A Puzzle by Mjölnir
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
As usual, the setter will be delighted to receive feedback from you, the solvers. We do ask that you remember that for most setters this is a new experience, so please only offer constructive criticism.
A review by Prolixic follows:
Mjölnir has upped their game with this crossword producing some very good clues with lots of variety. In a couple of cases, the clues were technically correct but I wondered whether the definitions by example in the clue were a little too remote from the word required in the solution but, on balance, that only affects the toughness of the crossword rather than the precision of the clues. The only points to watch are repetition of wordplay and checking the spelling of words used in the solutions. The commentometer reads as 2.5/27 or 9.3%.
Across
1a Government department providing conclusion of policy reform (6)
MODIFY: The three-letter abbreviation for one of the departments of government followed by a two-letter word meaning providing and the final letter (conclusion) of policy.
4a Relaxing in Bridlington? (6)
IDLING: The answer is hidden in the final word of the clue.
8a Period theatre’s enthralling the posh version of me (5,3)
STONE AGE: A five-letter word for a theatre includes (enthralling) a three-letter word for the way a posh person might say me.
10a Right leaning type‘s bold alternative (6)
ITALIC: Cryptic definition of a way of emphasising text as an alternative to bold type (but not recommended if you want to produce text that is readable by people who have dyslexia or other reading difficulties).
11a Finally prise off dirt that’s unyielding (4)
GRIM: Remove the final letter from prise from the end of a five-letter word for dirt.
12a Copies of abridged truth and analogies (12)
FACSIMILES: A four-letter word for truth with the final letter removed (abridged) followed by a nine-letter word for analogies.
13a Perhaps cookbook needs curried delicacy? … nope! (12)
ENCYCLOPEDIA: An anagram (curried) of DELICACY NOPE.
16a Demands stern requiem mistakenly (12)
REQUIREMENTS: An anagram (mistakenly) of STERN REQUIEM.
20a Modern society tolerates street vendors (4-6)
NEWS-STANDS: A three-letter word meaning new followed by the abbreviation for society and a six-letter word meaning tolerates.
21a Cheese starters in all breakfast rooms in Europe? (4)
BRIE: The initial letter (starters in all) of the final four words of the clue.
22a Pricey fare of transport around A6 (6)
CAVIAR: A three-letter word for a form of transport around the A and the Roman numerals for 6.
23a Heartlessly and abruptly criticised Welsh meal (4,4)
LAMB STEW: A nine-letter word meaning criticized with the middle letter removed (heartlessly) and then the final letter removed (abruptly) followed by the abbreviation for Welsh.
24a Any use getting worried or agitated? (6)
UNEASY: An anagram (getting worried) of ANY USE.
25a Old car’s not starting and infuriates (6)
ANGERS: A seven-letter word meaning old car’s with the initial letter removed (not starting). Try to avoid repeating wordplay indicators. Starters was used in 21a.
Down
1d Ageing mother of code-breaker … (8)
MATURING: A two-letter word meaning mother followed by the surname of the Bletchley Park codebreaker.
2d … dug up material (5)
DENIM: A five-letter word meaning dug reversed (up).
3d Strong unending reprimand’s terrible (7)
FEARFUL: The musical abbreviation for strong or loud followed by a six-letter word for a reprimand. The clue was set on a misspelling of the word of the word for a reprimand, which end with only one letter L. The unending is therefore not required.
5d Exalted from Heaven or Hell (7)
DEIFIED: A palindromic word (from heaven – above – or hell – below) meaning exalted.
6d Spiritless convict conceals naked panic (9)
INANIMATE: A six-letter word for a convict includes the inner letters (naked) of panic.
7d Complaints of stomach pains (6)
GRIPES: Double definition.
9d Remarkable restoration of exotic plane (11)
EXCEPTIONAL: An anagram (restoration) of EXOTIC PLANE.
14d This pudding‘s delivery’s, without hesitation, superior … we hear (9)
YORKSHIRE: A six-letter word for a cricket delivery without the final ER (without hesitation) followed by a homophone (we hear) of higher (superior).
15d Batsmen facing delivery of missiles? (8)
STRIKERS: Double definition.
17d Arab nationals question American sitar arrangement (7)
QATARIS: The single letter abbreviation for question and American followed by an anagram (arrangement) of SITAR. Some editors will not allow a noun to be used as an anagram indicator.
