Rather like the one I blogged six weeks ago, this one has a largely old-fashioned feel to it, not least with its evocation of a memorable Cleese, Barker and Corbett sketch from The Frost Report of 1966. None of the words entered, or the clues to produce them, would be much out of keeping with a Times of the same year. For me, this makes for a pleasant, if not particularly demanding experience, and I tipped the scales in leisurely fashion, thinking throughout how I would present my working, in 14.46. Perhaps, in keeping with another prompt, this time an 1871 Lewis Carroll reference (above), I might have attempted a quicker time. But “I know my place.”
Definitions underlined in italics, unwanted letters [closed off]
| Across | |
| 1 | Without afterthought, cops now stick together (6) |
| COHERE – Start with COPS, remove the PS afterthought, and add HERE for present | |
| 4 | Taps into data and nicks stuff (7) |
| FILCHES – The taps are C[old] and H[ot], insert into FILES of data. | |
| 9 | Fit dad cycling along (3,2) |
| ADD UP – For once it’s quite easy to cycle DAD and get ADD. For UP from along, perhaps Churchill’s alleged response to criticism of his ending a sentence with a preposition: “this is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.” Fit as the definition? Think to be consistent with. | |
| 10 | Appealing E in Algebra, unfortunately, and English (9) |
| AGREEABLE – An anagram (unfortunately) of ALGEBRA with E in it, plus E[nglish]. | |
| 11 | Calculus vexes tenor (9) |
| GALLSTONE – Not the mathematical version, then. Vexes: GALLS and tenor: TONE, so not the singer. | |
| 12 | At home with half-sister in Bury (5) |
| INTER – At home IN plus |
|
| 13 | Press club (4) |
| IRON – Perhaps the easiest of double definitions, club as in golf, of course. | |
| 14 | Fools small people with essentially untrustworthy evaluation (10) |
| ASSESSMENT – Fools ASSES plus S[mall] people: MEN plus the essential/middle letter of untrusTworthy. | |
| 18 | Plebeian girl following cow about (5-5) |
| LOWER-CLASS – A cow is a LOWER, about is C[irca] and the girl a LASS. | |
| 20 | Look back, and carry on (4) |
| KEEP – Just PEEK for look, backwards | |
| 23 | Stones murderer, stifling resistance (5) |
| CAIRN – A pile of stones, then. CAIN is your original murderer, with R[esistance] enclosed | |
| 24 | Friendly clot clutching nickel (9) |
| CONGENIAL – To clot is to CONGEAL, and nickel is NI (Ni for purists) | |
| 25 | Pericles dancing with son is very amusing (9) |
| PRICELESS – An anagram (dancing) of PERICLES with S[on] | |
| 26 | Golf fanatics retiring hurt (5) |
| STUNG – NATO G[olf] and NUTS for fanatics all reversed (retiring). | |
| 27 | Bold on the phone at the end of each day (7) |
| NIGHTLY – Aural wordplay. Sounds like knightly, bold. | |
| 28 | Some masseur gently pressing (6) |
| URGENT – Some of masseUR GENTly. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cleaner wrongly supporting Greek cook (9) |
| CHARGRILL – Cleaner is CHAR, wrongly is ILL, the latter supporting GR[eek] | |
| 2 | This naked boy turned up and shot Spanish gent (7) |
| HIDALGO – Naked “this” becomes HI, a boy or lad reversed becomes DAL and shot as in try becomes GO. Of the Upper Class in Spain by birth rather than ennoblement. | |
| 3 | Retired old man’s boring meal (6) |
| REPAST – If your old man, PA is retired, he is in a state of REST, but just in case our setter adds “boring” to show one goes into the other. A better resolution is that PA’S bores its way into RET[ired], but I was satisfied with my version when solving. | |
| 4 | Ludicrous situation in remote church (5) |
| FARCE – Remote is FAR, and church is C [of] E (while we still have it). Once again prompted back to the sixties with Brian Rix at the Whitehall. | |
| 5 | Most wary of learner driver on scary road (8) |
| LEERIEST – L[earner driver], scary gives EERIE and road ST[reet] | |
| 6 | Contemptuous expression upset one Tuesday regular (7) |
| HABITUE – Our contemptuous expression is BAH (think Scrooge) which is upset or set up, one is I, and add TUE[sday] | |
| 7 | Sharp turn (5) |
| SHEER – Another double definition; I think sheer as in sharp drop, turn as in sheer away. | |
| 8 | Constant excitement and drinking (8) |
| CAROUSAL – C[onstant] plus AROUSALO (- on edit: this O is added for no reason at all. Sorry!) from excitement. | |
| 15 | Nonchalance in a sense is affected (8) |
| EASINESS -An anagram (affected) of A SENSE IS. Lose time by trying to make IN part of the anagram fodder instead of IS. | |
| 16 | Elite go to bed drunk, according to Spooner (3-6) |
| TOP-FLIGHT – Spooner might render it FLOP TIGHT. | |
| 17 | Protestant clumsily dropping books in part of church (8) |
| TRANSEPT – Drop the N[ew] T[estament] books from PROTESTANT, then anagram (clumsily). On edit: N[ew] should be O[ld], or we end up with PROSTATE, which may be a part of the Church supporting the secular government. | |
| 19 | Wife heartlessly walloping fish (7) |
| WHITING – I’ve checked, you can still get whiting in Tesco’s, though it can mean almost any white fish. For us, it’s W[ife] plus HITTING from walloping with its middle T obliterated. | |
| 21 | Gourmet in despair, oddly lacking salt? (7) |
| EPICURE – The odd letters missing from dEsPaIr plus salt, alluding to the process of CURE-ing, for example, whiting. | |
| 22 | Tricky question of China losing grip (6) |
| TEASER – China is shorthand for TEA SERVICE, lose the VICE-like grip. | |
| 23 | Mafia boss ultimately shown to be chicken (5) |
| CAPON – A Mafia boss is the CAPO, add the last of showN. Oddly enough, Chambers says capon is also an amusing name for a fish, though probably not whiting. | |
| 24 | Tough hack entering empty city (5) |
| CHEWY – If you overcook your whiting? Replace the IT emptied from CITY with HEW for hack. | |
Yes this was very easy, unfortunately I left the timer running again but I think about 16 minutes (but might have been less!)
Thanks Z and setter
PS I probably took longer on the QC today in fact
I also took a wrong turn at the sheer/steer junction. 43 minutes.
I thought of sheer straight away, sure it was correct and then couldn’t work out why I thought so. I had to look it up in the end because I couldn’t make myself put it in even after several alphabet trawls revealing no alternative
39:22 but spelled CAROUSeL wrongly. Bugger. And it was the last letter in and while I got the wordplay I really needed to be writing arousal on its own horizontally to not confuse the spelling with the merry-go-round. Parsed everything except teaser and not perhaps the second def of sheer. Didn’t know gallstone=calculus
16.09
Same comments as everyone else
24:47. Maybe I am, very slowly, losing my fear of the 15. Thanks Z, I wouldn’t have parsed LOI TEASER in a fortnight.
Coming late to this one. 11:39, which feels like my first time under 30 minutes in weeks. Couldn’t parse TEASER or SHEER, so was grateful to z for clearing things up.