28762 Et in Arabia ego

Author   ZabadakPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic

 

Well that was fun, though my time of 28.21 suggests I also found it challenging, which I did, especially getting going at all in the top half. But I liked it: the clues are for the most part inventive and smooth, with artfully concealed definitions as it should be.

Even some of the anagrams didn’t fall out easily for me, and we certainly took a Cook’s world tour in the variety of locations visited. The arty references may not be to everyone’s taste, and I’ll concede that the cluing for each is not that straightforward, but “a man’s reach must exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?”.

Definitions underlined in italics, the rest to be deduced.

Across
1 Maybe encourage one to get groundbreaking single out (4-4)
HAND-PICK – If you hand someone a pick, you might be encouraging them to start chipping away at the concrete.
5 Greeting for which parent, sadly, is not going forward (6)
SALAAM – سَلَام for those of you who can read Arabic, in full ٱلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ, as-salāmu ʿalaykum, peace be upon you. The way this works is you select MA as parent, ALAS for sadly, and then since she’s not going forward, she’s reversed.
9 That is awfully harmful for a footballer (5,4)
SCRUM HALF – That’s the kind of football played by gentlemen with odd-shaped balls, and it’s the player who feeds the ball into the set scrum, picks it up when it’s worked to the back, and distributes it to the quick “threequarters”. That is becomes SC (Latin scilicet, namely) then add the anagram (awfully) of HARMFUL.
11 Commentator’s staunch European (5)
CZECH – Staunch as in CHECK the flow, but as said by a commentator, so sounds like it.
12 American or Caribbean music covered by a network (7)
ALASKAN – Caribbean music is SKA, rather like reggae, “covered” by A LAN, local area network.
13 Switch to fiddle used by old composer (7)
RODRIGO – Joaquin, a Spanish composer. Switch is ROD (with  which schoolmasters used to be allowed to beat impish pupils) fiddle gives you RIG, and add O(ld). Here’s John Williams playing his Concierto di Anranjuez
14 Reducing money for American sailor after swindle (13)
CONCENTRATING – CON for swindle at the front, then money for American CENT, and sailor, RATING
16 Tricks pair at bridge — opponents there? (6-7)
DOUBLE-CROSSES – Pair is DOUBLE, bridge is CROSS, and opponents at the game of Bridge are E(ast) and S(outh)
20 Rum sort of jacket seen on graduate (7)
BACARDI – Bacardi® has it’s own entry in Chambers, being these days a generic term for rum, though other brands are available! Graduate BA, sort of jacket CARDI.
21 Crescent, one French in character, largely (7)
LUNETTE – UN, one in French, in most of LETTEr for character.
23 Owner of estate left thoroughfare, accepting fine (5)
LAIRD – L(eft) R(oa)D with AI for fine inserted.
24 Part of Hampshire town’s free to redevelop (3,6)
NEW FOREST – An anagram (to redevelop) of TOWN’S FREE
25 Is spread betting clean? Yes, every so often! (6)
SPLAYS – A neat lift and separate with an amusing twist. SP for betting (Starting Price), the alternate letters of cLeAn YeS.
26 Maybe gather tight trousers for director (8)
TRUFFAUT – Once I’d remembered François, I used the word play to remind me how to spell him. RUFF is (maybe) to gather, and TAUT trousers, pockets or encloses it.
Down
1 Husband in Soviet Union a cavalryman once (6)
HUSSAR – H(usband) then (Yodaspeak) A in USSR.
2 Other parent presumably also missing opera (5)
NORMA – “Neither Pa NOR MA” are at the opera
3 After quiz, family you could turn to late in the day? (7)
PUMPKIN – As the clock strikes midnight, and if you’re a coach, I suppose. To quiz is to PUMP for answers, family is KIN.
4 Complicated for a technician, unleashing loud chemical process? (5,8)
CHAIN REACTION – An anagram (complicated) of FOR A TECHNICIAN with the loud F “unleashed”, let drop.
6 Charity account artist set up for Greek department (7)
ARCADIA – Well, it’s an administrative district, at least. Charity is AID, AC(count) and RA for artist complete the set, which you then reverse (set up)
7 I agree I must meet obligations to provide services (9)
AMENITIES – AMEN for I agree, I for -um – I, and TIES for obligations
8 Game, if clumsy player turning up with girl, no good at golf (3-5)
MAH-JONGG – A clumsy player, especially an acting sort, is a HAM. Reverse it (turning up), add JO (as in March, Bland etc) for the girl, and N(o) G(ood) and NATO Golf. Originally Chinese game with illustrated tiles.
10 Conflict in another case slow-witted hosts scaled down (5,5,3)
FIRST WORLD WAR – So the other case to lower is upper. Within sloW-WItted you have the common abbreviation for our conflict.
14 Cold homeless waif stops to see old war leader (9)
CHURCHILL – A waif is an URCHIN, delete the IN for home, use the remains to stop CHILL, cold.
15 Poor black lad sold nuts (8)
ODDBALLS – An anagram (poor) of B(lack) LAD SOLD. Took me a while to sort one end from the other.
17 Sensationally, if clearly, making speed of light run! (7)
LURIDLY – Clearly, LUCIDLY, if the speed of light C becomes R(un)
18 Car accessory that’s fixed on for us (7)
SUNROOF – An anagram (fixed) of ON FOR US, Almost an &lit.
19 Three couples send rude message — and in French (6)
SEXTET – 3X2! Send rude message is the portmanteau SEXT, and in French is ET
22 Letter: it’s likely to arrive after Thursday (5)
THETA – Likely to arrive ETA from Estimated Time of Arrival, dropped onto TH(ursday).

