A Puzzle by Radler
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
Another exceptionally tough crossword from Radler. Would it have helped if I’d noticed what was going on round the perimeter of the grid? Probably, but I didn’t so it didn’t!
Across
8a And this continuing similarly before you know it (4)
SOON: There’s an expression meaning and this continuing – ignore the ‘and’ and merge the other two words
9a Once steady, needs particular judge to acquit (9)
EXONERATE: A former partner (once steady), a particular thing and a verb meaning to judge
10a Temperature for cooking gruel heated by element of oven (6)
REGULO: An anagram (heated) of GRUEL followed by the first ‘element’ of Oven
11a Group of parasites (or characters from zoo) in spring (8)
SPOROZOA: OR (from the clue) and the letters of ZOO inserted into a spring
12a Secret doctrines answer graduate notes on question (8)
QABALAHS: An abbreviated Question, the abbreviation for Answer, a university graduate and some musical notes
14a Just like hemming fringe of big round cushion (6)
ABSORB: An adverb meaning just like ‘hemming’ or going round the ‘fringe’ of Big and a sphere (round)
16a Mentioned all but first project (4)
POKE: A synonym for mentioned or said without its first letter
17a Substitute for position on charts? (5)
PROXY: A synonym for for and the axes found on charts
18a President in brief elected; accepted by cricket club (1,2,1)
C IN C: An abbreviated (in brief) President – a simple way of saying elected ‘accepted’ by an abbreviated Cricket Club
19a Became deoxidised, partially withdrawing excess fluid (6)
OEDEMA: Hidden in reverse (partly withdrawing) in becAME DEOxidised
21a Robot drone backing claims on setback (8)
HUMANOID: A droning sound, and some assistance (backing) the latter ‘claiming’ a reversal (set back) of ON (from the clue)
23a Northern perimetric extremes are half of this biblical town (8)
NAZARETH: The abbreviation for Northern, letters that are perimetric extremes and the first half of THis
26a Never get old, forgetting name in mental decline (6)
DOTAGE: An expression meaning never get old without (forgetting) the abbreviation for Name
27a Irregular police raid passes left then disperses (9)
APERIODIC: An anagram (passes) of POlICE RAID without (left then disperses) the abbreviation for Left
28a Job of spin doctor and of informal academic (4)
PROF: The abbreviated job of a spin doctor and OF (from the clue)
Down
1d Dwarf seaman aboard tugboat say, almost capsized (5,5)
TOWER ABOVE: A description of a tugboat, an abbreviated seaman and almost all of a synonym for capsized
2d Rise then fall behind after having cut too much (8)
UNDULATE: A synonym for behind time goes after a truncated synonym for too much
3d Stuck up churchman recalled an old Italian city (6)
VERONA: A reversal (stuck up) of an abbreviated man of the church, and a reversal (recalled) of AN (from the clue) and the abbreviation for Old
4d Hits wide into raised place in ground (4)
WOWS: The cricket abbreviation for Wide inserted into a reversal (raised) of a verb meaning to plant (place) in the ground
5d For this fertilisation, kinky oxygen masks exist (8)
XENOGAMY: AM (exist) inserted into an anagram (kinky) of OXYGEN
6d Rabbit patrolling river together with small marsupials (6)
YAPOKS: Talk persistently (rabbit) ‘patrolling’ an Italian river, followed with the abbreviation for Small
7d Scratch unknown star, no opening for him (4)
ZERO: A mathematical unknown and a star without the first letter (opening) for Him
13d Silence conceals besides twisting poetic truth (5)
SOOTH: An interjection meaning hush (silence) conceals a reversed (twisting) abbreviated way of saying besides
15d Foreman finally grounding undisciplined lackey (7,3)
RUNNING DOG: The final letter of foremaN inserted into an anagram (undisciplined) of GROUNDING
17d Dove, showy bird, went and did stuffing for organic packaging (8)
PEACENIK: Take a showy bird and replace the outside letters (packaging) of OrganiC in that bird with the ‘stuffing’ of wENt and dId
18d Building cheap houses, not monument (8)
CENOTAPH: An anagram (building) of CHEAP ‘houses’ NOT (from the clue)
20d Receding hair regularly veils top of crown (6)
ENAMEL: A reversed (receding) bushy head of hair and the regular letters of vEiLs
22d Old Italian house by the sea. Nice here! (6)
MEDICI: An abbreviated sea and the French (as used in Nice) word for here
24d A man and a woman (4)
ADAM: A (from the clue) and a woman
25d American entertainer in club supporting husband’s faithful journey (4)
HADJ: The abbreviation for American and an entertainer in a club ‘supporting’ or going after in a Down solution, the abbreviation for Husband
A real Toughie which I really enjoyed battling with. Many thanks to Radler.
