I think we have a debut puzzle here from Daedalus. Unless he is Logodaedalus in disguise. Unlike Daedelus’ son in Greek legend, I didn’t warm to it much. There are some where I’m not sure I’ve got the parsing right, so help welcome as always.
The IoS has been, for as long as I’ve been solving and blogging it, a puzzle which is within the capabilities of less experienced solvers. This one took me three goes to finally crack it, and while there are some good clues, many of them – to me at least – just seem too contrived, as if the setter has been trying too hard. But that could just be me, so I’m interested to hear what other solvers thought.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Noticed what’s happening inside remote location
SEVENTEEN
An insertion of EVENT in SEEN. REMOTE is the solution to 17ac.
6 The place to put on costume in theatre
WHERE
A homophone of WEAR, with ‘in theatre’ as the rather novel homophone indicator.
9 Separate and run away
SPLIT
A dd.
10 More green cordial
EXTRAVERT
A charade of EXTRA and VERT for a (French) word for ‘green’. I bet 99 out of a 100 careful English users would spell it EXTROVERT; but it’s in dictionaries as an alternative spelling.
11 Get rid of misbehaving aide and …
ERADICATE
I think this is referring to the fact that if you take (AIDE)* out of ERADICATE, you’re left with RCATE, which is an anagram of the next clue.
12 … you’ll see minister react badly
CATER
Following on from 11ac, this is (REACT)* with ‘badly’ as the anagrind. For once the ellipses can’t be ignored, but – given that I have explained it correctly – I don’t like it much. Too convoluted.
13 Do I see hooligan recalling his youth?
BOYHOOD
I liked this better: a reversal of DO, OH! and YOB.
14 Barium compound in rock from 2
BASALT
A charade of BA for chemical element number 56, and (common) SALT, which indeed is a compound of sodium and chlorine, with the formula NaCl. And BASALT is an igneous rock which comes from VOLCANOES, which is clued in 2dn. That’s enough chemistry for one clue.
17 Unlikely gadget
REMOTE
A dd. It’s called a zapper in our house, but REMOTE is the posh word. There’s a remote chance that you call it something different.
19 Spots a radical interrupting 3?
PARADOX
This is A RAD in POX, and I assume it’s referring to the surface reading in 3dn rather than the solution.
23 Joint with hot seasoning
CUMIN
CUM is the Latin word for ‘with’, which could be used to express ‘joint’ if I say that a clue is a ‘cd cum dd’, I suppose. And IN is ‘hot’ in the sense of ‘popular’. So it’s a charade. Cumin seasons carrots beautifully.
24 Virtually a piece apart apiece
PER CAPITA
The surface is meaningless, which is not a good start. And I’m not sure what the setter is getting at, apart from the fact that (A PIECE APART)* with A and E left out gives you the answer. But if ‘virtually’ is telling us to leave out those two letters, then where is the anagrind? Some kind soul is going to have to explain this one.
25 Container ship on river with Jack in New York
PENNILESS
This is PEN for ‘container’, NILE and SS, but I’m not convinced by the definition. The ‘in New York’ bit is presumably telling us that it’s American English, but I’ve only ever heard ‘jack all’, or less elegantly, ‘jack shit’ for a definition of ‘nothing’.
26 There’s a song about it for amateurs
LAITY
An insertion of IT in LAY for an archaic word for ‘song’.
27 What’s in the Rt Hon Gentleman’s underwear?
THONG
Hidden in the rT HON Gentleman.
28 A blend of Eastern and Western English honey?
SWEETENER
(E WESTERN E)* ‘Honey’ for SWEETENER? If you must.
Down
1 Resist evil twin?
SISTER
(RESIST)* with ‘evil’ as the anagrind.
2 Almost split up with a number lower down Mt Fuji?
VOLCANO
‘Cleave’ is a stupid verb, which has two completely opposite meanings and about a million options for past tenses and past participles. One of them is CLOVE, so this is a reversal of CLOV[E] followed by A NO.
