Radian has provided today’s puzzle for our intellectual stimulation and general entertainment. It is quite a while since it fell to me to blog one of his puzzles.
Today is Tuesday, so there has to be a theme somewhere. Today’s theme is around money, and the grid is peppered with solutions associated with money (3, 9, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27 …) and some part solutions (“rhino” at 11, “tin” at 16 …). I am sure that there are others that I simply haven’t spotted.
I was stumped for a while at 11, until I realised that “rare” was part of the wordplay – incidentally, in what field is it that “rare” gets abbreviated to “r”? Furthermore, I am not sure of my parsing of 17. The entry at 18 was new to me, as was the cherry tree at 8, and also 15 being listed as 4,5 instead of being given as a 9-letter word or hyphenated as 4-5.
My favourite clues today were 1 and 13, both for surface; 14, for originality; and 24, for the use of “round” here.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | OBVERSE | Love lines circling front of bald heads
B<ald> (“front of” means first letter only) in [O (=love, i.e. zero score) + VERSE (=line, of poetry)]; the obverse of a coin is the heads side |
| 05 | CAPITAL | Funding a mine in small US state
[A + PIT (=mine)] in CAL (=US state, i.e. California; “small” indicates abbreviation) |
| 10 | GONG | 25 is operating without one
GO<i>NG (=operating, working); “without one (=I)” means letter “i” is dropped; a gong can be a medal (=entry at 25) |
| 11 | RHINOCEROS | Putting cash up front, bosses import rare animal
RHINO (=cash, in archaic slang) + [R (=rare) in CEOs (=bosses, i.e. Chief Executive Officers)] |
| 12 | AMPERE | A representative meeting before current measure
A + MP (=representative, i.e. member of parliament) + ERE (=before, in poetry) |
| 13 | COINAGES | Original terms offered by Tesco in a gesture
Hidden (“offered by”) in “tesCO IN A GESture”; coinages are newly invented words and phrases, hence “original terms” |
| 14 | PRIVATISE | Periodical’s told to withdraw from public ownership
Homophone (“told”) of “Private Eye’s (=periodical, i.e. satirical magazine in the UK)” |
| 16 | TINNY | Little note inside Bruce’s can
N (=note) in TINY (=little); a tinny is a can of beer in Australia, hence “Bruce’s can” |
| 17 | READY | 27 take on Yankee
READ (=take, interpret) + Y (=Yankee, in radio telecommunications); ready is dosh (=entry at 27), i.e. a slang way of referring to money |
| 19 | AFFLUENCE | Prosperity: a barrier to limit bug
A + [FLU (=bug) in FENCE (=barrier)] |
| 23 | RENMINBI | Briefly hire car to collect British currency abroad
REN<t> (=hire; “briefly” means last letter dropped) + [B (=British) in MINI (=car)]; the renminbi is the currency of the People’s Republic of China |
| 24 | MAMMON | Disheartened, men gather round 19
AMMO (=round, of ammunition) in M<e>N (“disheartened” means middle letter is dropped); mammon is riches, often seen as root of evil, hence “affluence (=entry at 19)” |
| 26 | APOCRYPHAL | Spurious plea in a report by Prince Harry
{CRY (=plea, call) in [A + POP (=report, from gun)]} + HAL (=Prince Harry, i.e. the young Henry V); apocryphal is dubious, doubtful, hence “spurious” |
| 27 | DOSH | Finance the same small hotel
DO (=the same, i.e. ditto) + S (=small, of sizes) + H (=hotel) |
| 28 | STUMPED | 29 // got out at Old Trafford for example
Double definition: stumped is baffled, at a loss (=entry at 29) AND one way of getting out a cricket, hence “at Old Trafford” |
| 29 | AT A LOSS | Stuck aluminium in a cast
AL (=aluminium, i.e. chemical formula) in [A + TOSS (=cast, hurl)] |
| Down | ||
| 02 | BLOOMER | Bouncer guards large plant
L (=large, of sizes) in BOOMER (=bouncer, i.e. something big) |
| 03 | EAGLE | Spanish article about silver English coin once
[AG (=silver, i.e. chemical formula)] in EL (=Spanish article, i.e. a Spanish word for the)] + E (=English); an eagle was once a US coin worth ten dollars |
| 04 | SURFEIT | Start to eat into fresh fruits in abundance
E<at> (“start to” means first letter only) in *(FRUITS); “fresh” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | ATOMIC | Tiny cat, one trapped by current
[TOM (=cat) + I (=one)] in AC (=current, i.e. alternating current) |
| 07 | ITERATIVE | I soak up musical on its return, again and again
I + TER (RET=soak, “up” indicates reversal) + ATIVE (EVITA=musical; “on its return” indicates reversal) |
| 08 | APOGEAN | A cherry tree next to river at its highest point
A + PO (=river, in Italy) + GEAN (=cherry tree, i.e. the European wild cherry) |
| 09 | PIECES OF EIGHT | Were such coins pirated or parroted?
