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.
Welcome back to Mjölnir. This was an excellent crossword. There were a few technical comments on the construction of the clues. The biggest issue is the balance of general knowledge. It is always tricky gauging what the solver is expected to know. I think in a couple of cases, the references were possible a little too obscure. The commentometer reads as 3/28 or 10.71%
Across
1a Cheekier fringes of Estudiantes supporters (10)
BRASSIERES: An eight-letter word meaning cheekier followed by the outer letters (fringes) of Estudiants.
6a Television Academy leaders bore senior celebrity (4)
STAR: The initial letters (leaders) of Television Academy inside (bore) the abbreviation for senior. Insertion indicators are tricky blighters when considering the cryptic grammar of a clue. Grammatically, you need A bores B or A boring B for the grammar to work. You can have A and B bore C. The question then is whether Television Academy leaders gives a single wordplay unit TA that bores the abbreviation for senior or if it gives T and A that bore… Far easier to use boring that works either way.
9a Island‘s angry chief law officer has a stigma (10)
MADAGASCAR: A three-letter word meaning angry followed by the abbreviation for Attorney General, the A from the clue and a four-letter word for a stigma.
10a Predator heads for olive rockfish conservation area (4)
ORCA: The first letters (heads for) of the last four words of the clue.
12a Eliza Doolittle’s delightful, although not initially learning too much (6)
OVERLY: The word used by Eliza Doolittle for some wonderful without the letter L (initially learning).
13a Heartless Beatles parody band touring Hungary and Sweden (8)
RUTHLESS: The name of the 1970’s Beatle’s parody band formed by Eric Idle and Neil Innes around (touring) the IVR code for Hungary and followed by the IVR code for Sweden. Not sure how well known a somewhat niche parody band is. I knew of them via the Innes Book of Records from the 1970, but solvers may have struggled with this.
15a Magic words written in slang by leaderless peoples (12)
INCANTATIONS: The IN from the clue followed by a four-letter word for slang and a seven-letter word for peoples without the initial letter (leaderless)
18a Old Scot banker reserves accounts for children? (7,5)
PICTURE BOOKS: A four-letter word for an ancient group of Scots followed by a three-letter name of a river (banker) and a five-letter word meaning reserves.
21a Southern women’s cricket commentator shows off (8)
SWAGGERS: The abbreviations for southern and women’s followed by the affectionate name for the cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew.
22a Face mean pilsner lager barely after six (6)
VISAGE: The middle letter (mean) of pilsner and the inner letters (barely) of lager all after the Roman numerals for six. I don’t think that mean works as a middle letter indicator. Even with the definition of mean as “the middle state or position”, if would need to be “mean of …”
24a This group’s retaining its line-up after making a comeback (4)
ABBA: A music group whose name is a palindrome.
25a Harry has deli bun and cheese (6,4)
DANISH BLUE: An anagram (Harry) of HAS DELI BUN.
26a Greencore veggie sandwiches on the counter, always (4)
EVER: The answer is hidden and reversed (sandwiches on the counter) in the first two words of the clue.
27a Prepare skinned fish with neat gin (5,5)
WHITE SATIN: An anagram (prepare) of IS (skinned fish) WITH NEAT. I think that to use gin to indicate a brand name that has not been used for the last 22 years is a little unfair.
Down
1d Two graduates discovered moor grass (6)
BAMBOO: The abbreviations for bachelor of arts and bachelor of medicine followed by the inner letters (discovered) of moor.
2d Cycle seat disorientates (6)
ADDLES: Move the S from the word for a cycle seat to the end (cycles).
3d A handy form of communication? (4,8)
SIGN LANGUAGE: Cryptic definition of a form of communication with deaf people.
4d Comfort obtained from drugs delivered via mouth (4)
EASE: A homophone (delivered via the mouth) Es (drugs)
5d Appraisal of tune played with a viola (10)
EVALUATION: An anagram (played) of TUNE VIOLA.
7d Naval weapons delivered from central store by paddle boats a league apart (8)
TORPEDOS: The middle letters (central) of store followed by a seven-letter word for paddle boat without (apart) the A from the clue and the abbreviation for league.
