The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26461.
My first blog of this relatively new setter shows plenty of satisfying trickery, but the odd niggle as well.
A happy new year all round.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BISHOP |
Where the sexually ambiguous may get their gear, or one piece (6)
A charade of BI (‘the sexually ambiguous’) plus SHOP (‘where … may get their gear’). The ‘piece’ is on a chess board.
|
| 5 | SPOT ON |
Small brew with one omission? Just so (4,2)
A charade of S (‘small’) plus POT[i]ON (‘brew’) without the I (‘one omission’).
|
| 8 | DIURNAL |
Face closing supplier of tea that is open during the day (7)
An envelope (en’closing’) of URN (‘supplier of tea’) in DIAL (‘face’).
|
| 9 | NOT HALF |
The minority? Yes indeed (3,4)
Double definition.
|
| 11 | VANCOUVER ISLAND |
Victoria here, a nun, loved vicars to bits (9,6)
An anagram (‘to bits’) of ‘a nun loved vicars’. Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is on Vancouver Island (but Vancouver is not).
|
| 12 | NODS |
Silently indicates the difference between “forwards” and “bellicose” (4)
‘forwar[ds]’ with NO DS is FOR WAR (‘bellicose’).
|
| 13 | JUST AS WELL |
Not too heavy a sea? That’s fortunate (4,2,4)
JUST A SWELL (‘not too heavy a sea’).
|
| 17 | RENOVATION |
From youngsters (no child), huge cheer for makeover (10)
A charade of [child]REN (‘youngsters’) with ‘no child’ plus OVATION (‘huge cheer’).
|
| 18 | WIND |
Snake — in fear, it’s got up (4)
To “get the wind up” is to be in fear.
|
| 20 | GET OFF THE GROUND |
Initiate levitation project? (3,3,3,6)
Double definition – or is it triple?
|
| 23 | TRIBUNE |
Champion‘s air inhibits tease (7)
An envelope (‘inhibits’) of RIB (‘tease’) in TUNE (‘air’).
|
| 24 | TRAPEZE |
Bar‘s variable repeat is just about variable (7)
An envelope (‘is just about’) of Z (mathematical, generally complex ‘variable’) in TRAPEE, an anagram (‘variable’, the first one) of ‘repeat’.
|
| 25 | REMAND |
Imprison bloke for debt? (6)
An inferred envelope: MAN (‘bloke’) in the RED (‘debt’), with perhaps a hint of an extended definition.
|
| 26 | RATING |
To call round cheers retired sailor (6)
An envelope (’round’) of AT, a reversal (‘retired’) of TA (thank you, ‘cheers’) in RING (‘call’).
|
| Down | ||
| 2 | IGUANODON |
Ancient creature, I assume, is crossing poop (9)
An envelope (‘is crossing’) of GUANO (bird ‘poop’) in ‘I’ plus DON (put on, ‘assume’)
|
| 3 | HANSOM |
Sounds attractive, but one would take you for a ride (6)
A homophone (‘sounds’) of HANDSOME (‘attractive’). To 221B Baker Street.
|
| 4 | POLE VAULT |
Event in which John Paul II may have been buried? (4,5)
Definition and literal interpretation.
|
| 5 | SENOR |
Sister snapped up one foreign address (5)
An envelope (‘snapped up’) of ENO, a reversal (‘up’, doing double duty, in a down light) in SR (‘sister’).
|
| 6 | OBTUSEST |
Stubs toe painfully, being most stupid (8)
An anagrm (‘painfully’) of ‘stubs toe’.
|
| 7 | OBAMA |
Michelle raised Sam, a boy with some deficiencies (5)
A hidden answer (‘with some deficiencies’) reversed (‘raised’ in a down light) in ‘sAM A BOy’, for the FLOTUS (if you can stand the acronym).
|
| 8 | DIVINE RIGHT |
Guess correctly what some kings used to claim (6,5)
Definition and literal interpretation.
|
| 10 | FIDDLE-DE-DEE |
Violin sounding two notes? Nonsense (6-2-3)
A charade of FIDDLE (‘violin’) plus DE-DEE, a homophone (‘sounding’) of D D (‘two notes’).