Cryptic definition referring to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, where the parrot of pirate Long John Silver would cry “Pieces of eight”! |
| 15 | VADE-MECUM | Group of biologists enter void without top-class guide
DEME (=group of biologists, i.e. a biological term for a local population) in VACU<u>M (=void; “without top-class (=U)” means a letter “u” is dropped) |
| 18 | EYESPOT | Feature of peacock, especially in small island
ESP (=especially) in EYOT (=small island); an eyespot (or ocellus) is an eye-shaped marking on a peacock’s feathers |
| 20 | LAMPLIT | Like old houses, almost plentiful in Reading
AMPL<e> (=plentiful; “almost” means last letter is dropped) in LIT. |
| 21 | CROESUS | Well-heeled type angry about EU split
E + U (“split” indicates that they are not found together) in CROSS (=angry); a Croesus is a very rich man, from the king of Lydia in Ancient History |
| 22 | ENZYME | Enemy planned to seize unknown catalyst
Z (=unknown, in algebra) in *(ENEMY); “planned” is anagram indicator |
| 25 | MEDAL | Honour duke in middle of dinner perhaps
D (=duke) in MEAL (=dinner perhaps) |
A satisfying solve helped by spotting the theme early on. The NE corner held out longest, mainly because we didn’t see the blindingly obvious CAPITAL for ages (we thought ‘small’ meant there was an S in there somewhere). Then we found APOGEAN and ‘gean’ in Chambers and the rest dropped into place.
We liked the connection between 28 and 29.
Re 11 we think R for ‘rare’ might be used in catalogues of collectable items – coins, for instance, to maintaion a thematic connection.
Thanks, Radian and RatkojaRiku
Thanks for the blog, RR.
A satisfying solve, as allan_c says – apart from the fact that, despite staring for ages at 13ac, I still totally failed to see the hidden COINAGES!
I smiled at 14ac PRIVATISE and was even more amused to find that, as I commented on the Guardian thread, there’s a complementary clue in Qaos’ puzzle there: ‘Sodium converted to aluminium is helping right away with public ownership (15)’.
I also liked “26ac APOCRYPHAL, 15dn VADE MECUM and 21dn CROESUS.
My ‘take’ on ‘take’ in 17ac was ‘take / read a subject at University’ but I’m equally happy with RR’s interpretation.
Many thanks to Radian for an enjoyable puzzle.
Super puzzle from Radian. I love his clues .The soundtrack was mainly Pink Floyd’s Money then the Barrett Strong song also titled Money followed by the Beatles excellent version, then 10CC’s Wall Street Shuffle.
If you hadnt finished the puzzle by then with all that encouragement, the penalty was that dreaded Abba song and a visit to Paul’s epistle to Timothy.
Thanks Radian and RR,
Big struggle with ~ half of these clues. Absolutely furious to not spot ENZYME as I’ve been studying them for 30 years, but thrown by Z being the unknown and not the Y which came from a crosser early, plus a new (to me) anagrind.
20d was a hmmmm for my part, LAMPLIT from “Like old houses” seems a bit of a stretch, and shouldn’t READING have some sort of abbreviation operator in there, or is “almost” operating on both AMPLE and LITERATURE?
In 1d, in Chambers one definition for BOOMER is large male kangaroo, which fits the definition of BOUNCER better than “something big” I feel.
Thanks to RR and Radian,
Not too many problems but we were glad of the check button. We spotted the theme early on which did help open up the grid.
A search was needed for 15d as we had never come across DEME before.
I found this on the tough side but I did finish, albeit I had use the dictionary to find derivatives of apogee for 8dn. Never heard of the cherry. Couldn’t parse 15dn either, never having come across DEME that I recall. Thanks for the explanations.
What with all the discussion about DEME (which I hadn’t heard of either), presumably its offspring include epidemic and pandemic, of which we’ve all heard. I never thought to consider what their root was.
That I knew came from the Greek demos, people, and Chambers confirms deme has the same root.