Magus’ latest creation has been published to put our cruciverbal skills to the test today.
I found this crossword to be incredibly challenging, and I am afraid that I am unable to provide a complete blog. I think that I have found all the answers, but I am at a loss as to the parsing of some of the clues – 12, 25, 27 – and nor am I sure I have read 3 correctly. I will check in later and update the blog when others wiser than myself have provided the missing explanations.
Overall, while I appreciate that there is huge amount of ingenuity in this puzzle, I feel that Magus has made me work a bit too hard for a mid-week solve – solving this puzzle required the level of head-scratching that I would prefer to keep for the weekend. That said, I tend to struggle more with crosswords with wordier clues in general, so it may be a personal thing in part.
As for my favourite clues today, I particularly liked 1D and 22A, both for their surface readings; 16, for playing on the two meanings of “capital”; 17A, for sheer ingenuity; and 17D, for making me laugh out loud.
As I said, I will update later.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are underlined; a break in underlining separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| ACROSS
|
||
| 1 | TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT |
You shouldn’t have holiday sex with wretched Keir to please yourself (4,2,2,5,2)
|
| TA (=you shouldn’t have, i.e. thank you) + *(KEIR TO) + LEAVE (=holiday) + IT (=sex, as in to do it) | ||
| 9 | SOMEDAY |
One quits newspapers possibly drowning in sauce sooner or later (7)
|
| MED<i>A (=newspapers possibly; “one (=I) quits” means letter “i” is dropped) in SOY (=sauce) | ||
| 10 | STRANGE |
To choke, losing heart in Wimbledon, is hard to explain (7)
|
| STRANG<l>E (=to choke; “losing heart (=middle letter) in Wimbledon” means letter “l” is dropped); e.g. a strange phenomenon is “hard to explain” | ||
| 11 | ASTRAY |
Vauxhall car approaching yard is off course (6)
|
| ASTRA (=Vauxhall car, i.e. model) + Y (=yard, in measurement) | ||
| 12 | STEADIED |
Made firm second date arranged with bombshell (8)
|
| S (=second) + *(DATE) + ?? ; “arranged” is anagram indicator | ||
| 14 | OPPOSES |
Republicans originally redacted models’ faces (7)
|
| <g>OP (=Republicans, i.e. Grand Old Party; “originally redacted” means first letter is dropped) + POSES (=models, for a photographer); to oppose in a competition, say, is to face an opponent | ||
| 17 | CLIENTS |
Extremely cool remix of Strokes’ Last Nite for those that pay (7)
|
| C<oo>L (“extremely” means first and last letters) + *(<stroke>S + NITE); “last” means last letter only is used in anagram, indicated by “remix” | ||
| 20 | LEISURE |
The French certain to embrace current convenient opportunity (7)
|
| I (=current, in physics) in [LE (=the French, i.e. a French word for the) + SURE (=certain)]; at one’s leisure means at what is a convenient opportunity for one | ||
| 21 | ASTYLAR |
Tips from angry sub: “Trying your luck annoys readers wanting columns” (7)
|
| A<ngry> S<ub> T<rying> Y<our> L<uck> A<nnoys> R<eaders>; “tips from” means first letters only; in architecture, an astylar construction lacks columns, hence “wanting columns” | ||
| 22 | TOGETHER |
United’s lead cut by player’s mistake … (8)
|
| OG (=player’s mistake, i.e. own goal) in TETHER (=(a) lead, rope tie, for an animal) | ||
| 25 | ANKARA |
… short cross Rayan Aït-Nouri initially returned back to Donnarumma for City (6)
|
| ? | ||
| 29 | BONDAGE |
Who’s licensed to kill twisted, barely legal kink? (7)
|
| BOND (=who’s licensed to kill, i.e. 007 James Bond) + AGE (<l>EGA<l>; “barely” means first and last letters are dropped; “twisted” indicates reversal; bondage is a sexual fetish, hence “kink” | ||
| 30 | ON A ROLL |
List of elite US students said to be doing well (2,1,4)
|
| Homophone (“said”) of “honor roll (=list of elite US students)” | ||
| 31 | THEATRICAL AGENT |
Professional representative could be awful charlatan getting cut repeatedly: first 12.5% of earnings (10,5)
|
| *(CHARLATAN GETTI<ng>) + E<arnings>); “getting cut repeatedly” means a letter is chopped off the end twice; “first 12.5% of” means 1 of 8 letters only is used in anagram, indicated by “awful” | ||
| DOWN
|
||
| 1 | TESLA COIL |
Labour introducing shifting scale that makes sparks fly (5,4)
|
| *(SCALE) in TOIL (=labour); “shifting” is anagram indicator; in electrical engineering, a Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer device, hence “that makes sparks fly” | ||
| 2 | KEMPT |
Orderly looked after nurses close to sanatorium (5)
|
| <sanatoriu>M (“close to” means last letter only) in KEPT (=looked after, e.g. animals) | ||
| 3 | INDIA |
Third off price for ham? (5)
|
| Cryptic definition: the third off price, its third letter, is “i”, represented by India in radio telecommunications, hence “for ham”, i.e. radio station operator | ||
| 4 | ORYX |
One beastly Conservative’s unguarded kiss (4)
|
| <t>ORY<”s>: “unguarded” means first and last letters are dropped + X (=kiss, e.g. on birthday card); an oryx is a kind of mountain goat, hence “one beastly” | ||
| 5 | LISZT |
Key expert‘s cant in hearing (5)
|
| Homophone (“in hearing”) of “cant (=list, tilt, slope); the “(musical) key expert” referred to is the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt (1811-86) | ||
| 6 | AERIALIST |
TV show possibly exposed sporting star as one who gets high (9)
|