|
| 14 | TWO-SEATER |
Wrote inaccurately about Spanish firm’s coupe (3-6)
An envelope (‘about’) of SEAT (‘Spanish firm’; it is an Italian car manufacturer, owned by VW, with head offices in Spain) in TWOER, an anagram (‘inaccurately’) of ‘wrote’. A coupe is a two-door car, and maybe two-seater.
|
| 15 | EPICUREAN |
Purée I can whisk up for one likely to appreciate it? (9)
An anagram (‘whisk up’) of ‘puree I can’.
|
| 16 | AVIFAUNA |
A very intriguing fact, as Uruguay’s national airline leads all the fliers around (8)
First letters (‘leads’) of ‘A Very Intriguing Fact As Uruguay’s National Airline’.
|
| 19 | TRUANT |
Not quite loyal worker absent without justification (6)
A charade of TRU[e] (‘loyal’) cut short (‘not quite’) plus ANT (worker’).
|
| 21 | TOILE |
Worked without finishing thin material (5)
TOILE[d] (‘worked’) minus its last letter (‘without finishing’).
|
| 22 | TREAD |
Footprint creates initially unvoiced terror (5)
DREAD (‘terror’) withe the initial D replaced by the unvoiced T.
|
*anagram
Enjoyed this puzzle – thank you, Imogen! And thank you, PeterO, for the blog, especially for the parsing for NODS – it wrote itself in from the definition but I just couldn’t see the wordplay. Having read your explanation, I am convinced I couldn’t have parsed that myself in a month of Sundays!
I managed to make heavy weather over the clue for WIND – kept thinking of kinds of snakes, and thus lost sight of the obvious. ðŸ™
Hi PeterO and good morning everyone.
You didn’t seem to elucidate your ‘odd niggle’ and I can’t really see anything to complain about.
However I still don’t quite see how TREAD works.
Thanks Imogen and PeterO.
New word for me was AVIFAUNA, and I needed help to parse 14d, 24a, 18a, 5d, 22d.
My favourites were 10d, 13a, 8d, 1a.
Tim Phillips@2: In my limited understanding, the clue for TREAD uses phonetics – it seems to depend on the fact that the hard “d” and “t” sounds are contrasts that are produced by the same movement of the tongue, with “d” referred to as “voiced” and “t” referred to as “unvoiced” or “voiceless”. Thus, DREAD has a “voiced” opening sound; changing the opening to its “unvoiced” contrast gives us TREAD. A bit too convoluted for my liking!
[Someone with a better understanding of phonetics could perhaps explain it a lot better.]
Thanks Imogen and PeterO. I got this one, but needed your help too parse the clue for 12, NODS, and I didn’t know the car manufacturer SEAT.
“All the fliers around” is an excellent definition for AVIFAUNA.
Thanks all
Rather easy for Imogen but all is forgiven after 12ac which is just brilliant in every way!
Last in was 3d.
Abhay@4, your explanation is exactly right. 22d was one of my first in, since I’m a linguist by training and the voiced/unvoiced distinction is a very basic notion in linguistics, singing, and foreign language training. I don’t think it’s convoluted, exactly, just one of those clues for which having a little background knowledge is helpful, like clues requiring knowledge of Greek mythology or basic chemistry.
Thank you, PeterO.
Like RCW I loved NODS, and POLE VAULT raised a smile.
Don’t quite see what the setter had in mind for TREAD – perhaps she’ll drop in and elucidate.
Also – minor quibble – what does ‘just’ bring in the TRAPEZE clue. Doesn’t seem to help the surface much and has no other function that I can see.
Thank you, Imogen, nice week all.
Thanks Imogen and PeterO
NODS was super, needless to say it fooled me, as did the ‘poop’ in the clue for IGUANODON.
Re TREAD, crossed with Abhay & Iroquois – started typing ages ago and had to answer the door.
