Perhaps the most Azed-like puzzle from Gemelo yet.
If only there had been a few Scottish terms specified as such, this puzzle could easily pass for one set by Azed. I certainly found it to be Gemelo’s most accessible yet; quite a contrast to the challenge posed by last week’s puzzle. My only complaint is the minor enumeration error relating to ABLE SEAWOMAN but that did not significantly hold me up at all. I particularly liked the clues for NOTEBOOKS and WELL-WISHERS.
| ACROSS | ||
| 4 | EPITAPHIC |
Like RIP TORN at chippie! (9)
|
| *(AT CHIPPIE). Rip Torn was an American actor. | ||
| 10 | BEL AIR |
Fine deportment of French prime minister touring Spain (6, 2 words)
|
| E(spana – country code for Spain) inside (Tony) BLAIR (former PM). | ||
| 11 | AKIMBO |
How one may stand a book about e.g. Wilde, Oscar (6)
|
| A KIM B(ook) – i.e. a book about Kim (Wilde), O(scar). | ||
| 12 | TERMINI |
In odd places, their little car stops (7)
|
| Alternate (odd) letters from ThEiR, MINI (little car). | ||
| 14 | GRIS |
Antique grey amulet with either half removed (4)
|
| GRIS(-GRIS) (an amulet). | ||
| 15 | EMEU |
Country club admitting Gemelo? It doesn’t fly (4)
|
| ME (i.e. Gemelo) inside EU (country club). It’s an alternative spelling of EMU. | ||
| 18 | KILOGRAMME |
“Mass“, “mark”, “mile” go wrong (10)
|
| *(MARK MILE GO). | ||
| 19 | ENACTOR |
Performer returned rubbish Chaplin prop? (7)
|
| CANE (Chaplin prop) ROT(rubbish) both reversed. | ||
| 22 | ASCOT |
For instance, animal shelter where horses go fast (5)
|
| AS (for example) COT (animal shelter). | ||
| 23 | ADDIO |
Farewell party entertaining one on active duty (5)
|
| AD (active duty), I (one) inside DO (party). | ||
| 24 | KACHERI |
Suffer in distress over Indian courthouse (7)
|
| ACHE (suffer) inside IRK (distress, rev). | ||
| 25 | WELL-WISHER |
Sympathiser who might drop bread into water? (10)
|
| Cryptic definition; “bread” refers to money. | ||
| 29 | PULI |
Asian coppers with mass appeal after scrapping external post (4)
|
| (po)PULI(st). Puli are Afghan coins. | ||
| 30 | MARA |
Injure Australian rodent (4)
|
| MAR A(ustralian). | ||
| 31 | TORTONI |
Dessert eaten by visitor tonight (7)
|
| Hidden. | ||
| 33 | AUSTEN |
She wrote: “What is golden gun?” (6)
|
| AU (what is golden) STEN (gun). | ||
| 34 | IMPOSE |
Clamp that is trapping fairly soft bone (6)
|
| MP (mezzo-piano, fairly soft) OS (bone) inside IE (that is). | ||
| 35 | NOTEBOOKS |
Small computers other than Kindle products? (9)
|
| NOT E-BOOKS. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ABLE SEAWOMAN |
Sailor was alone with beam at sea (12)
|
| *(WAS ALONE BEAM). Chambers, which is specified as the reference dictionary, gives this as two separate words, so the enumeration is wrong. | ||
| 2 | NET-MINDER |
He stops Puck confusing Demetrius (but not us) with new name (9)
|
| *(DEMETRI N(ew) N(ame)). The capitalisation of Puck is (deliberately) misleading. | ||
| 3 | CLEEK |
Golf club faction under discussion (5)
|
| Sounds like “clique” (faction). | ||
| 4 | EAR |
In high definition this organ would be picked up (3)
|
| (h)EAR(d) (picked up). A rare case of the definition being placed in the middle of the clue. | ||
| 5 | IRIS |
Plant betel upside-down (4)
|
| SIRI (rev). | ||
| 6 | TANAGRA |
Where mausoleum is beneath brown terracotta figure (7)
|
| TAN (brown) AGRA (site of the famous mausoleum, the Taj Mahal). | ||
| 7 | PIGWASH |
Detective beginning to grill wife when husband eats from trough? (7)
|
| PI (private eye, detective) G(rill) W(ife) AS (when) H(usband). | ||
