23943

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 9:03

As I’m filling in for a blogger who forgot it was their turn, I’ll take the chance to mark expected meanings again and compare the count with yesterday’s much easier puzzle. Written in without full wordplay understanding: 12, 29, 3, 11, 14

Across
1 SEAFRONT = (after(no)on’s)* – time wasted looking for other parts of BrightON containing a similar ON.
5 DIM SUM – first letters of words in clue. EM: “for starters” as “acrostic indicator”
9 LAC = “thousands from India” – 100,000 to be precise. rev. of Cal. = California
10 MA(G.I.’S)TERIAL. EM: Soldiers = GIs
12 MIDI = dress,NET = overall, TES = rev. of set = matching garments – a fashionista special this one, with a 1970s style as well as SET as in “twin set”, and midinette – a seamstress in a Parisian fashion house
13 WEAR(y) – sport = to wear
15 MANCHU – hidden word – the Manchus are people from Manchuria, so we’re not just relying on Sax Rohmer here
16 R,HON.,DD,A EM: “doctor of divinity”=DD – this is fairly generous for DD – in the past it might just have been “cleric” or similar.
18 AR(M)REST
20 APAC(H)E – horse = H – either as a straight abbreviation or from both being heroin
23 BARD = “barred”
24 CAP=top,PUCCINO from O/I letter replacement in Puccini
26 A-(QUA(r)REL)LIST – aquarelle is painting with thin transparent watercolours
28 SWEATY = (we stay)* – EM: out as anag indicator
29 UNW(ANT)ED – EM: worker = ANT (or sometimes BEE)
 
Down
1 SOLE,M(aide)N – EM: disheartened as “outsides” indicator
2 A,RCADIA = (radica(l))*
3 ROMAN-A-CLEF – a novel in which real people / events are disguised by invented names – recent example: Primary Colors manacle=”heavy metal band, perhaps” in reversal (“up and coming”) of the EM: pro=FOR
4 NIGHT=”knight”,MUST FALL = “will inevitably be toppled”. Night Must Fall is a 1935 thriller by one Emlyn Williams which Wikipedia says is frequently revived. It’s also been filmed at least twice.
6 (f)IVES – Charles of that ilk (EM) is now vying with Arne as the favourite composer of the Times setters.
7 S(TIP=”extra money)END – EM: post=SEND
8 MAL(ARIA)L – EM: air=ARIA
11 SMEAR CAMPAIGN – “A MP” in MEARCA = camera*, all in SIGN=evidence
14 NOV. = several weeks, ASCOT=course (EM),I,A
17 GAM = rev. of mag.,BIA(N)S – EM: prejudice = BIAS (but unexpected: magazine not being the def.)
19 MARQUE = brand name, E = the bottom of thE – which raises the question of whether the text of a down clue can be considered as written downwards – as “the” is not in the grid, this is nonsense for me (but a widespread convention)
21 HA(IR.,CU)T – the “yes and no” is “yes” for the wordplay, “no” for a helmet revealing a haircut.
22 CO(WAR = rev. of raw)D
25 FRET – 2 defs – FRET is in Concise Oxford as “N English – a sea mist or fog”. it and the very similar “haar” were briefly popular with BBC weather forecasters a decade or two ago.

Expected meanings counts: 12 yesterday, 12 today – which might show that you can prove anything with this kind of statistic, or might show that the novel vocabulary is the thing that makes today’s puzzle harder.

18 comments on “23943”

  1. Whilst much was easy, there were a couple of areas that took an age. One was my fault – writing TEA confidently in for 27A and even wondering if I had seen an anagram of a definition (EAT) before etc. when I realised the error and entered CHA, HAIRCUT and then APACHE fell immediately into place.

    The bigger problem was the ROMAN/MIDINETTES cross and I have to admit I was stumped on this so had to check both. Whilst the former was probably gettable from the wordplay (if a little convoluted) I still have no idea how I should have solved the latter. Maybe I am stupidly missing something.

  2. 35 minutes for this with one error at 12 simply because I didn’t know the word and plumped for MODENETTES hoping in vain that “dress” = “mode” perhaps. I may have met AQUARELLIST before but today I had to work it out from the wordplay, and FRET was an obvious answer which I was unable to explain. Having since looked it up I remember coming across “sea fret” in a previous puzzle. Other than that this was was all fairly straightforward stuff.
  3. I thought this was going to be a quick solve, with the RHS going in in no time flat, but I was undone by the words I didn’t know. Had three left after an hour and resorted to aids for them – 3, 25 & 26. In fact, I’m still not sure about 25. I have FRET, but I can find no reference to it being a sea mist. Can anyone out there confirm or deny this?