Good fun – thanks to Imogen and PeterO. I also couldn’t parse NODS except in a very weak way: there are no ‘d’s in ‘bellicose’. I particularly liked VANCOUVER ISLAND and JUST AS WELL.
Thanks Imogen and PeterO
I really enjoyed this one. Stand outs were BISHOP, IGUANODON, and POLE VAULT. I didn’t parse TREAD, and I thought the clue for RENOVATION was a bit clunky.
Technically I didn’t complete, as, after some thought, I went for FIDDLE-DI-DEE rather than FIDDLE-DE-DEE. Both seem to be used, so it’s unfortunate that the letter was unchecked.
1a, perhaps has a special twist, the Reverend Libby Lane was appointed the BISHOP of Stockport last December, the first female bishop in the Church of England.
Captcha ? x 9 = eighty one!
Re. TREAD. not convoluted, I agree…but pretty obscure. For me, it’s one of those clues where you can write it in from the crossers as there is no real alternative but realising how it works isn’t an AHA moment, more of a rather grudging ‘if you say so’ (somewhat apposite in this particular case!).
You know me, I don’t like to criticise because there aren’t any rules and at the end of the day, the object of this leisure pastime (nota bene, omnes!) is to fill a 15×15 grid with the correct letters. But on this rare occasion, I think this clue is a fraction too obscure.
Where’s hedgehoggy when you need him???
Thanks, PeterO.
I found this easier than your average Imogen. WIND and NODS gave me a wee bit of trouble, but an ‘aha!’ moment when the penny dropped.
Nice variety of clue. I particularly liked the anagram and surface for VANCOUVER ISLAND, the idea behind POLE VAULT, and TREAD – I’m surprised this device doesn’t appear more often. Personally, I don’t find this at all ‘obscure’. As Iroquois @7 says, the voiced/unvoiced distinction is very basic in linguistics, and cryptic crosswords are all about language, aren’t they? Using the terms ‘fortis’ and ‘lenis’ instead – now that would require more specialised knowledge.
Thanks Imogen – the usual high quality fare.
Thanks PeterO, no complaints about TREAD, although I didn’t know the linguistic niceties. Eileen might like the OBAMA clue – spelled backwards it’s ‘amabo,’ which is Latin for ‘I shall love,’ I believe.
The NODS clue is a classic, and I particularly liked BISHOP, JUST AS WELL and POLE VAULT.
….. oh dear, I think amabo is ‘I shall love’……….
…. or even……. ‘read your own post properly’………
Robi @17, I have the Shorter Latin Primer (1931) by me, and you are right, amabo ‘I shall love’, future simple.
I really enjoyed this, particularly 12a. I don’t think I’ve ever seen 22d’s D->T device before and the entire puzzle felt inventive without adding too much difficulty. Thanks to Imogen.
As soon as I saw the setter I groaned as I expected something tricky but I couldn’t believe how easily these went in,although I had to look up VANCOUVER ISLAND. Many of these raised a smile,as others have noted and I had to guess TRAPEZE- thanks for the parsing- but altogether very enjoyable.
Thanks Imogen
I liked this very much, having got pretty much nowhere with Imogen in the past. Got the “no ds” in 12ac but just thought it was a random difference between two words – silly me. Loved pole vault – JPII was in fact a sportsman, thought I think it was skiing and football. Thanks Imogen and PeterO
Thanks Imogen and PeterO
Agree that this was a good ‘un … and has been noted a little easier than she can present.
I didn’t parse either SPOT ON (got fixated with small brew = S POT – and then struggled to find the ON from one omission) or TREAD (didn’t know the voiced / unvoiced stuff). NODS, BISHOP and JUST AS WELL were the pick of a good lot for me.
Last in were NOT HALF and WIND.
I think this was fairly gentle by Imogen’s standards, and very enjoyable, but you can count me as another who couldn’t see where the T came into TREAD, which was my last in, so thanks for the explanations of that. Ticked quite a few, including VANCOUVER ISLAND, POLE VAULT and DIVINE RIGHT.
Thanks to Imogen and PeterO
Thanks Imogen and PeterO. By and large a plesant solve with some inventiveness.
