Many thanks to Dice – I especially liked 10ac, 8dn, 16dn, and 21dn.
…there is a message to us in the grid:
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | AMBLE |
Not the first to risk travel at a leisurely pace (5)
|
| to [G]-AMBLE=”to risk”, without its first letter | ||
| 10 | LANDSLIDE |
Rocks falling and getting into dell is ruinous (9)
|
| AND (from surface) getting into anagram/”ruinous” of (deli is)* | ||
| 11 | ORIGINALS |
Old nip of rum I drink too, without finishing first shots (9)
|
| for the definition, “shots” perhaps in the sense of ‘attempts’
O (Old) + R (nip of R-um) + I (from surface) + GIN=”drink” + ALS-[o]=”too, without finishing” |
||
| 12 | EMPTY |
Space put by, but oddly nothing inside (5)
|
| EM (typographical “space”) + odd letters of P-[u]-T [b]-Y | ||
| 13 | FLIPPED |
Turned and ran away, clutching Zippo but dropping case (7)
|
| FLED=”ran away” around/”clutching” [Z]-IPP-[o] without its outer letters/”case” | ||
| 15 | ORBITAL |
Part in test regarding the way planets travel (7)
|
| BIT=”Part” in ORAL=spoken exam=”test” | ||
| 17 | OUNCE |
Snow leopard jumps without limits (5)
|
| [b]-OUNCE-[s]=”jumps” without its outer letters/”limits” | ||
| 18 | RAW |
Harsh fightback (3)
|
| reversal/”…back” of WAR=”fight…” | ||
| 20 | INNER |
Central pub evacuated earlier (5)
|
| INN=”pub”, plus E-[arlie]-R evacuated of its inner letters | ||
| 22 | DEBATES |
Be taken the wrong way during rendezvous, creating arguments (7)
|
| BE reversed/”taken the wrong way”, inside/”during” DATES=”rendezvous” | ||
| 25 | ORGANIC |
Naturally produced grain ruined through company backtracking (7)
|
| anagram/”ruined” of (grain)*; inside reversal/”backtracking” of CO (company) | ||
| 26 | MINER |
Pitman’s system finally starts to introduce new, easy recording (5)
|
| final letter of [syste]-M, plus starting letters to I-[ntroduce] N-[ew] E-[asy] R-[ecording] | ||
| 27 | RELIGIOUS |
Devout priest, German, in South American city with us (9)
|
| ELI=a “priest” in the Old Testament, plus G (German); both inside RIO=”South American city”; plus US (from surface) | ||
| 30 | FOOD CHAIN |
Commanding Officer had info about who’s hunting whom? (4,5)
|
| anagram/”about” of (CO had info)*, with CO short for “Commanding Officer” | ||
| 31 | BUILT |
Constructed crowns of bronze using intricate latticework techniques (5)
|
| first letters (“crowns” similar to ‘tops’) of B-[ronze] U-[sing] I-[ntricate] L-[atticework] T-[echniques] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TACO |
Mexican snack stack – hot, without any wrappers (4)
|
| [s]-TAC-[o] [h]-O-[t] without their outer letters/”wrappers” | ||
| 2 | OBLIVION |
Forgetfulness leads to open bolts – then four being eaten by wild cat (8)
|
| first/leading letters to O-[pen] B-[olts]; plus IV (“four” in Roman numerals) inside LION=”wild cat” | ||
| 3 | YETI |
Still one imagined terrifying creature from the Himalayas (4)
|
| for definition, “imagined” as in ‘fantastical’ or ‘fictitious’
YET=”Still” + I=”one” |
||
| 4 | OLEANDER |
Sister Edna eloped, heading north, carrying flowering plant (8)
|
| hidden/carried inside a reversal (“heading north”) of: [siste]-R EDNA ELO-[ped] | ||
| 5 | UNESCO |
In France a supermarket sacking head to become international organisation (6)
|
| UN=”a” in French; plus [t]-ESCO=”supermarket” without its head letter | ||
| 6 | ASSEMBLING |
Absolute chaos, upset jewellery – piecing it all together? (10)
|
| A (Absolute) + MESS=”chaos” reversed/”upset” + BLING=slang for “jewellery” | ||
| 7 | LIMPET |
Floppy elephant with no stuffing for clingy type (6)
|
| LIMP=”Floppy” + E-[lephan]-T without its inside letters/”stuffing” | ||
| 8 | LEVY |
Tax bill came at last – virtually cleared out (4)
|
| “last” letters of [bil]-L [cam]-E; plus V-[irtuall]-Y “cleared out” of its inner letters | ||
| 13 | FLOOD |
Scourge of old? (5)
|
| anagram/”Scourge” of (of old)*; and whole surface suggests e.g. biblical floods | ||
| 14 | PUERTO RICO |
Our copter’s flying around island territory (6,4)
|
| anagram/”flying” of (Our copter)*; around I (island) | ||
| 16 | LYRIC |
Inadvertently Rickrolled – but only part of the words! (5)
|
| hidden in [Inadvertent]-LY RIC-[krolled]
