After some reasonable standard puzzles last week’s (2587) was a little easier but any concern was misplaced. This puzzle was back in the groove. It appeared on the same day as the AZED monthly competition puzzle and I found the two puzzles to be of similar level of difficulty, needing about an hour for each of them. I thought only 20A COLD TURKEY to be really weak and I have a small query with the wordplay in 8D ESTRILDID.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SATRAPY – SA(TRAP)Y; gin=TRAP; state=SAY; a satrap was a Persian provincial governor; |
| 6 | SAGES – pay=wages then s=is substituted for w=women; plant with distinctively flavoured leaves; |
| 10 | EVOE – E-VOE; VOE=a bay in Orkney; Virgil’s way of expressing Bacchic frenzy – not something one does lightly; |
| 11 | BUPAPEST – BUD-A-PEST; china (plate)=mate=BUD; advanced=A; trial=pain in the neck=PEST; home of that hairy pest Zoltan Karpathy; |
| 12 | MENDAITES – MEN-D(A)ITES; followers=MEN; A=are; DITES=old word for writing; a group originally from Iraq and Iran who follow, amongst others, John the Baptist. See Mandaean in C; |
| 15 | IN,RE – I(N)RE; nitrogen=N; wax-3=anger=IRE; legal jargon for concerning; |
| 16 | TALPAS – TAL(k)-PAS(t); a head tumour; |
| 17 | AENEID – AE-(in ed=edition needing reduction)*; aged=AE; work=anagrind; Virgil’s epic poem, evoe!; |
| 18 | ESCADRILLE – street without either t=time=sree then (sree I’d call)*; a French flotilla but better known in the name Lafayette Escadrille – a predominantly American staffed air squadron in WW1; |
| 20 | COLD,TURKEY – rather weak cryptic definition for a phrase that surely lends itself to something more interesting; |
| 24 | YEOMEN – (o=old + enemy)*; |
| 25 | INLAID – DIAL-NI all reversed; mug=face=DIAL; chased is definition; |
| 26 | STOB – BOTS reversed; bot=the botfly; STOB=a Scots stump; |
| 29 | JOBERNOWL – JOB-ER-NOW-L; work=JOB; Her Majesty=ER; a (right) Charlie=a dim wit (surely nothing to do with HRH); |
| 30 | SEACUNNY – S(EA-C)UNNY; cheerful=SUNNY; cape=C; a lascar sailor; |
| 31 | EBRO – E-BR-O; Spain=E; over=O; bridge=BR; famous Spanish river; |
| 32 | USHER – (g)USHER; |
| 33 | POSTERN – POSTER-N; |
| Down | |
| 1 | SEMATIC – SEMA(n)TIC; semantic=meaning then remove n=navy; warning colouring of an animal (opposite of camouflage); |
| 2 | TONK – two meanings; |
| 3 | REDIPS – SPIDER reversed; |
| 4 | ABAS – ABAS(e); a woman’s outer garment made from camel’s hair; |
| 5 | PUISSAUNT – UP reversed-IS-SAUNT; in excited state=UP then jack=raise up; Scottish saint=SAUNT; old word for powerful – a tip for beginners – old words like this are quite often from the French; |
| 6 | SAETER – (trees + a)*; a hut near Stokka; |
| 7 | GENNEL – LEN(NE)G all reversed; tarry once=LENG; see ginnel in C, an alley off Cowgate, perhaps; |
| 8 | ESTRILDID – EST(o)RIL-DID; thrive=do; in the wordplay is “in” quite right?; A member of (finch) weaver family; |
| 9 | STIE – S-TIE; is=S; game=TIE; old spelling (for veterans) of sty-3=to climb; |
| 13 | CACOETHES – C-A-COE-THE-S; caught=C; reference (Lord) Sebastian Coe famous ex-runner who now champions the UK Olympics; Sabbath=S; a craving for anything that’s bad for one (like spending far too much on daft sporting events); |
| 14 | MADRILENO – (“old master in” without st=street=way)*; a resident of Madrid but known to me from the phrase El Derbi Madrileno which refers to the local derby football matches between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid; |
| 19 | EIDOLON – E(ID-LO reversed)ON; eon=aeon=eternity=time indefinitely; a phantom double of a person from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem Dreamland. It wasn’t me love it was my eidolon (worth a try?); |
| 21 | LOOFAH – LOO-FAH; John=toilet=LOO; a tropical vine that produces an edible vegetable and a bathroom device; |
| 22 | TENOUR – T(EN)OUR; space=EN; |
| 23 | ELANET – TEN-ALE all reversed; festival=ALE; a kite (bird); |
| 26 | SUSU – SUS-U; suspect=SUS; universal=U (classification of films); co-operative saving scheme in Jamaica; |
| 27 | PRYS – hidden P(a)R(t)Y – (i)S; old spelling of price; |
| 28 | KOBE – K-(r)OBE; Japanese city; |
… in Portuguese resort, (there is) nothing less.
I also thought the cold turkey clue an excellent & lit. but then there we go.
A puzzle’s difficulty is simply impossible for one person to evaluate accurately… what is easy for one is tough for another as the first two comments above show. I’m not at all sure that difficulty is the best criterion for judging these puzzles — elegance of clues, variation of clue techniques, good spread of ‘easy’ words against ‘less easy’ with clues to reflect this ease are much more important.