The original puzzle may be found here.
A puzzle that requires a certain amount of general knowledge, so my favourite kind of puzzle. I did have to Google Beria, as I had never heard of him, but BACTERIA was gettable from the crossers, so I had the answer if not the parsing. I have read the book in 2dn and the one featuring Ahab, so those were straightforward too. It took a while to see BILLY-O for some reason, but a good clue once I saw it. I was talking to my wife about sardines last night by coincidence, so that also helped with the long solution going down the middle.
Thanks, Imogen.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | EARNED |
Deserved relaxation eventually, being lugged around (6)
|
| EARED (“lugged”, as in having lugs) around (relaxatio)N [eventually] | ||
| 5 | SACRISTY |
Bag is in right end of busy dressing room (8)
|
| SAC (“bag”) + IS in Rt. (right) + [end of] (bus)Y | ||
| 9 | FIVE-STAR |
Really excellent ball game cheers king (4-4)
|
| FIVES (“ball game”) + TA (“cheers”) + R (Rex, so “king”) | ||
| 10 | NESTLE |
Food manufacturers are in protected position (6)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to Nestlé, the giant Swiss food company. | ||
| 11 | SHOT IN THE ARM |
Vaccination booster? (4,2,3,3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | BEAU |
Live with a socially superior admirer (4)
|
| BE (“live”) with A + U (“socially superior”) | ||
| 14 | EN POINTE |
Sacked, one inept dancer who is so unnaturally tall? (2,6)
|
| *(one inept) [anag:sacked] | ||
| 17 | BACTERIA |
Police chief overrides law for possibly harmful agents (8)
|
| (Lavrentiy) BERIA (a “police chief” under Stalin) overrides ACT (“law”) | ||
| 18 | TROT |
Astroturf is too much for left-winger (4)
|
| Hidden in [is too much for] “asTROTurf” | ||
| 20 | NOTHING DOING |
Love acting, without hope of success (7,5)
|
| NOTHING (“love”) + DOING (“acting”) | ||
| 23 | BILLY-O |
Boiler given oxygen going vigorously like this? (5-1)
|
| BILLY (can) (used for boiling, so a “boiler”) given O (oxygen) | ||
| 24 | IS THAT SO |
His toast wants a spread? I don’t believe you (2,4,2)
|
| *(his toast) [anag:wants a spread] | ||
| 25 | ELDRITCH |
Uncanny children almost messing with time (8)
|
| *(childre t) [anag:messing] where CHILDRE is [almost] CHILDREN(n) | ||
| 26 | OREGON |
Old district, not one part of America (6)
|
| O (old) + REG(i)ON (“district”, not I (one)) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | AMIS |
Money maker a failure? Not entirely (4)
|
| A + MIS(s) (“failure”, not entirely”)
Martin Amis wrote the book, Money, so is technically a “Money maker” |
||
| 3 | NEEDS MUST |
It is essential, born on earth, to accept some failing occasionally (5,4)
|
| NEE (“born”) on DUST (“earth”) accepting S(o)M(e) [failing occasionally] | ||
| 4 | DOTCOM |
Modern business caught up in catastrophe (6)
|
| Ct. (caught, up) in DOOM (“catastrophe”) | ||
| 5 | SARDINE SANDWICH |
Breaded fish women organised after children’s game and before church (7,8)
|
| WI (Womens Institute, so “women organised”) after (SARDINES (“children’s game”) + AND) before CH (“church”) | ||
| 6 | CENOTAPH |
Monument not cheap to sculpt (8)
|
| *(not cheap) [anag:to sculpt] | ||
| 7 | ISSUE |
A lot of lies not initially a problem (5)
|
| (t)ISSUE (“a lot of lies”, not initially) | ||
| 8 | TOLERATION |
Indulgence of endlessly pilfered allowance (10)
|
| [endlessly] (s)TOLE(n) (“pilfered”) + RATION (“allowance”) | ||
| 12 | SENATORIAL |
In a row preserving alliance is concerning high-ranking politician (10)
|
| SERIAL (“in a row”) preserving NATO (“alliance”) | ||
| 15 | INTEGRATE |
Become part of group felling giant tree (9)
|
| *(giant tree) [anag:felling] | ||
| 16 | BRING OUT |
Emphasise bell stops contest (5,3)
|
| RING (“bell”) stops BOUT (“contest”) | ||
| 19 | BISTRO |
Simple restaurant’s gravy overcomes resistance (6)
|
| BISTO (“gravy” granules) overcomes R (resistance) | ||
| 21 | HALER |
Captain Ahab for one losing weight gets fitter (5)
|
| (w)HALER (“Captain Ahab for one”, losing W (weight)) | ||
| 22 | OSLO |
Capital both sides lost in trade union’s protest (4)
|
| [both sides lost in] (g)O-SLO(w) (“trade union’e protest”) |
Got 3d relatively early on, but otherwise still had multiple blanks in the NW by the time my train ride came to an end. Took far too long to recall the game of fives. 1a, 2d and 4d were my LOI’s and all very clever clues. A nice change to have both ‘Rt’ and ‘Ct’ instead of the more common (I think?) R and C.
