A Puzzle by Prolixic
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
A nice Saturday lunchtime diversion – not as difficult as some Prolixic crosswords we have solved in the past. This one has a rather nice Nina which even I could see! look at the Across solutions in the grid and see how they go together
Across
7a Deceitfully pass substitute measure (6)
DOUBLE: We start with a quadruple definition clue
8a Typical street along with a road (8)
STANDARD: An abbreviated street, a conjunction meaning along with, A (from the clue) and an abbreviated road
10a Quietly comfort adult leaving force (8)
PRESSURE: The musical abbreviation for quiet and a verb meaning to relieve apprehension or worry without the A (Adult ‘leaving’)
11a Greek publisher's association (5)
GROUP: The abbreviation for Greek and the abbreviation for a publisher in one of our University cities
12a Olympic centre dropped cycling practice (6)
POLICY: Drop the letter in the centre of OLYmPIC and then make an anagram of the remaining letters (cycling)
14a Con's boss pursued by Yard (5)
STUDY: Read carefully (con) – a projecting boss and the abbreviation for Yard
17a Anger about introduction to boy-scout's handbook (5)
BIBLE: A synonym for anger goes about the ‘introduction’ to Boy
19a End of salacious blue bonkbuster? (5)
STORY: The end of salaciouS and a member of a political party whose colour is blue
22a Report of wearied directors (5)
BOARD: A homophone (report) of a synonym for wearied by tedious things
24a Doctor probes Muslim ruler's organ (6)
MEMBER: An abbreviated Bachelor of Medicine (doctor) ‘probes’ a Muslim ruler
26a Public report (5)
STATE: Belonging to the nation (public) or a verb meaning to report
27a City rues playing defence (8)
SECURITY: An anagram (playing) of CITY RUES
29a Teams maybe subdued before battle with England (8)
SOFTWARE: Computer programs of which Teams is an example (maybe) – A synonym for subdued, a battle and the abbreviation for England
30a Sins of naughty children wasting time (6)
ERRORS: Mischievous children without (wasting) the abbreviation for Time
Down
1d Needy pirate in poem by Wordsworth (4,5)
POOR ROBIN: A synonym for needing, a verb meaning to pirate and IN (from the clue)
2d Goes out with bishops in El Salvador (4)
EBBS: Two lots of the chess abbreviation for Bishop inserted in the IVR code for El Salvador
3d Legislator's record blocking tax (6)
DEPUTY: An abbreviated musical record ‘blocking’ a tax on goods
4d Dreadful sales rep left out slander (7)
ASPERSE: An anagram (dreadful) of SAlES REP without the L (Left out)
5d Cavalry gear up periodically in Swiss canton (6)
AARGAU: Hidden ‘periodically’ in cAvAlRy GeAr Up
6d Personality, Oscar, described by chill madness (6)
IDIOCY: Part of a personality and the letter represented by Oscar in the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, the latter inserted into chill or very cold
9d Engrossed by what Tupac did in da house (4)
RAPT: A homophone (in da house) of what Tupac did
13d Smith's one heading off poorly (3)
ILL: The forename of Mr Smith, the American actor, without the first letter (heading off)
15d Admin's regularly an infernal place (3)
DIS: The regular letters of aDmInS
16d Arrives with chemicals for police officers? (9)
ARRESTERS: An abbreviated way of saying arrives with some chemicals formed by the condensation of an alcohol and an acid, with elimination of water
18d Musicians from Barcelona (3)
ELO: Hidden in barcELOna
20d Big bell's volume reduced by a quarter (3)
TOM: Remove one of the four letters (reduced by a quarter) of a large book (volume)
21d Epic dyes manufactured with soy (7)
ODYSSEY: An anagram (manufactured) of DYES with SOY
22d Criticises some mining operations (6)
BLASTS: Double definition – Criticises verbally or some mining operations
23d Neighbourhoods hosting new sporting venues (6)
ARENAS: Some neighbourhoods ‘hosting’ the abbreviation for New
24d Jeered when cut's initially doubled (6)
MOCKED: Take a word meaning cut and double the Roman numeral that is the first letter of the word
25d Foremost of ocean liners stops over returning to city (4)
OSLO: A reversal (returning) of the foremost letters of Ocean Liners Stop Over
28d Unusual acceleration contributes to part of nuclear reaction (4)
RARE: A (acceleration) inserted into ‘contributes to’ part of nucleaR REaction
Well that was a pleasant surprise – solving was not as dependent on the first caffeine of the day as I thought it would be. With my English Literature O-level (Failed), I did need some e-help on 1d and I did need to check some answers ‘as I went.’ One or two parsings elude me and I will await the wisdom of CS(?).
