Notes for Gemelo 12

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 12 ‘For a change’

Solver difficulty rating

4.8 based on 45 votes (voting is now closed)

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You reckoned that the difficulty of last week’s puzzle was very similar to that of its predecessor, the majority of the ratings being 4’s; no-one assessed it as being less than a 3. I fully agree, having rated it as a 4 myself, the same as G10.

Those of you who have felt starved of the sort of ‘special’ that places demands on the solver as well as the setter will have cried ‘Huzzah and hurrah’ when they looked at today’s puzzle. Azed used to give us ‘definition of anagram’ crosswords where the wordplay led to an anagram of the defined answer, but Gemelo has kindly provided us with a definition of the anagram to boot. That, however, is balanced out by some pretty tricky wordplays, such that in many instances you are likely to find yourself getting the answer from the ‘real’ definition plus checkers and then working back to parse the remainder of the clue. You should certainly allow yourself a ‘Huzzah and hurrah’ (as well as a good stiff drink) when you cross the finishing line. Be careful if you solve 25a before 3d (as I did) – the entry could be either of two variant spellings, but the correct one ends in a vowel.

I’m not sure that there is any special technique for a puzzle of this sort, other than starting with the shorter entries and examining the clues to identify what looks like a wordplay, such that you can then isolate the definitions. I initially got a foothold in the NE corner and worked from there.

I have provided notes on a selection of clues, followed by a breakdown of the components of each clue.  Just ask if you need further clarification on any of the clues that I haven’t covered.

Setters’ Corner: It is still a source of amazement to me how Azed was able to construct puzzles like this so quickly by hand, and without electronic assistance. These days, though, the task of grid filling has been made considerably easier by the availability of various computer applications, none better when it comes to ‘special’ fills like this than the free tool from Quinapalus, Qxw. This has some extraordinarily powerful features which mean that, for instance, filling a grid where the entries are all anagrams of other dictionary words suddenly becomes a pretty straightforward task. But it can do all manner of other clever stuff besides. If you are looking to set themed puzzles, then Qxw should undoubtedly form part of your armoury.

Incidentally, for anyone who isn’t aware of it (as I wasn’t until a kind correspondent pointed me in its direction) there is a very nice video on YouTube featuring Azed and Gemelo.

Across

1a I’m restricted by no longer devoting land to assessing sphinx (10)
The letters IM (from the clue) are contained (‘restricted’) by an archaic (‘no longer’) word for ‘devoting land to’ or ‘bestowing property upon’. The answer will strike a chord with anyone who regularly solves blocked crosswords in The Guardian.

10a Malayan fruit tree from S Asia to expose to light Indian millet (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘to expose to light’ (particularly of the natural kind) is followed by one spelling of a word for Indian millet, the more usual spelling being durra.

17a Add new colour to hard exterior in French vineyard headquarters (12)
The two-letter French word for ‘in’ is followed by a three-letter word for a vineyard (or vintage) and a seven-letter word for a headquarters or a fixed stopping-place (in particular for trains).

20a Regret hosting casual evening around suite with a common parent (7)
A three-letter word meaning ‘[to] regret’ contains (‘hosting’) the reversal (‘around’) of an ‘informal’ four-letter word for an evening, such as might be seen in posters announcing ‘Party ????’ or ’70s Disco ????’.

21a Special envoy ignoring one who cleanses masses of blood (7)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘special’ is followed by a seven-letter word for an envoy or a person doing urgent deliveries (or the font in which the clue appears above) deprived of (‘ignoring’) the Roman numeral representing ‘one’. The word ‘one’ is almost doing double duty, since the definition of the anagram requires a ‘one’ (or a ‘someone’) to be inferred at the beginning.

24a Union member in due course allowed at institute on request (12)
A two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘in due course’ is followed by a five-letter adjective meaning ‘allowed’, the letters AT (from the clue), the single-letter abbreviation of ‘institute’, and the letters ON (again from the clue).