Quite pleased to finish as I didn’t have the reference for AMIS or SARDINES and ELDRITCH was a NHO. I was also nonplussed by DOTCOM for what now seems ridiculously long (LOI). NW in general a tricky area. COD EARNED.
NHO the book in 2D or the game in 9A. Why is 10 “Food manufacturers” when it’s generally regarded as a singular entity? OTOH 21D should hardly have required reading the book, given its permeation throughout popular culture, and of course any Aussie should know the boiler from our national song about the swagman named Andy i.e. “Andy sang as he watched, Andy waited till his billy boiled”…
Enjoyable, and less tricky than Imogen often seems to be.
In 8dn, I think it’s CH for church, not CE.
Thanks I and L.
My loi was 2d and I gave up. The definition seems obscure though I do recognise the surname (Kingsley comes to mind first though) and the wordplay is fair. I also guessed 1a but didn’t put it in until the end because I couldn’t see eared=lugged.
I can’t be the only person who tried the near anagram on tiptoe, but it wasn’t quite right and I had enough crossers to disprove it anyway.
Sardine sandwich raised my eyebrow slightly because it doesn’t seem like a distinct phrase, but cheese sandwich or cucumber sandwich wouldn’t have bothered me and if they are OK there’s no reason to say sardine isn’t.
I struggled with the last third of this, and I’m still unsure whether “sardine sandwich” feels fair to me. Can “en pointe” be used as a noun meaning a dancer in that position?
OSLO and OREGON both very lovely, and overall an enjoyable puzzle which I would have enjoyed more were I of better brain.
Thanks both!
MAC@3 I do hope you’ll come a-waltzing my tilde with me.
Always a pleasure to see Imogen’s name, in anticipation of great clueing and wonderful surfaces. Enjoyed this muchly, particularly AMIS (LOI), ELDRITCH, FIVE-STAR and SARDINE SANDWICH. Many thanks to I & L.
Tom@6: I think Imogen intended we read 14ac as “dancer who is so (i.e. en pointe) [is] unnaturally tall”.
“Fives” in its various forms is almost uniquely played at public schools (and, by extension, Oxford and Cambridge) in two main forms (“Rugby” in something like a squash court, and “Eton” in an open backed court with a step and a buttress). Those who did not go to such places need not beat themselves up about not having heard of it I reckon!
Lovely puzzle – thank you Imogen and loonapick.
Well constructed puzzle with a good variety of clue type and GK requirement. Favourite: ELDRITCH, because I particularly like the word. LOI AMIS – I wasn’t looking for a proper name. The sandwich filling is rather arbitrary, but that doesn’t make it wrong, though a phrase like ‘club sandwich’ is less debatable.
MAC089 @3: It is idiomatic in British English to treat company names as plurals, just as all English speakers do with the word ‘people’: Nestlé ARE launching a new chocolate bar.
Thanks to Imogen and loonapick
I had the same ticks as Drofle @8 and learned the lovely word ELDRITCH. Money is my favourite Martin Amis novel, so loved that one. I was surprised that the blogger hadn’t heard of Beria, (superb surface with the different use of agents), one of the cruellest villains of the 20th Century.
Ta Imogen & loonapick.
Martin Amis enjoyed crosswords. A favourite clue of his – Something wrong with Finnegan’s Wake? Perhaps too complicated (10). Thanks for the puzzle.
Enjoyed this challenge this morning, though wasn’t quite sure about AMIS, as I don’t know titles of the books he wrote. ELDRITCH was another one I had to look up. JOFT@9…I’m afraid I did go to “one of those places”, and (Rugby) Fives was a sport I briefly played. Though I never felt the gloves that you bashed the ball with quite had enough padding in them to cushion the blow.
I did not go to ‘one of those places’, but had still heard of fives. I had thought it was a perfectly normal ball game, and it is news to me that it is restricted to a couple of universities.
Jack@9 OK, I can get behind that reading. Thank you!
I needed both crossers to get AMIS. A good clue, with “Money” cleverly at the start to disguise the capital letter. I have fond memories of reading his first novel The Rachel Papers when I was a student.
I did think that the two definitions for SHOT IN THE ARM were a bit too close to each other, as one derives from the other, but apart from that there was lots to like. There were some nicely chosen anagram indicators, such as “His toast wants a spread” and “felling giant tree”.
Interesting that TROT came straight after BERIA. (I liked the former for the play on “left-winger”.)
Thanks Imogen and loonapick.
epop @12. I haven’t seen the clue before. Thats’ excellent!
Thanks to S&B
Where would one see CT for “caught”? (Box scores for cricket maybe?—would explain my ignorance of it.) I’ve certainly seen it for _Court_, but here (4d) I expected something would signal first-&-last-only. (RT for “right” in 5a has precedent, appearing in such abbreviated titles as _Rt Hon_ and _Rt Revd_.)
Thanks, Imogen and loonapick. This looked really tough at first but fell into place fairly briskly. AMIS last in, and thanks epop@12 for that clue, which is very clever. Just thinking about Beria makes me shudder, though.