Time taken to solve: An hour before I resorted to help on 15ac to kickstart the SE corner where I was well and truly stuck. Then it took me another 10 minutes. I found this an absolutley infuriating puzzle with a number of loose definitions and obscure words, sometimes in the same clue/solution. I became completely bogged down in the SE and by the time I finished I was bored with the whole thing. I’m afraid as a result I have not written a very interesting blog, but I think all the answers are here.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | PA,RADI(S)AL |
6 | TOPI(C) – Reference to a hot topic, I suppose |
9 | DIABOLO – Why “children'”? I know the word through the old variety act so I don’t associate it with children. |
10 | OCEANIA – (Ice on a + a)* |
11 | E,LITE |
12 | KING, P(R(ook))AWN |
15 | B(RA,H,MAP) UT,RA – A sacred Asian river which I have somehow managed to avoid knowledge of until today. |
17 | MOUNTAINEER – Enumeration* |
20 | HOM(O(LOG)U)E |
22 | E(QUI)P – Alien “who” = “qui” |
24 | E,N(VI)OUS |
26 | G(AV(OTT)E |
27 | DIDDY – I assume this is a double definition. I know diddy means small but can’t find that it also means a fool unless it’s supposed to be a teat/tit reference, in which case I wouldn’t think much of it. |
28 | EX,T(ROVER)T – TT races again |
Down | |
1 | PA(D)RE |
2 | READING – For those who don’t know, Reading is a town west of London near the M4 motorway. A confusing clue in the on-line version which has M-four. We know about the problem with numerals, but where has the hyphen come from? |
3 | DO 0,NES BIT – Edith Nesbit best known as author of The Railway Children |
4 | STOCKTAKING |
6 | THESP – Chambers has Thesp for Thespian but it’s not in Collins or the COED. |
7 | PEN,NAN,T |
8 | CHAIN GANG |
13 | N(UMBER,E)IGHT – I got the answer but couldn’t explain it until I looked in Chambers (again), which has it as a forward position in Rugby Union. Collins and the COED don’t list it. |
14 | GUM’S,H(1)ELD |
16 | PARLEYVOO – Overplay*+0. Parleyvoo can mean the French language, from Parlais-vous, Do you speak…? |
18 | UNMOVED – (No mud)* around Victory in Europe day, hence the 1945 reference. |
19 | SCUTTLE – Two meanings |
21 | LOOPY – Toyed with LOONY but LOOPY also captures the “twisted” element of the clue. |
25 | SEE – Oh dear, this is feeble. On edit: Thanks to Richard below for providing an example that shows it can work. I now see my comment was a bit harsh on the setter.. |
The OED has “diddy” = “fool” though Chambers (1988 ed) doesn’t even list the word (I don’t have the COED or Collins).
As a rugby fan I had no problem with 13D!
15A is worthy of Mephisto. I “solved it” from the word play and then used Google to verify my answer. The same goes for 13D where I needed the dictionary to verify the “forward” connotation. I also guessed DIDDY from small, not seeing any connevtion with “fool” but unable to see any other possibility.
I liked 11A, which made me laugh.
et Voila! Trente-six minutes, sans aides. Non demi mauvais, n’est-ce pas?
Je t’aime le fleuvre sacre au 15, qui est trés complicatement mais ingénieux comme un truckload de monquees. Et le dope pour les fatties a 11 est une cause de rire.
L-1, L-8, L-9 [le clef: L=les quibbles, L=le divertissement, L=le dificulté]
Et Bon Chance à tous les scribbleurs au Cheltenham! Allez les Bloggeurs!
15:37, though it felt longer. I was a bit frightened not to get any of the acrosses until 17 on my first run through. But the bottom half filled itself in then – except for DIDDY which I guessed at the end – and then the top half took rather longer.
With Cheltenham coming up, the most worrying thing was that afterwards I found I had left a square blank. I simply hadn’t filled in the I of DO ONE’S BIT.
I think Jack is being a bit unfair on 25D (Check date (3)). It seems to me a perfectly respectable two-meanings clue. The two meanings probably appear under the same headword, but they are very different.
But maybe I just haven’t thought of the right context where they might mean exactly the same.
I’ll go and see if Chambers supports it. Yes, I think it does. The intransitive meaning of see=”to look or inquire”, or check=”to make investigations”.
As an example, you could substitute “check” for “see” in my first sentence.
Do the results get reported in the paper? Or will anyone be in a position to post them here Sunday evening?
Good luck to all again (not in Franglais this time)
If you haven’t been to Cheltenham for a while you will find it rather changed. I worked there for a couple of years in 1960s when it was genteel and quietly victorian. I returned briefly about 10 years ago and didn’t like it nearly so much. The village where I had lived at the foot of Cleve Hill had become almost a small town!
Good luck to all our competitors on Sunday.
Thanks for the information re. the championship.
29:22 with a little bit of checking here and there. Some of the more original clues (e.g. elite & extrovert) were let down slightly by unconvincing surface readings. I though the diddy/loopy pairing in the SW was poor.
Q-1 (general unease), E-7, D-8, COD 18.
Good luck Ken, Peter and any others going to Chelters to compete on Sunday. If one of you wins we can all dance a Gavotte in your honour.
I have more modest ambitions for Sunday in that it would be very nice to complete all three correctly. If (with a very large, capital I) that is also quick enough to qualify for the final that would be utterly fantastic (incredible?). I think the chances of me winning it are slim to nil.
I think I’m in a minority today because I thoroughly enjoyed it and didn’t care about any small liberties taken by the setter. It’s a bit difficult to find a COD nom though.
This strange week has just concluded with the total collapse of my car’s gearbox, which is giving me concerns for tomorrow’s trip to Chelt. I’ll get there somehow; maybe I just have to walk. So perhaps my mind was a little distracted and I wasn’t seeing clues quite as lucidly as I usually would.
Very good crossword I think; but this slight mental fumblement is probably preventing a more balanced evaluation.
Q-0 E-7 D-8 COD 13
I will be at Cheltenham. If anyone else is staying overnight why not pop along to the Kemble Brewery pub on Saturday night , a few solvers and a setter or two should be there.
I managed to sneak into the final last year when a batch of runners were felled by a wicket/picket? fence answer choice.Would need a similar occurrence this year I think.
13.10 today , good for a warm-up
JohnPMarshall
From wordplay: BRAHMAPUTRA, PARLEYVOO, GUMSHIELD, THESP. From definition or just a hail Mary guess: LOOPY, DIDDY.
Good luck to the competition entrants…they seem to comprise almost all of the bloggers!
I’ll be looking out for the recorded highlights on the BBC. Slow motion replays, the lot…
Haven’t found time to try today’s Times (just as well, probably, given the comments I’ve read above!) but thanks to those who encouraged me in my despair on Tuesday, my Wed and Thur were much better and altho I didn’t finish them (work delayed me, then darkness fell…) I got much further and felt that another day or three and I’d have puzzled out the rest – mostly.
IanD
There are 4 “easies” left out and one of them has more than 3 letters:
14a Shut up from both sides? (3)
GAG. In other words a palindrome.
19a Drop fuel when reversing (3)
SAG
5d Little room for game (3)
LOO. Must find out how to play this somewhen.
23d Gather fuel’s around a pound (5)
P £ EAT