| 8 | HMRC |
In the end, North America regularly ignored counterpart to IRS (4)
|
| (nort)H aMeRiCa. This is the abbreviation referred to in the notes. | ||
| 9 | COSMETICISED |
Ugly medics society mostly given beauty treatment (12)
|
| *(MEDICS SOCIET(y). | ||
| 13 | MILTOWN |
17th century poet injecting weak sedative (7)
|
| W(eak) inside MILTON. It’s a brand name for a psychotropic drug first launched in 1955 but now largely replaced by benzodiazepines. I remember coming across it in American fiction of that era. | ||
| 16 | BRACHET |
Annoying youngster working tech bar (7)
|
| *(TECH BAR). A brach is a hound, but a brachet can mean a brat. | ||
| 17 | AMORALIST |
Italian football team picked up extremely famous person with no ethics (9)
|
| ROMA (Italian football team, rev) A-LIST (extremely famous). | ||
| 20 | CILIATE |
Call about mounting trouble with hairy fringe (7)
|
| AIL (trouble, rev) inside CITE (call). | ||
| 21 | OKIMONO |
I’m carrying naked Yoko Ono figurine (7)
|
| (y)OK(o) IM ONO. | ||
| 26 | RUN ON |
Socially unacceptable Republican from the south to keep talking (5, 2 words)
|
| R(epublican) NON-U (socially unacceptable, from the South, so reversed in a down clue). | ||
| 27 | ERST |
Russian measure supplanting volt at first (4)
|
| (v)ERST (Russian measure). | ||
| 28 | TRIO |
Retired actor ignoring his three performers (4)
|
| (his)TRIO. An old term (hence retired) for an actor. | ||
| 32 | OPS |
Other people’s surgical procedures (3)
|
| O(ther) P(eople)S. |
I thought a plain puzzle was always going to be easier than last week’s, but I didn’t find this one as hard as other plain Gemelo’s I have solved. I think KACHERI, MILTOWN and BRACHET were the only answers where I felt I was relying on the wordplay because I didn’t know the answer, but I had also never heard of NET-MINDER but it seemed like a reasonable compound. The clue to WELL-WISHER made me laugh when I worked it out. I only knew of Kim Wilde as a singer but I have now learned she is also known for her work in horticulture.
The only quibble I have about the blog is that in 34a MP should be short for mezzo-piano.
Thanks, bridgesong and Gemelo.
Thanks for the blog , I thought this one was just right , I hope we get many Plain puzzles like this and the occasional special .
I did not check if ABLE SEAWOMAN was two words , just assumed it had a hyphen and was glad to get it giving so many first letters . NET-MINDER is clever and a nice reference to MSND .
I could not find PULI in Chambers93 , my atlas gave PUL(s) but could be out of date .
Thanks, Matthew, for pointing out my blunder at 34a; I’ve corrected the post.
Much better puzzle, just what the doctor ordered.
What a difference! I think I completed this in 1-2 hours. The previous week I spent as long to get one answer and then gave up.
There were a couple I couldn’t parse and I entered ABLE SEAWOMAN without checking Chambers.
Well, I thought this was especially easy. Maybe I was just on the right wavelength, but it took me barely 15 minutes – which is far from normal, especially for Gemelo! I smiled at 14ac; as a climber, I have a belay device called a grigri, which is an alternative spelling of gris-gris, so that’s a word I’m familiar with!
I can’t see why 32dn is O(ther) P(eople)’s. Chambers doesn’t seem to have OP = other people, except for opposition, which is only tenuously other people. Nor does it have either o = other or p = people.
Wil – try looking up OP’s in Chambers: it’s there! Bizarre but true.