Solving time 11:08
I enjoyed this puzzle for some original and well-chosen wordplay.
This is my last blog before the Championships, so good luck to all bloggers and commenters past and present who are subjecting themselves to this piece of gentle masochism, especially my old school prefect Shane Shabankareh, who missed last year’s final by one place. I should be back in time to give you a report about what happened on the day.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | SAY=perhaps,SO=like this |
4 | STANHOPE – anag. of phaetons, and another carriage. A familiar wordplay route for old hands, but hard to resist. |
8 | CRU(CI,VERBAL,I)ST – needed all the checking letters for this, not seeing living=crust as in “earning a crust”. Don’t get me started on ‘cruciverbalist’ used as anything other than a joke – Chambers rightly has “usu. facetious” for ‘cruciverbal’ |
10 | NEG=gen rev.,L(I,G=start to get)ENT – fast = LENT |
11 | LO,YAL=lay rev. = “settle in retirement” |
12 | CA(R)NAL – carnal = animal = sensual |
14 | GO(TOTO)WN – Toto is Dorothy’s dog in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – an easy enough lit. reference, I hope |
18 | SET,TEE=support – for golf or rugby ball |
20 | ICHOR – hidden in Harpsichord – what the Gk gods have instead of blood |
22 | LAR GHETTO – we move from Greek gods to Roman domestic ones. |
24 | BREA=bare*,THINGS,PACE – I could see the SPACE at the end easily, but {things=clothes} took much longer |
25 | HERSTORY = (to sherry)* – history from a feminist point of view |
26 | Y=unknown quantity,EAST=bearing. Note for beginners that the ‘unknowns’ from algebra are conventionally X,Y and Z in the Times puzzle, though in principle they could be any letter. |
 | |
Down | |
1 | SECOND = support,CO(US)IN – “some family” is the def |
2 | YOUNG = (guy, no)* |
3 | OR(I,GIN=trap)ATE |
4 | SWEDEN = N(Ed.)EWS rev. |
5 | A,M(BIT,I)ON. – bit=moment in Brit. colloquial |
6 | HAL,A,L – Hal =Prince Hal from Shak.’s Henry IV |
7 | PUSSYFOOT – 2 def’s, one a bit whimsical – paw=”pussy foot” |
9 | BLONDE MOMENT – M in (model bent on)* – didn’t know this phrase but saw the analogy with ‘senior moment’ and the more entertaining “craft moment” – craft = “can’t remember a f***ing thing” |
13 | RACE,HORSE – with a ‘whole clue’ def as well as the simple ‘animal’ |
15 | OVER=regarding,HA(St.)Y – “to cut” is a container indicator of a particular Times xwd style |
16 | BALL=party,Y(a)HOO |
19 | B,RANDY=hot |
21 | ROADS=”Rhodes” |
23 | T(I)ARA – I was going to protest that the Tara of Irish kings is a hill, not a vale, but I’ve just realised that this is the Latin ‘vale’ = farewell = “ta-ra” – best done with Cilla Black’s Scouse rolling of the R. |
The most enjoyable puzzle I have done in a while. Surprising combination of classical references with low culture references. Good and outrageous surfaces. Brilliant.
Favourite clue might be 22 (LARGHETTO), but I really do feel spoilt for choice.
I then kick-started things by cheating on the anagram at 4ac, having convinced myself that “phaetons” was some technical scientific term and probably its anagram was too, and then the rest of it came slowly together.
I also had never heard of BLONDE MOMENT but it had to be that. Other guesses were HERSTORY and ICHOR.
Q-0, E-8, D-7 …. COD 13 RACEHORSE
Some excellent wordplay and some interesting answers. I had to guess at STANHOPE (it sounded like a carriage). I got the anagram at 25 early on but couldn’t believe it was a word! ICHOR I knew but it was nice to see it used.
Got 8 early from the definition which helped a lot.
I liked the use of “ditzy” in 9 as an anagram indicator and a pointer to “blonde” (apologies to blonde contributors for pointing this out).
“Lar” in 22 was new, although it seems so useful for setters I suspect it must crop up quite often.
Didn’t we have “yahoo” recently? On an antipodean note, there is an Australian actor who officially changed his name to “Yahoo Serious”. Each to his own.
Assuming you knew the meaning of ‘phonates’ when solving, if you know what ‘phaetons’ means, the “this is similar” part of the clue just doesn’t fit. If you don’t know what ‘phaetons’ means, you don’t know whether “this is similar” does fit – a classic time for trying 4/5/6/7 down before you put PHONATES into the grid, and seeing whether the checking letters agree (ditto if you were unsure about the meaning/existence of PHONATES). SWEDEN or HALAL might well have saved you.
What a difference a day makes! A super puzzle, well crafted, not fiendish but hard enough to make the greycells work. As Peter indicates STANHOPE/phaetons is an old favourite and 8A is a classic solve from the definition and reverse engineer the wordplay. Is the setter something of a MCP with both 25A and 9D somewhat unflattering to the distaff side of family support. They both made me laugh and I think 9D is very good.
Best of luck at the champs, you who are going. Here’s hoping to read a familiar name in the paper on Monday!
Appreciative ticks all over the place for a puzzle combining great technique and the inclusion of not-seen-that-before contemporary answers; BLONDE MOMENT, HERSTORY – fantastic.
Loads of COD candidates and my choice, the superbly observed 18, is almost certainly matched elsewhere; it just caught my fancy as soon as I spotted the answer.
Q-0 E-9 D-7, COD 18, Time 11 minutes
Brilliant puzzle, definitely. Not a dud among all the clues, and I’d probably choose a different COD every time I looked at them; right now I like 7 – PUSSYFOOT.
Dafydd.
Agree with Ken that larghetto is poor – had no idea about lar/lares and the answer isn’t among the handful of musical terms I know so I reckon that’s obscure knowledge in both the def and wordplay which is a no-no.
Also slowed by the things/clothes bit of 24, forgetting about yahoo as thug and not quite believing that herstory is a word.
Good puzzle overall though.
Q-1, E-8, D-7, COD cruciverbalist, just pipping racehorse and settee.
Anyway, once STANHOPE had gone in everything else seemed to flow from that, meaning perhaps that these were clues that yielded quite easily once I had a single letter of the answer.
But at least I can come here and learn, rather than glare at the answers tomorrow thinking “But?!-*what:?how???..” And I can now appreciate the mad mental gymnastics that are involved, albeit with gritted teeth. Ah well, tomorrow is another day.
IanD
Whether solvers or setters we’re all in this together and the blog is blessed with cryptic devotees of all levels of experience. If anything in the daily puzzle confuses you, don’t be afraid to ask – as far as we’re concerned there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
Also 23 was pleasingly deceptive. Finished in 12.15 which felt like a good time for a challenging solve
JohnPMarshall
Neil
Beginners wanting to learn something from this puzzle: watch out for other coaches to go with the phaetons and stanhopes – many have handy names with other meanings. Also note the variety of anagram indicators in this puzzle and how well they fit into the clues.
Of course, once I saw ‘larghetto’, I was really stuck. It was only after trying all possible letter combinations that I saw ‘breathing’.
Well, tomorrow is another day….
Couldn’t get ballyhoo. Read “sherry” in the clue for 28, brought to mind Tio Pepe = Spanish for Uncle Joe, so it just had to be a Russian second world war ally in 17.
Just the one omission:
17a British ally relatively speaking? (5,3)
UNCLE SAM.