, hints that the third might be Greek. I’m struggling with Greek (some of the family are Greek and I spend at least three weeks in Ellinikon every year but still bumble along after years of learning their language) but can work out from what we are given PROTOS METAAXY ISON.
(Πρώτος μεταξύ ίσων).
And now just a little bit of head scratching to work out what those four three-letter words have to do with it. Two are already complete, ASS and RIO but we have a letter missing from ?IM and LE? and have to find that fifth one of ‘three cells that semantically fit the theme’.
Ah, how good to have the endgame staring us in the face there in the grid – those words read top to bottom in the 16-letter ones and one other ONE (first among those equals, the English, Latin and Greek) is there to highlight.
The Listener oenophiles elite? Unusually, I can find no secret tipples in the clues or grid but we’ll have to raise our glasses to Dimitry for a delightful crossword that required no Internet searching, and allow him LIMEWATER with his LUMBER-PIE. Cheers Dimitry!