Thank to IO for the pleasant challenge this morning!
An enjoyable challenge, with the level of complexity and vocabulary education to be expected from IO. Many thanks to the setter.
As pointed out in the first comment, there is a hidden pattern in the grid!
(CURIOUS UNTIL PHD)* (*despatched)
ELIA (lamb) providing new gown for [s]CHOLA[r] (academic)
Elia is the famous pen name used by English essayist Charles Lamb (1775–1834) to write his iconic Essays of Elia.
U[nited] S[tates] (first) + HER (lady’s)
REME< (engineers, <recessional) incorporating L[eonard] (overture from)
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
13/16/18. Late commentator often said it, with laugh about prop, to signal formal social situation (6,3,3,4,5)
W (with) + (HEHE (laugh) about REST (prop) + CUE (to signal) + BALL (formal social) + GOING (situation)
A catchphrase of commentator, John Virgo’s, when he covered the snooker
CON (fraud) originating with BA (airline)
Cryptic reading
ME and ANT: Might be a label in Dec’s photo album; Dec and Ant being a popular television duo
[scourg]E OF ED[itors]< (encapsulates this, <laid back)
HE (this guy) + ADS (notices)
The ‘head’ is a nautical toilet
[in]COM[e] [to]PLI[ne] CIT[izen’s] (triples in, identified)
TURNED IN (abandoned) + SIDE OUT (ten wickets lost, from cricket)
EP (recording) + HEBE (the cupbearer of Olympus)
(CHE (revolutionary) + MICA (mineral)) integral to ALL (every bit)
(L[i]ND[b]ER[g]H CI[a])* (*in trouble, having ignored A BIG)
I’LL (the writer is going to); WOW (impress) nurses
DANES (settlers in Copenhagen perhaps); SUE (apply for) houses
Double definition
H (husband) joining COL< (mountain pass, <to the north)
(I RUSE)< (I plan, <to get up) + TEN* (*about)
(IF PART OF CC (closed circuit))* (*fails)
(BOW* (*fizzing) + HIT (shot)) skewers BE (live)
Typo fixed – thanks Roz!
CH (children, from 3 down) + INCHIN[g] (moving slowly, away from G (golf, Nato alphabet))
DUD (worthless) + SLIME (runny filth); rolling D[own] M[ountain]’s (western faces, i.e. switching D and M) – &lit
Mudslides tend to happen on western (windward) sides of mountains
[smokin]G (at its end) + AS PER (thanks to)
(E[a]S[t] G[er]MA[n]Y (characters in, bar AREN’T))* (*drunk)
E (base, mathematical) + STATE (say)
R (river) dividing ACE (one)
The expected level of difficulty from Io, not helped by not knowing the ‘Late commentator’ or his famous saying. In the end I managed to get everything after a long time, though EPHEBE was a semi-guess, I couldn’t parse the CHOLA bit of ECHOLALIA (liked the def) and missed the significance of ‘western faces’ in MUDSLIDES. I found BOBWHITE and ALCHEMICAL particularly tough.
There’s a bit extra in the grid – as in the centre, so in the corners (or maybe pockets).
Thanks to Oriel (we just assume this standard of our bloggers but it was an amazing effort to work all this out) and to Io
I have some thoughts (incomplete) about MUDSLIDE
MUDSLIDE
DUD (worthless) SLIME (runny filth)
Rolling D (bringing down D)–which D and
to which spot? Not clear to me from the clue.
Mountain’s western=M
M faces=M covers on the top
M faces in place of the D that faced in DUD SLIME?
Thanks Io and Oriel.
Superb puzzle and excellent blog.
I got 6 answers today, a new record for me on an IO.
KVa@2: I’m sure you’re on to something with MUDSLIDE. If the clue is simply a cryptic def it’s a poor one. Could “down mountain’s western faces” indicate D, M (left-hand letters), with “rolling” then indicating that they then change places in DUD SLIME (roll = turn over, perhaps)? Of course you can still ask: which D? But I strongly suspect IO was aiming for an & lit here.
Small point re 17a MEANT. “Designed” is the def; ME and ANT is a cryptic indication (rather than cryptic def).
I managed to parse all except MUDSLIDE. The clue suggests some sort of manipulation/anagram, but I could not think what the source material might be. I think KVa@2 has it. I was looking for ninas, especially with the tribute clue, but still managed to miss those, too, so thanks to WordPlodder@1.
Thanks to WordPlodder@1 for finding the CUE pattern.
