A very nice Radian puzzle of I think a nice level of difficulty. I say ‘I think’ because I only have an impression, my actual time not meaning much. At the moment I have a strange pain in my right thumb when I try to write, which forces me to write left-handed, which is wonderful, like being a small child again, but incredibly slow, and when I have to write the letters down to get an anagram it takes ages.
Radian usually given us Ninas I think, but in this case there is nothing apparent. To me, at any rate.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | ||
| 1 | OBITER DICTUM |
Ban (not new) stops old loafer passing comment (6,6)
o b(i{n}terdict)um — that sort of passing comment, a comment made on someone’s passing |
| 9 | LOGICAL |
Joe’s in convenient bar, making sound (7)
lo(GI)cal |
| 10 | GRADUAL |
Applaud arguments, some backing moderate (7)
Hidden reversed in AppLAUD ARGuments |
| 11 | RANKING |
First man managed first grade (7)
ran king — the king is the first man, then ran [= managed] comes first |
| 12 | POTHERB |
Maybe Rosemary‘s further in the lead (7)
P(other)b — Pb being the chemical symbol for lead |
| 13 | AMAZE |
Electrify area unknown in West (5)
a Ma(z)e — ref Mae West, whose longevity in crosswords is almost as assured as her cinematic longevity — z is a rather strange unknown because it generally refers to a complex number, but this occurs often in crosswords, I suppose because the setter is fairly limited in the words that z can be an abbreviation for |
| 14 | TREACHERY |
Blunt deed almost achieved during test (9)
t(reache{d})ry |
| 16 | DETHRONES |
He doesn’t set out holding reins at start, so topples (9)
(He doesn’t)* round r{eins} |
| 19 | DEFOE |
He wrote about Flanders, about retreating in river (5)
(of)rev. in Dee — ref Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe |
| 21 | ABIOTIC |
Sterile time to replace piano in a film about Liszt? (7)
a biopic with the p replaced by t |
| 23 | WHITLOW |
TV doctor tackling it left with finger problem (7)
Wh(it l)o w — ref. Dr Who — lesser setters often use ‘with’ as a link-word, but not here |
| 24 | NOVELLA |
Make short work of some old material collected by star (7)
Nov(ell)a |
| 25 | INTEGER |
Place underground housing, say, in whole unit (7)
int(eg)er |
| 26 | USER-FRIENDLY |
It’s easy to work with insured flyer after crash (4-8)
(insured flyer)* |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ORGANZA |
Stuff yellow note into strip (7)
or Ga(n)za — stuff in the sense of fabric |
| 2 | INCLINE |
One plus nine divided by a hundred and fifty in list (7)
1 n(CL)ine — CL is 150 in Roman numerals |
| 3 | ENLIGHTEN |
Brief answer to clue: “Cracking nuts”? (9)
en(light)en — brief as a verb — ‘en’ has many senses, but one of them is a nut, which is printers’ slang — in a crossword a light is the answer to a clue, although I’ve also read of it as a single letter |
| 4 | DIG UP |
Hunt out doing jumps in odd positions (3,2)
d{o}i{n}g {j}u{m}p{s} |
| 5 | CHAOTIC |
In mess, talk to one colonel primarily about love (7)
cha(0)t 1 c{olonel} |
| 6 | UKULELE |
In Paris, articles back our top-class music-maker (7)
UK [= our] U [= top-class] le le [In Paris, articles] |
| 7 | FLORA AND FAUNA |
Guide ran off with a landau to find all our relatives (5,3,5)
(ran off a landau)*, the anagram indicated by ‘Guide’ |
| 8 | OLD BOY NETWORK |
New blood initially transfused into busy New York coterie (3,3,7)
(blood)* (New York)* round t{ransfused} |
| 15 | ERSTWHILE |
Former monarch steps across Welsh borders (9)
ER st(Wh)ile, the Wh being W{els}h |
| 17 | THIEVES |
They nicked this, having come round the night before (7)
thi(eve)s — but why ‘nicked’ rather than just ‘nick’? I can’t see why, except that possibly it’s referring to thieves who have been apprehended, so what did they do? They nicked. However it would surely be just as sound with ‘nick’ and there would be no gratuitous misleading. |
| 18 | RATTLER |
A danger in US, Republicans mob old PM briefly (7)
R(Attle{e})R — in the US a rattlesnake is called a rattler |
| 19 | DRIFTED |
Got sidetracked, forgot lines, putting foot in it (7)
dri(ft)ed |
| 20 | FALL GUY |
Patsy sculpted gainfully in shed (4,3)
(gainfully – in)* |
| 22 | CHAIR |
Independent daily defends meeting president (5)
cha(i)r — independent, which daily defends — a meeting president is the president of a meeting, or the chair{man}; we can’t say ‘chairman’ nowadays |
Enjoyed this, so thanks to S&B.
