23714 – easy start to the week

Author   foggywebPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 27:40

An enjoyable puzzle, mostly quite easy, with a few educated guesses where I wasn’t entirely sure. I sussed out all the wordplay before I wrote in the answers.
I didn’t know Esk, choriamb and wasn’t sure about one meaning of dish.

I expect to see some quick times today.

Across

1 FLAGON – a FLAG is often ON a staff
5 BROWBEAT – BROW, BE AT
10 A(RM)Y – RM=Royal Marines, AY=always, as in ‘for ever and ay’
11 AD,MI,RING – MI=I’M reversed
12 ESK,1,MO – MO=Medical Officer; I didn’t know the River Esk
18 CHORIAMB – anagram of ‘hair comb’ – I didn’t know this word but saw it could end in -IAMB and that was my only realistic option.
25 DISH – I knew dish could be an attractive person but wasn’t sure it could mean spoil; I checked this in Collins which has the example: he dished his chances of getting the job.
26 INAN(Y)E,VENT – I was held up for a bit thinking the second word was ALL.
28 RELAYS – reverse of S(YALE)R i.e. senior touring Yale

Down

3 G(LAD,1)ATOR
4 NAP,KIN – nap is the card game also known as napoleon
5 BRING AND BUY SALE – anagram of ‘I grab any bundles’
7 B(L)ACK – I initially looked for a noun meaning champion
8 ALMA MATER – MAMA in ALTER
16 HIGH-LEVEL – certain programming languages are described as high-level.
17 SANDWICH – a sandwich course is where you spend some time studying, then in the workplace, then studying again.
20 LAW(Y)ER
22 US,HER
24 NANNY – a nursemaid or a female goat

9 comments on “23714 – easy start to the week”

  1. Solved late last night – probably not a great idea. Made heavy weather of 26A with IN/AT and ALL/ANY. Also puzzled by round = band, but can’t see what else the answer could be. Time: 8:59. I belive foggyweb’s best time is 20:40 for 23696 three weeks ago.

    1. I have the same complaint regarding band/round.. especially because I put in GRANGE for 21ac hoping farmland is one of its meanings. Am not too sure about it on hindsight though.
  2. Off to a flying start but got held up by a couple in the SW corner.

    I suppose 21A is GROUND though I can’t quite see how “band” = “round” but if “round” can mean the letter “o” as it did last week and a band is O-shaped then that might be it. Or have I missed a better explanation?

    I didn’t know that GORE can mean a piece of cloth until I looked it up.

    Was this a new record time for you, Foggy? Your profile says 28 mins but maybe it’s not up to date. I was not far behind you today.

  3. easy indeed = one of my better times at sub-17′ — i had to guess like steven on choriamb (but iambic pentameter was in the back of my mind) and Esk. Is Eskimo really a language?
  4. Around 20 minutes for me; had hoped to be quicker but the leap from BAND = ROUND slowed me up too.
  5. I too thought this was going to be an easy canter until I hit the SW corner. I think 17 down is two meanings playing on course = food as well as study. I can find no justification for round = band but with ?R?U?D it had to be the answer. I guessed 18 across. I liked 10 across which is also “an lit” and yes, Eskimo is the language although I think they prefer Inuit. Jimbo
  6. I was surprised to see my time was 8.52 after completion, probably the first time I have been quicker than Peter,got 5D quickly which helped with a lot of across clues. Didn’t know choriamb and stumbled over in any/in all for a bit.
    JohnPMarshall
  8. 21a was my LOI. I only realised the answer after I had finally gone through all the pronouns to get US HER at 22d.

    Ten “easies” not in this blog:

    9a Let down sack? (10)
    DIS-APPOINT!

    13a After job in trading establishment (4)
    POST. Triple def.

    15a (The peony)* represented a newcomer on the scene (8)
    NEOPHYTE

    19a Make a hole in piece of material (4)
    GORE. Perhaps make a hole in a Toreador’s Tunic? A semi-permeable fabric apparently – you may have heard of the name Gore-Tex (c)?

    21a Land grand band (6)
    G ROUND. The not-very-popular BAND = ROUND.

    23a (Nearly go)* wrong over a period of time (8)
    YEARLONG

    27a I don’t know – the police may (6,2)
    SEARCH ME

    2d Leader of insurgents overwhelmed by fat landowner (5)
    LA I RD. A friend of the Fat Controller?

    6d Unprepared triple-jumpers must concentrate here first (2,3,3)
    ON THE HOP

    14d (He swore it)* would be different in different circumstances (9)
    OTHERWISE

Comments are closed.