A Puzzle by thepoisonedgift
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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 superb debut by Thepoisonedgift. Not much to comment on here and a very low score on the commentometer of 1.5/30 or 5%.
Across
1a Suffering decline, student’s expelled (7)
ANGUISH: An eight-letter word meaning decline without (expelled) the abbreviation for student or learner.
5a Books describing discrimination by copper for Paddington when he was in Peru? (4,3)
BEAR CUB: The abbreviation for book twice (books in the plural) includes (describing) a three-letter word for the ability to discriminate musical notes and the chemical symbol for copper.
9a Come clean work clothing with navy uniform (3,2)
OWN UP: A two-letter abbreviation for work includes (clothing) the abbreviations for with, navy and uniform.
10a Change law? No, let’s filibuster! (9)
STONEWALL: An anagram (change) of LAW NO LETS.
11a Deliver by road, engaged in selling Mexican food (5,5)
SALSA VERDE: A four-letter word for deliver or rescue and the abbreviation for road inside (engaged in) a four-letter word meaning selling. I think that food works as the solution is a dip that you eat with other food. Selling and sale are synonymous. The sale/selling of indulgences was opposed by Luther.
12a Live next to wife in retirement complex (3)
WEB: A two-letter word meaning live and the abbreviation for wife reversed (in retirement). I don’t think that web and complex are synonymous
14a Doctor lays out claim in a bad way (12)
CALAMITOUSLY: An anagram (doctor) of LAYS OUT CLAIM.
18a Wordsworth, maybe as writer close to perfect, delayed incorporating waste material? (4,8)
POET LAUREATE: A three-letter name of an American writer followed by the last letter (close to) of perfect and a four-letter word meaning delayed that includes (incorporating) a four-letter word for urine (waste material).
21a Skirt from Primark (3)
RIM: The answer is hidden (from) in the last word of the clue.
22a American GP trained to become advocate (10)
CAMPAIGNER: An anagram (trained) of AMERICAN GP.
25a Playing next, so held back energy for bull’s-eye! (2-3-4)
ON-THE-NOSE: A two-letter word meaning playing followed by a four-letter word meaning next, a reversal (held back) of the SO from the clue and the abbreviation for energy.
26a In short, I had shown the way, getting wasted (5)
IDLED: A contraction (in short) of I had followed by a three-letter word meaning shown the way.
27a Finally, tourists arrive at Greek island shroud (7)
SECRETE: The last letters (finally) of tourists arrive followed by a five-letter Greek island. I think that at can indicate the position of something. If I am at the bar, I am by the bar.
28a Strips in study on topless blokes (7)
DENUDES: A three-letter word for a study followed by a five-letter word for blokes with the first letter removed (topless). Some editors require A on B to result in A following B in the wordplay for an across clue. However, practice differs.
Down
1d Please wake up (6)
AROUSE: Double definition.
2d Criminal outfit gutted library in a clumsy manner (6)
GANGLY: A four-letter word for a criminal outfit followed by the outer letters (gutted) of library.
3d Ruthless rascal upset gangster with wire (10)
IMPLACABLE: A three-letter word for a rascal followed by a reversal (upset) of the name of Mr Capone (gangster) and a five-letter word for a wire.
4d There’s no hint of composure in pure urgency (5)
HASTE: A six-letter word meaning pure without the letter C (no hint of composure).
5d Bombardment‘s heading to Belarus, by the way? (9)
BROADSIDE: The first letter (heading to) of Belarus followed by an eight-letter word meaning the edge of a street (by the way).
6d Cheap excursion’s high point (4)
APEX: The answer is hidden (‘s = has) in the first two words of the clue.
7d Clubs with revolting bar sound to the side (8)
CRABWISE: The abbreviation for clubs followed by a reversal (revolting) of the BAR from the clue and a four letter word meaning sound.
8d Bottle broken by occasionally boozy workers at Wimbledon (4,4)
BALL BOYS: A five-letter word meaning bottle or courage includes (broken by) the odd letters (occasionally) of boozy.
13d Gift expressing Frenchman’s drunk remorse (10)
CONTRITION: A 12-letter word for a gift without the past-perfect form the French verb to drink. Whilst knowledge of common French words is fair game, I think that requiring knowledge of the past tense of French verbs is a step too far.
15d Better than America, Cuba’s organised with vote (1,3,5)
A CUT ABOVE: The single letter abbreviation for America followed by an anagram (organized) of CUBA VOTE.
