An odd feel to this one: it felt harder than is was, and I disposed of it in 15.12, about 2 minutes sub par for me. Mostly somewhat lengthy clues, of the kind which conjure up rather pleasing, but also properly distracting, word pictures and fragments of exciting looking stories. I counted an above-average number of (plausibly) religious references, none of them particularly obscure. It’s possible that’s just my imagination.
Two unchecked rows provide enigmatic phrases of a kind. ITS SW ONE is both a contradiction and a confirmation of the prosperous region mentioned late on, and OUT, ETC, RE possibly militates against my fancied religious references.
Across
1 SICILY Island
Ah, the heady days of Imperial Chemical Industries! That’s the “company that was”, because it is no more. It has gone to join the FTSE Celestial. Wrapped in SLY cunning, it produces the island of our search.
4 ADVANCED Sophisticated
A rather surreal surface image produces a VAN by C(hurch of) E(ngland) clamped orheldby A D(octor of) D(ivinity)
10 PAULINEGirl
Or, if you prefer, “following early Christian convert”. That’ll be Paul, previously Saul of Tarsus, whose name is attached to thirteen of the canonical 27 books of the New Testament. Try your friends out with this question, and win easy money: Who wrote Paul’s letter to the Romans? Answer: Tertius.
11 GOSLING Little bird
A fine example of surface concealing wordplay. To become is “GO” (“it’s gone green”) and shy gives SLING as in throw.
12 DÁIL Parliament
In this case the Irish lower house. A brief paper is a DAIL(y). I hope those filling in on paper defiantly put in the diacritic.
13 NEW ORLEANS port
The first clue where the definition is not at the front. The wordplay, in case you want to work it out, is NEWS (information) about Other Ranks (men) and LEAN (bank)
15 CONVERTED brought to faith
Down
1 SAPID completely agreeable
A word which might win the competition for “word which looks almost exactly what it isn’t”. PI is holy, more usually “than thou”, and unhappy is SAD.
2 CAUTIONED Given formal warning
In Britain, the procedure whereby the Police get something looking like a conviction without having to go through the messy business of a trial. And everywhere else too, a slightly surprising anagram of EDUCATION
3 LEIS garlands
Todays hidden, with the Hawaiians whose word it is posing as affabLE ISlanders. Pretty clue of its kind
5 DOGWOOD tree or shrub
Take your pick, because it can be either. DO GOOD for act beneficially, top of Weak provides the intruding W
6 ABSOLUTELY Yes indeed!
Skilfully is ABLY, which swallows something dissolved, which is a SOLUTE
7 CHINA chum
Me old china plate, mate. Our fellow is a CHAp, who has lost his P(arking) and is outside IN, crosswordese for home.
8 DIGESTIVE biscuit
A sleazy bar is a DIVE, in which 1 unusual GETS resides
9 RESENT Feel bad about
Remove the P(age) from pRESENT and voilà!
14 VENERATION worship
Our Pauline setter pontificates again with this observational clue. Five is V, and age gENERATION. Remove the G(ood)
15 CALLIOPES makers of music
Todays possibly less well known and pronounced word, though you’ve surely heard one: it’s a mechanical organ, originally driven by steam. Here’s one. Ivor the Engine had a rather minimalist one, featuring in this episide. A hundred provides C, ALLIES are (sometimes) colleagues, and work is OP, which goes within.
17 TENDERING Offering
An anagram of DINNER inside TEG, one of the less familiar of the 1,000,000 words for sheep. It’s a 2 year old ewe.
19 ASCETIC Austere type
No, not sans serif. Revolutionary agents are the CIA upside down, here nabbing an anagram of SECT. Paulines, again?
20 HASTEN Hurry
Yup, it’s just ATHENS, rebuilt. Scene of Paul’s possibly least successful attempt at gaining converts.
22 TULSA See one of its (America’s) cities
Universally known as the city Gene Pitney was 24 hours away from. Careful how you construct this: T(ime) first, then L(eft) inside USA. Otherwise you get USTLA, Paul Newman in a Cockney remake.
24 TENSE What could be future
A number, in this case TEN, on a prosperous region, the S(outh) E(ast). Accuracy might depend on South East of what.
25 CONE A solid figure
Just C(onservative) ONE for individual, It’s the solid figure for mathematicians, I believe.
Grateful if anyone can assist
Pauline, as well as being a girl’s name, is the adjective from Paul, especially the Apostle whose adventures are lovingly described in the Acts of the Apostles, New Testament book 5. It also relates to his theology, delivered piecemeal in his letters and much loved by Luther and others.
The conceit in the blog is that a number of clues reference religious themes, and might suggest that our setter is also something of a fan. There is, of course, no real evidence for this, but it does provide something of a thematic motif for our entertainment.
Edited at 2015-01-09 12:02 am (UTC)