TREAD took me a while, even though the linguistic possibility had occurred early on. An unconventional type of wordplay, perhaps, but I don’t think an unfair one. In fact, when I think about it, it’s not much different from the TREE RINGS clue from Qaos on November 19 (26241) – that clue relied on changing an aspirate consonant to its unvoiced equivalent, though this time without any debate-invoking national stereotyping.
I failed only on TRUANT, having entered ERRANT, assuming the wordplay to be simply escaping me. I Liked POLE VAULT, BISHOP and RATING; the latter if only for the misdirection of having another “retired sailor” at the beginning of the word. Sneaky.
I wasn’t keen on NODS, though. Simple to work out, but “No DS” is simply the difference from the point of view of “bellicose” (or “for war”, if you prefer). In that respect, the difference could also be said to be “DS”. But maybe I’m being over-pedantic. Or missing something.
John @25: ‘The difference could also be said to be “DS”.’ – this was my reaction too. I didn’t like NODS; I guess I’m not clever enough to appreciate it…
Thanks PeterO and Imogen
An enjoyable outing. I particularly liked 1a and 25a.
I did not think hard enough in parsing 5a (I ‘accepted’ on as on(e) omission) and 12a (I took ds as the plural of the letter d in a number of forwards as in football).
The d/t shift in 22d was not a problem for me.
One of those crosswords where I sat down expecting a long struggle but in fact it yielded fairly easily. Bottom half was a bit trickier I felt with TRAPEZE last in; but it was TWO-SEATER that held me up, as there are plenty of coupés (the accent matters, surely) that seat more than two, and no doubt two-seaters that aren’t coupés – eg those little ‘Smart’ cars. Could this be one of our blogger’s niggles? Perhaps a clue that needs a question mark.
Liked this although failed to parse NODS (quite like it now though!). I also erroneously parsed TREADS by getting the T from FOOT (PRIN)T as was unaware of voiced and unvoiced consonants. Didn’t like REMAND as don’t like using imprison twice.
michelle @3 – AVIFAUNA would have been unfamiliar to me too, but I remembered this one:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2014/03/04/guardian-26198-qaos/
Have never met TRIBUNE=”champion” before. Apart from that, a lovely crossword full of witty stuff.
Thanks, PeterO and Imogen.
GET OFF THE GROUND was the only across clue I entered, the first time around, but once I got onto the downs, things started falling into place rather more quickly and I thoroughly enjoyed the solve.
Too late to list favourites – I liked all those that others did – and I had no problem with TREAD.
Hi Robi @16-18[!]
I haven’t been ignoring your comment: I had a friend round for coffee and then we went out for lunch. The OBAMAS have provided quite a rich seam for crossword setters – but I don’t think your observation had occurred to me – nice one!
Hi gladys @31
It’s champion in the sense of ‘someone who defends a person or cause [eg] champion of the downtrodden’ [Collins]: tribunes were Roman magistrates elected by the plebs to protect their interests, and tribune has come to mean ‘a person who upholds public rights’ [Collins again] – hence its use as a newspaper title.
Hi PeterO; thanks for a very good blog.
I do like seeing the completed grid but may I suggest you put it below the explanations, rather than above. If one inadvertently opens the blog, you can find it difficult to avoid seeing many answers at once.
Have always found Imogen a little formidable but this was a delight. Like most others I particularly liked NODS. I thought the definition of TRAPEZE as Bar was a bit hard but having got the letters from the Down clues I realised it couldn’t be anything else. A very enjoyable hour or so – many thanks Imogen.
BTW, I’m not sure I understand why SEAT is an Italian car manufacturer. It is wholly owned by the Volkswagen Group and manufactures its cars in Spain. It ended its relationship with Fiat after nearly 30 years in 1982.
Perhaps a motoring expert can advise.
A few of my niggles: 12a very nice idea but surface a bit unrewarding; the ‘just’ in 24a; the implied ‘the’ in 25a (in red/in the red); does ‘retired’ really = ‘reversed’? in 26a; …
Far more giggles than niggles though, a lovely crossword overall.