Might just be worth mentioning that 14 across refers to Anthony Blunt, the ‘fourth man’ out of the famous five so-called Apostles who spied for the Russians.
Well, what an utter treat! Great Thursday fare, this took me a long time, but I never felt as though the effort wasn’t worth it, and the satisfaction of completing it truly lifts the heart.
I had forgotten the latin ‘obiter dictum’ entirely, and had to work it out from the splendid wordplay. Similarly, “whitlow”. I struggled to remember the monarchs around Ethelstan, one of whom I thought might fit the clue, until “erstwhile” finally thrust itself into my consciousness.
“He doesn’t” as an anagram for most of “dethrones” is inspired. Fitting “Gaza” in anywhere at all is a feat!
3D was my last answer, “enlighten”, and I managed that only by wracking my brains for any word that would fit the crossing letters. Checking now, I see it’s the only word that does fit.
I loved this puzzle, very neatly and entertainingly clued. Thanks!
I agree that this was a quality puzzle. I also confess that like Emrys@2 ENLIGHTEN went in as the only likely answer once all the checkers were in place, so thanks for the parsing of it John. ABIOTIC was my LOI and took me much longer than it should have done.
Yes a quality offering.
I agree re the past tense for ‘nicked’, why have that. I can see that ‘having come round the night before’ implies the past even though it is only in the surface, but even so it is not needed.
They wait before they nick.
Lovely puzzle. I flew through it until about the halfway mark – after that it got a bit chewy.
The biggies weren’t easy to guess even with a few crossers in – and guess and reverse engineer an explanation is often the way with biggies.
I didn’t know the printers’ slang nut – do now. OBITER DICTUM I knew (more commonly in the plural) as the part of judges’ explanation of their decisions that isn’t considered to add to case law as precedent – things said by the way – ie not the ratio decidendi. I didn’t know it applied at funerals too.
Many thanks both for an enjoyable and, as it turned out, educative tussle.
17d “nick” just doesn’t work in the surface.
Where does this silly nonsense about past tenses not working in the cryptic reading? Of course they do. Some silly pedant high up the pecking order of self-appointed pedants has said it at some time in the past and all the others follow suit. Logically there’s no reason for it.
Of course 9a Joe for GI might be looked on as an unindicated DBE (for those who worry about such things) but let’s not get into that – wouldn’t want to confuse anyone.
A great puzzle, albeit one where several answers (e.g. POTHERB, AMAZE) suggest themselves from the definition and only later does the parsing become obvious. Maybe that helps to make a great puzzle.
Thanks, Radian and John
Thanks Radian and John (hope your thumb is better soon, at least it is not a WHITLOW).
This puzzle was most enjoyable, but I needed help with some of the parsing. OBITER DICTUM was new, or forgotten, as was the printer’s slang NUT for an en (wonder what the slang for an em is?).
Found it on an Arachne blog, em is a mutton!
Much too difficult for me. It was only on my third session of looking at it that I got any answers at all, and after much further time I got almost all the bottom half. The top half is still blank.
This puzzle was so very enjoyable, I feel obliged to comment. It might only be a reflection of my mood, but I’ve found this week’s offerings (Indy and Grauniad) rather tame so far (though very good – particularly enjoyed Paul and Philistine) so pleased a dish is served that has left me feeling well fed, rather than a touch unsatisfied.
Jolly@6 – I agree with you (as usual) concerning pedantic irritants. I actually think “nicked” is more elegant in 17d.
allan_c@7 – funny (and nice) how different we all are; I solved AMAZE and POTHERB from wordplay alone!
Huge thanks, Radian. Appreciation for John’s blog – though you may have to put any Little Jack Horner impressions on hold for now!