| <s>ERIA<l> (=TV show possibly; “exposed” means first and last letters are dropped) in A-LIST (=star, as in A-list celebrity); an aerialist is a person who performs acrobatics high above the ground, such as a trapeze artist | ||
| 7 | ENNUI |
Europeans disturbed by news on international lack of interest (5)
|
| [NN (=news, i.e. 2 x N=new)] in EU (=Europeans)] + I (=international) | ||
| 8 | TREAD |
Cover of The Modern Age sampling Queen track (5)
|
| R (=Queen, as in ER) in [T<h>E (“cover of” means first and last letters) + AD (=the modern age)] | ||
| 13 | ASHE |
American woman who won five Grand Slam titles (4)
|
| A (=American) + SHE (=woman); the reference is to the American tennis player Arthur Ashe (1943-93) | ||
| 15 | PHI |
Character from The Odyssey that’s acidic? (3)
|
| pH 1 would indicate high acidity in a litmus test, hence “that’s acidic”; phi is a letter of the Greek alphabet, hence “character from The Odyssey”! | ||
| 16 | STUTTGART |
Four times Sugar wasted capital in Baden-Württemberg (9)
|
| *(TTTT (=four times, i.e. 4 x t=time) + SUGAR); “wasted” is anagram indicator | ||
| 17 | CIAO |
Meloni’s opener: “Trump’s intelligence? Zero!” (4)
|
| CIA (=Trump’s intelligence, i.e. intelligence agency!) + O (=zero); “ciao”, as the Italian word for hi, would be Italian PM Giorgia Meloni’s opener in a conversation | ||
| 18 | NIL |
Collar’s missing a zip (3)
|
| N<a>IL (=(to) collar, nab; missing a” means letter a is dropped); in US slang, zip means nothing, zero, zilch | ||
| 19 | STREAMLET |
Insignificant banker‘s unacceptable service on the back of jet (9)
|
| STREAM (=jet, flow of) + LET (=unacceptable service, in tennis); the “banker” of the definition refers to a watercourse with “banks”! | ||
| 22 | TIBET |
Half-hearted old Tory enforcer upset region in dispute (5)
|
| (Norman) TE<b>BIT (=old Tory enforcer, i.e. former chairman of the Conservative Party); “half-hearted” means one of central letters is dropped; “upset” indicates vertical reversal | ||
| 23 | GENRE |
Eagle going around after golf class (5)
|
| G (=golf, in NATO alphabet) + ENRE (ERNE=(sea) eagle; “going round” indicates reversal) | ||
| 24 | ELEMI |
Space kept by priest for fragrant resin (5)
|
| EM (=space, in printing) in ELI (=priest, in OT) | ||
| 26 | NYALA |
New York city cops heading to apprehend animal (5)
|
| A<pprehend> (“heading to” means first letter only) in [NY (=New York) + LA (=city)] | ||
| 27 | ALONE |
Gay, maybe rampant and single! (5)
|
| ? | ||
| 28 | SOMA |
Huxley’s soporific book on revolution (4)
|
| AMOS (=book, of OT); “on revolution” indicates reversal; soma is the narcotic tranquiliser, the opiate of the masses in Aldous Huxley’s 1932 sci-fi novel Brave New World |
Battered this one into eventual submission!
12, I had IED as the bombshell
25 ank(h) short cross plus the Rayan Aït-Nouri initials reversed + (donnamur)a
27 reversal of Enola (Gay) the A bomb aircraft
All the tracks from The Strokes’ album Hard to Explain appear as solutions or in clues. Explains the rather obscure SOMA. A great fill from Magus with some lovely clues to boot.
Two Indy themes in one week so far…
Had the same parsings as Doofs. In case anyone doesn’t know, an IED is an Improvised Explosive Device.
Charlie@2: I thought it was suppose to be the album “Is This It” which apparently has many of the same tracks as “Hard to Explain”, but the title track is missing. The central row contains IH THIS IT which would be the title if 15d were PSI.
27 enola gay
@ Matthew D’oh, sorry yes, I meant the album Is This It, which includes the song Hard to Explain. Good spot on the semi-nina.
I have no idea, how I completed this puzzle correctly. Or nearly:-( ELENI instead of ELEMI, for 24 down, but I’m taking that as OK, because the grid is full of such bizarros ).
Thanks , Riku, for parsing the ones that I solved, with no blinking idea how or why.
ASTYLAR… OK, but it’s a facade that doesn’t need ( or want ) columns.
For me, the setter has been too clever for my own good. Obscure, but not craftily so – just obscure.
No fun, no thumbs up, though some may love it.
Thanks RR… for drinking the poisoned chalice.
Matthew @4 and Charlie @6: I rather suspect the setter did have PSI in there. Whilst this is certainly a tricky puzzle, there is a lot of skill involved in incorporating so much material from the album; it would be surprising if they either failed to notice there was an entirely coincidental central nina(!) or failed to fill in the grid correctly to give the correct title.
Impressive thematic work which went way over my head. Enola Gay was satisfying to find. I don’t really like the “third off” to mean “third letter of” device.
I’ve seen rampant as a reversal indicator earlier but missed it today so unable to parse 27d. Fairly niche theme about which I have no idea although the solve wasn’t difficult, at least not as difficult as Tramp later in the day.
Thanks both. Felt like the setter wanted the upper hand, and whilst I enjoyed quite a lot of this, the experience was spoiled by the ungettable e.g. SOMA (really? Reverse a book title, any book title if you recognise the dodgy rampant as the indicator) and the unparsable e.g. ALONE noting Gay barely does the job as the person’s name (not the aircraft) was Enola Gay Haggard Tibbets. As a Man City fan I am left to console in ANKARA which references two of the clubs players, however whereby Shaun Wright-Phillips was always SWP, Rayan Ait-Nouri ‘initially’ should be RAN not just RA.