Easier then usual from Gozo, but no less enjoyable.
There is at least one pangram in here, probably more.
UPDATE: this is a quadruple pangram. Not many of these have been achieved in the history of crossword setting. I remember blogging one form Monk a few years ago, and I have solved only one other. I think this one is especially impressive in that it contains relatively few obscure words, there is nothing in here that I had not heard of.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SMUDGY | Covered in blotches and wet earth in odd soggy parts (6) |
| MUD (wet earth) inside SoGgY (odd parts of) | ||
| 4 | SCABBARD | Dull bank payment system backed cover (8) |
| DRAB BACS (dull + bank payment system) reversed (backed) | ||
| 10 | OVERAWE | Greatly impress from end to end of Scottish loch (7) |
| OVER (from end to end of) then AWE (loch Awe, Scotland) | ||
| 11 | UP-TEMPO | Muppet dancing round, fast (2-5) |
| anagram (dancing) of MUPPET then O (something round) | ||
| 12 | AQUA | Pale blue sign. Not half (4) |
| AQUArius (sign, of the zodiac) half missing | ||
| 13 | JACKKNIFES | Pilates exercises causing accidents with the rig (10) |
| double definition | ||
| 16 | IN VIEW | Seeing that is part of the landscape (2,4) |
| double definition | ||
| 17 | JESSIE J | Pop singer’s genealogical tree about me as subject getting justice (6,1) |
| JESSE (genealogical tree) contains I (me) then J (justice) | ||
| 20 | SCHEMED | Planned school by eastern sea (7) |
| SCH (school) by E (eastern) MED (Mediterranean, sea) | ||
| 21 | LIQUOR | A drop of the hard stuff for the lolly-eater, reportedly (6) |
| sounds like (reportedly) “licker” (lolly eater) | ||
| 24 | OBLIGATION | Duty on money owed (10) |
| double definition | ||
| 25 | ONYX | Form of chalcedony – some chalcedony unknown (4) |
| chalcedONY (some letters form) then X (an unknown) | ||
| 27 | FIRENZE | Blaze on headland with no main road to Italians’ city (7) |
| FIRE (blaze) on NaZE (headland) missing A (A-road, a main road) | ||
| 29 | EMERITI | Retired professors backing the engineers, at heart British (7) |
| REME (Royal Electical and Mechanical Engineers) reversed (backing) then brITIsh (heart of) | ||
| 30 | NAMESAKE | Poor Sam A. Keen and his double? (8) |
| anagram (poor) of SAM A KEEN | ||
| 31 | VEGGIE | Struggle eating poultry produce? I would (6) |
| VIE (struggle) contains (eating) EGG (poultry produce) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SLOVAKIA | Killed in action leading under wild salvo in European republic (8) |
| KIA (killed in action) following anagram (wild) of SALVO | ||
| 2 | UNEQUIVOCAL | In Paris, one French female who’s outspoken and explicit (11) |
| UNE QUI (one feminine who, in French, in Paris) VOCAL (outspoken) | ||
| 3 | GRAZ | Eat snacks during the day, mostly in Austrian city (4) |
| GRAZe (eat snacks during the day) unfinished (mostly) | ||
| 5 | CHUCKLES | Happy laughs from Charles in the States with comedian Dawson (8) |
| CHUCK (Charles, US slang) then LES (comedian Les Dawson) | ||
| 6 | BIT ONES LIP | Buttoned up about one inept slob (3,4,3) |
| anagram (about) of I (one) and INEPT SLOB | ||
| 7 | ARM | Member in bar, musing (3) |
| found in bAR Musing | ||
| 8 | DROWSY | Democrat, hopeful, hugging wife, nodding (6) |
| D (democrat) ROSY (hopeful) contains (hugging) W (wife) | ||
| 9 | HEXAD | Series of six having ten in front (5) |
| X (ten) in HEAD (front) | ||
| 14 | FREQUENTING | French fifth son comes in, say, visiting often (11) |
| FR (French) then QUENTIN (name meaning fifth son?) inside (comes in) EG (say) | ||
| 15 | JET ENGINES | Almost in fun, get nine reconditioned turbo-props (3,7) |
| JESt (fun, almost) contains (in) anagram (reconditioned) of GET NINE. |
||
| 18 | NEXT WEEK | Coming soon – about 10.10 – small talk finishes (4,4) |
| 19 | PRIX FIXE | Part of speech roughly suggests cost of the meal (4,4) |
| sounds like (roughly suggests) “prefix” (part of speech) | ||
| 22 | BOFFIN | Intellectual’s hearty laugh at home (6) |
| BOFF (hearty laugh) IN (at home) | ||
| 23 | HONEY | Single within the boundaries of Headingley, dearie (5) |
| ONE (single) inside HeadinglY (outer letters, boundaries of) – Headingly is a cricket ground | ||
| 26 | ZEZE | Instrument from borders of Zaire – twice (4) |
| ZairE (borders of) twice | ||
| 28 | RUM | Trumpeter’s drink (3) |
| found inside (‘s, belonging to) tRUMpeter | ||
Believe it, or not, it is a quadruple pangram.
