A Puzzle by Hubble
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
Hubble gets the chance to exercise the weekend's grey matter with a very enjoyable debut in the NTSPP slot. Apologies for the rather brief review but I had to do it this morning instead of my usual Saturday.
Across
1a Lullaby composer's almost a god (6)
BRAHMA: The composer of the cradle song with the last letter replaced by A from the clue
4a Status of elaborate scam also included (8)
STANDING: A type of scam with a synonym of also inserted.
10a Good person arriving at European airport ahead of fruit transporter (9)
STEAMSHIP: Put together the usual abbreviated saintly person, the abbreviation for European, a Dutch airport and a fruit
11a State writer's ready to eat (5)
RIPEN: An American state and a writing implement
12a Two democrats involved in purchase for friend (5)
BUDDY: A synonym of purchase with two single letter abbreviations for Democrat inside
13a Computer component about to be replaced by female teacher (9)
PROFESSOR: Replace a single-letter abbreviation for about in a CPU with that for Female.
14a To stand behind register bearing name is impresario's desire (4,3)
LONG RUN: A synonym of stand (for election maybe) follows a register into which is inserted the single-letter abbreviation for Name.
16a Den's currency is returned (4)
LAIR: Reverse some Iranian money
19a Lies in the sunshine topless and solicits (4)
ASKS: A word meaning lies in or enjoys the sunshine loses its first letter
21a Payment to retired cop finally by last of conmen engaged in revolting racket (7)
PENSION: Put together the final letter of coP and append a reversal of a synonym of racket in the sense of sound into which is inserted the final letter of conmeN.
24a Duchy boss's relative and country's head of exchequer accepting direct debit (5,4)
GRAND DUKE: An abbreviated female relative and a familiar country into which is inserted DD. Finally append the “head” of Exchequer.
25a Type of dish made with minced tripe (5)
PETRI: Anagram of TRIPE
26a Diamond for one retrospectively backing ace movie (5)
ALIEN: Diamond here is the singer. Reverse his given name and the single-letter abbreviation for Ace
27a Lady dancing round object excited Arnie (9)
BALLERINA: Piece together a round object typically kicked or hit in sport and an anagram of ARNIE
28a Hear canes breaking initially in background (8)
ANCESTRY: A synonym of hear (in court perhaps) follows an anagram of CANES.
29a Ballet's Swan Princess being reflected in silhouette downstage (6)
ODETTE: Hidden and reversed in the clue.
Down
1d Old president's upset after graduate joins 50-50 game (8)
BASEBALL: An abbreviated or informal US president is reversed along with the possessive S and inserted between a graduate and two Roman numerals for 50.
2d Changing description of what's happening at 12 perhaps? (8)
AMENDING: Initially I was wondering about the relationship between this and 12a. Hmm. However it has nothing to do with it and is a clever way of saying (when split 2-6) what is happening at twelve noon.
3d Mother's game with pack getting fresh start (5)
MUMMY: Change the initial letter of a game payed with a pack of cards
5d Plant layer covers painting (7)
TOPSOIL: A synonym of covers and a type of painting
6d Scandinavian owner Inga tormented (9)
NORWEGIAN: Anagram (tormented) of the preceding two words
7d Place burden on that man obliterating hotel front (6)
IMPOSE: A pronoun indicating “that man” loses the abbreviation for Hotel and is followed by a synonym of front in the sense of demeanor
8d Officer curtailed classes (6)
GENERA: A high ranking officer loses the last letter (curtailed)
9d Axe popular barman (6)
CHOPIN: Axe as a verb and the usual popular.
15d State home and who may be staying there (9)
RESIDENTS: A homophone (state) of a home gives the people who are occupying it
17d Columbia's one that's reportedly run down and conned (8)
DISTRICT: Homophones of synonyms of run down as a verb and conned or cheated
18d Justify dropping 5's show (8)
INDICATE: Drop the Roman numeral for five from a synonym of justify
20d Pay no attention when symphony's leader provides new opening for expert piper? (7)
SLUMBER: The piper here is not an instrumentalist, rather someone who fixes or installs pipes. We need to replace the opening letter with that of Symphony
21d Spanish settlement winning back carved bole (6)
PUEBLO: A simple synonym of winning or ahead reversed plus an anagram of BOLE
22d Ocassionally rings up to acquire an adult lizard (6)
IGUANA: The occasional (note the spelling!) letters rInGs Up plus AN from the clue and the single-letter abbreviation for Adult.
23d Enthusiastic fan turning up in basilica in Amsterdam (6)
MANIAC: Hidden and reversed in the clue
25d Beg ladette on vacation to come into apartment (5)
PLEAD: The outside letters of LadettE inserted into an old fashioned name for an apartment
I have emailed Prolixic and asked him to rescue the crossword from the dreaded 404 message in the same way he did last week
Prolixic is out today and doesn’t have access to the blog site so we will probably have to wait until it is morning in New Mexico when Mr K will be able to sort out the problem
It looks OK now. Thanks to whoever sorted it.
A lovely crossword with smooth surfaces throughout – many thanks to Hubble.
I have lots of ticks on my printout – I’ll just mention 14a, 21a, 26a and 20d.
Couple of bits of parsing that took some teasing out but a very creditable NTSPP. Rosettes going to 14,25&26a plus 5d.
Thanks to Hubble for the puzzle.
What Gazza said.
Many thanks to Hubble. This was a lot of fun, BUT “ocassionally” – oh, dear! 👎
Missed that one, RD, talk about seeing what you want to see!
Thanks Hubble. An enjoyable caffeine free start to my Saturday.
But, do we now have to add IATA airport codes to the list of things to be guessed?
No problems with ‘occasionally’ for me, probably as a result of blogging Dada Sunday puzzles for 7+ years.
Smiles for 4a, 26a, and 21d.
Thanks again and thanks in advance to SL(?).
RD is talking about the typo
Which I missed completely several times! As Jane wrote – seeing what you want to see.
Add me to those who missed it.
An interesting point about airport codes. Quite a few are also English words in their own right, such as MAN, BOD and LAX, which could be another source of deviousness for setters.
A puzzle full of artful misdirection from Hubble. Some quality surfaces, some quaint ones, and some quirky ones; throw in a couple of dodgy homophones (I’m trying to persuade my teenage grand-daughter to enunciate her ‘t’s!) and we have a perfect recipe for a NTSPP. My chart toppers today were 13a, 21a (an admirable construction!), 27a, 1d (I enjoyed the use of ’50-50’), 2d and 20d.
Thanks, Hubble, and also to whoever fixed the dreaded 404!
A very clever puzzle and great fun to slowly dissect it all. So many we could choose for podium places so we’ll go with our last one in 20d.
Thanks Hubble.
Knocked spots off the SPP. Very enjoyable.
Thanks Hubble.
Tricky in places and some answers went in unparsed. A very satisfying puzzle, though. Thank you, Hubble and SL.
Many thanks for the review, Stephen, always good to get confirmation of one’s parsing.
Thanks again to our star-gazing compiler for a most enjoyable NTSPP.
We had a good crack at it but sadly had to reveal two answers in the end. We really enjoyed the challenge, thank you, Hubble, and many thanks to Stephen for the parsing. We look forward to your next one Hubble.
Many thanks to the BD team, to StephenL and to everybody who took the time to solve the puzzle and post a comment.