8d Take another look at fools in sleeveless dress (8)
REASSESS: A five-letter word for fools in the middle letters (sleeveless) of dress.
11d Two men on board with Reverend Spooner’s evening wines (5,7)
WHITE KNIGHTS: A Spoonerism of Night (evening) Whites (wines).
14d Strategy for work of ornate cheaper art (6,4)
CAREER PATH: An anagram of CHEAPER ART.
16d Defector gets revolutionary tea – so apt (8)
APOSTATE: An anagram (revolutionary) of TEA SO APT. I am not keen on definition gets wordplay with gets as the link word. The wordplay can get you to the definition, but the definition comes from the wordplay.
17d Second century mob’s pastime (8)
SCRABBLE: The abbreviations for second and century followed by a six-letter word for a mob. I think that the link from a pastime to a specific board game is a little too tenuous to make it a good definition.
19d Village using little prosciutto? (6)
HAMLET: Punning definition of a small amount of ham.
20d Put down made me annoyed, just a bit! (6)
DEMEAN: The answer is hidden (just a bit) in the third to fifth words of the clue. As noted, you need put-down a noun in the surface reading but the solution requires the verbal form that omits the hyphen.
23d Roll with Brahms’s outspoken drunk partner (4)
LIST: A homophone of Liszt (Brahms’s drunken partner).
A thoroughly enjoyable, competently put together puzzle that was a real pleasure to solve There were a few bits of GK that we had to check, 13a, 21a and 27a but the wordplay certainly pointed us in the right direction.
Lots of ticks on our pages but we’ll settle on 12a as favourite.
Thanks Mjolnir.
Many thanks 2Kiwis. That’s really great to read.
Perfection!
I loved this from start to finish. I feel promotion beckons. Very well done indeed, Mjölnir.
Fantastic! Many thanks RD.
A very good puzzle, thank you Mjölnir, even though I’ve been left with a nice ear worm after completing Moody Blues corner!
Thanks in advance to Prolixic
Thanks CS, that’s very nice to hear. Sorry about the ear worm!
I enjoyed this a lot – many thanks to Mjölnir.
I thought that ‘heartless’ in 13a contained a bit too much of the answer.
I liked 18a, 7d and 19d with my favourite being 12a.
Thanks Gazza. Pleased you enjoyed it.
Welcome back, Mjolnir.
Many excellent clues to enjoy, your best puzzle yet I feel.
“Bore” in 6a ideally needs to be “boring” to avoid any cryptic grammar issues and I’m not really comfortable with “mean” and “central” as middle-letter indicators before the words concerned. Be careful with phrases like “put down” in 20d – as a noun it is hyphenated but as a verb it is not. The solution here is a verb, but the sense of the clue as written is as a noun.
My podium consists of 12a, 3d and 5d. Very well done and congratulations on a very proficient puzzle.
Thanks Silvanus. Points noted. On reflection, I suppose bore requires into, which as you say can be avoided by using boring. Mean as in intermediate and central are adjectives, and I had thought that adjectives can precede the word concerned. I have always misspelled the noun as “put down”, so I had better double check all spellings in future.
Thanks for the puzzle Mjolnir, definitely your best yet.
Favourites were 7d, 11d and 17d.
Having the same word in two intersecting answers (27a, 11d) is a bit unfortunate though, especially if you end up solving them back-to-back like I did.
Thanks in advance to Prolixic.
Thanks Duncan. Pleased to see that the trend is upwards.
I really enjoyed this puzzle, thank you Mjölnir. A good range of different clue types, many good surfaces, lots of different indicators, and overall a very approachable puzzle.
– It felt there were a few rather niche or dated bits of GK – 12a, 13a, 21a, 27a (ceased to exist decades ago), and the surface read of 26a makes little sense to me.
13a – have I missed something glaring in the parsing? The parody band is The Rutles (which has only one T), but the only way I could make this work was to RUTt(H)LES S, as though it had two Ts.
22a – Again, unless I’ve failed to parse this one, I’m unconvinced you can use mean to indicate the ‘s’ in pilsner. The median average is the one in the middle, the middle value. The mean is the sum total divided by how many there are in the group. Pilsner has a median average, and it could but does not have a modal average, but it cannot have a mean average.
