Following the relatively accessible offering from Io last time he appeared on a Wednesday Io has come back with a real stinker – top stuff! Thank you Io for a great mental workout.
There is a message hidden in the grid: BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER – thanks to OzMark for pointing this out.
| Across | ||
| 9 | OF ILL OMEN | Doomed love to satisfy topless mistresses (2,3,4) |
| O (love, zero score) FILL (to satisfy) wOMEN (mistresses, topless) | ||
| 10 | See 18 (5) | |
| 11 | APRICOT | Time to hoax firm and time for fruit (7) |
| APR I (April fools day, time to hoax) CO (company, firm) and T (time) | ||
| 12 | OVERSEE | Disregard ode written in Chaucerian style? (7) |
| VERSE in OE (old English, Chaucerian style). Very clever! I like the way IO has chosen a definition for OVERSEE that is the converse of its more common meaning ‘to supervise’ too. Just a little quibble but didn’tChaucer write in Middle English?I take ‘old English’ to mean ‘in old style’,I suppose well known writers of Old English are hard to find. | ||
| 13, 17, 18 | ONE IN THE EYE | Oscar, no German solver that was anticipating the old rebuff (3,2,3,3) |
| O (Oscar, phonetic alphabet) NEIN (no, German) THEE (solver, that was=archaic) coming before (anticipating) YE (the, old=archaic) | ||
| 14 | DEEP BLUE SEA | Cutting returning velocity down, one saves energy in the main (4,4,3) |
| BLUE (down) in (cutting) SPEED (velocity) reversed (returning) and A (one) all containing (saving) E (energy) – the ‘main’ is the sea | ||
| 17, 23 | IN THE RED | Resistance breaking, badly need hit and OD (2,3,3) |
| R (resistance) in (breaking) (NEED HIT)* anagram=badly – overdrawn | ||
| 18, 19, 10 | EYE OF THE TIGER | Over 80ft, fully extended, not opposing pop song (3,2,3,5) |
| Anagram of OVER EIGHTY FEET (80ft fully extended) without (not) V (opposing) – 1980’s pop song by Survivor | ||
| 21 | THATS JUST IT | Cross Top Gears attracts legitimate appeal? Precisely what I was getting at (5,4,2) |
| T (a Tau cross) HAT’S (top gear’s) has (attracts) JUST (legitimate) IT (sex appeal) | ||
| 23, 18 | RED EYE | Overnight fight for American swimmer (3-3) |
| double definition – overnight flight in US and the rudd | ||
| 25 | ELENCHI | Logical refutations arising from NE Chile (7) |
| (NE CHILE)* anagram=arising from | ||
| 27 | FLORIDA | Mrs Capps freed a state (7) |
| FLO (Andy Capp’s wife, cartoon strip charcter) RID (freed) A. Unrelated to the clue, but many tens of years after first reading this cartoon it has just dawned on me that Andy Capp is a homopone of ‘handicap’. Doh! How dim could I be? | ||
| 28 | AORTA | Vessel that roads carry westward (5) |
| found in (carried by) thAT ROAds reversed (westward) – a blood vessel | ||
| 29 | NEUROGRAM | Our wayward German, gone without a trace (9) |
| GERMAN* (anagram=gone)havingOUR* (anagram=wayward) outside (without) – a memory trace | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TOBAGO | Section of WI also the reverse of 17 down? (6) |
| TO BAG O is ‘to bag nothing’, opposite of 17dn – part of the West Indies. OzMark has an ingenious suggestion which I suspect is also Io’s intended parsing: TOO (also) with BAG in (the reverse of ‘in the bag’) | ||
| 2 | FIERCEST | In French, thats repeatedly savage no more! (8) |
| 3 | BLACK DRESS | Is it dark, for evening out? On the surface it may be backless, promoting figure (5,5) |
| BACKLESS with L (a figure, Roman numeral) moving higher up around DaRk (even letters out) -definition is &lit | ||
| 4 | SMUT | In sado-masochism, utter obscenity (4) |
| in sado-masochiSM UTter | ||
| 5 | ENTOMBMENT | Mom Bennett has this burial ground (10) |
| (MOM BENNET)* anagram=’has this…ground’, contains the letters of entombment mixed up – definition is ‘burial’ | ||
| 6 | STYE | Nasty eye infection (4) |
| found in (infected by) naSTY Eye – definition is &lit | ||
| 7 | AGISTS | Charges, when the main points taken in (6) |
| GIST (the main point) in (taken in by) AS (when) – agist means ‘to charge with a public burden’ | ||
| 8 | ARSENATE | Body of worthies going after a pinch of rock salt (8) |
| SENTAE (body of worthies) going after A R (first letter of rock, pinch of) – definition is ‘salt’ | ||
| 15 | EXECUTIONS | Mme La Guillotines function to chop one in old times (10) |
| CUT (to chop) I (one) in EX (old) EONS (times) | ||
