Our Tuesday challenge is from Atrica this week.
Some enjoyable surfaces, especially the well-advised second thoughts in 8a and the frosty atmosphere after a breach of protocol in 6d. I also liked the unusual construction in 18a and the sound-alike of 26a (no doubt someone will complain about different pronunciations for this one, but it works for me). A couple of definitions seemed a bit obscure, as noted below, but it all made sense.
Atrica regularly appears on Tuesday which is traditionally theme day. I’m not familiar with the writing of Ian McEwan but a couple of titles were familiar, and as usual Wikipedia filled in some gaps. McEwan’s novels include The CEMENT GARDEN, The CHILD in TIME, The INNOCENT, BLACK DOGS, AMSTERDAM, ATONEMENT, SATURDAY and SOLAR; he also wrote a collection of short stories under the title FIRST LOVE, LAST RITES. But as always with a ghost theme, we don’t need to know any of that to solve the puzzle. Thanks Atrica for the fun.
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | SUPEREGO |
Amazing drug, crack? Something telling me to think twice (8)
|
| SUPER (amazing = excellent) + E (slang for the drug ecstasy) + GO (as in “have a go” = crack = an attempt).
In Freudian psychoanalysis, the part of your consciousness that deals with ideals, values and moral choices. |
||
| 9 | GARDEN |
Weed possibly represented danger (6)
|
| Anagram (re-presented) of DANGER.
Garden, as a verb = to maintain a garden; weed, as a verb = to remove weeds from a garden. |
||
| 10 | RITES |
Inspired by preacher it established rituals (5)
|
| Hidden answer (inspired by . . .) in [preache]R IT ES[tablished]. | ||
| 11 | SATURDAY |
Nameless planet with rotation period of another, one of seven (8)
|
| SATUR[n] (a planet) without N (abbreviation for name), then DAY (rotation period of planet Earth). | ||
| 12 | AMSTERDAM |
Hard to leave pet rodent with mother in city (9)
|
| [h]AMSTER (a rodent often kept as a pet) without H (abbreviation for hard, as in 2H pencils), then DAM (a mother animal). | ||
| 15 | BLACK |
Ban learner stuck in reverse (5)
|
| L (sign indicating a learner driver) stuck into BACK (reverse).
I wasn’t sure about the definition here, but both Chambers and Collins recognise “black” as a verb meaning to organise a trade union boycott of something or someone = to ban. |
||
| 18 | LOVE |
Care for vole as mate becomes tame (4)
|
| An unusual construction. MATE becomes TAME if you swap the first and third letters; doing the same to VOLE gives you LOVE. | ||
| 20 | CHILD |
Church taking edge off unruly youngster (5)
|
| CH (abbreviation for church) + [w]ILD (unruly) with the first letter (edge) taken off. | ||
| 21 | CHEW |
Munch cold cut (4)
|
| C (abbreviation for cold) + HEW (to cut, for example with an axe). | ||
| 22 | FIRST |
Tree starts to sprout twigs before anything else (5)
|
| FIR (a type of tree) + starting letters of S[prout] T[wigs]. | ||
| 23 | ATONEMENT |
Recompense workers with time after they have lunch? (9)
|
| MEN (formerly a term for workers, though not really acceptable now) + T (abbreviation for time), after AT ONE (at 1pm, when workers might take a lunch break). | ||
| 26 | INNOCENT |
Clear where the US put copper until late last year, reportedly (8)
|
| Sound-alike (reportedly) of IN A CENT: the US Mint stopped producing one-cent copper coins in late 2025, so they haven’t put any copper in a cent since then.
Clear in the sense of “not under suspicion”, for example having a valid alibi. |
||
| 29 | SOLAR |
Boulder in the centre blocking rise of the sun (5)
|
| Centre letter of [bou]L[der] inserted into (blocking) SOAR (rise, as a verb). | ||
| 31 | CEMENT |
Setter‘s announcement when article and part of speech censored (6)
|
| [an][noun]CEMENT, removing (censoring) AN (a form of the indefinite article) + NOUN (a part of speech).
Something that sets hard. |
||
| 32 | MINISTER |
Clergyman the first person to enter church (8)
|
| I (grammatically the first person), inserted into (to enter) MINSTER (a large or important church). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | QUORUM |
Question upsetting Open University strange enough to hold a meeting (6)
|
| Q (abbreviation for question), then OU (abbreviation for Open University) reversed (upsetting = upwards in a down clue), then RUM (a slightly old-fashioned word for strange).
Quorum = the minimum number of people required at a meeting (of a committee or membership organisation) in order for it to conduct its business. (From the Latin for “of whom”, as in “the committee has 7 members of whom at least 4 must be present for their decisions to be valid”.) |
||
| 2 | FEET |
A couple of things holding up Starmer maybe announcing notable achievement? (4)
|
| Sound-alike (announcing = saying out loud) of FEAT (a notable achievement).
I think Keir Starmer is just here for the surface: most people have a couple of feet to hold them up. |
||
| 3 | TESSERACT |
Engineer creates extremely significant four-dimensional object (9)
|
| Anagram (engineer, as a verb = build or modify) of CREATES + end letters (extremes) of S[ignifican]T.
The four-dimensional equivalent of a three-dimensional cube, if your brain is able to handle that sort of geometry. |
||
| 4 | DOGS |
Case of gangs following party animals (4)
|
| Outer letters (case) of G[ang]S, after DO (slang for a party). | ||
| 5 | AGATE |
Stone Age circles advanced over time (5)
|
| AGE, containing (circling) A (abbreviation for advanced, as in A-level exams) before (over, in a down clue) T (abbreviation for time).
