A Puzzle by Meles
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
NTSPP regular Meles is in the hot seat this weekend with a very enjoyable puzzle so many thanks to him. I'm sure he'll appreciate any feedback
Across
1a Clubs throwing event for all becoming old (6)
DISCOS: A field event with the letter representing for all changed to that for Old
4a Old-fashioned user confused over question and, separately, answer (6)
SQUARE: Anagram (confused) of user containing abb’ns for Question and Answer separately
9a Island dance of drag act's opener moved to be the finale (4)
HULA: A synonym of drag or pull with the opening letter of act moved to the end of the word. Very nice
10a I error with a cow, running to someone who cares about nature (3-7)
ECO-WARRIOR: Anagram (running) of I ERROR A COW. Without wanting to labour the point a somewhat bizarre surface read
11a Fall back when leader's gone way out (6)
EGRESS: A synonym of fall back minus its first letter (when leaders’s gone)
12a Speaker is overly sentimental, having clipped expression (7)
TWEETER: A synonym of overly sentimental or quaint plus an expression without its last letter (clipped)
13a Feeling one isn't as bothered (9)
SENSATION: Anagram (bothered) of the words following the definition
15a Band bound to copy Oasis at first (4)
HOOP: A synonym of bound (on one leg) with the initial letter of Oasis repeated. Very nice. The partner to 9a?
16a It has rubbish content, give it a miss (4)
SKIP: Double definition
17a With evidence of spider, expert goes to site manager (9)
WEBMASTER: A spider’s means of entrapment and a synonym of expert
21a They might attack additional clauses outside of America (7)
RAIDERS: Some additional clauses contain one of the abbreviations for America
22a A song with less feeling? (6)
NUMBER: Double/cryptic definition
24a Restarting is terrible for someone trying to get a patent (10)
REGISTRANT: Anagram (is terrible) of RESTARTING
25a Bowl over from the wrong end to fans (4)
NUTS: Reverse a synonym of bowl over or shock
26a Selfishly used carrier to conceal food item on the counter (6)
HOGGED: A (bricklayer’s) carrier around a reversal (on the counter) of a staple food item
27a This woman's after a bow? (6)
ARCHER: A curve or crescent plus a third person pronoun. The whole clue serves as wordplay and definition
Down
1d Regularly a dark urge guides addict (7)
DRUGGIE: Alternate letters of a DaRk UrGe GuIdEs. A nice relevant surface read.
2d Special card that gives you freedom (5)
SPACE: An abbreviation for SPecial and a playing card
3d Make a mistake when printing books containing poetry (7)
OVERSET: Some biblical books around some lines of poetry
5d Tremble as there could be eight in the bar? (6)
QUAVER: Double/cryptic definition, the second a musical reference
6d A&E has allowances for processes putting in gas (9)
AERATIONS: A and E from the clue plus some (food say) allowances
7d Part of blouse got ripped, it's drawing attention to me! (3,4)
EGO TRIP: Hidden within a relevant surface read.
8d Contentious cryptic - can solver riot? (13)
CONTROVERSIAL: Anagram (cryptic) of the following three words
14d Pain when eating half of spicy sauce is secretly moving (9)
SPIRITING: A pain (from an insect bite perhaps) contains the first half of a spicy sauce
16d Largely conceal exhausted cough, making horrible noise (7)
SCREECH: A synonym of conceal or shield without its last letter and the outside letters of CougH
18d Gigantic and tremendous building, sadly due to be destroyed (7)
MONSTER: Anagram (building) of TREMENDOUS once the letters that make up DUE (but not in that order, hence “sadly”) have been removed (to be destroyed)
19d They may vote in area where society is forced out by the Spanish (7)
ELECTOR: A synonym of area with an abbreviation for Society removed sits by a Spanish definite article. I have to admit I'd rather see "one may vote" here, it avoids any confusion or ambiguity.
20d Every now and then Merlot streaks seen up kitchen appliance (6)
KETTLE: Alternate letters reversed (seen up) in mErLoT sTrEaKs.
23d He painted a lot around Norway (5)
MUNCH: A lot of many when applied to uncountable nouns placed around the abb'n for Norway. A nice extended definition to finish with.
