Solving time 16:10
On first look, I got to 16A before writing anything, but then did quite well with the bottom half and worked back into the NE corner. But the top left took ages, with the last few answers being 10, 8, 6A, 6D, (long pause), 14. Overall experience was a mixture of feeling good for getting some answers quickly and feeling thick for taking ages with some others. Stock blogging phrase no. 27 applies – there are lots of well-written clues to admire here.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | STIR=prison,ABOUT=nearby – I didn’t understand why this is “Oscar Wilde’s porridge” until looking up stirabout and finding “Anglo-Irish for porridge”. |
6 | MOUNT – 2 defs, one referring to the volcano, not the Lancs town with the Rugby League side that the surface meaning is about. And the other is “that upon which a thing is placed” |
10 | CHAIN=four perches,SHOT=attempt – two bullets / half-bullets, joined by a chain, used to destroy the rigging of ships. My new word for the day. In Imperial measurement, a chain (22 yds) is four perches, or rods or poles – which we’ll meet later as it happens. |
11 | MOVING STAIRCASE = (it’s a scare)* – wordplay in the answer |
13 | HORSE BOX – punch as in “Suffolk punch” – a short-legged draught horse |
14 | WHACK,O – with ?H?C?O I had one of those “what fits here?” panics, and initially forgot to include W in my list of options for the first letter. Whack = share is Brit slang. Whacko = nuts – as in “Whacko Jacko”. Horribly tempted by THICKO for a while but decided thick=share was too ridiculous. |
16 | NEEDLE – 2 defs – a great clue which I don’t think I’ve seen before. |
18 | PR(ACT)ISE – handy wordplay for those with an -ice / -ise spelling blind spot. |
21 | SITUATION,COME,DY – the friends in Friends are in one, then state=SITUATION, appear = COME, extremely dopey = DY |
23 | RO(A)D,HOUSE – rod = pole – either as a stick or as the measurement mentioned above. |
25 | (r)ELATE(d) |
27 | DI=I’d rev.,RTY WORD = (w(ith), dry rot)* |
Down | |
1 | S,WARM – with “group flying” as the def. |
2 | INADVERTENT = (ate TV dinner)* |
3 | AL(DENT)E – dent as in “dent one’s finances”, I think |
5 | TO A MAN = To A(m)man! – Amman is the capital of Jordan. Edited to reflect fgbp’s comment about which M is removed |
6 | M(ON)ARCH – kind of butterfly involved in a fairly epic migration in the US and Mexico, from memory. |
7 | (h)UGH – St Hugh was a bishop of Lincoln. All I can tell you about him is that he had a pet swan for some reason. |
8 | TITLE,(p)ROLE – Mother C is a play – Brecht, I think. |
12 | ARCHIPELA=(cheap rail)*,GO – didn’t know that Bahrain is one. |
15 | G.R.,AND=with,EUR(o) |
17 | LEA(THE)R – ‘humourist’ is nearly always Edward LEAR |
19 | COOKERY – C.(= about) replaces the R in rookery. Poaching is cooking as well as stealing game. |
20 | PIQUED = “peeked” |
I still don’t understand 6D btw despite reading PB’s comment above; how does “border area” = MARCH?
Harry Shipley
Being irritatingly pedantic (because I made the same mistake myself) the clue to 5 down parses as TO A(M)MAN. It’s the centre of the clue that is missing, not the centre of Amman, which wouldn’t make sense, surface-wise.
R.Saunders
I can’t remember doing this before. What’s happening?
9a A returned lottery prize (5)
A WARD. A then DRAW backwards.
26a Record held by AberdeEN TERrier (5)
ENTER
4d A special time for instance (8)
OCCASION. Double definition.
13d Like some mobiles workers have not charged up (5-4)
HANDS-FREE. Not sure about the “up” at the end?
22d Give up the struggle and return (5)
YIELD. Another double def.
24d Paintings of pArRoTs oddly overlooked (3)
ART