Notes for Gemelo 1

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 1 Plain

Difficulty rating: (3.5 / 5)

First things first. In today’s Observer there is a splendid article centred around Azed which also includes pieces about the other people involved in getting the barred puzzle to us on Sunday, including Colin Thomas, aka Gemelo. It can be found at:

https://observer.co.uk/culture/interviews/article/in-setting-any-crossword-clue-always-always-think-of-the-solver

A quick look at the grid will confirm that we have a new setter, since there are four eight-letter entries with three unches (this is generally considered allowable, but Azed would never have more than one third of the letters in an entry unchecked), as well as a pair of fully checked four-letter entries (rarely, but occasionally, seen in Azed grids). Adjusting to a new setter’s style invariably takes time, so I’d be surprised if  Azed regulars didn’t find this a bit tougher than an Azed of mid-range toughness. Since it’s the first of the series, I’ve assessed the difficulty rating against an average plain Azed. I hope that solvers noted the apposite letters in NW and SE corners of the finished grid. Overall, this struck me as a very polished début puzzle.

It wasn’t an Azed, of course, but the clues seemed generally very well constructed and sound, with some nice definitions, and there were a few easier clues to get the solve started. There were considerably fewer obscure words in the grid than in a typical Azed; on the other hand, some of the wordplays seemed pretty tricky, although that may be down to unfamiliarity with the setter’s little ways rather than intrinsic complexity. I’ll be interested to hear what other solvers thought of the puzzle. For the next three weeks I plan to do these notes exactly as I would for Azed; depending largely on the views of readers, I will then continue on that line, do notes only for the Azed puzzles, or do something different for the Gemelo ones. I’ll be guided by you! And by the setter, from whom it would be great to hear.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 1a, “Rector opening loved one’s mail (6)”. The single-letter abbreviation for ‘Rector’ is contained by (‘opening’) the sort of ‘loved one’ that you might associate with Stevie Wonder or Manhattan Transfer, to produce a word answering to ‘mail’ (though neither Royal nor electronic). The point of interest is the definition, specifically the fact that if you look up ‘mail’ (of the right type) in Chambers, it gives you the answer,  just as, say, ‘fake’ would lead you straight to ‘cook’. This is something that setters try to avoid where possible; the reverse, however, where a dictionary entry for the answer matches the definition in the clue, eg ‘cook’ as a definition for FAKE, is desirable. That said, it is really only a problem with unfamiliar words, which the solver is likely to have to look up, eg ‘paroemia’ as the definition for ADAGE; ‘mail’ and ‘fake’ are words which will be familiar to the solver, and if they are going to look up every such word in Chambers on the off chance of finding an answer or two, then good luck to them.

Across

9a Walk around that is certainly overacting? (8)
A four-letter verb with many senses relating to mobility, including ‘walk, carry oneself [a good trick if you can do it]’, is put around the usual two-letter representation of ‘that is’ and a two-letter informal word meaning ‘all right’ or ‘certainly’. The answer is a relatively new addition to Chambers; whether ‘overacting’ quite describes it is perhaps open to question, but I’d struggle to suggest anything better that doesn’t run to several words.

11a Where I can be seen in conversion course? (6)
The position of the letter I in the word ‘conversion’ needs to be expressed using a (5,1) phrase, thus describing ‘where I can be seen in conversion’. The ‘course’ is the one I like best, particularly when cream or custard are involved.

13a Near 1ac: Rolling Stones (5)
There is a spot of deceptive capitalization in this clue, where the two-letter abbreviation for ‘near’ and the letters IAC (‘1ac’) need to be reversed (‘Rolling’).

16a 1930s comedy eludes publisher (8, 2 words)
This is a charade of a five-letter word meaning ‘eludes’ and the initials of the publisher for whom a certain Jonathan Crowther worked for over 30 years. The (4,4) comedy is of the cinematic variety, featuring Rufus T Firefly and lines such as “I could dance with you until the cows come home. On second thought, I’d rather dance with the cows till you come home.” It sounded funnier when Groucho said it…

23a Academic fellow mostly hated funny tie (8, 2 words)
A four-letter ‘academic fellow’ deprived of his last letter (‘mostly’) is followed by an anagram (‘funny’) of HATED. The answer is (4,4), and the definition is nicely disguised.

26a In East London, mistake yard for where parliament sits? (6)
When you see ‘East London’ in a clue, it’s either there to flag a South African word or to indicate that the initial H of a word should be dropped, Cockney-style. Here it is the latter, with a six-letter word for a glaring, and typically amusing, mistake losing its aspirate and having the usual abbreviation for ‘yard’ tacked on the end. The definition is pleasingly oblique.

29a A eulogy, primarily, welcomed by god? (5)
An &lit, where A (from the clue) and the first letter of ‘eulogy’ (‘eulogy primarily) are contained by the name of a god famous for his pipes and his paperbacks. The whole thing stands as a definition of the answer, and not a bad one at that.

30a Representation of Jesus’ heart replaced by high priest? Remains to be seen here (6)
The ‘representation of Jesus’ is a character linked to witch and wardrobe whom CS Lewis described as a possible answer to the question “what might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?” His middle letter (‘heart’) is replaced by the standard abbreviation for ‘High Priest’, the answer being hyphenated, 3-3.

Down

1d Principal tackling a commotion, reversing tick? (8)
A four-letter word meaning ‘principal’, now usually seen in compounds with ‘enemy’, ‘bishop’ etc, contains (‘tackling’) A (from the clue) and precedes a reversal of a three-letter word for a commotion or racket.

10d Coolness in A Level after dropping university for nothing (6)
A (from the clue) is followed by a five-letter word meaning ‘level’ or ‘vertical’ wherein the usual abbreviation for ‘university’ has been replaced by the single-letter representation of ‘nothing’ (‘after dropping university for nothing’).

14d People who’ve come to break up pottery (9)
A four-letter word for the total number of people who’ve come to, say, a football match is put inside (‘to break’) a word meaning ‘up’ in the sense of ‘well-informed’.

17d Somerset capital gets even (8, 3 words)
A three-letter abbreviation for ‘Somerset’ comes before a two-letter printer’s abbreviation that equates to ‘capital’ and a three-letter word meaning ‘gets’ or ‘possesses’.

20d See medic dropping head a little lower to eat? (6)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘see’ is followed by a six-letter word for a medic, or at least someone who makes people better, from which the first letter has been lost (‘dropping head’). The definition did make me wince slightly, but the way that it is integrated into the surface reading of the clue as a whole is a fine example to budding clue writers.

21d Drink after getting left in Scottish enclosure (7, 2 words)
A (1,2) French expression meaning ‘in the manner of’ (ie ‘after’) and the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘left’ are contained by a Scots word for an enclosure. The answer is (4,3) and has long been the subject of a UK campaign.

26d Obvious negative when cycling (4)
I wrote a clue a few days ago using the two four-letter words involved here (“Frank certainly not letting leader down”), so I got this pretty quickly! An interjection which expresses an unequivocal negative is ‘cycling’, which in this instance means that just one letter is moved from the start to the end.

27d Almost edged equal to count (4)
A six-letter word meaning ‘almost’ has its first and last letters removed in order to produce the solution. I’d not seen ‘edged’ used before for this purpose, and I won’t be adding it to the lists on this site – Chambers does give a meaning of ‘edge’ as ‘to trim the edge of’, but that is what you might do to a lawn, and doesn’t involve removing the edges. OED gives no sense which hints at edges being taken off. Of course, I could have got the intended parsing wrong.

(definitions are underlined)