And robi, the clue has it as ‘Spanish company’, which is probably ok notwithstanding the ultimate ownership…?
This was enjoyable and relatively benign for Imogen.
I’m not very good at the “grammar” of crossword clues. One of my last in was TRIBUNE. Can someone explain to me why “Champion” is apostrophised?
Milky @36
For myself, I was not bothered by the unrewarding (as you put it) surface of 12A, being taken with the ingenious idea of the clue. I feel that ‘retired’ in 26A is close enough (or used often enough) to serve. The “the” in 25A – or not, as the case may be – was one of my niggles (Tim Phillips @2), along with the double duty ‘up’ in 5D, and ‘coupe/TWO-SEATER in 14D (but coupe without the accent did not bother me, being the usual American spelling, and given as such in recent editions of Chambers). However, I have no wish to dwell on these in such an entertaining crossword.
Robi @35
The Italian bit was lifter straight from Wikipedia, and I mentioned it just to point out the multinational nature of the beast. On the subject of ‘just’, I think its presence in 24A is to provide cover for ‘about’, and it does not strike me as doing any harm.
Robi @33
The idea of putting the grid at the bottom has come up once before, and it turns out that it it is not too difficult to do (it is presented as a hyperlink which can be moved by a simple cut-and-paste), so I will keep it in mind; but if a puzzle has a Nina, and by some miracle I spot it, I would probably want to mention it in the preamble, and follow up directly with the grid to show it off.
O! Jovis @38
An apostrophe s is ofter used for “has”, but here I think “is” is more appropriate. To paraphrase the clue:
A word meaning champion is a word meaning tease within a word meaning air.
PeterO
Did you have a view on the DE/DI problem with fiddle-de-dee?
Thanks Imogen and PeterO
Re the double duty ‘up’ in 5D, I’m not convinced that it’s double. To me it reads as Sister (SR), ‘snapped’ S – R, ONE ‘up’ ENO, and if the two letters are separated there’s not a lot of choice about where the infill goes.
Plausible?
Sorry Peter0 & Imogen, I didn’t mean to sound so despairing, I was just trying to explain where I personally got niggled (and remember, I wasn’t the first to bring up the subject of niggles!) It was a lovely crossword with some very nice ideas in it (‘nods’ absolutely being one of them). Far far more giggles than niggles 😉
This was fun, and as others have said, surprisingly easy.
Normally I focus on the little words first, but this time, my first four in were the four long ones. That made it smooth sailing. Maybe I’m the only person here who read “Victoria here” and almost immediately thought of the city on Vancouver Island.
Big fan of POLE VAULT, BI SHOP (excuse me, BISHOP), and DIVINE RIGHT–I’m a big fan of puns.
So is a store for swingers with a puckish sense of humor an ARCH BI SHOP?
Also: in TRIBUNE: isn’t “tease” inhibiting (i.e., impeding) “air,” not the other way around? Or am I missing a weird definition of “inhibit”? Please explain.
I enjoyed this but found it very easy. After the first pass I had all the 15s in place and a lot of the other clues.
I was very lucky with 11A as the anagram fodder was obvious bit not so the answer. It was most likely a place so while looking for a name I spotted that CANADA was in there. Just as I was discounting the improbability of CANADA being the second six letters I thought of VANCOUVER being in CANADA. So the anagram revealed itself! Fluke I think.
The only minor delay was parsing NODS and even that took about 2 minutes! Nice clue though.
All over too quickly so it’s back to the Genius. (If anybody wants some HTML which produces this in the normal form and WITH the special instructions just say and I’ll post it somewhere!)
Thanks to PeterO and Imogen
muffin @41
Only that I was not even aware of any problem when I wrote up the blog. Chambers and the OED only give -de-, and Onelook does not come up with anything for -di-; google gives very few hits for -di-, mostly involving a song about pirates from a children’s television show. As it is an arbitrary coinage, it is hardly surprising that there are variants.
Milky @43
The apologies should be mine: I was not trying to rebut you; you were just a convenient hook to respond to Tim Phillips @2.