29a One getting trained followers to go through content of steel shrines (6)
A three-letter word for ‘followers’ (or ‘chess pieces’) is contained by (‘to go through’) the word ‘steel’ without its first and last letters (ie ‘content of steel’). I don’t like ‘content’ as a ‘remove wrapper’ indicator – I think that ‘contents’ is much more accurate, and i don’t know why Gemelo didn’t use it here.

33a Bully, you might say, once destroyed much appreciated water (7)
A two-letter interjection meaning ‘much appreciated’ or ‘thanks’ is followed by the sort of water that may be passed by humans (I’m not thinking of an ornamental lake here). The whimsical definition of the anagram is something of an old chestnut.

Down

5d Craving top US taxman to replace answer from whom? (1-5)
A four-letter relative pronoun which can often be interchangeable with ‘whom’ (eg in ‘The person whom I saw doing the crossword’) has the three-letter abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service (‘US taxman’) replacing the single-letter abbreviation for ‘answer’ within it.

13d Buddhist desires such relations to sing triumphant cries (6)
The wordplay is a charade of a word meaning ‘to sing’ as a grass or a snitch might and the plural form for a classical ‘interjection of invocation, or expressing joy or triumph or grief’.

15d Temporarily takes over banks after backing most of Bob Norton’s family? (9)
The one clue where the anagram and the entry share an etymology. A four-letter word for ‘banks’ (such as cannons might be in) follows (‘after’) a reversal (‘backing’) of all but the last letter (‘most of’) a name for which ‘Bob’ is a diminutive. The ‘Norton’ in the definition of the entry is Mary of that ilk.

16d Abandoning support for bands outside, covering good Eminem song (9)
A four-letter word for the sort of ‘outside’ that a lemon or a cheese might have contains (‘covering’) the usual abbreviation for good and the four-letter title of one of Eminem’s most famous songs, which extensively samples Dido’s Thank You and concerns his (former) ‘number one fan’.

22d Hour in 5 seconds? Numbers, numbers (6)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘hour’ is contained by (‘in’) an ‘informal’ three-letter word for the entry at 5d (‘5’), the combination being followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘seconds’. Since the two definitions are the same (one being another old cryptic chestnut), it doesn’t matter which relates to the anagram and which to the entry.

(definitions of grid entries are underlined, while definitions of anagrams are shown in red italics)

Composition of clues

Example: in 1a, the wordplay (W) consists of the first eight words, the definition of the anagram (DA) is the ninth word, and the definition of the entry (DE) is the tenth word – so it is (W8,DA1,DE1).

Across

1: (W8,DA1,DE1); 10: (DE2,DA4,W6); 11 :(DE1,DA5,W4); 12: (DA5,DE1,W2); 14: (W3,DE3,DA2); 16: (W2,DE3,DA1); 17: (DE4,DA2,W4); 20: (W5,DA1,DE4); 21: (W4,DA2,DE3); 24: (DE2,W7,DA1); 25: (DA1,DE2,W2); 29: (DE3,W7,DA1); 31: (DA1,W5,DE2); 32: (DE1,DA6,W3); 33: (DA4,DE2,W3); 34: (DA2,W5,DE5).

Down

1: (W3,DA2,DE2); 2: (DA2,DE1,W7); 3: (DA2,W5,DE1); 4: (DA1,W4,DE1); 5: (DA1,DE1,W7); 6: (DE2,DA3,W2); 7: (DA2,DE1,W2); 8: (DA1,W7,DE1); 9: (DA1,W4,DE2); 13: (DE3,DA1,W4); 15: (DA3,W6,DE2); 16: (DE1,DA3,W5); 18: (DE1,DA2,W3); 19: (DE3,DA/W1,DA/W1); 22: (W4,DA/DE1,DA/DE1); 23: (DA4,W5,DE5); 26: (DA1,W2,DE4); 27: (DE2,DA/W1,DA/W1); 28: (DE1,DA1,W4); 30: (DE2,DA1,W1).