Firstly, we would like to thank the team at the Indy. A prompt reply from Customer Services yesterday confirming that they were aware that the crossword puzzles were not on the app. We started off using the on-line version which we don’t like. We gave up in the end and waited until the problem was solved. The promised email arrived saying that things were fixed and apologising again for any inconvenience.
Problems occur but we always judge things by how well they are sorted. 10/10 for the Independent.
Anyway – it’s now Tuesday and we have an Atrica puzzle to solve and blog.
Our first thoughts were that it was a strange grid – lots of short words. The reason for that was revealed when we solved 15ac – the theme of the puzzle. All the entries are either palindromes or can be reversed to make new words.
Thanks Atrica – it helped us with a few clues we were unsure of as some of the possibilities did not make another word.
L R (left and right – ‘both hands’) around (‘cradling’) AGE (mellow)
An anagram (‘upset’) of GREAT and A MRs missing last letter (‘curtailed’) Thanks Hovis for spotting the missing letter.
SAVE (keep) with S (south) changing sides
NOT (anything but) ES (middle letters or ‘core’ of priestly)
SunscreeN (first and last letters only – ‘after vacation’) + PI (irrational number) reversed (‘looking back’)
DR (first and last letters or ‘case’ of doctor) round (‘holding’) ribOSE (50% only)
A inside (‘buried in’) ROT and ROT reversed (‘whichever way you look at it’) – the key to the theme of the puzzle. Each word in the grid is either a palindrome or can be reversed to make a new word.
wANTEd (desired) removing first and last letters (‘banks withdraw’)
MAD (crazy) dAM (mother) missing D (daughter)
A homophone (‘broadcast’) of MAID (domestic)
REP (theatre) + a reversal (‘returning’) of REP (agent) after A (first letter or ‘opening’ of Amadeus)
D last letter (‘ending’) in bad + ARTS (language and drama?)
SNOuT (nose) missing (‘not’) U (appropriate for anyone to see)
Hidden (‘not entirely’) in ofTEN EThical
LEd readER missing ‘dread’ (fear)
An anagram (‘another way’) of STEPPED around O (old)
ELI (priest) OT (Old Testament – where you might read about Eli)
A whimsical way of saying that propane is A GAS
OR (gold) reversed (‘on the up’) inside IN (fashionable)
If you write itEM after ITem, the answer is hidden (‘in’)
A homophone (‘as discussed’) of PAUSE (hold) – the setter referred to is a dog obviously!
A reversal (‘up’) of REINED (checked)
An anagram (‘wildly’) of IN LOVE and D (diamonds)
Hidden (‘taking part’) in befoRE SATisfactorily
SoLvEr (alternate or ‘occasional’ letters only) + EP (recording)
RD (road) around (‘gripping’) hAMMEr missing first and last letters (‘naked’)
lADA missing (‘cutting off’) ‘l’ (learner) in RR (posh car)
ME (author) inside (‘entering’) TIRed (exhausted) missing (‘after striking’) ED (editor)
DESERT (give up on) around (‘eating’) S (small)
RENT (let) with N (new) and E (last letter of enzyme) inside
Quintuple definitions
Double definition
NUT (head) over S (last or ‘final’ letter of heels)
A homophone (‘called out’) of TEAM (brigade)
A (one) I (one) ‘between’ L (50) and D (500)
Neat trick which I actually spotted before getting to the key clue. Atrica has done well to populate the grid with so many reversible words. And to find a grid with no words longer than 8 letters which certainly doesn’t leave us short of entries. SLEEP, REPAPER and DARTS my podium.
Thanks all
Like B&J it was only upon reaching 15 that I twigged, had to look up SEVA and SETON as new to me. This was very clever and a novel idea (at least for me), however it somehow felt like a bit of a slog, like filling out a questionnaire where one has to stop and think about a few of the answers. Perhaps I got out of the bed the wrong side today.
Thank you to Atrica and B&J
You’re missing the A (from the clue) from the anagrist for MARGARET.
Thanks both. Harmless fun, I’d say; most of this was a write-in anyway, so wasn’t particularly seeking assistance, and I had spotted the central palindromes early on. Inevitably contrived, I guess, to suit the theme, and I’ll assume until told otherwise we are asked to accept ‘no devil’ as a reversal, though I clearly am missing something with ‘demmar’ for RAMMED.
We missed that TFO – well spotted. Maybe someone can help. We can only find it as a surname.
To #4 and #5, isn’t it just DEM (Democrat?) and MAR, since RAMMED is entered across two lights?
Thanks Johannes Vig! We forgot about that.
Ah yes, thanks – the fog has lifted, though I could be picky and point out that the gateway clue says ‘all solutions’ rather than entries, but I try not to overdo pedantry so early in the week.
I was unfamiliar with SEVA (for AVES). SETON I know as Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first canonized American saint, and the university in New Jersey that bears her name, Seton Hall–the latter of which is familiar to college basketball fans. [It’s a member of the Big East conference, a group of mostly small, mostly Catholic universities whose basketball teams punch well above their weight. Incidentally, Seton Hall is unique among US Catholic colleges in that it’s diocesan–that is, it was founded and is operated not by any religious order (Jesuit, Dominican, etc) but by the Archdiocese of Newark.] The seton medical doohickey, which it took some work to get Google to tell me about instead of the above, was also new to me.
I thought this was great fun. Top marks for the theme and the quintuple definition.