I completed most of puzzle before getting stuck in the top left-hand corner where I finally gave in and revealed the first letters of 1d and 12a to enable me to finish. It was only after I had a full grid that I realised that spotting the very clever Nina would have saved me from revealing anything.
I have loads of ticks including 21a, 26a, 1d, 2d, 17d and 22d.
Looks like I had to reveal a bit more than Gazza, Radler. My vocab does not run to some of the solutions though, on backparsing those I revealed, the clues were fair. I did spot the Nina about half way through as well (I wondered why you chose the unusual 18a when there were other friendlier words that would have fitted which made me look. At that time, I had too few perimeter letters to spot the pattern but it popped up later). Very clever work; thanks for sharing.
OK Fiend, I have to concede defeat this time. However, I would like to say that I always took you to be a man of honour despite your fiendish habits and feel that you have definitely let me down on this occasion. Peppering the grid with answers that few of us are likely to have ever encountered is definitely not gentlemanly conduct, I can only hope that with hindsight you now feel suitably ashamed of yourself!
We’re very glad that it is raining today and we had the time to give this the attention it needed and deserved.
We got lucky by starting in the NE corner and quickly noted what was happening on the perimeter. From this we were able to put in lots of helpful/essential checking letters.
Many things we had to look up or confirm but we managed to get everything sorted.
A thoroughly enjoyable exercise and really appreciated.
Thanks Radler.
Apart from the fact that it is NOT raining here (and the summer is finally warming up), I go along with your comments. And add my thanks to CS for the review.
Tough indeed, verging on but not quite in Elgar & Osmosis territory. I had been on the lookout for the pangram, but not for the Nina, and when I became aware of that I needed to reassess a few answers, fortunately! Some quite odd surfaces indeed. The clueing was generally fair, fortunately, with so many unfamiliar words (parasites, lackey, marsupials, pollination method), but so obscure were some of these answers that liberal use of the BRB was required. Thank heavens for checking letters. Highlights for me were the superb 26a, 1d & 22d.
Many thanks to Radler and CS
Many thanks for the review, CS. I’d got it all sorted courtesy of the BRB but was glad to have your confirmations. No chance that I’ll remember the unknowns but hopefully I’m unlikely to need them!
Considering this is a Radler puzzle we are quite pleased with how much we did achieve before we inevitably had to reveal a few letters and even after that a couple of answers! We spotted the Nina quite late and we had the wrong group of parasites in – very similar spelling but incorrect starting letters. We didn’t know the word in 12a or the marsupials although we worked 6d out from the clue and the letters there already.
We certainly enjoyed the challenge and hope one day to complete a Radler puzzle without help! Thank you, Radler, also thanks to CS for the review and explanations
My thanks to crypticsue for her review of the puzzle.
My apologies for the obscure answers. I tried to avoid them as much as I could and I’m sure a better grid designer/filler than I would have had more success.
One consolation for returning from a week’s holiday is a double dose of my favourite weekend puzzles, and I was delighted (albeit a bit daunted) to find a Radler awaiting me. After a slow start I made good progress in the SE corner – enough to spot an emerging Nina. I thought I would try to solve the remaining clues without putting in the Nina letters, but gave up on that pretty quickly! After quite a bit of head scratching it came down to five clues where I reckoned I would need to do some referencing: 11, 12 across & 5, 6, 17 down. I was delighted to find entries in the dictionary for four that I had conjectured from the wordplay, but was still at a loss with 17d. Reluctantly I resorted to a word-finder, but once I had an answer it still took me a while to unravel the fiendish wordplay! Favourite clues along the way were 17, 26, 27 across and 15, 20, 22 down.
Thanks for an enjoyable challenge and designing a clever grid, Radler; and thanks for the picture of the rather fearsome looking yapok, CS!