23,486 – and a Happy New Year to all

Author   foggywebPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time : 1h 12m
Not a bad start to the year. I spent an hour on this and had completed most but the SW corner. Came back after a short break and it all fell into place.

I didn’t spot any ‘Happy New Year’ clues – did you?

Across

1 PRECIS – not quite precise
10 PASS,IV,ELY
13 ORIENTALISM – anagram of “merit in Laos”
14 LTCHI – hidden word, not seen this spelling – it’s lychee in my local Chinese restaurant
16 R(AIM)ENT
19 I,NEX(AC)T
20 PENN,ON – a flag (new word to me)
22 PROFI(TERO)LE – TERO is anagram of “Tore”. I got this at the beginning of my second session, producing enough to hep me finish off the tricky SW corner
26 IS(T)LE – last answer I wrote in: T is ‘carpet ultimately’ – not come across ISTLE before, but I’ve seen Man=ISLE a number of times
27 EN,COUNTER
29 SEEM,L[ivel]Y

Down

1 PAP(AY)A – AY as in ‘for ever and ay’ – only seen this in crossword puzzles
2 ERST(W)HILE – wife=W in anagram of “this reel”
3 IN[d]IGO – I had heard of Inigo Jones, but don’t think it would have come as quickly without this simple clue
5 BEYOND REPROACH – anagram of “Chop and beer Roy prepared
7 ICENI (“I see nigh”) – I’d not heard of the Iceni tribe before
15 CHAR,IN,E,SS – bit of an involved clue here: E=ecstasy, illegal drug; SS=steamship, vessel
17 E,COSY,STEM
18 P(IN)P,RICK – second to last one I wrote in – don’t know why it took so long – on first reading I thought ‘very quiet’=PP and ‘at home’=IN
21 S,KERRY – a rocky island (which I didn’t know); Kerry is a breed of cattle (which I did know)
23 OUTR[ag]E
24 E,LUD,E – Lud as in ‘But I’m innocent, m’lud’

7 comments on “23,486 – and a Happy New Year to all”

  1. How does ‘Stop a rocket’ define GET IT IN THE NECK at 9dn?

    The Iceni are regular visitors and (probably along with Impi) perhaps the most useful tribe to know.

    1. Queen Bodicea, Queen of Icini
      Stopping a rocket: rocket= dressing down not a firework!
      1. Is “stop a rocket” recent slanglish for getting told off? I haven’t heard it before — and even Google isn’t helping much.
        1. Can’t say I’ve ever heard “Stop a rocket” in this context before, but I’ve known the expression “Get a rocket” since childhood (1950s)
          1. I’m no closer to understanding this clue. Like Ilan, I can’t find any examples of the phrase ‘stop a rocket’ or of ‘stop’ used in this way. Can anyone clarify? (The whole clue was: “Stop a rocket, but understand position of stopper?” (3,2,2,3,4).)
            1. I think the setter was just taking the colloquial meaning a bit further – the metaphorical rocket being launched from the headmaster/superior’s side of the desk and plunging into the unfortunate beratee rather than zooming past them. It’s not very logical, but this bothers me less as part of the clue than it would if STOP A ROCKET were an answer in the grid.
  2. All this talk of rocketry is about 9d which is not included in the blog – here it is with all the other lonely omitted ones:

    4a Bordering on what nanny may give us = A BUTTING – the nanny in question being a goat presumably.
    11a It’s grim at the back of the galley! = STERN
    12a Churchyard feature the solver mentioned = YEW – sounds like you (the solver). Yew is common in charch yards and around older houses.
    25a Rabbit on, identifying Bos grunniens = YAK – I did not know the scientific name for the Yak but having Y*K and a definition of “rabbit on” made it a bit of a gimme.

    8d He makes what he sells, lock, stock and barrel = GUNSMITH
    9d Stop a rocket, but understand position of stopper = GET IT IN THE NECK – where understand = get it and position of stopper = in the neck. I suppose the “stop a rocket” definition ties in with the “position of stopper”?

Comments are closed.