An enjoyable challenge from Meles with a soupçon of caffeine required to get across the finishing line.
There seems to be a mismatch of plural definition and singular answer in 19d but with the ‘modern’ use of pronouns I am/we are suitably confused.
Smiles for 1a, 27a, 14d, and 23d.
Thanks to Meles and thanks in advance to Stephen L.
This was a perfectly pitched NTSPP – nicely challenging and a lot of fun with excellent clueing and smooth surfaces all the way, except for the surface of 10a which is bizarre in the extreme.
I agree with Senf about 19d, and I can’t quite decide if 15a is very clever or invalid.
My page is littered with ticks – too many to mention.
Many thanks to Meles for the lunchtime entertainment.
RD and Senf, 19d. Can’t “they” be used to refer to single unknown/unspecified person instead of he or she? As in: I only saw the shoplifter from the rear but they definitely ran off down the alley across the road. Most people wouldn’t find that statement “ungrammatical”, would they?
I suppose but we are not amused :-)
There’s no question that it is grammatically correct.
I just wouldn’t have chosen that word unless Meles threw it in to spice things up.
Thanks for the comments RD. 10a must have made sense to me a few months ago but looking now the surface clearly doesn’t work. Apologies for that getting through, hopefully the clue is straightforward enough that people don’t need to linger on it for too long!
A very pleasant lunchtime puzzle set by Meles, perfectly pitched to avoid clashing with the rugby this afternoon! I most enjoyed the simple elegance of 16a, the &lit 27a, the smooth design of 18d and the cleverly apt anagram in 8d. Sometimes when solving a puzzle I parse ‘on the fly’ and fail to properly read the surface, but having read RD’s comment I looked again at 10a and it is indeed bizarre..!
Thanks for the fun, Meles, and in advance to our reviewer.
Well done, Meles, with the possible exception of the error with a cow! I’m not keen on 19d despite the justifications offered for it and am going to be interested to read Stephen’s explanation of 15a but there were plenty of others that I really enjoyed.
Final line-up here includes 13,16&26a plus 23d which made me smile.
Nice to see you back in the NTSPP slot again.
Very enjoyable puzzle – thanks to Meles.
I agree with others that ‘They’ in 19d doesn’t sit quite right – why not ‘One’?
I liked 16a and 26a with my clever co-favourites being in the SE corner: 27a and 23d.
Lovely puzzle. Ticks all over the shop for me also – particularly liked 16d&26a along with many others. Only the10a surface jarred a tad & I’m now swayed by Jose re 19d.
Many thanks Meles
That was fun. A good level of challenge with some great penny-drop moments.
Thanks Meles.
Thanks for that Meles, very entertaining. Ticks all over, but I liked 1a, 25a 23d in particular.
FWIW I think 15a is fine – not a construction I can remember seeing before, but it works for me.
Sorry, that shouldn’t have been a reply… fat fingers on an iPad, and definitely nothing to do with the bottle of wine I’m half way through.
A fun puzzle to while away a wet day on the West Coast … one of about ten coming along.
Favourites 4a, 22a, 5d & 20d — winner 22a
Thanks Meles for the fun
I thought the clue to 10ac was, shall we say, odd but it was 9ac which defeated me. Never heard of that synonym for drag, and it’s not in the BRB (my dead tree 13th ed). All I could think of was that the definition was ‘island’ and no way could I parse either ‘Cuba’ or ‘Jura’.
Apart from that this was mostly straightforward and enjoyable except that 19dn jarred a little as the use of they/them/their as gender-neutral pronouns still does with me – I use the old-fashioned ‘he or she’ etc or else try to avoid using those pronouns altogether.
Thanks, Meles and SL.
Thanks StephenL for the review and everyone who commented, 8d was a little more prophetic than I intended! I don’t have a problem with the singular they and have tended to use it to avoid repetition (one and someone are in other clues here) and unnecessarily gendering the clues. However, I’m clearly on the minority on this so won’t use in the future (at least until I forget 🙂).
9a and 15a do indeed go together, there is a ghost theme (HULA HOOPs, SKIPs, DISCOs etc.).
Thanks again, until next time.
Many thanks for the review, Stephen, and thanks again to Meles for the puzzle.