A standard Spectator puzzle this week where there are ten unclued lights of a kind
The puzzle title was ‘Venomous’, so the unclued lights were likely items that kill. In the event, they were all poisons.
The first two poisons I detected were ACONITE (5 down) and BELLADONNA (1 down). I wasn’t familiar with all the poisons, so I had to do a bit of research to pin them all down. I reckon that 12 down is CURARE as that is the most common spelling. However, Chambers gives two other spellings that would fit the grid as it has the final letter of 12 down unchecked. CURARA and CURARI could also be valid entries.
When I found CONIINE (26 down), I thought it must be a rare occurrence of a word with two consecutive Is in its body. A quick search disabused me of that idea. There are a surprising number of such words.
I am not sure why RICK and BETSY are both clued in wordplay as ‘young lad’ [27 across] and ‘young Elizabeth’ [32 down], as both names are just as applicable to adults.
I liked the AIOLI clue, with its surface reading referring to other Mediterranean foods.
Aside from the poisons, I thought the grid was filled with well-known words.
| Across | |
| 1 | Vegetables brunettes prepared with bass and asparagus tip (6, 5)
BUTTER BEANS (vegetables) Anagram of (prepared) BRUNETTES and (with) B (bass) and A (first letter of [tip] Asparagus) BUTTER BEANS* |
| 7 | Small flat’s ready (3)
APT (liable, ready or prone) APT (abbreviation for apartment [flat]) APT |
| 11 | Instrument panel from aunt’s Skoda collapsed in accident, initially (6)
FASCIA (instrument panel of a car) FASCIA (first letters of [initially] each of From, Aunt’s, Skoda, Collapsed, In and Accident) F A S C I A |
| 13 | Nearly caught out – that’s wrong (7)
LARCENY (theft, an action that’s wrong) Anagram of (out) NEARLY and C (caught) LARCENY* |
| 15 | Big hit, getting caught – 50 and dismissed (5)
CLOUT (a big blow or cuff) C (caught) + L (Roman numeral for 50) + OUT (dismissed) C L OUT |
| 16 | Youthful age giving support to province (5)
TEENS (youthful age) TEE (a support for a golf ball) + NS (Nova Scotia, a province of Canada) TEE NS |
| 17 | Claim from member in dailies, now and again (6)
ALLEGE (calm) LEG (a member) contained in (in) ALE (letters 2, 4 and 6 [now and again] of dAiLiEs AL (LEG) E |
| 18 | Juliet’s predecessor, one needing first aid, on reflection (5)
INDIA (in the set of international radio communication codewords, India [I] precedes Juliet [J]) I (Roman numeral for one) + N (initial letter of [first] Needing) + AID reversed (on reflection) I N DIA< |
| 20 | Measure about 11 tuns (2,4)
SI UNIT (Système International (d’Unités), the modern scientific system of units (SI UNITs), used in the measurement of all physical quantities) Anagram of (about) 11 TUNS, where 11 is interpreted as II) SI UNIT* |
| 21 | Who courted regularly in Shropshire town? (5)
WOORE (village and civil parish located in the far north-east of Shropshire, population circa 1,000) WOORE (letters 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 [regularly] of WhO cOuRtEd) W O O R E |
| 22 | Hippopotamus so positive returning a bit to marsupial (7)
OPOSSUM (a marsupial) OPOSSUM (reversed [returning] hidden word [a bit] in hippopotaMUS SO POsitive) OPOSSUM< |
| 27 | Young lad admits old students behave rowdily (7)
ROLLICK (behave rowdily) RICK (male name, potentially that of a young lad) containing (admits) (O [old] + [L {learner; student} + L {learner; student}] giving two students) R (O L L) ICK |
| 29 | Greek isle where early Brit swaps sides (5)
NAXOS (Greek island) SAXON (early Briton) with the first and last letters [sides] swapping places to form NAXOS) NAXOS |
| 30 | Earl is inside, not steady – this won’t happen again (3-3)
ONE-OFF (done for a single occasion only; this won’t happen again) E (Earl) contained in (is inside) ON-OFF (not steady) ON (E) –OFF |
| 32 | ABRIN (a poisonous protein contained in its seeds) |
| 34 | Like to run, not on the flat (6)
ASLOPE (on a slant; not on the flat) AS (like) + LOPE (run) AS LOPE |
| 36 | RICIN (a highly toxic albumin found in the beans of the castor-oil plant) |
| 37 | Piano, not in time, backing viola’s piece (5)
PETAL (piece of a viola [any plant of the violet and pansy genus) P (piano) + LATE (not in time) reversed (backing) P ETAL< |
| 38 | OUABAIN (a poisonous compound obtained from apocynaceous seeds and wood) |
