A Puzzle by Meles
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
Meles provides us with a fine alternative to today's Prize Puzzle so many thanks to him.
Across
8a Joins a race, long and arduous at the end (8)
ATTACHES: A from the clue, the usual abbreviated Time Trial, long as a verb plus last letter of arduous
9a One son to come down for Christmas or Easter? (6)
ISLAND: Abbreviations for one and son plus a synonym of come down (in a plane perhaps)
10a A spot of bother affecting one's view of approach which excludes trainee (4)
STYE: Approach/way of doing something with the usual abbreviation for trainee removed.
11a Parasite is a disturbed version of Seoul (5)
LOUSE: SEOUL* (a disturbed version)
12a Farm animals get back overweight when separated (4)
EWES: Get/understand reversed around (over) an abbreviation for Weight. “When separated” tells us a lift and separate of overweight is required
13a Detail is tricky for a dreamer (8)
IDEALIST: DETAIL IS* (tricky)
16a Collect children raging about sandwiches (6)
GARNER: Hidden and reversed (sandwiches)
18a Reports of what's happening in Key West every now and then (4)
NEWS: Alternate letters of iN kEy WeSt
20a Dash along with an overlapping beast a lion might catch (5)
ELAND: Dash/style plus a synonym of along with, sharing (overlapping) two letters
21a Group of countries by name, say solutions aloud essentially! (4)
NATO: Abbreviation for Name plus essential letters of following three words
22a Rush job (6)
CAREER: Double definition, one a verb the other a noun
23a Innovative revolutionary governed Hawaii's capital (3,5)
NEW DELHI: Innovative/novel plus a reversal of a synonym of governed plus the IVR code for Hawaii.
26a Prayer bound to bring priest to the front (4)
PLEA: Bound/jump with the abbreviation for Priest brought to the front
28a It's found in lists of creepy-crawlies, primarily a slug, perhaps from the east?(5)
COMMA: Initial letter of Creepy-crawlies plus something of which a slug is an example reversed
30a Be accommodating about something that's inside all of us (4)
BONE: Be from the clue “accommodating” a preposition meaning about
31a Agrees exercises to make run smoother (6)
GREASE: AGREES* (exercises)
32a Supreme leader put too much into America becoming Republican (8)
OVERLORD: A word meaning put too much into with the abbreviation for America changed to that of Republican
Down
1d Grid ultimately supports a lot of countries being announced (6)
STATED: The final letter of grid under a group of countries
2d Pills delivered relaxation (4)
EASE: Delivered here is a homophone indicator.
3d Source of heat is 75% colder (6)
CHILLI: 75% of a synonym of colder
4d Genesis man's best - No Jacket Required - has a precious element (4)
ESAU: The inside letters of bESt plus the chemical symbol for gold. Very smart as the removal of the outside letters indicator is the title of a Phil Collins album.
5d Did outside border spread? (8)
DIVERGED: Did from the clue outside border/edge
6d Rude and wasted by the sound of it (4)
BLUE: A homophone of wasted (a chance maybe)
7d This is what taking credit gets you! (8)
INTEREST: Cryptic definition, the credit being in a financial sense
14d Theatre feature with uplifting feel is vital at intervals (5)
AISLE: Alternate letters reversed (uplifting) of fEeL iS vItAl.
15d Coach that follows behind the bride? (5)
TRAIN: Double/cryptic definition
17d Bathe in water as siren waves (5)
RINSE: SIREN* (waves)
19d People who sanction bad behaviour not available to stop active rebels (8)
ENABLERS: The abbreviation for Not Available “stops” REBELS* (active). Not sure “bad" is strictly needed here
20d Type of dough with added dough? (8)
ENRICHED: Double/cryptic definition
24d Creatures with sound that reaches the lowest point (6)
WHALES: The abbreviation for With plus sound/well plus the lowest point on a compass for an extended definition
25d Suspended railway having insufficient fare (6)
HUNGRY: Suspended/put up plus the usual RailwaY.
27d Partially open a little antique container (4)
AJAR: The initial letter (a little) of Antique plus a container for food maybe. Not keen on a little as a first letters indicator but that's probably just me.