Hi mrpenney @45
I see what you mean: inhibiting / impeding = getting in the way of – but I read it as inhibiting = holding in / restraining [both in Chambers. 😉 ]
Thanks, PeterO
As a “nonsense” construction, I thought that either was justifiable – good job that it wasn’t a Prize!
I usually enjoy Imogen, but loved this. Linguistics and singing my special subjects, so “unvoiced” immediately gave me the clue and since I live in Spain and drive an Ibiza, Seat also an easy one! Only slight niggle was with the foreign address … Senor doesn’t look right to me without the tilde (~ little wavy hat on the n!)1
PeterO @ 40
Many thanks for the apostrophe explanation- and also for lots of help in your previous blogs!
A rather late Happy New Year everyone.
I found this charming from Imogen, and much more accessible than some of her puzzles.
Is there a “rule” about accented or otherwise modified letters? The French and others seem to count them as separate.
I’ll go back to lurking now.
Many thanks one and all.
Hi everyone back again, infrequent, due to my relative inexperience, but happy to say I just finished this one. Some lovely clues, I thought, from Imogen, 13A was brilliant. Hoping to show more improvement in 2015. happy New Year to one and all.
What a Happy New Year. Tim Phillips is missing hedgehoggy, and William F P is back posting!
Thanks PeterO and Imogen. POLE VAULT and BISHOP both made me smile.
Not sure about ‘missing’ hedgehoggy, Cookie!
Looks like I have to concede on TREAD – obviously this type of clue has passed me my to date (huh! We part-timers!)
That’s enough exclamation marks for one post…
Martin P @52
In crosswords “rules” tend to be what setters make of them. Most often, accents and such débris are ignored in English crosswords. There was an Indy crossword in which an unchecked letter had an accent, and you had to insert the special character for the app to accept the puzzle as complete.
BillingeRobbo @53
Congrats, and many more of ’em for 2015!
I am surprised to see so many underwhelmed (although not negative) reactions to this puzzle.
Of a “he” and not a “she”, by the way.
This was just top-notch clueing, apart perhaps from the relatively weak 18ac (WIND).
Yes, easier than other Imogen crosswords but some real novelties/gems here.
Like 22d (TREAD) or the much discussed NODS (12ac).
Witty too (1ac, Paulian, or 4d).
It’s never good enough here for some but I can tell you we immensely liked it.
As, I’m sure, hedgehoggy did …. 🙂
Walked out of the coffee shop at lunchtime today with a huge grin on my face after getting hilarious POLE VAULT. Thoroughly enjoyed this one though I didn’t get a few still unfortunately.
PeterO @57. As you most probably know yourself, in many languages with accented letters the accents are ignored when capitals are used, even in official documents. Some people cannot do them with their ‘computers’ I believe (no tabulator?), so accents should not be used.
Re 14 how nice of you to think of me Tim!
Re 38 that apostrophe seems wrong to me too. I don’t like this idea for the possessive case where we get something like, ‘air inhibits tease of champion’. It just doesn’t work for me, and HAS and IS are out.
hedgehoggy @61
Why do you eliminate “is”?
As is clear, “apostrophe s” can mean three things: the possessive case, is and has.
It depends on the surface which one fits, indeed, the surface.
As e.g. Paul B (aka Neo, Tees) made clear on several occasions, cryptic reading and surface are two completely different things.
If one breaks down a clue in pieces, “aprostrophe s” can represent any of the three above as the surface is not important.
Therefore, Imogen’s clue is perfectly all right.
A good surface reading should be seen as a real bonus.
I know, some solvers (and posters here, like Gervase) are not very taken by this view on “apostrophe s”. But I would expect hedgehoggy, who I do respect for his search for precision and un-iffiness, to have a different opinion than the one given @61.
Funny, isn’t it?
‘TRIBUNE is TUNE inhibits RIB’ Sil?
Yes, Paul, of course, but that was not hedgehoggy’s point.
He questioned the use of the “apostrophe s” attached to Champion.