Solving time: 8:25
The great thing about this puzzle is the surface readings – consistently excellent throughout, with no trace of “could only be a crossword clue”. The top row – SET APART / PAIR UP – is a pair of nicely contrasting words, which made me look for others in the grid in case there’s some kind of message – I don’t think there’s anything significant. I wrote in 1A, 13 and 26 without full wordplay understanding.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SETAP = rev. of pates,ART=school subject – pate=head, especially a hairless one it seems – ODE has he scratched his balding pate as its example |
| 5 | P(AIR)UP – air is another “contranym”, given its “warm (clothes) to remove dampness” meaning, |
| 10 | RAISED ONE’S VOICE = (disco I’ve reason)*,E – note that this uses the “In {wordplay} {def}” format which is a bit of a Times favourite |
| 11 | SUMMERY = “summary” – links are to howjsay.com, which has a voice reading out words in the kind of English accent which I reckon the Times puzzle “speaks”. Words and links fixed after comment from Barry |
| 12 | BASH OUT = “quickly make” – (to a bush)* |
| 13 | C(HITCH)AT |
| 15 | DE(C)AL – decals are the little stickers you get with Airfix and similar models, to be stuck on after you’ve done the Humbrol painting bit (I usually lost interest after assembling the bits of grey plastic). Possibly a tricky clue for overseas solvers – ODE marks the corresponding meaning of “transfer” as British. |
| 18 | R=run,ID ES(t) = “that is”, in Latin |
| 20 | MAN,IT,OBA(n) – two items to “lift and separate” here – “Italian port”, and “northern province”. |
| 23 | TUM=corporation=belly – another Times favourite,BRIL(l) – althouth they must have ben invented long before, tumbrils are best known in the English language for their role in carrying condemned prisoners to the guillotine in the French revolution – this is mentioned in all the dictionary defs I’ve checked |
| 25 | TRAP=bag,EZE = “e’s” – the same drug as yesterday. I wondered how a trap could be a bag, but it can’t – this is the verb meaning trap = capture = bag |
| 26 | CASTLES IN THE AIR – def and cryptic def – I didn’t understand the wordplay because I’d read “rooks” as “rocks”. I persuaded myself somehow that castles were rocky, but should take more care – I know of a Times Championship that slipped away from someone because of a similar misreading combined with an unfortunate coincidence. |
| 27 | LOCUS = place – familiar to A-level maths students, and behind the use of “locum”,T from EgypT |
| 28 | TOUR(I)S,T(ack)Y – the city of Tours is anything but a tacky tourist attraction. |
| Down | |
| 1 | SU = rev. of U.S.,REST=everyone else |
| 2 | TRIUMPHED – hump* in TRIED |
| 3 | PRESENT – 2 defs, one as in “all present and correct”, though I can’t find the precise “awaiting someone” meaning in ODE. I agree with Simon’s suggestion of “pre-sent” as a word fitting this bill (a suggestion which turns out to have been “pre-sent” by z8b8d8k) |
| 4 | omitted – ask if baffled |
| 6 | A,DV(IsSuEs)D |
| 7 | R(ic)H,I,NO – “rhino” is yet another (Brit.) slang word for “money”, listed in Collins |
| 8 | PRETTILY – rev. of litter=”piglets perhaps”, in P(igst)Y |
| 9 | VERBOTEN = (bent over)* – cheeky hint of le vice anglais here |
| 14 | HOMELESS – ME in (hos(t)els)* |
| 16 | CABLE CARS – (L=50, rev. of RACE=people) in CABS=forms of transport – an &lit/all-in-one |
| 17 | CRITICAL – 2 defs |
| 19 | SURPL = slurp with moved L,US |
| 21 | TE(rm),AC(H)E,R – another &lit/all-in-one |
| 22 | NEARBY – BRA = “form of support” reversed in our old xwd friend marshal Ney |
| 24 | MUS = rev. of sum=total,I,C – score=music either by way of the written form of music, or from uses like “film score” |
| 25 | TON=fashion,DO=ditto=again (strictly, “the same thing again”). A tondo is a round painting |
2nd time in weeks I have had trouble with VERBOTEN (can’t remember where else) which once got gave me at long last the anagram for BASH OUT. Post-solve look-ups for RHINO (no doubt a cliche) and TONDO.
COD to TRAPEZE for swingers’ bar.
DECALS took me back to the days when you could tell if a kit was British or foreign by whether it had Airfix transfers or Revell decals.
I wondered if PRESENT was clued as pre-sent, and therefore awaiting someone, but that might still be a bit thin. 17 minutes
My only criticism is the repeated used of e=Ecstasy. Here it makes for an excellent surface reading but it is becoming a cliché and I thought the Times said something about cutting back on an apparently casual approach to so called recreational drugs.
The rest is first class with LOCUST, VERBOTEN, CABLE CARS and TEACHER standing out as both original and clever. Thanks and very well done setter.
Surely BAG/TRAP is okay if you think of of them as verbs in the context of hunting/trapping etc?
Stared blankly at 3 P?E?A?T until realising that 11 was SUMMERY not SUMMARY and then got PRESENT right away. TUMBRIL, DECAL and TONDO were new words to me, all gettable from the wordplays.
Reading this blog each day is improving my solving. I remembered TON (= fashion) from one of Jimbo’s blogs not long ago.
Curiously, I recognized how ‘swinger’s bar’ worked right away, and still couldn’t solve it for a bit. I was thinking of bird and hamster cages, rather than the full-sized version.
There was some very clever use of modified words like hump in 2, litter in 8 and slurp in 19.
Agree that this was a good puzzle.
welcome by the way!
“surface (meaning)” is what the clue appears to mean if read by someone not trained by years of solving experience to ignore the apparent meaning and look (metaphorically under the surface) for other things. So it’s the cruelty to the rabbit in 13A, or the hurried topiary in 12A. Telling stories like this and simultaneously giving you instructions that clearly lead to the right answer is the hardest thing in writing cryptic clues.
Bit of a guess on my last in TONDO, not twigging the ‘ditto’ abbreviation. COD 1d SUREST.
I was not quite as enthusiastic as most about this puzzle because of the high cliché quotient. I’ve only been doing the Times crossword for about a year but most of this felt as familiar as an old pair of slippers. Obscure (in everyday speech) words such as rhino, verboten and tondo went in almost as reflex reactions.
I was prepared to forgive the drugs in the swingers’ bar clue because it was so funny but I was less forgiving about the bra in Marshal Ney, which rates as my bad clue of the day.
I finished with Set Apart because I spent too long trying to parse the clue on the word boundary.
2dn is a fine clue, but if I had clued 25ac I would die happy. Just look at that surface, for a piece of circus kit!
TONDO was seen recently and I am getting tired of ‘E’ as a drug. Loved 2 down and 28 across. About 30 minutes at bedtime.
Tom B.