Otherwise a cracking puzzle and a page littered with ticks – 15a, 11d & 17d on my podium.
Thank you once again, and also in advance to Prolixic
I think Heartless is the definition in 13a, not an instruction to remove the middle letter, then it all works fine.
Thank you Duncan, that’s evidently it & I missed the blindingly obvious, much as I feared, as I over-complicated matters!
Thanks Mustafa. On the GK, I would have thought the My Fair Lady with Audrey Hepburn would be a classic rather than dated. The Rutles were quite famous and active until 2019. Jonathan Agnew has only just stepped down as the BBC’s cricket correspondent and has signed a four year contract to commentate on Test Match Special, while many people still recall him and Johnners corpsing in his first year of commentating. 27a was suggested by the crossword program, and I didn’t question it, but perhaps it shouldn’t suggest it. Greencore, according to Wikipedia, is a major supplier to British and Irish supermarkets, and Greencore is the largest sandwich manufacturer in the world. So their veggie sandwiches are on supermarket’s counters?
According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary mean means “Occupying a middle or an intermediate place in sequential order or spatial position”.
The terms niche and/or dated depend on the setter’s and solver’s respective ages and interests as much as anything, Mjölnir.
I’d guess this crossword was composed for an audience generally aged 60/70++ (eg the DT / BD audience), in which case My Fair Lady is a classic rather than dated (or even never heard of for most under age 35/40), the Rutles might actually mean something owing to their relatively minor popularity 40+ years ago, and listening to or even being aware of / interested in Test cricket, TMS & specifically a commentator’s nickname, would be likely. A huge number of people have no interest in sport, let alone listening to Test cricket on the radio. I’m not one of them, happily, and while still some way below that age range heard the live original and have a download of the Blowers leg-over clip: it would come close to being in my DID eight.
As for Greencore, ignore Wikipedia and walk up and down your ‘average’ high street on a Saturday morning asking “what does Greencore mean to you?” I suggest of those who hazarded a guess many would confuse it with Glencore and say it was a mining company, while fewer than 1 in 100 could come close to naming it as a FTSE250 company, let alone what it makes and that they might even eat the products! The surface reading only means something if you know they are sandwich makers.
Don’t get me wrong, as I said above I really enjoyed your puzzle and I would reach for your next one very happily. All that really matters, I guess, is making sure you know the target audience for your crosswords, and framing the GK of both clue and answer accordingly.
Welcome back, Mjolnir, a very competent puzzle although I did share Silvanus’ doubts about ‘bore’ and ‘mean’ and didn’t have a clue when it came to the Beatles parody band or the brand of gin. Top clues for me were 18a and 3d despite the latter probably being an old chestnut.
Thank you for a very enjoyable solve.
Thanks Jane. I didn’t find any examples of 3d being used before. Although, might you mean it’s a bit corny? Mind you, I think that’s often the case with puns!
I really liked 3d Mjolnir, I was just meaning that someone must have used it before but am happy to be proven wrong – it certainly made me smile!
Thank you, Mjölnir, a very enjoyable puzzle to solve although we didn’t know the Beatles’ parody band or the gin. Favourites were 1a, 12a and 5d. More like this please. Thanks in advance to Prolixic. Now to try Saturday’s NTSPP.
Many thanks Hilton.
Me too with mean & bore & I also wasn’t familiar with the gin brand. Really enjoyed the puzzle & would go as far as to say it was my pick of the few I’ve completed today – given that 2 of those were Robyn puzzles I’d say that’s high praise.
Many thanks Mjolnir.
Ps nice to be reminded of The Rutles too.
Many thanks Huntsman, that’s music to my ears!
Loved this; thanks to Mjolnir for all the effort that went into producing it. Favourite has to be 11D (part) and 27A; very clever indeed! Thanks for the challenge and an enormous amount of pleasure.
Many thanks deebee, that’s really great to hear.
Many thanks for the review, Prolixic, I’m sure Mjolnir will take your comments on board and act upon them.
Many thanks Prolixic.