i Cryptic Crossword 4146 by Radian
May 21, 2024
Difficulty rating (out of five): ⏳⏳⏳⏳⏳
A pretty challenging solve from Radian today, with a theme that you can’t have failed to miss. I’d like to be able to say that it was a satisfying one too, but as too much struck me as being deliberately solver-unfriendly, I can’t say that it was. At 15d we have a bit of Latin combined with wordplay (group of biologists) few could have known, a pretty rare cherry tree in the wordplay for 8d, and copious bits of challenging vocabulary and wordplay elsewhere. I suspect too many solvers will have been left feeling 29ac, not to mention 28ac.
CoD? I’ll go with 1ac – “Love lines circling front of bald heads (7)”.
All the answers and parsing of the clues can be found in Fifteensquared’s blog from June 2020:
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/06/23/independent-10513-radian/
Borodin
batarde
Saboteur
Denzo
flashling
jonofwales
Cornick
sprouthater
uiytjhgmj
willow1235
idothei 
Yes, a tough challenge.
I’m inclined to agree about VADE MECUM. One obscure word clued by another obscure word. That was my last in, and I needed help both for inspiration (which I got in vacuum) and then to check the answer.
A few other checks needed on the way, like the cherry tree.
I meant to add that, in fairness, the crossing letters of VADE MECUM were helpful.
…for a long while, I had ???? M?C?? … All I could think of was ‘Real McCoy’, which I couldn’t see a def for, but in which ‘realm’ fitted quite nicely with ‘group of biologists’ as in a taxonomic classification…
Yeah, I’ve just finished and it was decidedly chewy.
ha, a bunch of us commenting at about the same time.
Not the best crossword to tackle after a very relaxing holiday in Crete! I assumed I was just out of form and feeling grumpy to be back home, so I am relieved that others found this difficult. I confess I threw in the towel with about half done – VADE MECUM was a no-ball in my book, and although I did know the cherry tree, it’s a bit obscure.
I think I need something more towards the shallow end of the puzzle pool before tackling another one like this.
If you had returned a day earlier, you would have really enjoyed yesterday’s!
Definitely at the top end of Radian’s difficulty – and despite him being a setter I’ve come to very much look forward to, this was a bit spoiled here and there for me. In particular RET, GEAN and DEME seemed out of place in a blocked crossword – I’d prefer them to stay in the world of barred crosswords where they belong!
Definitely a challenge, about 4 ETs here. As it is not possible to get lynched online, I shall mention that VADE MECUM was my favourite clue. A real PDM, less because of the clue than because I’ve been waiting 70 years to find some use for my school A-level Latin and it has finally come. It was clear from the crossing V…….C.M, so I did not need to engage with the DEME which was as unknown to me as RET and GEAN.
There were plenty of other enjoyable clues, but on balance, I share what appears to be the prevalent feeling here that there was more to dislike tham like with this puzzle, though, apart from gripes about DEME, the puzzle was far more positively received when it first appeared. I dod not think that BRUCE was the best way to indicate AUSSIE slang, and my LOI and least favourite was the CoD where there were bno tails or anything to indicate any OBVERSE of heads, though I might have been less grumpy if I had remembered the theme.
Certainly a challenge, but I wouldn’t give it the full five egg-timers. Maybe I was helped by remembering to look for the theme, which I got early on, and knowing VADE MECUM (although I think it’s a bit archaic these days). I didn’t think, though, that this was one of Radian’s best, remembering some of his brilliant Shakespeare themes.