Solving time : 14:50
Good start, with 1A, 1D and the two long ones across the centre filled in straight away. But then trouble in the corners, and five full minutes at the end to get 10A and 2D. Three ships or vessels feature (scow, lighter (both in 25D) and barque(23A)). Ships are one of those things I know lots of words about from crosswords, without any understanding at all of what they mean. Besides those three, my favourites include brig and prau. Cultural references in the puzzle include Edith Sitwell, Our Mutual Friend, Paddington Bear and Carousel.
Across
3 | S + CHO (LAST) IC[e] |
10 | T (HORN + B) ACK – I’d never heard of this fish, so the distinctive looking pattern (T???N?A?K) didn’t help. It was only when I started trying to fit instruments in that I managed to build up the word. |
11 | car(OUSEL)- I was very pleased to get this straight away. The musical Carousel appears surprisingly often in crosswords. Perhaps I should see or listen to it some time. |
12 | SITWELL – There aren’t many famous Ediths, and only Sitwell has seven letters |
21 | DAMMED (= damned) – Good to have a homophone that works in all accents, unlike the second one in 14D |
26 | CHI(L)D – Good of the setter to include “once” to signal the slightly archaic CHID |
27 | DRAG ON + 1’S H – I am not entirely sure about the parsing of this clue. What is there to tell us that “drag on” comes before “one’s husband”? |
28 | W + R(ETCHED)LY |
29 | BEAR – meaning brook (verb) |
Down
2 | S + TO A T – ie initial letter of Satisfied and “to a T” meaning perfectly. I could quibble about the definition – “Eating rabbit, he”. But that would just be sour grapes, as this was the last clue I solved and probably shouldn’t have been. |
4 | CHA(LLEN)GE – ie NELL (reversed) replacing R (instructor ultimately) in CHARGE. |
7 | TOSCA + N(IN)I – perfectly correct cluing, but strange to find IN being clued by “popular” just before the word “in” in the clue, and then the same two letters being clued as “the Province” (for Northern Ireland) |
9 | ANNE + AL (Capone) – I am not sure why the elements in “Gangster (=AL, as usual) with girl (ANNE)” are reversed |
14 | BELL+WETHER – Interesting choice to use two homophone indicators: “Utter” for BELLE = BELL, and “say” for WHETHER = WETHER |
19 | DAMON (rev) + 1 + C – Apparently Damon pledged his life to enable his condemned friend Pythias to go say good-bye to his family. |
22 | DO(D)GE – I have a strong déjà vu feeling about this clue, but I may be mistaken |
24 | QUITE – three meanings, though all rather similar. Odd not to use the fact that it is one of those words with more or less opposite meanings (=”completely” and =”not completely”). There is a list of such words here. |
25 | S(C)OW |
Pretty hard day today – the Guardian’s by Paul, one of the toughest setters they have. It was also my first post on Fifteensquared
I think 27 works as a full-word pun: “Drag on one’s husband”, ho-ho.
Mike O.
Skiathos
Indeed. After a good recent run, this took me 24 mins, with over 15 of that on the last 6 or so. As well as STOAT and THORNBACK, I struggled with BELLWETHER, BAROQUE and QUITE, and even DAMMED, having tried to make JAMMED work for a while. Got there in the end though.
1a Too illogicAL SOmehow? Not entirely = ALSO (too)
13a Common like Dickens’s friend = MUTUAL
15a Where the sleepers are found at every point = ALL ALONG THE LINE
18a (Quaint lines once)* oddly unrelated to the foregoing = INCONSEQUENTIAL
23a Highly ornate vessel crossing mouth of Orinoco = BAR O QUE
1d Representation of (Titian’s cat)* not attracting dust = ANTISTATIC
5d Fibre obtained from tree with hesitation = OAKUM! Easy enough wordplay but hardly GK unless you’re a 200 year old shipwright?)
8d Little room that may be wet or dry = CELL (cell also = battery)
16d Well paid (vicar let)* loose about (u)*niversity = LUCRATIVE
17d Sort of sketch Tom needs to secure = THUMB NAIL
8d