18d Pioneering film maker‘s starter-less meal with Arnie? (7)
EASTMAN: A five-letter word meaning sumptuous with the first letter removed (starter-less) followed by the gender of a person named Arnie. Another clue where start has been used as an initial letter indicator.
19d Helluva Jedward comeback’s eclipsing strange feeling (4,2)
DEJA VU: The answer is hidden (eclipsing) and reversed (comeback) in the first two words of the clue. I think that eclipsing works here because the clue reads as comeback is eclipsing. However, I wonder whether this leave comeback as being rather inelegant in the cryptic reading of the clue.
21d No harm in bastille’s tack (5)
BASTE: Remove (no) a three-letter word meaning harm from the bastille in the clue.
Thanks Mjölnir, a very enjoyable end to my weekend of cruciverbalism. No head scratching on this one!
Smiles for 22a, 25a, 7d, and 21d.
More like this please. Thanks again and thanks in advance to Prolixic.
Thanks Senf. Pleased to see you enjoyed it.
Really enjoyed that one. Thought we were going to find a pangram but seem to one letter short.
Thanks Mjolnir.
Thanks 2Kiwis. Glad you enjoyed it. It was going to be a pangram but my focus was on making this an approachable crossword which led me to change my mind about a couple of clues, which in turn caused the z to disappear.
Welcome back to Rookie Corner, Mjölnir. There was a lot to like here and it was good to see many of your inventive ideas.
I think you now need to concentrate on polishing up the final article, particularly working on smoother surfaces. I am not keen on the ellipses in 13a & 14d (although those in 1d & 2d are fine), and for me there were far too many instances of the use of ‘s.
A handful of minor comments:
13a – the definition seems a bit dodgy to me.
5d – I am not sure about the validity of “Heaven or Hell” to indicate a palindrome. Perhaps a ? might help to indicate the whimsicality.
18d – Presumably using “Arnie?” to indicate “man” is a “definition by example” of my bugbear of having a vague person’s name as part of the wordplay, so this gets a 👎 from me.
19d – I am not sure that “eclipsing” quite works as a containment indicator.
Well done and thank you, Mjölnir. Please keep them coming. Thanks too in advance to Prolixic.
re 13a lots of cookery books include the solution in their titles. There are two on my bookshelf for a start
Also, I prefer the traditional spelling encyclopAedia. What’s happened to that A – anything to do with our friends across the pond?
The traditional spelling like ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ uses æ which is a diphthong and is unrepresentable in the crossword grid (as far as I am aware). So the version with ae seems to be a variant in itself and probably isn’t pronounced by most people the same way as the diphthong. All three main dictionaries now prefer the use of just the e, I imagine because that’s how we pronounce it nowadays.
RD, 5d. I agree that a ? is a good idea. But, in a down clue, isn’t “from Heaven or Hell” meaning “from above or below” a reasonable palindrome indicator? The “from” bit is crucial.
Thanks RD.
On 13a, the SOED defines encyclopedia or encyclopaedia as: “2. A book or set of books containing extensive information on all branches of knowledge, or on one particular subject, usu. arranged alphabetically”. This seems to fit cookery books and as CS says, lots describe themselves as such.
On 5d, as Jose says, this is a down clue, so I thought viewing from above or below would be acceptable.
On 18d, I understood your bugbear to be guessing a person’s name from a vague indicator such as man or woman. Whereas this is the other way around; you are given the name as an example of something with far fewer possibilities.
On 19d, I searched BD to check and eclipsing has been used as a containment indicator before. See Toughie 2742 at 14d and DT 29395 at 28a for examples.
Thanks for your responses, Mjölnir which all make sense. However, my specific concern about eclipsing is not its meaning per se, but the positioning of it in this clue after the fodder (and not before as per your two BD examples).
Very well done on being so thorough! This is a great attribute for a budding setter.
Thanks RD. Your comments are always interesting. I wonder if there is a subtle difference between a hidden word indicator and a containment indicator. My instinct was that eclipsing means, in a sense, hiding (which is confirmed by the BRB). If that is fair, the clue is saying that the helluva Jedward comeback is hiding the answer. Whereas a container clue might follow the format [x] [eclipses] [y] to say [x] covers [y].
An enjoyable puzzle (and almost a pangram) – thanks to Mjölnir.
