Time taken: 8:10
I thought the wordplay in this puzzle was pretty tricky – if you know the references there is a fair bit biffable, and there are some pretty quick early times. Trying to keep up with the wordplay could be the sticking point, so I’m curious to see how this puzzle sits with everyone. I thought it was a nice level of challenge.
| Across | |
| 1 | No great distance to north: others on the move in south-west (6,5) |
| STONES THROW – TO, N(north) and an anagram of OTHERS inside SW(south-west) | |
| 7 | Lost bird taking off close to castle ditch (3) |
| MOA – remove the last letter from MOAT(castle ditch) | |
| 9 | Clown dead having consumed hot bean product (9) |
| CHOCOLATE – COCO the clown containing H(hot), then LATE (dead) | |
| 10 | Athenian character making the case for Simonides? (5) |
| SIGMA – the first and last character in Simonides are both S, which is typically represented by SIGMA in Greek. Classicists feel free to disagree. | |
| 11 | Boots perhaps initially muddy I placed in trunk (7) |
| CHEMIST – First letter of Muddy and I inside CHEST(trunk) | |
| 12 | Enlightened state’s new stories written on Irish victory (7) |
| NIRVANA – N(new), then ANA(stories) next to IR(Irish), V(victory) | |
| 13 | Bloom left sharp object after first part of Ulysses (5) |
| LUPIN – L(left) then PIN(sharp object) after the first letter in Ulysses | |
| 15 | Hardy’s villain periodically consumed by envy? (9) |
| RESILIENT – alternating letters in vIlLiAn inside RESENT(envy) | |
| 17 | Mr White in Chamonix around on time to see attraction there? (4,5) |
| MONT BLANC – the French for Mr White could be M. BLANC. Insert ON, T(time) | |
| 19 | Something fragrant consecutive characters brought to India (5) |
| ELEMI – the consecutive characters are EL(L) and EM(M), followed by I(India) | |
| 20 | Corporation finished in such a position? (5-2) |
| BELLY-UP – BELLY(corporation), UP(finished) | |
| 22 | Progress here impossible, four to leave showing no emotion (7) |
| IMPASSE – remove IV(four) from IMPASSIVE(showing no emotion) | |
| 24 | Something nasty afoot where bachelor joins this association? (5) |
| UNION – if you add a B(bachelor) you get BUNION(something nasty afoot) | |
| 25 | Drunk from Britain fuddled with Ecstasy twice (9) |
| INEBRIATE – anagram of BRITAIN and two E’s(ecstasy) | |
| 27 | Corpulent Liberal to be extracted from apartment (3) |
| FAT – remove L(Liberal) from FLAT(apartment) | |
| 28 | Character to invite round guys on time (11) |
| TEMPERAMENT – TEMPT(invite) surrounding MEN(guys) after ERA(time) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Short jacket turned up in bag (3) |
| SAC – CASE(jacket) reversed minus the last letter | |
| 2 | Magical land with a certain invigorating air (5) |
| OZONE – OZ(magical land) and ONE(a certain) | |
| 3 | Perhaps Gladstone’s rising importance in surrounding area? (7) |
| ETONIAN – NOTE(importance) reversed, then IN surrounding A(area) | |
| 4 | Display too much creative work around restaurant (9) |
| TRATTORIA – AIR(display), OTT(over the top, too much), ART(creative work) all reversed | |
| 5 | River Fleet swelled with hot eastern current (5) |
| RHEIN – RN(fleet) surrounding H(hot), E(eastern), I(current) | |
| 6 | Good-for-nothing succeeded entering temple on lake (7) |
| WASTREL – S(succeeded) inside WAT(temple), then RE(on), L(lake) | |
| 7 | Kinky game involving a learner in study in college (9) |
| MAGDALENE – a double container – anagram of GAME containing A,L(learner) inside DEN(study) | |
| 8 | Immortal heart in a man at sea (11) |
| AMARANTHINE – anagram of HEART IN A MAN. My last in and I had to write all the letters around to convince myself this was the intended word | |
| 11 | Demand the writer’s rough and hearty in old game show (4,2,5) |
| CALL MY BLUFF – CALL(demand for), MY(the writer’s), BLUFF(rough and hearty). I’ve heard of this show, but never watched it | |
| 14 | Contestant’s history embracing life cut short? (9) |
| PANELLIST – PAST(history) containing NELLIE(life, as in not on your nellie) minus the last letter | |
| 16 | Wise man covers relic damaged in desecration (9) |
| SACRILEGE – SAGE(wise man) containing an anagram of RELIC | |
| 18 | Pierce and Oscar separating horse from trap (7) |
| BAYONET – O(Oscar) in between BAY(horse) and NET(trap) | |
| 19 | Returning piano taken into first-rate city shops (7) |
| EMPORIA – P(piano) inside AI(first-rate), ROME(city) all reversed | |
| 21 | One in wheeled carriage brings dad to Paris (5) |
| PRIAM – I(one) inside PRAM(wheeled carriage) | |
| 23 | Two short ways to make wooden strip (5) |
| STAVE – the short ways are ST and AVE | |
| 26 | Partake of repast odd characters have left (3) |
| EAT – alternating characters in rEpAsT | |
33.12
The fictional author St John Clarke in Powell’s “Dance to the
Music of Time” series had great success with his book Fields of Amaranth. I now discover that someone else wrote a real book with the same title, set in California.
