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Another well-crafted puzzle from Gemelo. I managed only a few solutions on my first pass, and I really felt stymied, but then one by one the clues suddenly seemed almost obvious.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ASDIC |
Apparatus for locating submerged objects like bones, mostly (5)
|
| AS (like) + DIC[E] (bones) minus last letter (mostly) | ||
| 6 | ABSENT |
American inclination to keep south out (6)
|
| A (American) + {BENT (inclination) around (to keep) S (south)} | ||
| 11 | DUOPOLIES |
I’d use pool breaks in cases of little competition (9)
|
| Anagram of (breaks) I’D USE POOL | ||
| 12 | AVIATRIX |
Pilot, through translator, detained in city near Marseille (8)
|
| {VIA (through) + TR. (translator)} inside (detained by) AIX (city near Marseille) | ||
| 14 | MELT |
Spleen to become imperceptible (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 15 | SKLENT |
Leader of Stirlingshire county admitting Liberal bias in Stirling (6)
|
| First letter of (leader of) S[TIRLINGSHIRE] + {KENT (county) around (admitting) L (Liberal)}, Scots, thus “in Stirling” | ||
| 16 | OLYMPIA |
Where celebrations happened on account of taking vaccine, but not the last one (7)
|
| O/A (on account of) around (taking) {LYMP[H] (vaccine) minus last letter (but not the last) + I (one)} | ||
| 18 | YAWS |
Reel around, forming zigzags (4)
|
| SWAY (reel) reversed (around) | ||
| 19 | JOBSWORTH |
Much-afflicted man throws out petty official (9)
|
| JOB (much-afflicted man) + anagram of (out) THROWS | ||
| 23 | NUTMEGGED |
Spreading dung, get ’em embarrassed on the field? (9)
|
| Anagram of (spreading) DUNG GET ‘EM | ||
| 24 | STEP |
How parent may be introduced after wedding journey (4)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 26 | ECHELON |
Musk perhaps holds revolutionary status (7)
|
| ELON (Musk perhaps) around (holds) [Ernesto] CHE [Guevara] (revolutionary) | ||
| 29 | YEARLY |
Company cutting part in good time for Four Seasons (6)
|
| [PART]Y (company) minus (cutting) PART + EARLY (in good time) | ||
| 31 | MATE |
Tea no longer baffled couple (4)
|
| Triple definition. Chambers indicates the second meaning as “archaic,” thus “no longer.” | ||
| 32 | IMAGINAL |
Independent constituency, closely fought, losing right of representation (8)
|
| I (Independent) + MA[R]GINAL (constituency, closely fought) minus (losing) R (right) | ||
| 33 | HOLMESIAN |
Hard one, and mail’s bad from a particular solver (9)
|
| H (hard) + anagram of (bad) {ONE + MAIL’S}, referring to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes | ||
| 34 | ONCOST |
Tycoons randomly ignoring unknown overhead expenses (6)
|
| Anagram of (randomly) T[Y]COONS minus (ignoring) Y (unknown) | ||
| 35 | NEEDS |
North Yorkshire city, abandoned by capital, is lacking (5)
|
| N (north) + [L]EEDS (Yorkshire city) minus first letter (abandoned by capital) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ALAMO |
Practically losing stone without a mission (5)
|
| ALMO[ST] (practically) minus (losing) ST (stone) around (without) A | ||
| 2 | SAVELOY |
Banger, for instance, retaining speed after leaving city (7)
|
| SAY (for instance) around (retaining) VELO[CITY] (speed) minus (after leaving) CITY | ||
| 3 | DAILY BREAD |
One’s living terribly badly, I learned (10, 2 words)
|
| Anagram of (terribly) {BADLY I} + READ (learned) | ||
| 4 | CUT UP |
Severely criticise place with capital toward the north (5, 2 words)
|
| {PUT (place) + UC (capital, i.e., upper case)} all inverted (toward the north) | ||
| 5 | CORFIOTE |
Islander I force to convert (8)
|
| Anagram of (convert) I FORCE TO | ||
| 7 | BOX KITE |
One’s strung up and cross, caught by fine during sting (7, 2 words)
|
| {X (cross) inside (caught by) OK (fine)} all inside (during) BITE (sting) | ||
| 8 | SLILY |
Opening of Snow White with hidden meaning (5)
|
| First letter of (opening of) S[NOW] + LILY (white) | ||
