Notes for Gemelo 29

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 29

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/3e7334a2-ecc0-4033-8334-fb70438d0926/file/puzzle.pdf.

Please give your own G-rating for this Gemelo puzzle by clicking on the relevant star above, with one star representing a very straightforward solve by your own standards (Gentle) and five stars indicating a seriously tough one (Gnarly). Note that hovering over the ‘graph’ icon will show you the full breakdown of votes for the current puzzle.

Last week’s plain puzzle received an average difficulty rating of 3.5 (based on 29 votes); this was only 0.3 down on the previous week’s ‘Spooner or Later’ special, which I felt represented a pretty fair assessment of the (in my opinion) relatively small difference between the two puzzle difficulty-wise.

I felt that today’s puzzle was considerably more enjoyable than last week’s offering, with plenty of clever misdirection but a good helping of accessible clues to get the solve going. One or two clues were perhaps a tad convoluted, but they were balanced by some nice concise ones.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 15d, “Plate protecting large vat: item from the Louvre (9)”. The wordplay here has a four-letter word for a large vat or tub being followed by the French (‘from the Louvre’) word for an item (in Chambers), the result being a plate of armour intended to protect a particular part of the body. A perfectly good clue? Well, not quite. The problem is the definition, because ‘protect’ is a transitive-only verb, and therefore the plate has to be protecting something, such as ‘part of soldier’; similarly, ‘one making’ would not – strictly speaking, at least – be valid for ‘author’. It’s certainly an issue with the present participle (‘protecting’, ‘making’); whether the present indicative in, say, ‘one who makes’ for ‘author’ could be seen as being used absolutely, and therefore not requiring an object (as in ‘time heals’), is a moot point, although personally I would avoid such a construction.

Across

10a Month reflecting a Hindu god (4)
I confidently put an answer in for this one, and was a little surprised to find that the entry at 6d then began with ‘RR’, an unlikely (to put it mildly) combination. In fact, the clue is ambiguous – if you are using an old version of Chambers, then the only valid answer will appear to be my one, a reversal of the three-letter abbreviation for a particular month, followed by the letter A (from the clue). But those with a more recent edition will find two words which satisfy the wordplay, the second being a reversal of a ‘complete’ month, again followed by A – this is the intended solution.

12a College graduate with natural depression about commercial backing (8)
The two-letter abbreviation for a type of postgraduate degree is followed by a four-letter ‘natural depression’ particularly associated with the mountains of Scotland and Ireland, containing (‘about’) a reversal (‘backing’) of a two-letter ‘commercial’ much favoured by setters (also indicated on occasion by ‘bill’, ‘notice’, ‘poster’, ‘plug’ etc).

17a Pope shedding extremely roomy overcoat (5)
The name used by sixteen Popes between 590 and 1846 is deprived of the outer letters (‘extremely’ – a particular bête noire of Azed) of ‘roomy’.

19a 6d minus 9 for Holyrood’s inner room (6)
A clever clue, where an eight-letter word indicated by ‘6d’ (and nothing to do with any other part of the puzzle) loses (‘minus’) the Roman numerals representing ‘9’.

21a Pet sneaks out of the way, avoiding stick ultimately (5)
A six-letter word meaning ‘sneaks out of the way’ or ‘lurks’ is shorn of the last letter (‘ultimately’) of ‘stick’. The definition, like many in this puzzle,  is cunningly disguised by the surface reading.

27a Endless examination that drip feeds minor details (6)
A five-letter ‘examination’ without its last letter (‘endless’) contains the two-letter abbreviation for a medical drip (ie ‘that drip feeds’).

28a Army officer, casually circling local river, marks shoreline (8, 2 words)
The five-letter informal (‘casually’) term used when addressing a non-commissioned officer of a specific rank contains (‘circling’) the two-letter dialect (‘local’) word for a river which has come to the aid of many a setter, and the usual (at least prior to the arrival of the euro) abbreviation for ‘marks’. The answer is (3,5), and on another day the clue might have involved a homophone and Mrs Simpson (the one married to Homer rather than the former Edward VIII).

30a Bad luck which gives server advantage? (8)
A neat clue, where the (5-3) answer could indeed be something which wins the advantage point for the server in a tennis match.

31a Accepted e.g. cobble floor from earlier era (6)
The usual abbreviation for ‘accepted’ precedes a five-letter word for the sort of thing exemplified by a cobble. The ‘from an earlier era’ is there to indicate that the answer is given by Chambers as an ‘earlier form’ of a familiar seven-letter word.

Down

1d Pop’s board game (6)
I spent a minute or two trying to work out how ‘board’ could add four-letters to the two-letter word potentially indicated by ‘pop’ before deciding that ‘pop’ led to a (2,4) expression (not in Chambers, but given by Collins), and that ‘board’ was part of the definition.

3d Effortlessly draw away from dog’s lips (5)
The eleven-letter name given to a particular type of ‘designer dog’ (aka ‘crossbreed’) has a six-letter word meaning ‘aimlessly scribble’ (so perhaps ‘effortlessly draw’, although some of my creations when I’ve been on long work conference calls have involved a lot of effort) removed (‘away from’).

6d Perhaps Old King Cole, drunk from local rye, getting muddled (4)
The letters COLE in a different order (‘drunk’) are to be deleted ‘from’ LOCAL RYE, with the remaining letters being rearranged (‘muddled’) to produce the answer.

11d “European”, “energy”, “earth” briefly rendering E, and very different (10, 2 words)
A four-letter person from a specific European country combines with a three-letter word for ‘energy’ (of the sort that rises) and the word EARTH (from the clue) missing both its last letter (‘briefly’) and the letter E (‘rendering E’). A good idea, but perhaps not the best of the bunch.

19d Try Rev. with coercion (7)
A four-letter informal term for a try or an attempt is followed by a three-letter slang word meaning ‘rev up (an engine) noisily’. 

20d Proper to remove PPE – but not all together – for tobacco pipe (6)
Another nice clue, where a nine-letter word meaning ‘trim’ or ‘proper’ (originally to describe vessels on board which all was as it should be) has the non-consecutive (‘but not all together’) letters P, P and E removed. The ‘proper’ term is often combined with ‘…and Bristol fashion’, referring to the port of Bristol’s reputation for efficiency in the days of sail – the two seem to have very similar meanings, so they were presumably combined for emphasis (as in ‘bright-eyed and bushy-tailed’). Chambers makes it clear that although the answer is the name given to a flavoured tobacco, it can also be used to refer to a pipe in which it is smoked.

22d Youngster to get hugged by sister (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘to get’ or ‘to possess’ is contained (‘hugged’) by the two-letter abbreviation for ‘Sister’.

(definitions are underlined)