A stone with layers (bands) in different colours, often polished for decorative use. |
||
| 6 | BRRR |
Rector interrupting two bishops? I can feel the chill (4)
|
| B (abbreviation for bishop) + RR (abbreviation for Right Reverend, title for a bishop), with R (abbreviation for Rector) inserted (interrupting).
A sound to imitate shivering, used as an exclamation to indicate that the speaker feels cold. |
||
| 7 | DEMARCHE |
Diplomatic manoeuvre reached beginning of mutual arrangement (8)
|
| Anagram (arrangement) of REACHED + beginning letter of M[utual].
An action, request or statement via diplomatic channels from one government to another. |
||
| 13 | TRESS |
Lock for abandoned castle (5)
|
| [for]TRESS (a castle) without FOR.
Lock = tress = a section of hair. |
||
| 14 | ATILT |
Left before the end of having sex, needing straightening (5)
|
| AT IT (slang for having sex), with L (abbreviation for left) just before the end letter.
Atilt = in a tilted position. |
||
| 16 | LOCUM |
See about – how should I put it – provider of relief (5)
|
| LO (lo! = see! = a command to look at something) + C (abbreviation for Latin circa = about = approximately) + UM (a sound indicating hesitation, as when considering how to express something).
A worker (for example a doctor) providing relief cover when the usual person working in that role is unavailable. |
||
| 17 | ADENOSINE |
Biomolecule? In DNA see variant with added oxygen (9)
|
| Anagram (variant) of IN DNA SEE + O (chemical symbol for oxygen).
An organic compound: it does seem to have some connection with DNA / RNA, but I’m not a molecular biologist and got rather lost in the Wikipedia articles. |
||
| 19 | ORIENTED |
Over in France nothing supported by talk promoter aligned with references (8)
|
| O (abbreviation for over, in cricket scoring) + RIEN (French word for nothing, so “in France nothing”), before (above, in a down clue = supported by) TED (abbreviation for Technology, Entertainment, Design: an organisation that provides recorded talks online). | ||
| 24 | NURSED |
Tended to break asunder after the start (6)
|
| Anagram (to break) of [a]SUNDER without the first letter (after the start).
Tend = nurse = care for. |
||
| 25 | TESTY |
Impatient? Try one of the axes (5)
|
| TEST (try) + Y (one of the two axes of a graph).
Testy = impatient or easily angered. (From the Old French word for head, with the sense of “headstrong”.) |
||
| 27 | OPEN |
Hope menu contents ready to serve customers (4)
|
| Inner letters (contents) of [h]OP[e] [m]EN[u].
As in a shop open from 9am – 6pm. |
||
| 28 | TIME |
Age occasionally overlooked at film set (4)
|
| Alternate letters removed (occasionally overlooked) from [a]T [f]I[l]M [s]E[t]. | ||
| 30 | LAST |
Hold out something that looks like a foot (4)
|
| Double definition. To persist or continue; or a foot-shaped device used when making shoes. |
2d which is right – feet or feat? Both look good. Is there a protocol order?
Banksia @1: it’s always tricky with sound-alike clues where the indicator is in the middle. You could read it either way, but the use of “announcing” as the indicator seems to tip the balance. The structure of the clue as I read it is “FEET, or saying something that sounds like FEAT”. The alternative is something like “FEET, saying out loud, gives us FEAT”, in which the grammar is a bit contrived.
I always like it when you can infer something you didn’t know from a crossword clue, so my favourite today was INNOCENT. A very satisfying puzzle and a great blog. Thanks.
A very enjoyable solve completed and parsed with only “cement” unparsed but entered from the crossers and definition.
How I missed the superb indication of “article and part of speech censored” I cannot understand anymore than how I missed the theme of one of my most favourite authors.
Thanks all.
Thanks. I liked INNOCENT despite it not fully working as a homophone the way I pronounce it, though I marked the puzzle down overall owing to three unknowns, so possible obscurities, all clued as anagrams, being ADENOSINE, DEMARCHE, TESSERACT.
Hi all, thank you for the comments, and special thanks to Quirister for the excellent blog. TFO @5 I actually deliberately clue words that I think may be obscure as anagrams, thinking that they are typically easier to solve than other clue types (at least, they are for me). Perhaps I should not do this any more! Sometimes themes introduce more of such words than one might otherwise choose to use.
Thanks Atrica for a great set of clues with my top picks being SUPEREGO, AMSTERDAM, INNOCENT, MINISTER, ADENOSINE, and NURSED. I missed the very clever CEMENT because I couldn’t get past ‘setter’ being a crossword compiler or a dog. I appreciated the ‘hard words’ being anagrams; anagrams and straightforward hiddens are probably the easiest devices for me. I missed the theme but I had enough satisfaction from the clues themselves. Thanks Quirister for the blog.
Ditto Quirister re 17d .. vaguely remembered adenosine-triphosphate being this big thing from which bits can detach and be catalysts or whatev. But, cruisy puzzle, never read McEwan so no theme but enjoyable anyway, ta Q and A.
Just had to pop in to say how much I enjoyed this. The theme hit me pretty late so when it did it was a ton of bricks. Right up my street – have read them all. Thanks Atrica and Quirister.