| 39 | Special ability of independent in kind (6)
GENIUS (special ability) I (independent) contained in (in) GENUS (species; kind) GEN (I) US |
| 40 | Agent provocateur’s introduction into fringes of society (3)
SPY (secret agent) P (first letter of [introduction] Provocateur) contained in (into) SY (outer letters of [fringes of] SocietY) S (P) Y |
| 41 | 7T7 reorganised for parity (4,7)
EVEN STEVENS (having equal scores; parity) Anagram of (reorganised) SEVEN [7] and T and SEVEN [7] EVEN STEVENS* |
| Down | |
| 1 | BELLADONNA (the deadly nightshade or dwale [Atropa belladonna], all parts of which are narcotic and poisonous from the presence of atropine; the drug prepared from it) |
| 2 | Slavery in the real Spain twice dismissed by RC priest (8)
THRALDOM (slavery) THe ReAL excluding (dismissed) both [twice] Es (international vehicle registration for Spain) + DOM (title of some Roman Catholic priests) TH RAL DOM |
| 3 | Perks up foreign singers mid-week (9)
ENERGISES (gives strength to; perks up) Anagram of (foreign) SINGERS and EE (central letters of [mid] wEEk) ENERGISES* |
| 4 | Chinamen involved with Bury and European team (6,6)
BAYERN MUNICH (European football team) Anagram of (involved) CHINAMEN and BURY BAYERN MUNICH* |
| 5 | ACONITE (any plant of the ranunculaceous genus Aconitum, esp wolf’s-bane or monk’s-hood; poison obtained from it) |
| 6 | One young chap in native land, dressing (5,3)
SALAD OIL (a dressing) (A [one] + LAD [young chap]) contained in (in) SOIL (native land) S (A LAD) OIL |
| 7 | A last bit of linguini with half the olives and mayonnaise (5)
AIOLI (garlic mayonnaise) A + I (final letter of [last bit of] linguinI + OLI (first three of the six [half] letters in OLIves) A I OLI |
| 8 | TUTU (any of several New Zealand shrubs of the genus Coriaria, having poisonous black berries) |
| 9 | Ring on display on computer screen (4,2)
CALL UP (display information on a computer screen) CALL (ring) + UP (Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary gives ‘on’ as a synonym for ‘up’) CALL UP |
| 10 | Measures some purser carefully takes up (5)
ACRES (measures of land area) ACRES (reversed [up]; down entry] hidden word in [takes] purSER CArefully) ACRES< |
| 12 |
CURARE (black resin obtained from certain tropical South American trees, specially Chondrodendron tomentosum, acting on the motor nerves to cause muscular paralysis: used medicinally as a muscle relaxant and by indigenous peoples of South America as an arrow poison) Alternative spellings that would also fit are CURARA and CURARI |
| 14 | New irises come up like onyx, say (4-8)
SEMI-PRECIOUS (onyx is a SEMI-PRECIOUS stone) Anagram of (new) IRISES COME UP SEMI-PRECIOUS |
| 19 | Last month knight wasted nine shillings for game onboard (4,6)
DECK TENNIS (game played on board a ship) DEC (DECember, last month of the year) + KT (Knight) + an anagram of (wasted) NINE + S [shillings] DEC K T ENNI* S |
| 21 | WOLFSBANE (an aconite [see above]) |
| 23 | Deficiency from er or epoc, for instance? (8)
SHORTAGE (deficiency) ERa (age) excluding the final letter A (short) or EPOCh (age) excluding the final letter H (short), both cryptically defined as SHORT AGE SHORT AGE |
| 24 | Holy collection with time for guidance (8)
PILOTAGE (guidance) PI (PIous; holy) + LOT (a collection) + AGE (time) PI LOT AGE |
| 25 | A large round ring of cattle wagons (6)
LAAGER (a defensive ring of ox-wagons) Anagram of (round) A LARGE LAAGER* |
| 26 | CONIITE (a liquid, highly poisonous alkaloid [C8H17N] found in hemlock) |
| 28 | Sporting occasion where attractive girl keeps quiet (3-3)
CUP-TIE (a sporting occasion) CUTIE (attractive girl) containing (keeps) P (piano; quiet) CU (P) TIE |
| 31 | Space flight near the moon will pass quickly (3-2)
FLY-BY (a flight past a body in space, such as a flight near the moon) FLY BY (go quickly) double definition FLY BY |
| 33 | Young Elizabeth is secondclass online trader (5)
BETSY (diminutive version of the name Elizabeth) B (second class) + ETSY (online trading platform for small shops) B ETSY |
| 35 | UPAS (the poison of the latex from a fabulous Javanese tree) |
I found the list of poisons in Bradford’s useful as it contains all of the unclueds including the different spelling for CURARE.
I couldn’t find any evidence that 21a is a town.
23d is rather neat I thought.
Thanks to Doc and Duncan