Another super puzzle from Gozo, interesting all the way through. Thank you Gozo.
Gozo puzzles are always themed and today we have Geography – Gozo’s favourite subject I think. I worked out most of the solutions from the wordplay but the intersecting pair of Debrecen and Esbjerg defeated me. Hats off to anyone who managed to finish this puzzle completely unaided!
I thought the clues were a little trickier than usual from Gozo, but this was balanced by the knowledge that all the solutions are thematic.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DEBRECEN |
Society girl cutting modern Hungarian city (8)
DEB (society girl) and RECENt (modern, cut short) |
| 5 | DARWIN |
Sketch heart-transplant in Australian city (6)
DRAW (setch) with middle letters (heart) switched (translanted) then IN |
| 9 | SURABAYA |
Almost certain a laurel-tree’s on old film in Indonesian city (8)
SURe (certain, almost) then A BAY (laurel tree) on A (old film age rating) |
| 10 | WARSAW |
Hostilities observed in capital in 20 (6)
WAR (hostilities) SAW (observed) |
| 12 | RHONE |
Bay horse spoken of on river (5)
sounds like (spoken of) “roan” (bay horse) |
| 13 | MINNESOTA |
Nominates new state (9)
NOMINATES* anagram=new |
| 14 | BIGGAR |
Large room for car missing rear half in Scottish town (6)
BIG (large) GARage (room for car) missing rear half |
| 15 | CAMPSIE |
Timeless holiday tented area in fells in Stirlingshire (7)
CAMPSItE (tented area) missing T (time) |
| 17 | ASH |
Remains at village near Whitchurch in Shropshire (3)
double definition |
| 18 | ISFAHAN |
Iranian city is cooler, with hot area inside (7)
IS FAN (cooler) containing H (hot) A (area) |
| 20 | EUROPE |
Outpour during the middle of the week on the continent (6)
POUR* anagram=out inside wEEk (middle of) |
| 23 | BERKSHIRE |
Idiots further up reportedly in county (9)
BERKS (idiots) then HIRE sounds like (reportedly) higher (further up) |
| 24 | BURMA |
Polish revolutionary’s mother country? (5)
RUB (polish) reversed (revolutionary) has MA (mother) – a shame we have polish=rub again crossing with 21dn |
| 25 | RYE BAY |
Small railway on online auction site on the Sussex coast (3,3)
RY (railway) on EBAY (auction site) |
| 26 | LEUCHARS |
Money for cleaners at Scottish RAF base (8)
LEU (money, of Moldova and Romania) with CHARS (cleaners) |
| 28 | HESSLE |
Topless game with the French at town near Hull (6)
cHESS (game, topless) with LE (the, French) |
| 29 | FLANDERS |
Whence a mare for Swann’s partner in Belgium (8)
the Flanders Mare (Anne of Cleeves) or Michael Flanders (partner of Donald Swann) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | DYSART |
Top dog and poor stray on the Fife coast (6)
Dog (top, first letter of) and STRAY* anagram=poor – town in Fife |
| 2 | BARROW-IN-FURNESS |
Costermonger’s cart in oven, reportedly in Cumbrian town (6-2-7)
BARROW (costermonger’s cart) IN FURNESS sounds like (spoken of) frunace (oven) |
| 3 | ESBJERG |
Grebes swimming round edge of jetty in Danish port (7)
GREBES* anagram=swimming around Jetty (edge, first letter of) |
| 4 | ELY |
Cathedral city with some chapel. Yes! (3)
found inside (some of) chapEL Yes |
| 6 | ANAHEIM |
This Californian city with courts would be South American (7)
ana anagram of ANAHEIM and COURTS would be SOUTH AMERICAN |
| 7 | WESTON-SUPER-MARE |
This could be 20’s warmest northern resort! (6-5-4)
anagram (this could be) of EUROPE’S WARMEST and N (northern) – seaside town near Bristol. Super clue! |
| 8 | NEW HAVEN |
It’s strange to keep navy where Yale is situated (3,5)
NEW (strange) HAVE (to keep) and N (navy) |
| 11 | ENSCHEDE |
Rough scene he’d entered in Dutch city (8)
SCENE* anagram=rough containing (with…entered in) HE’D |
| 13 | MORANGIE |
Whisky glen – enigma or puzzle? (8)
(ENIGMA OR)* anagram=puzzle – Glen Morangie whisky, though Glen Morangie is not an actual Scottish glen, hence the question mark. |
| 16 | AIGBURTH |
Top-class grub served on Thursday in Liverpudlian suburb (8)
AI (A-1, top class) GRUB* anagram=served on TH (Thursday) |
| 19 | HESWALL |
Chap’s on steep rock-face at Wirral town (7)
HE’S (chap’s) on WALL (steep rock face) |
| 21 | RUBICON |
Polish religious statue on river crossed by Caesar (7)
RUB (polish) ICON (religious statue) |
| 22 | KANSAS |
US state where leading artist turns up for another (6)
if you ad RA (Royal Academician, artist) reversed (turns up) to KANSAS you get ARKANSAS (another state) |
| 27 | EIL |
Loch near Fort William showing in Sheila’s mirror (3)
found inside (showing in) shEILa – I’m not sure what part ‘mirror’ plays, I was expecting the letters to be hidden in reverse order |
definitions are underlined
Impressive stuff!
I got a satisfying number from wordplay alone with the theme providing a few write-ins with checkers. However still needed Google for at least three in NW corner.
7dn worth doing the crosswotd on its own.
Thanks Gozo and PeeDee
Thanks, PeeDee. A nice puzzle, as you say. I imagine it must take some doing to populate the grid entirely with place names, with the odd stretch of water thrown in.
I couldn’t parse either ANAHEIM or KANSAS. I recognised the clue type in ANAHEIM (I think) but was searching for a synonym of ‘courts’ to add to the solution. Wouldn’t it be more usual to signal that an anagram is involved, or am I just being dim?
I didn’t recognise KANSAS for a similar type of clue. There doesn’t seem to be anything to indicate that an addition to the solution is involved.
A very enjoyable geography lesson, thank you Gozo and PeeDee.
Gozo’s puzzles are very clever but they leave me cold. He has to make the wordplay super-simple on account of the obscurity of the answers. Despite this, I still managed to get Dastry instead of Dysart and Snechede instead of Enschede.
Thanks Gozo and PeterDee
A very clever effort to make every across and down clue a name of a town, city, state, county or waterway.
Nevertheless, I did find it a bit of a chore having to basically google all of the obscure European and British places either in validation or discovery mode.
Some nice clues though, including the compound anagram, ANAHEIM, DARWIN and my last in BIGGAR