The enumeration in 12a is incorrect and I’m not sure about the ‘unending’ in 3d.
I ticked 20a, 22a, 23a and 5d.
More like this would be welcome.
G, 3d. My theory is that the setter has used the misspelling “earfull”, requiring something to eliminate the “extraneous” final L. So, the clue would be fine without “unending”. I could be wrong …
I wondered whether the ‘unending’ was meant to describe the reprimand (which the ODE describes as ‘prolonged and angry’).
Yes, that could well be right. I’ve seen the definition: a lengthy/severe rebuke.
Thanks Gazza. Pleased to see that you enjoyed it. For some unknown reason I started putting the clue number in the enumeration, and while I caught a couple, 12a slipped through the net. Unending isn’t necessary. Jose is right – I had misspelled earful. I wrote my explanations in Word and I would have expected the incorrect spelling to be indicated as wrong, but I now know that if I type a word in capitals Word doesn’t check the spelling. Apologies to all for the mistakes.
Thank you Mjölnir, really enjoyed solving your puzzle over breakfast but a tad worried we had one wrong as we expected a pangram. New meaning for ‘tack’ for us in 21d. Several favourites but will settle on 22a, 1a, 25d and some lovely anagrams. More like this, please. Thanks in advance to Prolixic.
Thanks Hilton. Pleased to see that you enjoyed it.
An enjoyable accompaniment to breakfast, thank you Mjolnir
Thanks in advance to Prolixic
Thanks CrypticSue. Pleased to see you enjoyed it. I tried to make it 100% back pager level. That seems to have worked, although not sure which day I landed on!
Welcome back, Mjolnir. It was good to see that you’ve taken on board the comments regarding difficulty levels, now it’s a case of improving surface reads as RD said. 14d could certainly have done with a bit more thought and perhaps a slight change of wording in either that one or 15d so that ‘deliver’ doesn’t feature in consecutive clues.
Top clues for me were 1,20,22&25a.
Thank you for an enjoyable solve.
Thanks Jane. 14d was a revision to remove an anagram: “County’s sculpture of risky hero (9)”. Perhaps I should have left it as it was.
Thanks for the puzzle Mjolnir, most enjoyable. Favourites were 1a, 10a, 25a and 2d – with 10a in particular being excellent.
Possibly a personal taste thing, but I’m not keen on the very long anagrams, so having 2 of them in a row (13a and 16a) wasn’t great for me.
Thanks again, and in advance to Prolixic.
Thanks Duncan. Pleased you enjoyed it (apart from two of the anagrams being together).
Many thanks for a very good puzzle, Mjolnir. There are two I simply cannot parse and for which elucidation I’m particularly looking forward to Prolixic’s review! I loved 5d, very original indeed, with others challenging for the podium including 1a, 4a, 22a, 1d (full chuckle there) and 14d. Plenty of ticks elsewhere, too.
Yes, a few rough edges – unnecessary ellipses, enumeration, a couple of odd surfaces, minor but needless repetition – but what an enjoyable crossword and I do look forward to your next one.
Many thanks, and also of course to Prolixic
Thanks Mustafa. Pleased to see you enjoyed it. Hopefully the rough edges will be smoothed off in the next one.
Welcome back, Mjolnir.
It’s great to see your improvement with each puzzle; like ALP last week, this was definitely your best submission to date in my opinion, so congratulations on that. I think ambition got the better of good sense with 14d, it seemed an over-engineered clue to me, and “starter” was repeated as a first-letter deletion indicator. Like others, I think “unending” in 3d is superfluous and I’m not a fan of nounal anagram indicators stuck at the end of the fodder, like “arrangement” in 17d. Good clue as it is, I still think that 3d would benefit from a question mark at the end. My top clue from the many I’ve ticked is 6d.
Well done again, Mjolnir, and thanks for a very enjoyable puzzle. Keep it up!
Thanks Silvanus. Pleased to see I’m going in the right direction. On the question mark, did you mean 3d? The BRB’s third entry for the 3d adjective is ‘terrible’.
Sorry, I meant 5d for the question mark, not 3d. Mea culpa.
Thank you, Mjölnir. That was very enjoyable.
Thanks Steve. Great to hear that you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the review Prolixic. Points noted.
Many thanks for the review, Prolixic, always appreciated.