The original puzzle may be found here.
Following last week’s special, this is the expected plain puzzle from Gemelo.
There is one answer (at 34 across) which I am struggling to parse, so I shall be grateful for your suggestions. Otherwise this plain puzzle seemed perfectly straightforward and very much of the level of difficulty that I would associate with a puzzle by Azed. I thought that the subtractive anagram at 22 across was particularly good.
Gemelo’s puzzles have been appearing in The Observer for a year now, but there is still no sign of a clue-writing competition. Given The Observer’s reported financial difficulties, perhaps they are not willing or able to pay for the additional work (and prizes) involved? If so, it’s a shame.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | AGNATE |
Do nothing to evict quiet relative (6)
|
| (st)AGNATE (do nothing). | ||
| 6 | BOSSY |
Overbearing Texan cow (5)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 11 | CIRCA |
Anglo-Indian authorities briefly around (5)
|
| CIRCA(r). Circar, or sircar, is an Anglo-Indian term meaning the state or government. | ||
| 12 | DRAFTEE |
One pressed shirt with white paint tipped on it (7)
|
| FARD (rev) TEE (shirt). Fard is defined in Chambers as “white paint for the face”. | ||
| 13 | ERYTHEMA |
Condition that’s implicit in every thematic (8)
|
| Hidden. It means redness of the skin. | ||
| 15 | FAERIES |
McDonalds offering to adopt Scotsman’s very imaginary creatures of yore (7)
|
| AE (Scots term meaning “very”) inside FRIES (an offering you might well find in McDonalds). “of yore” indicates that the term is now viewed as archaic. | ||
| 16 | GOANNA |
Asian state’s rejected an Australian monitor (6)
|
| GOA (Asian state, part of India) AN A(ustralian) (rev). | ||
| 17 | HABLE |
Ed’s clever book opening well (5)
|
| B(ook) inside HALE (well). As usual, “Ed” indicates that this is a term used by Spenser. | ||
| 18 | INSPIRIT |
Fire from spicy sauce reduced by half during this month (8)
|
| PIRI(-piri) (spicy sauce) inside INST (this month). | ||
| 22 | JALAPENO |
Pleasant jog ruined after losing remix of Sgt Pepper (8)
|
| *(PLEASANT JOG) minus the letters of SGT gives an anagram of the answer. | ||
| 24 | KARMA |
King, perhaps, to take pieces a lot (5)
|
| This gave me considerable difficulty in parsing, but I think it depends on reading “ARM” as meaning “to take pieces”, since a piece can mean a firearm. K of course is a king in chess notation and the final A is in the clue. | ||
| 26 | LUVVIE |
Thesp‘s story involving university, and vice versa (6)
|
| U(niversity) V(ice) V(ersa) all inside LIE (story). | ||
| 28 | UNDERDO |
Fail to cook enough ginger on the counter to cut open (7)
|
| RED (ginger, rev) inside UNDO (open). | ||
| 30 | POPULATE |
People attempt Native American language around part of California (8)
|
| POP (attempt); L(os) A(ngeles) (part of California) inside UTE (Native American language). | ||
| 31 | LUSTILY |
American finally cut into flower with vigour (7)
|
| US (American) (cu)T inside LILY (flower). | ||
| 32 | MILLS |
What can be read as being “Satanic” in manuscript? (5)
|
| ILL (Satanic?) inside MS (manuscript); the whole clue referring of course to the Blake poem Jerusalem. | ||
| 33 | ESCOT |
Shakespeare’s to pay for centrepiece of Othello and Macbeth? (5)
|
| (Oth)E(llo), SCOT (Macbeth). | ||
| 34 | UNDIES |
Boxers, maybe reds, skipping town in Lousiana (6)
|
| Assuming that I do in fact have the correct answer (ENDUES, INDIES, INDUES, and UNDOES would also fit the crossers), this is one that I cannot parse. Somehow I don’t expect that Gemelo requires us to be familiar with the names of Louisiana (misspelled as Lousiana in the clue) towns so it must be a generic term that needs to be manipulated, presumably by removing “reds” from the word. An anagram of REDS and UNDIES is UNDERSIDES, but I can’t find anything to suggest that this is such a term. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ACER |
Tree of higher quality? (4)
|
| Cryptic definition. | ||
| 2 | GIRLOND |
Daughter against daughter for classical wreath (7)
|
| GIRL ON D(aughter). | ||
| 3 | ACTON |
Guide in stuffed jacket (5)
|
| ACT ON, which can mean both to act in accordance with, and also to exert an influence on, or guide. | ||
| 4 | TAHINI |
What covers onion up in one paste (6)
|
| IN 1 HAT (rev). “Onion” is slang for the head, which is covered by a hat. | ||
| 5 | ARMADILLO |
Armour-wearer in American Psycho screened by Channel One at first (9)
|
| MAD (psycho) inside RILL (channel), preceded by A(merican), followed by O(ne). | ||
| 7 | OFF-RAMP |
Express willingness to shift electronic music equipment, in departure for Broadway? (7)
|
| OFF(e)R (express willingness, with E(lectronic) omitted, or shifted) AMP (music equipment). | ||
| 8 | ST TIB’S EVE |
Never deployed vibe tests (9, 3 words)
|
| *(VIBE TESTS). I confess to never having heard of this expression. | ||
| 9 | SEWEL |
Blindfold wrapped around western scarecrow once (5)
|
| W(estern) inside SEEL (blindfold). | ||
| 10 | YESSES |
Those in favour of Joyce text omitting opening couplet, while retaining energy (6)
|
| E(nergy) inside (ul)YSSES (text by James Joyce). | ||
| 14 | LASER DISC |
Learner is scared to break storage device (9, 2 words)
|
| *(L(earner) IS SCARED). | ||
| 15 | FARANDOLE |
Dance away with triumphant shout (9)
|
| FAR (away) AND OLE (triumphant shout). | ||
| 19 | PIMENTO |
Kentucky horse biting bark of maple tree (7)
|
| ME (bark or outside covering of MaplE) inside PINTO (Kentucky horse). | ||
| 20 | KNITTLE |
Sailor’s twisted line initially kept dry in river (7)
|
| K(ept), TT (teetotal, dry) inside NILE (river). | ||
| 21 | EKUELE |
Taken in by model, EU kept back former currency (6)
|
| Hidden and reversed. | ||
| 23 | AUTUMN |
New financial institution shortly experiencing rise and fall (6)
|
| N(ew) MUTUA(l) (financial institution) (all rev). | ||
| 25 | ANKUS |
Sunak somehow getting stick for encouraging big beasts (5)
|
| *SUNAK. It’s an elephant goad. | ||
| 27 | VALID |
Good Ottoman governor died (5)
|
| VALI (Ottoman governor) D(ied). | ||
| 29 | BESS |
Elizabeth’s French degree (4)
|
| Double definition; the French degree is B ès S (Bachelor of Science). |
[BURG]UNDIES (reds) minus BURG (town in Louisiana, i.e., in the US)
16A is: GOAN (Asian state’s) + AN reversed (rejected), and the definition is Australian monitor.
Good job on the blog. Some of these clues were quite tough, I thought, rivaling some of Azed’s most obscure.