And to KVa@2 and Hector@4 for elucidating MUDSLIDE. I will update the blog – I thought I was missing something but could not see it!
Mudslide took me back to James Taylor.
Took ages to get the long one-did they have snooker in B&W TV days?
Good challenge and great blog
Must have another look in the pockets!
And thanks JH
Thanks for the blog and great spot WordPlodder@1 , nice to have a tribute to John Virgo .
Very minor misprint for BOBWHITE , HIT=shot , just to show I am paying attention .
It takes IO, 42 hours to circle Jupiter, and I certainly went round in circles with this IO, (and it felt like 42 hours).
I’m afraid I got disheartened, and then dismayed, so called time with 6 or 7 still incomplete.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the ones that I did solve, but I appreciate that I’m very much out of kilter with other solvers.
The setter’s modus operandi just isn’t my kind of thing. And that’s fair enough. Big thanks to Oriel and other posters, for explaining things, where I didn’t get what on Earth was going on (or should that be Jupiter! )
I got 3 🙂
Thankfully it is Private Eye day … hello Cyclops 🙂
Thanks for the blog. I couldn’t parse ECHOLALIA or MUDSLIDE, thinking ‘worthless’ was MUD (your name is…) . Quite a few look-ups to fill gaps in my GK.
I usually get Io’s longer clues earlier than today so that was another sticking point.
I doggedly stuck to finishing the NW corner before moving onto the rest of the puzzle. When I had it done (1) I had ticked WILLOW and (2) five of the nine answers were words I did not know, with further obscurities in the charade fodder. So many look-ups! Due to (2), I decided to stop.
Thanks anyway I0 and thanks for the blog, Oriel
Yep, with the troops today, had to reveal a dozen or so squares to finish this Enigio. Early days, I would put hard ones in the car’s door pocket and have a little chew while waiting for the missus. Those days are long gone. Applause to those who finished unaided.
Can someone explain to me what the extra hidden bit is other than all the corners being E?
Charlotte@14: Look at the letters going diagonally on the grid towards those Es.
ENBoll& #9 you’re not out of kilter with me! Unfortunately, however much I try, I cannot get on the IO wavelength…
I had RED as my signal which left me snookered for some while. “Terms repeated over” doesn’t strike me as the greatest of definitions, and hardly justified by the contrived surface. I liked the rest, though.
Well I got the bottom half with the help of the commentator’s quote but a handful missing from the top half.
I was never going to get PULCHRITUDINOUS which meant there wasn’t a huge amount of help for some of the other tricky ones.
Also puzzled by MUDSLIDE. Got Mud=worthless but even that wasn’t right.
Thanks Oriel and IO
Good, that’s out of the way and we can enjoy another month of other setters. Really don’t get it and certainly not compatible with a commute. Put them out over the weekend please.
What meaning of the word “despatched” justifies its use as an anagram indicator in 9A? Meanings such as “murdered”, “executed”, “sent away” don’t suggest any sort of rearrangement to me.
I wrote PULCHRITUDINOUS straight in and TURNED INSIDE OUT wasn’t far behind. Once I spotted the CUE BALL (I agree with Roz @8 about this) I thought it might go quickly. It didn’t.
I feel like Oriel’s use of “famous” for Lamb’s alias might be a stretch. I still don’t know how LOCH is the answer to 7 although I parsed it OK. The trouble is, when you solve clues that still leave you baffled, you doubt yourself elsewhere. My LOI was the relatively straightforward ACRE.
It’s a fail for me, though. Too much messing about with LOCH to claim it.
Well done finishers.
Thanks IO and Oriel
Martin @ 22 Loch Awe
Pelham Barton @15 Thank you!
Far too clever for me. I got five and gave up after an hour. Happy that others enjoyed it, but for me it’s a waste of time.
First IO I have ever managed to complete (though without understanding four of the answers).
Congratulations Christopher. You beat me by one – 10a ECHOLALIA – so I still have yet to complete an IO.
Re that 10a, to me it was a very difficult piece of wordplay for a very obscure word with a very cryptic definition. All I saw was ELIA for Lamb. Since I didn’t get it I call it an unfair clue. Had I got it I would have called it a difficult but fair clue. 😊
I liked the Leonard/Elmer Bernstein misdirection at 12a.
I’d never heard of John Virgo or his catch phrase, so I needed crossers, guesswork and google to get my cue ball going in the middle of the grid.
Io continues to be beyond my level, but I do appreciate his cleverness.