    Didn’t know LAC, MIDINETTES, ROMAN-A-CLEF, NIGHT MUST FALL or AQUARELLIST.

  4. No problem with the bits of French but a long pause at the end while I sorted out the Gambians-Armrest intersection.

    I only ever see the word Midinette in crosswords these days but, unfortunately, whenever it occurs it reminds me of a 1960’s pop tune called Midi Midinette. It may only have been an instrumental in the UK. Despite the title, the only versions that I can find on Youtube are sung in German. The most risible is by the Ivan Romanoff Male Chorus and Orchestra featuring a clown wearing an oversized jockstrap. Watch this at your peril as you may find yourself humming Midi Midinette for the rest of the day.

  5. 20:36 .. Always good to see some half-forgotten and rare words getting their day in the sun. I feel quite virtuous now that I’ve learnt AQUARELLIST and MIDINETTE, and doubly so now that the Eng. Lit. degree has finally paid off – I’ve been waiting twenty years to find a use for ROMAN-A-CLEF.

    I’ll give COD to 15a MANCHU, my last in. With the online rendering, at least, I didn’t see the hidden word until the morning after ‘solving’ it with fingers crossed.

  6. Didn’t know MIDINETTES, AQUARELLIST of LAC (for Lakh)otherwise fairly straightforward but had unnacountable problems with SW corner. Last in the simple SWEATY which demonstrates that I was not at my best early today. The latest movie version of Night Must Fall had a young and awsome Albert Finney back in the days when he was still trying.
  7. I thought this was a very enjoyable puzzle, quite a few clues marked, 25 mins. Like someone commenting above, my last was also MANCHU, despite it’s being just a hidden answer. I think it was the ruling family of China up to early in the 20th century. COD ARMREST with excellent misleading context, also esp liked SEAFRONT, CAPPUCINO, MARQUEE.
  8. I was travelling rather well until I hit the SW corner and came to a grinding halt. Kicking myself that I never got around to making that list of sea mists that I promised myself I’d do one day. Last in was the MIDINETTES though, which added another 10 minutes to my time, 5 of which I spent sorting out the wordplay having correctly guessed the answer. I thought there were many good clues here, including ARMREST, MAGISTERIAL, CAPPUCCINO and the MIDINETTES, but COD to ROMAN-A-CLEF, a much neglected word and one I will strive to use in a sentence in the very near future.

    As for MANCHU, I thought the German was Manu, possibly from the Alsace region, and I’m sure my familiarity with NIGHT MUST FAll comes via Spike Milligan, although I couldn’t say for sure from which Goon Show script.

  9. Like others it was the SW corner that slowed things up. I think the combination of a difficult construction for GAMBIANS and the unknown AQUARELLIST account for that. I think LAC is a bit obscure for the daily puzzle but liked SMEAR CAMPAIGN.
  10. Took two solving sessions, either side of the lunch break in the cricket and some gin and tonics. I liked this, there’s some really interesting wordplay that makes the difficult words *just* accessible. Had to get AQUARELLIST from wordplay, ditto NIGHT MUST FALL and RHONDDA. MIDINETTES from definition (I think it was in a Mephisto a year or so ago?) similarly MARQUEE.
    1. I also remember Midinette from a year or two ago , but I thought it was in a daily Times. The reference was to a shop girl rather than a seamstress.

      Nick

    2. She had appearances in both Mephisto and the daily within a couple of weeks of one another – I blogged both!
  11. Like others I enjoyed this puzzle, only real difficulty being fret, an obvious candidate but didn’t know that meaning. Finally spotted “sea fret” in chambers..
  12. I worked steadily through this, but in the light of some of the above comments my time was a rather slow one of 40 minutes, 3, 12 and 26 being the ones that held me up. In the case of 3 it was an unforced error, entering the first hyphen after 4, not 5, letters, that delayed the solution.
    I do have a very vivid recollection of Albert Finney’s fine performance in Night Must Fall to which barrywldm refers.
  13. The full hour but pleased as aquarellist and roman a clef and midinettes held me up
    good puzzle overall

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