Thanks for that Hovis, and congratulations to Gozo!
It was spotting the quadruple pangram that allowed me to complete with OVERAWE, HEXAD & GRAZ my last ones in. Having said that, I cheated on PRIX FIXE. Not a phrase I knew and had no chance of even guessing it from the clue.
Not sure on how to parse 18d properly. “About” seems to be doing double duty, both as TEN going about X and for the reversal. Sure somebody will explain this.
Thanks for this, Gozo, and to PeeDee.
Hovis @3 – yes, a reversal/containment indicator seems to be missing in 18dn. I hadn’t spotted that.
Thanks PeeDee
Hovis has already covered two points I was going to make so I will not repeat them.
Regarding your comment about 15dn, Chambers defines ‘turbo-prop’ as “a jet-engine in which the turbine is coupled to a propeller”. The ODE has similar.
If Chambers has it that way then fair enough to use it in a puzzle. I should have made the effort to look it up!
As a definition it seems nonsense. The essence of a jet engine is that the thrust comes from the exhaust gasses being expelled under pressure from the rear. A turbo-prop has had all energy of the exhaust gas removed by the turbine, the jet propulsion is negligible. Most turbo-props don’t even have the exhaust facing backwards. Wikipedia has a much better explanation.
Just to add my congrats to Gozo.
I didn’t find this one particularly easy and it was only the whiff of something special going on that got me counting letters towards the end & definitely helped the completion, ‘zeze’, ‘hexad’ & ‘Jessie J’ being strangers to me and the Pilates ‘jackknife’, now I Youtube it, a rueful laugh for a 65-yr-old with a tin hip & 2 tin knees.
For all that, a beautiful & unexpected piece of midweek entertainment.
Thanks to PeeDee & especially to Gozo.
Having both Paris and France in the same clue seemed like overegging the pudding reminding me of
“Hey we were just over in Paris France”
To copmus @8:
Si. ‘A French female who’s outspoken and explicit’ does the job more elegantly.
Still, “L’esprit de l’escalier” and all that. A fine puzzle.
I’m struggling to understand how ‘veggie’ means ‘I would’ in 32ac. Would appreciate being put out of my misery……
This is impressive, and brings to mind Maize’s amazing quintuple pangram a few years ago.
Chapeau, Gozo on the quadruple pangram. As ONYX, PRIX FIXE and ZEZE were my first few in, a pangram looked to be on the cards. Less than half way through, there seemed to be two on the go but I stopped counting after JESSIE J and just enjoyed the wordplay. Had I continued, I’d have snared HEXAD and AQUA which, oddly, I had down as AZUL. Impressive stuff, anyway. I particularly liked CHUCKLES and LIQUOR. As Grant @7 said, it was an unexpected pleasure midweek. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Hi Kevin – a veggie is… …someone who would struggle eating poultry produce (the first part of the clue, but possibly more than just the eggs).
Thanks, Gozo and PeeDee. Wow – never seen a quadruple pangram like this. I didn’t know JESSIE J and thanks for the blog for parsing FIRENZE – got “fire” but last part was puzzling.
To Kevin @10,
Perhaps Gozo is vegan?
It reminded me of Dennis Waterman in an old episode of the Sweeney – definitely not woke!