16d Bogus odds: angry fellow’s ripped off (8)
SPURIOUS: The abbreviation for starting price (odds) followed by an eight-letter word meaning angry without (ripped off) the abbreviation for fellow.
17d Dissident captivating millions is removed from the air? (8)
HERMETIC: A seven-letter word for a dissident includes (captivating) the abbreviation for millions. I think the definition here is more whimsical in that it is sealed away from the outside air.
19d Naked relative with bottom out these days (6)
UNCLAD: A five-letter word for a male relative without the last letter (with bottom out) followed by the abbreviation for anno domini (these days).
20d Lots of lions terrified spider (6)
PRIDES: An anagram (terrified) of SPIDER. I don’t think that terrified works as an anagram indicator.
23d Argue Usher’s ahead of Prince? Quite the opposite! (5)
PLEAD: A four-letter word meaning to usher after (ahead … quite the opposite) the abbreviation for prince.
24d Old English writer‘s Globe with a hole for the audience? (4)
BEDE: A homophone (for the audience) of BEAD (globe with a hole).
Welcome to Rookie Corner tpg. Something of a curate’s egg for me with some clue and answer synonyms not ‘matching up’ 100% but overall quite enjoyable.
Smiles for 12a, 2d, and 5d.
Thanks and thanks in advance to Prolixic.
Many thanks for solving, Senf. Occasionally stretchy definitions do seem to plague me somewhat, but that is what I’m hoping to tidy up with feedback here, so I’d be interested to know which clues didn’t quite hit the spot. But glad you enjoyed this overall!
We found this a competently put together high quality puzzle that had us working pretty hard in a few places. Quite a few ticks on our sheets and we’ll opt for 18a as our top pick.
Thanks thepoisonedgift. (We’d love to know where the name came from. Guess it’s an anagram.)
Thank you both for solving! “thepoisonedgift” refers to my favourite “false friend” from my time learning German: “das Gift” = “poison”. This juxtaposition is also useful for describing clues within my puzzles: some are gifts, and some are poison, and it’s always interesting to see which side of the fence solvers think they fall on!
Welcome to Rookie Corner, thepoisonedgift, with an assured debut that was a pleasure to solve. Your clueing was accurate and the surfaces were generally smooth, with the possible exception of 9a. I feel certain that this was not your first ever cryptic puzzle.
Very unusually for me with a RC puzzle, I had only one scribble on my page and even that is just nit-picking – 11a is a food ingredient rather than “food”.
Well done and thank you. I don’t think the commentometer will be unduly troubled and I look forward to your next submission.
Many thanks, Rabbit Dave. You’re correct that this was not my first cryptic – I post fairly regularly on MyCrossword, although those puzzles are typically themed, experimental, or with some overarching nina.
Fair point re 11a: I tried to get away with just “food” for the sake of the surface, since “delivering Mexican food” is more believable that just “delivering Mexican food condiment”, but I accept it’s not entirely accurate.
Welcome to the blog, thepoisonedgift.
A really enjoyable puzzle which wouldn’t have been out of place on the back page of the Telegraph – welcome and many thanks to thepoisonedgift.
I’m not sure about ‘terrified’ as an anagram indicator.
I have lots of ticks on my printout including (but not restricted to) 12a, 25a, 5d and 8d.
More like this would be very welcome.
Thanks, Gazza! On reflection I think you are right about 20d’s “terrified” – I thought it was in Chambers, but having checked again it’s not there, and I’m sure there are many alternatives I could have chosen to maintain the surface reading.
Lovely, as expected. Ticks all over the shop but I especially liked 13d, 16d and 17d. Very smart. I suspect Prolixic may question that “on” order in 28a but it’s not a hard and fast rule. And 6d, though gentle and fun, does seem to be missing an indicator, no? But it really didn’t bother me. Sharp as a tack and thoroughly enjoyable. Is this really your first RC? Twas high time you joined the party! Ta lots to you and, in advance, to Prolixic.
In 6d the indicator is ‘s as “has”.
Oh, fair do’s! What do I know?!
Thanks for the kind words, ALP! I’ve finally made the leap over here and it’s good to see the positive feedback so far. 17d is probably my personal favourite too, for the definition.
I’ve seen enough clues in other puzzles using “on” as such a positional indicator, although I bow to the wisdom of Prolixic and others if it’s something I should avoid in the future.
It’s great to see you over here. What took you so long? As you say, you often see this use of “on” in an across so Prolixic may well say nothing. He’s already ticked me off for squinting at your poss S, so maybe he’s mellowing! Cracking debut.