Smiles for 8a, 11a, 29a, 6d, and 16d.
Thanks Prolixic and thanks in advance to CS(?).
This was mostly at the easier end of Prolixic’s spectrum albeit with a couple of stings in the tail together with a few bits of of GK to be checked using Google. Fortunately, my son is a lecturer specialising in English romantic poetry so a quick WhatsApp exchange with him confirmed my guess for 1d. Parsing 24d and deciding which “Smith” was referred to in 13d took the most time.
Regarding 12a, I have always been led to believe that “cycling” should be used to indicate keeping the letters in the same order but rotating them from a different starting point. 28d is an unusual construction but one which seems perfectly fair.
Many thanks to Prolixic for the fun, and in advance to CS.
Respect to my two learned friends above, I found this quite a tricky little number and still have several bits of parsing that await elucidation by our reviewer. It did help appreciably when I realised the correlation between the across entries and I have the conversations with No.1 daughter about her new job to thank for the parsing of 29a.
No particular favourite to mention but my thanks to Prolixic for another NTSPP.
Respect to Prolixic for building in the connection between the across answers and respect to you for spotting it! I didn’t notice it at all.
Ditto!
I’m more with jane than I am with Senf or RD with regard to the easiness of this puzzle. Several clues proved obstinate in the SE corner with the interlinked 24a and 24d requiring a nudge which then provided enough crossers to complete. I thought the Muslim ruler in the first of those particularly tricky. Nho 5d either but that was gettable from wordplay. I do share RD’s surprise at ‘cycling’ being used as an anagrind though I have seen it done. The danger of relying on the concept of ‘standard crosswordese’ – the indicators don’t always mean what they usually mean! I have also seen the 28d trick just a couple of times before – if I’m honest, it’s not my favourite device though, with only four letters to play with, it was not impossible. No particular favourite clue but I do appreciate the grid construction with its pairings. Thanks Prolixic and blogger.
We started off really well but eventually ground to a halt and needed some starting letters. We still don’t understand a couple of the answers so we shall await enlightenment from CS tomorrow. Many thanks to Prolixic and in advance to CS.
Tackled this late in the day and have ended up with a full grid although like other commentators I’m unsure of some of the parsing. So I too await the wisdom of CS to elucidate. 28d I find particularly puzzling. I understand from Postmark’s comment that a convention has been used. Certainly it’s not one that’s familiar to me so I’m particularly curious to find out what it is. I did like the Tupac clue and immediately sussed the homophone indicator which I think is one of your trade marks Prolixic! Others for the podium were 2a and 29a.
Many thanks Prolixic for furthering my education and in advance to Cryptic Sue
We were late to the puzzle this morning and agree with those who found it tricky. We enjoyed the solve.
Many thanks Prolixic.
My first reaction on seeing the grid was ‘what the ???!’ and I thought something must be going on. In the end, though, it was clearly just to accommodate the paired across answers – and the pairing helped in one or two cases, notably 29ac. And I share RD’s view about ‘cycling’ as used in 14ac. I didn’t realise the poem in 1dn was by Wordsworth; I always thought it was trad or anon.
An enjoyable solve, though, and not too tricky. Thanks, Prolixic and CS.
I found myself ascribing more exclamation marks and question marks than ticks which, for me, is unusual when solving a Prolixic puzzle. Three of my question marks were cleared up by CS – I only had 3 definitions for 7a and had found a term in foxhunting for when the fox outwits the hunters (deceitfully pass?!), my search for a pirate called Robin, or robin being a synonym, only ended up in the weird world of computer gaming and I didn’t twig the auditorium in 9d. Thanks, CS! Otherwise I had not heard of a ‘bonkbuster’ before, the variant of Muslim ruler (apparently Urdu?) or the synonym for ‘slander’. I also had a question mark for the device in 28d, but will note it for future reference. Ticks went to 10a, 12a and 29a – an allusion to today’s big match?
My thanks to Prolixic and, once again, to CS. Of course, I failed to notice the well-crafted Nina…
Thanks CS for the review and clearing up my parsing queries for 24 and 28d. Both rather clever. I’ll add both clues to my podium!
Many thanks for the review, CS. All present and correct here although I hadn’t got 7a down as a quadruple until your comment made me revisit the BRB.