Solving time: 1h36
Pretty tough going. Luckily the two long ones were places I have heard of – might cause problems for some. I didn’t get the wordplay for ABSCOND until I did this write-up.
It was a shame that Besançon did not appear correctly online, as it was important to the clue.
Good fun and no complaints from me.
Pretty tough going. Luckily the two long ones were places I have heard of – might cause problems for some. I didn’t get the wordplay for ABSCOND until I did this write-up.
It was a shame that Besançon did not appear correctly online, as it was important to the clue.
Good fun and no complaints from me.
Across
5 | RANDOM – Roderick Random was new to me. |
10 | BARROW-IN-FURNESS(“furnace”) – I drove past the town about six months ago, and I didn’t have to wait for too many letters before I wrote it in. |
11 | LANTERN; N(knight) in LATER[a]N – I had heard the term ‘Lateran Basilica’ but wasn’t entirely sure if it was right – looked up to check. |
12 | SINGLET – there is a ‘single t’ in centre of Luton but a ‘double t’ in Sutton – I’ve seen SINGLET=’single t’ in crosswords a few times now. |
13 | STRESSED; reverse of desserts e.g. gooseberry fools |
18 | CHELA (corrected spelling post comment) hidden word – guessed this then checked – it’s the claw of a crab, scorpion etc. |
20 | DORM,OUSE – the DORMOUSE was a guest at the tea party in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. |
23 | ABSCOND – I wrote this in before sussing the wordplay, I think it’s ABS,C(ON)D; ABS=ratings(sailors) and ON=’just after’ inside CD=record. |
25 | CEDILLA – this doesn’t make a lot of sense if you’re doing this online – the ‘ç’ of Besançon appears as a box here. With a few helpful checked letters I got this and it all made sense! |
26 | BURTON-UPON-TRENT – took a while to unravel the wordplay here: BUR,TON-UP,ONT,RENT; BUR=rub reversed, TON-UP=high speed, anag of NOT, RENT=charge. |
27 | EMBOSS; rev. of ME(note)+BOSS; I wasn’t sure about the definition at first – I think it refers to embossing being the adding to or raising of e.g. a surface and graving being the carving out or removing. |
28 | NEARCTIC; anagram of ‘it can’+CER(odd letters of cheer) – originally pencilled in ‘serrated’ thinking of the coastline of Greenland. |
Down
2 | LORGNETTE – cryptic (but not very) definition – I knew the word, had to check the spelling. |
3 | SLOVENE; ENS reversed about LOVE. En is a useful unit to know – it’s the width of a capital N in printing – half the size of an em (M). |
4 | ALIEN – I wrote this in before getting 12A and guessed that would end ET! |
6 | A(CRONY)M – Ernie is the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment used in selecting premium bond numbers. |
8 | MISS,TATE – Henry Tate, the sugar man, established the Tate Gallery in London. |
9 | OFFSIDER=”off cider” – I hadn’t come across the NZ + Aus word for partner, despite being born in NZ and watching Neighbours for more than 2/3 of my life. |
14 | SIDED,RUM |
16 | RESI(LIEN)T |
19 | A,MORO,US – I vaguely knew the name Moro – I guess this is the correct construction. |
21 | [h]OL(D)STER – a greybeard is a name for an old man, whereas an oldster can be a man or a woman – but I’m not complaining! |
22 | MASTIC[ate] – I’d heard of mastic but didn’t know it was an aromatic resin. This along with NEARCTIC at 28a were the last to go in. |
24 | SHRUB – I knew elder was a shrub; I had to look up to check that SHRUB was also a drink – see meaning 2 |
25 | C,LOVE |
Didn’t like CD for ‘record’ in 23A (although Chambers says a disc (or formerly a cylinder) on which sound is registered for reproduction by an instrument such as a gramophone) or ME instead of MI in 27A (Chambers says an anglicized spelling of mi).
–ilan
R. Saunders
I very much enjoyed acronym being broken down into a-crony-m the first time I came across it; it still has its merits now. Less convinced by 14D and ‘sided’ = ‘was partial to’.
I thought this was “offside” since all meanings of grave as a verb that are opposite to “emboss” are described by Chambers as obsolete or archaic. Overall this was very hard for me!
16D: Didn’t get RESIT=exam
27A: Is BOSS regular crosswordese for governor?
If ENS are the units, how to justify European?
–ilan
1a Nothing in (cell was)* so strange as healthy food (8)
C 0 LESLAW. The anagrist does NOT include the “so” as this would result in a superfluous S. The necessary “O” comes from nothing = 0 and therefore = O. The anagrind is thus “so strange”.
15a Advantage of a high order? (5)
MERIT. This is a simple double definition as far as I can see. Merit can equate to an advantage and there is an “order of merit” somewhere in some honours system I suspect? Not easy to get with 5 blank spaces but not too hard with M?R?T.
1d Clumsily patch up old paving stone (6)
COBBLE. A pretty easy DD.
7d Live and prosper without love (5)
D (0) WELL
17d Take off immediately for biker’s trial (8)
SCRAMBLE. Another DD. This conjures up images of the chaps running for their Spitfires in B&W WWII films and 1960s off-road motorcycle racers covered in mud on the B&W tele. It is called Moto-X now isn’t it?