I think the convention with “on” in an across clue is to mean “added on” to the end. 28a uses it to add something to the beginning of the answer – that may be an issue. But I’m sure I’ve seen it used both ways before.
There is an interesting discussion about the use of ‘on’ in comment 21, DT 30609.
Thanks for the useful link, Mark. I do have more of a Guardian background so maybe that explains why I thought it acceptable in this clue. Good to see some discussion from more eminent authorities.
Great start to our Monday morning, thank you. Really enjoyed solving this puzzzle. More like this, please, thepoisonedgift. Lots to enjoy so hard to pick a favourite but will go for14a. Thanks in advance to Prolixic
Many thanks, Hilton. I’ll endeavour to repeat this standard in the future!
Welcome to Rookie Corner, TPG.
The journey from MyCrossword to here is quite a well-travelled path, several setters have preceded you. I think it is an excellent website and provides great opportunities, but I don’t think you will get the same level of critical feedback and analysis there that you do here.
I thought this was a great debut, some superb anagrams, surfaces mostly very smooth indeed and very few technical faults. I do think that 13d is probably unfair on non-French speakers, i.e. removing the past participle of a French verb, and I think 8d should have at least a question mark, as Wimbledon is just an example of where one finds the solution. “At” as a link word in 27a jarred a little for me, and I also wasn’t comfortable with “terrified” as an anagram indicator. Maybe “disturbed” would have been a better choice?
Overall, I think you got the level of difficulty pretty much spot-on and I suspect a very decent Commentometer score awaits you. Congratulations and thanks for the entertaining puzzle. I look forward to your next!
Thanks for the kind words, silvanus! “Disturbed” is a very good suggestion, and I wish I’d gone with that now. 13d is tricky for non-French speakers – I suspect for some solvers it might be one of those (less satisfying) clues where the solution can be deduced from crossers and the cryptic wordplay thus backwardly induced. I’ll stick to my guns re 8d and 27a for now, but interested if others agree!
Thanks for the puzzle thepoisonedgift, very nice. Lots of ticks all over, but my favourites were probably 26a, 27a, 2d and 5d.
There were a few places where the synonyms didn’t quite work for me – ear/discrimination and web/complex for example. Chambers thesaurus does list them as synonyms, but I’m not sure I can make sentence where you can switch them without changing anything else.
Thanks again, and in advance to Prolixic.
Thanks Duncan, this is useful feedback. Maybe these are the same stretchy synonyms that Senf mentioned in his earlier comment?
Excellent – a really accomplished puzzle. The best RC debut I’ve seen for a good while. I’m sure P will find a few minor technical issues but my guess is that it will score less than 10% on the Commentometer – possibly less than 5%! More like this, please.
Thanks for the fulsome praise, Jose!
I really enjoyed this great ‘debut’ puzzle, thank you so much TPG. Good surfaces, some cracking anagrams (not too many, either!) and clever clueing. Only a couple where I still need to see the explanation of the parsing (inc 13d), though I had a full and correct grid. Many ticks all over the place for me, highlights being 14a, 18a, 8d (although as Silvanus notes, it needs a ‘?’), 6d, 16d & 19d (broad smile!).
My own very few ? marks were as follows:
11a – great surface, but was not convinced selling = sale
17d – hermetic does not mean “removed from the air” to me, and I see in the BRB it is described as “air tight”, or completely sealed, or perfectly closed. The air on one side is not necessarily removed.
23d – although this would be fine in an across clue, I was not certain that “ahead of” works when it is in a down clue
That aside thank you again for a super puzzle and I look forward to your next submission! Thanks in advance also to Prolixic
Thanks for the detailed feedback, Mustafa: I think you may have had the solving experience I just described in my reply to silvanus on 13d…
11a – I think that “the selling of a product” is synonymous with “the sale of a product” wrt the act, rather than the specific moment, of transaction?
17d and 23d – noted!
Many thanks for the review, Prolixic, I’m sure TPG will be delighted with his score. Hopefully, he’ll bring us more puzzles but preferably without the requirement for solvers to have detailed knowledge of French past participles!
‘Tis certainly better than expected, Jane. Big thanks to Prolixic for his review. As for 13d: je suis désolé!
In fairness, I still got the required answer, but I suppose it counts as a ‘bung in’ given that I couldn’t parse the ‘bu’ element!
Many thanks for the useful review and generous summary, Prolixic. I’ll try and park the French past participles, as well as double-check my anagram indicators, in any future submissions!