29d When leaving see someone collapsing into a night-time visitor (4)
MOON: sOMeONe* (when leaving see) (collapsing)
30d What rings true from the start is covered up by bishop in report (4)
BELL: Report/say with the initial letter of true replacedby the abbreviation for Bishop
An enjoyable cranial workout for the start of my Saturday with caffeine required to get across the finishing line. Plenty of misdirection with numerous PDMs.
Smiles for 9a, 16a, 28a, 4d, and26d.
Thanks Meles and thanks in advance to Stephen L.
Thanks to Meles for an enjoyable lunchtime diversion which I completed while watching the athletics from Japan.
There are a couple of bits I can’t fully understand (why is the 27d container antique? and how does ‘bad behaviour’ come into 19d?).
The clues I liked best were 9a and 24d.
Gazza, I had the same concerns about 19d & 27d.
Regarding 27d, although I couldn’t find anything in the BRB of relevance, Collins has the following for “enabler” as defintion 2 in their American English section: “to make possible the dysfunctional behaviour of someone by denying it exists or compensating for it in some way”. With my (and the BRB’s!) understanding of the meaning of enabler, “bad behaviour” could be omitted.
I wonder if the setter’s intention for 19d was to clue the first A by “little antique” although that would make the A in the clue redundant.
RD, 19d. The clue would be OK without “bad behaviour” but the setter seems to have chosen to use the negative/ less familiar meaning of “enabler” (see below). Is that necessarily “wrong”?
27d. I took “a little antique” was meant to trigger the abbreviation A. But now I’ve done some research I can’t find it listed as such.
G, 19d. From the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary:
ENABLER.
Negative Meaning:
Someone who allows or encourages another person to engage in self-destructive, abusive, or negative behaviors.
This often involves providing excuses or “cover” for the negative behavior.
Example: “If you knew about his abusive behaviour and did nothing, you are an enabler.
Many thanks to our setter for the mention of my favourite CD of all time at 4d – ear worm firmly planted! Had a spot of bother with a couple of bits of parsing and an initially incorrect answer to 30a which looked good to me until I simply couldn’t justify each component so had to re-think it. Top clue for me was 25d with 9a sliding into second place.
Thanks again to Meles for the NTSPP treat.
We are being royally spoilt at the moment with a sequence of 5* Telegraph back-page puzzles and now this gem in the NTSPP slot notwithstanding a couple of queries as mentioned in my reply to Gazza @2.
I have too many ticks to list them all, but the whole thing was an absolute joy to solve.
Many thanks to Meles.
Not an unaided completion having revealed the 1st letter checker to twig 20a&d. Found it quite tricky & struggled to get on wavelength. Thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle. Podium places for 9,20&32a.
Thanks Meles
A very enjoyable Sunday morning solve for us with a few tricky bits along the way to keep us on our toes. 9a our favourite.
Thanks Meles.
A bit daunting at first, but I eventually got everything except the crossing 28a and 29dn (and had I got either one of them I’d probably have got the other). A good workout, though – thanks, Meles and StephenL.
Some unusual surfaces and devices in there, but it all adds to the merriment! Thanks to Meles for a fun puzzle, which had to be set to one side until grandchildren were returned to their parents – but we had fun with them too
Across and Down podium spots went to 8, 9 & 31 and 4, 24 & 25 respectively, with my overall favourite being the allusion to Phil Collins.
Thanks again, Meles, and also to StephenL.
Many thanks for the review, Stephen. Thought we might have been treated to a track from the superb album but perhaps it’s not to your taste? A sincere thank you to Meles for an NTSPP that I thoroughly enjoyed.
I’ve always found Meles’ crosswords tricky and I did struggle somewhat to get onto the right wavelength. The challenge, however, was most rewarding. I enjoyed it very much and finished with an almost complete grid. I relied on Stephen’s clarification to get me over the line and explain the subtleties that I had missed.
I have many ticks on my printout. This is a selection: 10a, 20a, 21a, 22a, 28a, 30a and 3d, 4d, 7d, 15d, 20d, 24d, and 29d. I particularly liked 25d.
Had I been able to solve it, the very clever 9a would have been my fave. (I really should have got this… Oh dear!)
Many appreciative thanks to Meles for a very fine NTSPP and to Stephen for an excellent and fitting review.
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Thanks to all who commented and especially Stephen for the review, very much appreciated. With 19d the definition is maybe wordier than it needed to be, but I wanted the surface to make sense with some slight misdirection using the two opposite meanings of “sanction”. Thanks again.