A Puzzle by Zebedee
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
Zebedee returns with his second entertaining puzzle so thanks to him.
Across
7a Rotten grub served in soup causing further division
SUBGROUP: GRUB* (rotten) inserted into soup from the clue
9a Uncovered writer absorbed in appropriate reference book (6)
OPENED: The usual writing implement inserted into an abbreviated well-known dictionary
10a Magnates regularly abandoned workers (4)
ANTS: Alt letters of mAgNeTeS. Nice surface read
11a Doctor lay with old priest in novel style (10)
EPISTOLARY: LAY O PRIEST* (doctor)
12a Nitpick and in Senegal reprimand (6)
CARPET: Nitpick/complain and the French word for and as indicated by Senegal
14a Naturally concerned with main perhaps (2,6)
OF COURSE: Concerned with/connected to plus what main is an example of in the sense of a meal
15a Anticipate astronomy centre getting percentage before end of Stephen Hawking (13)
EXPECTORATION: Anticipate/foresee plus astrOnomy plus percentage/share plus final letter of Stephen. I prefer centre of astronomy
17a Card on soft wood hard to manage (4,4)
DEAL WITH: Card in the sense of humorous person following a soft wood plus abbreviation for Hard
19a Greek island where going naked is legitimate (6)
KOSHER: A Greek island plus wHEREe. Very nice
21a Charm filthy lunatic dismissing female
exhibiting regular stress (10)
RHYTHMICAL: CHARM (f)ILTHY* (lunatic)
22a Keep up appearances protecting immature creature (4)
PUPA: Hidden (protecting)
23a Order exhausted Englishwoman to marry (6)
ENJOIN: EnglishwomaN plus (to) marry/connect
24a Significant event when both wings of Leninism take patriarch's vessel (8)
LANDMARK: L AND M plus a biblical vessel. Can "take" be a juxtaposition indicator? Taking would be better.
Down
1d Country sanguine about suppressing outliers (6)
GUINEA: Hidden (suppressing outliers)
2d Starts to assist girls enduring severe periods (4)
AGES: Acrostic (starts to)
3d Maid to provide setter with a short bow (8)
DOMESTIC: A synonym of (to) provide, a first person pronoun plus a bow as a noun. Both to and a seem redundant here and I think bow/stick is a bit of a stretch.
4d Jerk stalking American writer of verse (6)
POETIC: Jerk/sudden movement following American writer Edgar Allan
5d Suspicions that drug is concealed by shutters (10)
JEALOUSIES: Insert E (is concealed by) into the plural of a window or blind made of parallel, adjustable slats (louvers) of glass, wood, or acrylic.
6d Having once more awakened, bottom is being regularly exposed (8)
REARISEN: Bottom/behind plus IS from the clue plus bEiNg (regularly exposed)
8d Without complaining I call hip-hop so discordant (13)
PHILOSOPHICAL: I CALL HIP-HOP SO* (discordant)
13d Residents apply pressure to replace Catholic in Congress (10)
POPULATION: Congress as in relations with the abbreviation for Pressure replacing that of Catholic
15d The panel corrupted one of big five (8)
ELEPHANT: THE PANEL* (corrupted). The big five is a term coined by the despicable creeps who hunt these (and other) magnificent beasts.
16d In the way of securing king, cord is basic (8)
ALKALINE: A borrowed French term meaning “in the way of” around an abbreviated King plus cord/string etc
18d Zebedee absorbing article by Sartre supporting core of pessimists' proof (6)
IMMUNE: First person pronoun (we had it in 3d) absorbing a French article (by Sartre) below pessIMists.
20d Member with newspaper getting in before Dominion (6)
EMPIRE: A political member with one of the usual newspapers inserted into a synonym of before
22d Large cat lifted up old lady (4)
PUMA: Up rev. plus informal old lady
Very enjoyable and perfectly pitched for the NTSPP slot – thanks to Zebedee.
My ticks went to 15a, 19a, 24a and 13d.
Tricky in places and very enjoyable
Thanks to Zebedee and, in advance, to StephenL
Caffeine required! Thanks Zebedee for an enjoyable (my) Saturday morning challenge.
Smiles for 9a, 15a, 19a, 24a, 6d, and 13d.
Thanks again and thanks in advance to Stephen.
I thought this was excellent. Nicely challenging and a pleasure to solve. I didn’t know the “shutters” in 5d but the BRB came to my rescue.
Just a couple of minor things I am not sure about:
– If I am parsing 3d correctly, this requires “stick” to be synonymous with “bow”, which I think is a bit of a stretch.
– I’m not convinced that “proof” in 18d is quite synonymous with the answer. “Proof against” = “immune from” but it doesn’t really work without the prepositions.
I had a lot of ticks, and I can’t argue with Gazza’s choices are top picks.
Many thanks to Zebedee. Please keep them coming.
Thanks for the comments. To the query about “stick” and “bow” I suppose my response would be “fiddlesticks”! (‘Bow’ is meaning 9 of ‘stick’ in my Chambers). I agree it’s a rather tough one.
Thank you Zebedee, although we did need some assistance to complete. We look forward to StephenL’s review tomorrow.
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Thanks for all the positive and helpful comments, and to Stephen for the critique and suggestions.
Totally flummoxed by 5dn and I couldn’t properly parse 3dn but otherwise most enjoyable. Favourites were 11ac, 21ac and 16dn. Thanks, Zebedee and Stephen.
Sorry to be a week late, but a busy and very enjoyable family weekend took priority!
I thought this was a nice but quite tricky crossword from Zebedee; with my LOI, 5d, requiring some e-assistance to get me to the finish line. Like the ‘shutters’ in 5d, the ‘novel style’ in 11a was also new to me but I was able to work this out from the crossers and wordplay. 13d raised a smile, but my podium places went to three consecutive Across clues, 15, 17 & 19.
My thanks to Zebedee and to StephenL.