I think the hidden indicator could be “only part of”; or perhaps it could be the “In…” from “Inadvertently”, with “only part of” being part of the definition Edit, thanks PostMark in comments for the suggestion: definition could be “of the words!”, with “only part” as the hidden indicator |
||
| 19 | WOODLAND |
An odd owl disturbed some trees (8)
|
| anagram/”disturbed” of (An odd owl)* | ||
| 21 | NON-TOXIC |
Safe ‘n’ sound? Two extinct every second! (3-5)
|
| every second letter from N [s]-O-[u]-N-[d] T-[w]-O [e]-X-[t]-I-[n]-C-[t] | ||
| 23 | BANGOR |
Welsh city’s non-governmental organisation gathered by bar (6)
|
| NGO (non-governmental organisation”; inside BAR (from surface) | ||
| 24 | STREAM |
Flow of vapour engulfing opening of railway (6)
|
| STEAM=”vapour” around opening letter of R-[ailway] | ||
| 26 | MUFF |
Greek character with very loud furry garment (4)
|
| MU=letter/”character” from the Greek alphabet; plus FF (fortissimo, “very loud” in music notation) | ||
| 28 | GOBI |
Desert old boy, captured by US soldier (4)
|
| O (old) + B (boy); inside GI (US soldier) | ||
| 29 | SITE |
Place, place and, finally, place (4)
|
| to SIT=to “place” + final letter of [plac]-E |
Nice, straightforward Monday fare with some clever devices. I liked ORIGINALS, FOODCHAIN, the nicely hidden OLEANDER, ASSEMBLING, LEVY and LYRIC. I saw TOY at the top but didn’t look any further so well spotted.
Ta Dice & manehi
I think LYRIC as an adjective can mean ‘of the words’. So the hidden indicator is just ‘but only part’
Easiest crossword I’ve done in a long time. No obscurities, no quibbles. Good fun, but it was over in fifteen minutes. I usually miss ninas but saw today’s.
Comment #4
I did think that the ‘In’ in Inadvertently was the indicator for the hidden word in LYRIC although I also agree with PM @2.
I took a bit of time to get into the setter’s mind. There were a lot of clues that involved manipulating bits of words, but it was straightforward in the end.
I thought BANGOR and YETI were weak clues, a bit obvious.
I struggled with the parsing of ORIGINALS. I thought originals might refer to the days of film cameras and printing from negatives .
Good to see our old friend the ounce making a return.
NON TOXIC was very clever.
And I spotted the nina across the top and bottom rows. Thought there might be a food theme as well, but not really.
All in all an enjoyable start to the week.
Thanks Dice and manehi
I had pounces instead of bounces for OUNCE; little difference really.
Thanks manehi and Dice for a gentle, pleasing crossword.
Entered FLOOD from the biblical angle but failed to see how clever it was till I came here.
As gdu says, a rapid but enjoyable solve.
Many thanks, both.
On a first pass I had F—— for 13D and considered flail, but thought that lacked any “crypticity”, saw the lovely anagram on my second pass.
Thanks Dice for a nice starter to Mionday after I return to reality after a weekend at the Cropredy Festival.
Another with ‘pounces’ for ‘jumps’. Over too soon. Like the clue for FLOODS, biblical or otherwise. They’re everywhere rn. Thanks.
Got to admire Dice’s ability to always seem to hit the right difficulty level for Quiptics/Mondays whilst still managing to engage the braincells.
Liked FLOOD and NON-TOXIC
Thanks Dice and manehi
Quite a lot of letter-by-letter assemblages today, but all fair enough.
I needed to come here for sorting out the parsing of FOOD CHAIN; straightforward enough but for some reason it just hit a blind spot. It also took me a while to spot the reverse hidden word OLEANDER.
Thanks, Dice & manehi!
[My Samsung tablet, on which I normally read the news and do the crossword, has taken to rendering the crossword oddly and inconveniently. Instead of being like a larger version of what I see on my phone, with the grid filling the whole upper half of the screen and the clues underneath (which it was up to the end of last week), the grid is much smaller, in the upper LH corner, with the clues all the way down the RHS; there is a large and useless blank space below the grid. I also get a chirpy and annoying message when I’ve finished, inviting me to share my victory. I don’t know if this is something the Graun has down, or something an Android update has done, but it’s bloody annoying. ]
Thanks Dice and manehi
I found this harder than usual for a Monday, with the NW last to fall. Good puzzle, but the various deletions seemed a bit overused.
Favourite EMPTY.