MONT BLANC was good. Like many others I didn’t think much of Etonian.
Lost out on the AMARANTHINE – ARAMANTHINE dilemma. Chose wrong, wrecking an otherwise enjoyable 23’15”. RHEIN reminded me of the rhines or rhynes of Somerset, and the prediction given to the Duke of Monmouth (I think) that he would never be defeated on the Rhine (or Rhein). So he thought he was safe now he was in England. Except he forgot the rhines — i.e. drainage canals — at Sedgemore. Acknowledgements to Arthur Conan Doyle’s Micah Clarke (good read).
20:09 so obviously I was on better form just now than yesterday. NHO AMARANTHINE which was my penultimate entry, then I almost put EMENI but luckily didn‘t and a bit more thought got me to ELEMI and that was it 🙂
ETONIAN was also ridiculously tricky but the resr went pretty fast.
Thanks setter and blogger
PS I see I was lucky not to put ARAMANTHINE but luckily it never occurred to me!!
A Dark Ble writes — Setter spelt “Magdalen” wrong….. 😏
30:10, but spent several minutes getting ETONIAN wrong.
NHO ELEMI, but the wordplay worked sufficiently, and the sound of it reminded me of a Wollemi pine. so in it went.
PRIAM was a treat.
Pleased with this one, and with my speed around the grid. slowly getting faster.
Thanks setter and glh
DNF – I got completely stuck on the NHO ‘AMARANTHINE’ – I could see it was an anagram, but a long one and I couldn’t unravel it.
I was even more stuck on the even more NHO (if that is logically possible) ELEMI; it didn’t occur to me that the consecutive letters were phonetically rendered, I was considering consecutive runs of single letters, but couldn’t identify one that could possibly be of any use; I also didn’t know how many consecutive letters I was looking for, although I was sure it wouldn’t be more than three, probably only two, which left me with the problem of finding another letter or two to go with the ‘I’ that I assumed came from India. I don’t think I would ever have solved this clue and, now that I know how it works, don’t like it at all.
I also didn’t get ETONIAN – pretty lame clue; I meant to go back to it, but I threw the towel in after wrestling fruitlessly with ELEMI and AMARANTHINE and forgot to go back to it.
I couldn’t fully parse NIRVANA (NHO “ana” = stories) or PANELLIST (Nelli(e) = life? I guess so in one expression alone, but meh.) – so thanks to “glh” for all the explanations.
About 30 minutes. Biffed PANELLIST, but the LIFE part of the clue was very perverse. NELLIE does not mean ‘life’ it is merely a substitute for ‘life’ in the relevant phrase / exclamation (one which could be used in response to the question ‘could you ever have parsed this’!)
Yes an enjoyable, if not particularly solvable, puzzle. Had the same problems as others with AMARANTHINE and ELEMI , and indeed ETONIAN. Very much liked MONT BLANC and PRIAM (“dad to Paris” indeed!) However, COD to CHOCOLATE.