| 9 | NEMN |
What’s used before birth name, maiden name, or former name (4)
|
| NÉ (what’s used before birth name) + M (maiden) + N (name), indicated in Chambers as “obsolete,” thus “former” | ||
| 10 | TSETSE |
Fly from Bristol to London, say, forgetting article, and doubling back (6)
|
| E[A]ST (from Bristol to London, say) minus (forgetting) A (article) reduplicated (doubling) and inverted (back) | ||
| 13 | LEAD GLANCE |
Look after foremost metallic ore (10, 2 words)
|
| LEAD (foremost) + GLANCE (look), with “after” indicating the order of the wordplay. Interestingly, Chambers lists this as two words under the entry for “lead,” but as a hyphenated word under the entry for “glance.” | ||
| 17 | ARMCHAIR |
Stay-at-home mum accepting resistance over Conservative stuff that’s grown on her (8)
|
| {MA (mum) around (accepting) R (resistance)} all inverted (over) + C (Conservative) + HAIR (stuff that’s grown on her) | ||
| 20 | WURLIES |
Aboriginal huts with modern address that is special (7)
|
| W (with) + URL (modern address) + I.E. (that is) + S (special) | ||
| 21 | LEOTARD |
Tight garment to stuff with bit of sock up inside (7)
|
| LARD (to stuff) around (with . . . inside) TOE (bit of sock) inverted (up) | ||
| 22 | PSYCHO |
Horror movie clip is fairly dramatic, with DiCaprio finally appearing (6)
|
| Last letters of (finally appearing) [CLI]P [I]S [FAIRL]Y [DRAMATI]C [WIT]H [DICAPRI]O | ||
| 25 | PRIMO |
Romeo’s first proper love (5)
|
| PRIM (proper) + O (love), in Italian, thus “Romeo’s” | ||
| 27 | HOGAN |
Selfishly use an earth-covered cabin (5)
|
| HOG (selfishly use) + AN | ||
| 28 | NELIS |
Pear woodland god picked up (5)
|
| SILEN (woodland god) inverted (picked up) | ||
| 30 | ETON |
School to manage without head (4)
|
| [G]ET ON (to manage) minus first letter (without head) |
I usually start solving a crossword by reading through the clues in order, and I like the blogger I didn’t solve very many clues in my first pass, which I have come to expect from a Gemelo puzzle so much that I don’t normally mention it anymore.
The first answer I worked out was DUOPOLIES, which is a word I have heard too often in the singular because several parties in the upcoming New Zealand general election are campaigning on what they will do about the supermarket duopoly. I liked ARMCHAIR after taking a while to see the definition, and was annoyed with myself when I finally understood PSYCHO because I just hadn’t been taking the final letters of enough words.
I can only vaguely remember ASDIC so I almost entered ASDOC when I momentarily forgot about the word ‘mostly’ on a line by itself.
Thanks, Cineraria and Gemelo.
Thanks for the blog , another very good solid Plain puzzle , solved without Chambers which shows clear wordplay . We are due a Special now and it is Number 50 .
I’ve been having difficulties with the last few Gemolo puzzles. I just can’t decipher the wordplay and solve just a handful of clues. I thought I was improving.
Looking closely at the entry in Chambers for GLANCE, SILVER-GLANCE and COPPER-GLANCE appear to be regular hyphenated forms, whereas LEAD -GLANCE has a space before the hyphen, perhaps to indicate that it is not in fact hyphenated.
bridgesong@4: With apologies for being pedantic, the entry under “lead” is:
lead glance
i.e., with a space but with no hyphen whatsoever.
The entry under “glance” is:
lead’ -glance
which is the conventional way Chambers marks a hyphenated word with stress on the first syllable. Compare, for example, the entry for “add-on” (which appeared in Gemelo No. 46):
add’ -on
If lead glance/lead-glance were an unhyphenated single word “leadglance” [sic], it would be marked as follows:
lead’ glance
Whatever the editors’ intention, the markings are different under the entries for “lead” and “glance.” I thought this was mildly interesting because I have never noticed any editorial discrepancy in Chambers before.