3 Still without being still
NOTWITHSTANDING
I think this is a play on words, suggesting that if you were STANDING, you wouldn’t be ‘still’. So a kind of dd.
4 I go up a hill following short French student
ELEVATOR
A charade of ELEV[E] and A TOR. Strictly, élève is French for ‘pupil’, but ‘student’ just about works, since ‘pupils’ is getting a bit old-fashioned these days.
5 Bit of noxious air from bottom
NETHER
The first letter of ‘noxious’ followed by ETHER.
6 Women breed a tailless parrot with lines on it? I forget its name
WHATCHAMACALLIT
Well, ‘convoluted’ comes to mind again. A charade of W, HATCH, MACA[W], LL and IT.
7 Choose artist who has a complex?
ELECTRA
A more simple charade, of ELECT and RA. The ELECTRA COMPLEX is a psychoanalytical term used to describe a girl’s sense of competition with her mother for the affections of her father. Blame Jung.
8 Whole yeti rent to pieces
ENTIRETY
(YETI RENT)*
15 Crazy drugs
CRACKPOT
CRACK and POT are certainly two drugs.
16 Score’s uncertain after the Spanish game
LACROSSE
A charade of LA, one of the Spanish words for ‘the’, and (SCORES)*
18 This reminds writer to include male characters
MEMENTO
A charade of ME for ‘writer’ and TO, with MEN included.
20 View round a wing
OPINION
PINION: ‘the outer part of a bird’s wing’, says my dictionary. Put O for ’round’ before that, and you’ve got your answer.
21 The 25 are on these drugs
UPPERS
The PENNILESS would be on their UPPERS, wouldn’t they?
22 Advocate having wife in bed
LAWYER
An insertion of W in LAYER.
Many thanks to Daedalus for this puzzle.
I had trouble with the Beelzebub last Sunday so I didn’t start this till later in the week, and then I was not able to complete it. (But not as hard as last Saturday’s prize crossword.)
I don’t know about less able solvers, but this experienced solver gave up with 9 clues left to solve.
Thanks for the blog. And thanks to the setter, too – I failed to notice it was a new setter until I came here, but I quite liked this & didn’t find it as difficult as others appear to have done.
The only one that held me up for a couple minutes was PARADOX, with only the 3 vowel crossers to go on. Overall I thought it was very well suited to the IoS slot.
Re 25a – I’ve certainly come across ‘Jack’ on its own meaning nothing – eg ‘he hasn’t got Jack’.
I think that the difficulties people have had are probably just down to it being an unfamiliar setter – but I, for one, am looking forward to more of his/her puzzles.
Definitely tough for a Sunday but all the better for that after a week of generally not very difficult crosswords, which I hope will not be repeated in the coming week.
Don’t think most of this was any more contrived than clues by other tough – but more well known – setters. Eg I liked WHATCHAMACALLIT and incidentally the “A” preceding “MACA[w] has been omitted from the explanation. Also happy with PENNILESS and found PARADOX a stumbling block.
Thanks to Daedalus, of whom I hope to see more, and John for blogging.
Anyone got a better explanation of the ERADICATE and CATER clues? I’m not convinced I’ve explained them properly.
Thanks Pierre
I thought that 11ac was simply an anagram (misbehaving) of AIDE CATER with 12ac an anagram as you have parsed.
Thanks to all for comments and to Pierre for the blog on what was indeed a debut puzzle. Gaufrid has divined my intended reading for 11ac.
Pierre, I’m afraid it seems you somehow got a garbled version of the clue for 24ac; no wonder you had such trouble solving it. In the printed paper it appeared correctly as: “Virtually piece a part apart apiece (3,6)”.
When I was at school they still tried to teach us that the form EXTROVERT was a mistake. (The -O- is not in the root, but is by analogy with INTROVERT.) I suppose the world has moved on since then but old habits die hard!
Thanks for dropping in, Daedalus, and explaining my misunderstanding of 24ac. Always nice to see new setters on the scene, so I’ll look forward to your next one.