| 16 | UNORTHODOX | Nonconformist PMs turn to open function protected by strongman (10) |
| NORTH (Frederick North, Prime Minister from 1770 – 1782) has U (turn) before (to open, coming first) then DO (function) in (protected by) OX (strongman) | ||
| 17 | IN THE BAG | Sacked, as job is secured? (2,3,3) |
| double definition | ||
| 20 | TERRIERS | Soldiers make mistakes between the lines (8) |
| ERR (make mistakes) in (between) TIERS (the lines) – nickname of the Territorial Army | ||
| 22 | AMEERS | Occupiers of eastern thrones, accepting right, appear active on ascending (6) |
| SEEM (appear) A (active) containing (accepting) R (right) reversed (on ascending) | ||
| 24 | DHARMA | In Russia, I agree it hurts breaking the law (6) |
| HARM (it hurts) in DA (yes in Russian) – religious law in Indian religions | ||
| 26 | CHAT | Birds flirtatious talk (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 27 | FLUE | Hot air it conveys moved very quickly to the audience! (4) |
| sounds like (to the audience) “flew” (moved very quickly) | ||
*anagram
Thanks PeeDee
My attempted parsing for 18,19,10 was an anagram (pop) of O[v]ER EIGHTY FEET with the ‘not opposing’ indicating the removal of the V. However, this results in one to many Es. With your version, it is ER, not HR, that is unaccounted for.
I parsed 2dn in the same way as you.
Thanks Gaufrid. I’ve already figured it out and have updated the blog. Its amazing how clicking the ‘submit button’ can suddenly brings some additional inspiration!
Gaufird, Your solution is the same as mine (second attempt). I think you have the correct number of Es.
Hi PeeDee
You are right. I thought I had double checked the anagram fodder against the answer so I must have made the same mistake twice :(.
Hi PeeDee
I think in 5dn the anagram indication is “has this … ground”, the definition being simply “burial”.
Hi Pelham, you are correct. I think what threw me was that the definition is not the end (or start) of the clue where it is usually found.
Great mental workout indeed – but I have ended up with a smile on my face too, which is surely the purpose of a good cryptic crossword.
Thanks to Io and PeeDee.
For 1d I had BAG in TOO (also), the opposite of TOO in the BAG.
The nina helped a lot in the end (look at rows 3, 8 & 13)
Thanks to Io & PeeDee
Thanks OzMarm, two very pertinent observations!
I am generally not a big fan of Ninas and hardly ever spot them. This one seems rather elegant though. One side-effect is that I get to learn some interesting words required to fill up the awkward gaps in the grid!
This was a truly marvellous part 2 of this week’s JH Trilogy after a similarly fantastic Enigmatist last Saturday and one more treat to come at another place.
I got it all right (as in the other two puzzles), restoring my faith in my way around with this setter’s crosswords (not in his abilities which are beyond any doubt!).
Very original to have some clues overlapping in their solutions.
I saw the nina a long time after completing the puzzle.
Very neat, and touching.
Although we also have ‘sex’ on the bottom line.
Thanks PeterO for surviving the morning of the 13th of November.
There’s a little typo in your explanation of 8d, and I think in 29ac it should read OUR* having GERMAN* outside.
I am with OzMark re TOBAGO.
It was hard work but oh so satisfying!
Thanks PeeDee, and kudos to Io on a cleverly constructed puzzle. I’m not sure I would have been able to finish if I hadn’t spotted the nina, which gave me the …OLDER in row 13. AGISTS and NEUROGRAM were new to me, but solvable from the wordplay. I was thrown off by “Mme La” at the start of 15d, but a quick visit to Wikipedia educated me.
Interestingly, depending on the order in which you solve them, either 17/23 or 23/18 becomes a superfluous clue.
Hi Keeper, interestingly enough I was stuck on 17/23 and as time was getting short I started to get worried. Anyway I solved and wrote up the other couple of clues that I had outstanding and then came back for one last go. Gone! It had magically solved itself!
2d As the answer was in the superlative I would have expected ‘most’ rather than ‘more’ in the clue.
Thanks PeeDee and Io, for a very entertaining workout. I parsed 18, 19, 10 as *EIGHTY FEET FOR (not against). Over becomes the anagrind, in this interpretation.
MikeC @14: Your parsing leaves you with an extra F where you need an E.
Thanks, Keeper – and I thought I’d cracked it 🙁