Kevin. I think the point is that a veggie will eat poultry produce (an egg) but will not eat poultry itself..
Thank you, kind souls!
Impressive crossword but one I could not complete due to BOFFIN and JESSIE J, both unknown to me. Thanks to both.
A quadruple pangram, and how! We thought we might be on course for a double pangram quite early, then a triple became a definite possibility. Eventually we were left with only 19dn and 21ac to fill, and an extra F, P, Q and X needed to complete the quadruple. Then the penny dropped for LIQUOR quickly followed by that for PRIX FIXE and bingo! Showing our age, no doubt, but for 21ac we kept thinking of Kojak (70’s TV series) as the lolly-eater, not that we could make anything from it fit the clue.
In 18dn we just saw ‘about’ as an anagram indicator for ‘ten.x’ – no reversal or containment indicators needed.
Thanks and congratulations, Gozo – and thanks of course to PeeDee.
Reckon you may be correct about 18d, allan. I guess I was too fixated on NET being a reversal of TEN to even consider an anagram.
allen_c @19 – that is a better explanation for 18dn. I have updated the blog.
Missed Jessie J of whom I’ve never heard, and Hexad. Hmmm. But otherwise there fairly quickly until a full stop on those last two. Very clever. Well done all.
OK, that might be it then in 18dn.
But if so, it is the second time, after 6dn, Gozo uses ‘about’ as an anagram indicator in front of the fodder.
Which, in my opinion, when used that way is a pretty bad device anyway.
While I appreciate the grid filling leading to a quadruple pangram (where I only looked at one), for me it’s always about (preferably) precise clueing and there was quite some, what I call, iffiness today.
The double French Connection has already been mentioned.
But in 25ac there’s “some chalcedony unknown” for “[chalced]ONY + X” which feels rather odd to me. I can see why Gozo did it, though.
And “A B C leading” for the starting letters of A, B and C? No chance in The Times or The Independent.
In 18dn “talk finishes” for K is not my cup of tea (but I accept that there are more flavours).
Finally, in 15dn, does “Almost in fun, A etc” really mean that A* should go inside ‘fun’-shortened?
For me, the words ‘almost‘ and ‘in’ are in the wrong order.
Perhaps, some will not believe me when I say that on the whole it was an enjoyable solve.
But it was.
Many thanks to PeeDee & Gozo (whose alter ego was almost there in 30ac).
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
An excellent effort to produce the quadruple pangram with only a couple of odd-ish words, but geez, he made up for it in some of the constructions – realised something was going on quite early but never did check to see whether it was a double, triple or more. Couldn’t properly parse JESSIE J (which I had to consult who she was with my 24yo to validate for me) and hadn’t heard of King David’s father. Also with FIRENZE, I didn’t know of the Italian name for Florence and couldn’t work out the second part of it – not knowing NAZE either. Still one of the enjoyments of doing these puzzles is to continually grow one’s knowledge – it’s daunting that THERE is always more to learn. Went down the reversal track with the clever NEXT WEEK and didn’t think too deeply about it.
Finished with that FIRENZE, PRIE FIXE (which I also used a word finder for, being on the word of crossword exhaustion by now) and BOFFIN as the last one in (BOFF was another new term).
On second thoughts, after re-reading my comment @23, Gozo deserves some sort of apology.
Not because of my queries which I think were generally valid but because I bypassed the no doubt immense effort Gozo put into writing a crossword like this in a very insensitive way.
In a comment above (@11), Skinny referred to a quintuple from Maize.
I remember me being not very flattery on that occasion either.
I just have no antenna for the relevance of multiple pangrams.
And as to the clueing itself, I am not one of those who are simply happy if the solution can be found one way or another.
See there the clash.
So, yes, Gozo deserves a lot more credit than I seem to have given him.
Mea culpa.
Flattery? Flattering.
Don’t think I’ve ever been so excited as I gradually crept to completion of a quadruple pangram. (Definitely helped with basically solving an anagram for hexad, my LOI). Thanks and congrats!
As a solver, pangrams don’t add to my pleasure in solving a crossword.
Good clues do.
There were some good clues in this. There was also 13ac & 18dn.