I’ve been off work this week to spend some quality time with the family during half-term week, so I’ve not had much time to look at the week’s crosswords. As a result I was feeling a bit out-of-practice today and was hoping for a nice easy one. No such luck. Maybe my brain has turned to mush in the space of a week, but I found this a real stinker. Lots of words previously unknown to me – HOFFMANN, PELLAGRA, PHILIPPIC & THRIPS. Also I’d not come across EAGLET, MISCALL or JOIN THE MAJORITY, but the meanings of these were easy enough to deduce.
There are still a couple that I have been unable to fully unravel, but no doubt somebody will come to my assistance soon enough.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | HIGH + JUMP – Offspring has to be ‘separated’ into Off/spring. Off = High (as in spoilt meat), Jump = Spring. To be ‘for the high jump’ is to be in trouble. |
| 5 | OB + LATE – Ob is an abbreviation of the Latin obiit, meaning literally he (or she) died. I came across the word oblate in a quiz just yesterday so it was fresh in my mind. It describes a sphere which is flattened at the poles, much like planet Earth. |
| 10 | FU(N)G + I |
| 11 | SL(OUCH)ING – ‘that hurt’ = OUCH. At least I found one thing that made me smile in this puzzle. |
| 12 | MARK |
| 13 | G(R)ATE |
| 14 | NEW DEAL – dd. The New Deal was a program introduced by FDR to try and haul the US out of the Great Depression of the 1930s. I got this from the second definition alone, and had to look up the other meaning afterwards. Maybe this is more familiar to our US solvers? |
| 16 | TROPIC = PORT rev + I + C – the Tropics being lines of latitude around the Earth. |
| 18 | A homophone that should be straightforward. |
| 20 | PENAN |
| 22 | LARG |
| 23 | ROLE MODEL = “ROLL MODEL” |
| 25 | PHILIP PIC – There have been several King Philips of Spain. King Philip II, after whom the Philippines were named, is probably the most familiar. I’d never heard of a philippic as a ‘speech or discourse of bitter denunciation’ before. |
| 26 | SWING – dd of the style of fast bowling in cricket, and the item found in children’s playgrounds. |
| 27 | D |
| 28 | ANACONDA = (CANADA NO)* |
| Down | |
| 1 | H + OFF + MANN – Not 100% sure of the breakdown here. I think it’s H (hard) + OFF (start), as in ‘ready for the off’ + (Thomas) MANN, a German novelist, essayist, Nobel Prize laureate. ETA Hoffmann was also a German author. |
| 2 | GONER = G + RENO rev. Nevada was the first US state to relax its laws on divorce, so Reno became a popular destination for americans seeking ‘quickie divorces’ in the 30s & 40s. |
| 3 | JOIN THE MAJORITY – dd. Pretty clear if you’re familiar with the phrase, which I wasn’t. |
| 4 | MISCALL = MISSAL with S (small) changed to C (chapter) + L |
| 6 | BACK (GROUND) MUSIC |
| 7 | ANIMATION = (MAINTAIN + O)* |
| 8 | EAGLET – I assume, being a Young (eagle). But I can’t break the wordplay down. Is it something to do with the term ‘legal eagles’? |
| 9 | COR + NET – My! = Cor! is another one that should be familiar to regular solvers. |
| 15 | W(A TERM)ILL – A watermill is worked by a current. My COD. |
| 17 | PELLAGRA – LAG in (PALER)* – It’s a disease. Not a word I knew. |
| 19 | T(H)RIPS – An insect. Didn’t know this either. |
| 20 | Anagram – deliberately omitted. |
| 21 | ELOPED – cd |
| 24 | DEIGN = GI rev in DEN. Again, I’m assuming this is the correct wordplay, but I don’t see why DEIGN = ‘Be pleased’. |
a) At 1ac the clue tells us to separate the two parts of offspring. I think this is perfectly fair and a nice device, but when I did it recently in an Azed competition I was taken to task (the clue was mentioned in the slip) for producing ‘a clue to a clue’. I didn’t agree with the great man. Who is right?
b) In 26ac we are expected to be aware that swing bowling is fast bowling. It isn’t, necessarily. It isn’t slow but can easily be of medium pace. Or is the setter’s idea that fast = not slow?
c) Like john_from_lancs above, I can’t see why it’s ‘was’ not ‘is’ in 20dn. It can’t be to help the surface.
The Times monthly clue competition is judged by somebody who applies rules that are different to the ones that apply in the daily paper (over definition by example and so on). If you decide to submit clues to him and want to win you must pander to his particular rules.