95 comments on “28762 Et in Arabia ego”

    1. Lesser mortals like me found this tough. And it reinforced my rather unfair stereotype of crossword setters that they all went to (minor) public schools, played “rugger”, studied classics, and enjoy drinking real ale and listening to classical music

  2. Must have been on the wavelength because I thought this was straightforward

    Coincidentally my Mum returned an old Mah-Jongg set belonging to me and Dvynys a couple of weeks ago. I seem to recall enjoying the click-clack of the tiles but we were already chess and bridge nerds so there was little appetite to learn another game.

    Truffaut rang a faint bell though if pushed I would have spelled it with a D at the end and interestingly my French speaking wife said the same

    Had no idea of the parsing for WW1 but what else could it be …?

    I have a soft spot for Rodrigo’s concerto de Aranjuez so that was a write in

    Thanks setter and Zabadak

    Time: 28 mins

  3. DNF, by a lot, but I’m blaming it all on the sedative I had at the doc’s for a minor procedure.

    I think we’ve had Bacardi = (generic) rum before; I remember it sticking a little because in the US it has not reached the Hoover Kleenex Xerox stage yet.

  4. For some reason, didn’t find this particularly tough, for a Friday, all done in 22 minutes with SALAAM my LOI and WWI biffed not parsed. Nice anagrams. Very enjoyable.

  5. 39’04”
    Found the going testing, stayed on well.

    Liked this a lot; very knotty.
    It must have been fifty years ago that Grandad first taught me how to build the walls of Mah-Jong(g) with NO GAPS ! It could be very dangerous if the dragons were to escape.
    Very well done to both the setter and to Z for a very comprehensive explanation.

  6. Bit of schadenfreude coming in here: happy to see others had difficulties with this toughie too! FIO HUSSARS, but then ground to a halt, as I wrongly guessed that 1a might start with high’ (as in hope) – which threw me off the track before I got moving at all. Then down as far as 23a to get my next three: LAIRD and LUNETTE and NEW FOREST, so worked on the South first and grindingly up to the rest. Had to cheat on a couple: WWI and CZECH ( the one European I didn’t check), but the rest was fair and gettable once I saw the literals. Liked SPLAYS , that I knew TRUFFAUT and had vaguely heard of RODRIGO, but defeated by MAH JONGG and SCRUM HALF – not being up on ball games. Well done setter and Z for unscrambling it all.

Comments are closed.