Club Monthly 20122 – November 2010

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Monthly Club Special
Back to normal difficulty this month, after a slightly easier one in October. I found this hard.. solved in three or four sessions extending to perhaps 2 hours in all, and three cups of coffee..

No aids required, but a fair bit of leafing through the dictionary. Not sure if it really is that much harder than usual, or if it’s just me. There were 12 words I had not previously heard of.

As ever, no technical cause for complaint whatsoever.

cd = cryptic def., dd = double def. rev = reversal, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this. Note that the solution is not yet available, so answers aren’t guaranteed!

Across
1 guilt complex – graphical user interface = GUI + officer = LT + COMPLEX = involved. It took me a while to find GUI and so probably slowed up the whole solve somewhat
8 ooziest – O (love) + O (zero) + Z(I)EST
9 morchas – mass = M + OR, = other ranks = men + (CASH)* It is rather unkind to classify OR as a crossword cliché, it’s so useful for setters
11 tamarau – river = TAMAR + A + U as in U bend..
12 hexapla – spelling = HEX + A + PL (“pitiful in the extreme”) + A
13 Nasim IN LAWSUIT + TERM, making a christian name with the meaning of “fresh air, or fresh” according to Chambers. These appendices to the dictionary are easily forgotten, but are needed from time to time
14 port a beul – piano = P + (blare out)* port a beul is a Gaelic word I hadn’t come across before. It refers to a type of singing which can be quite hypnotic.. Try the link and see what you think!
16 concordat – party = CON + “something binding” = CORD + TA rev.
19 awave – my last one in. Wonder = AWE, containing AV for the authorised version of the bible, a change from the usual NT and OT. I don’t remember seeing RV for revised version but no doubt it will be along one day. AWAVE is defined in Chambers as “in waves (archaic),” so the cd seems reasonable
21 Althing – A + L + THING = obsession. The Althing is well known to pub quizzers as the world’s oldest surviving parliament, dating from 930AD.
23 xantham – (TAXMAN)* containing H. More commonly known as xanthan gum, it is a ubiquitous food additive, E415, used to thicken and stabilise many products. Currently reckoned to be harmless, though it is a highly efficient laxative.
24 yttrium – the first letters of Your Tub Turn Round In Uniform Motion. A rare earth, symbol Y and atomic no. 39. Not to be confused with ytterbium, another rare earth discovered in the same laboratory in Ytterby, Sweden.
25 mygales – heavens = MY + GALES. A mygale is a bird-eating spider. You may not want to do a google image search if you are at all squeamish
26 bramble-berry – let’s see now, books B + B containing stuff = RAM, + REBEL rev. and YR rev. This one took me a while because I didn’t see it as a sort of jam, and wanted to put “bramble jelly” instead. But that ignores the hyphen kindly provided, and of course it is a sort of jam I suppose, in the same way that “plum” is, or “damson” is.
Down
1 gazumps – GAZE + DUMPS. A nice cd, “Does house buyer,” and a practice that everyone deplores but that most seem willing to do when the opportunity arises.
2 isegrim – “Description of owl hiding with” = WISE + black = GRIM. Isegrim (more usually Isengrim) was the wolf in the mythical tales of Reynard the Fox. The wily fox always defeats him. The reputation foxes have for cunning derives from these tales.
3 tittupped – T + I + TT + UPPED. A word that rang only a very vague bell, and which apparently means “to prance about gaily.” Enough said..
4 oomph – O + O + MPH. The def. is “go.”
5 pyrexia – AIRY + PLACE, rev. and containing old flame = EX.
6 echappe – energy = E + CHAP + PE = exercising. An échappé is a double leap, one of a number of recondite ballet terms that crop up from time to time
7 cottonocracy – OTT (over the top, = “too much”) + ON = leg (cricket side), contained in company = CO + C = cape, + RACY = saucy. The def. being textile producers.
10 stahlhelmist – (STILL HAS THEM)* stahlhelm being German for steel helmet, specifically the well-known “coal scuttle” design that replaced the equally well-known picklehaube, the one with the spike on top, during WW1. It gave its name to a paramilitary organisation after that war.
15 Rituximab – (MIX IT + A RUB)* – Rituximab is a powerful chemical whose side effects can include cardiac arrest and acute renal failure.. You would have to have arthritis quite badly to consider taking it, I reckon.
17 notator – polite refusal = NO TA + TOR as in Glastonbury Tor. Yes, it’s not just a pop festival..
18 Odinism – hidden, rev., in TOTEMS IN IDOLATRY. Apparently there are parts of Germany where Odinists are rife, and if you think it wouldn’t happen here, in 1988 the Odinic Rite became the first polytheistic religious organisation to be granted “Registered Charity” status in the UK.
19 alnager – ALL, + REGAN rev. Regan being the ungrateful second daughter of King Lear. She comes to a bad end, as in fact do virtually the entire cast of the play. An alnager is an offical inspector of cloth. A handy word..
20 aphylly – china = ALLY containing measure of acidity = PH + Y = unknown, one of the usual three mathematical ones x, y and z.
22 gimel – set = GEL containing HIM, that being how East Enders allegedly pronounce the word. I have never watched it, so wouldn’t know. Gimel is the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet after aleph and beth, as another trip to those dictionary appendices will show, at least in Chambers.

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

3 comments on “Club Monthly 20122 – November 2010”

  1. I didn’t find this quite as difficult as you Jerry probably because the number of real out and out obscurities is very low and the standard of clue writing very high (as per usual). I really enjoy these puzzles and think it a great shame that more people don’t give them a try.

    At 22D it seems to be the case that any reference to the East End of London means “drop an h”. After the last war vast swathes of the East End population were moved out to Basildon et al. Today its a complete pot pourri of accents but in crossword land only the cockney legacy remains, gov’na

  2. Drat, I had 9ac wrong!! MARCHES looked so plausible, I didn’t stop to parse it.

    It was interesting that one derivation for ISEGRIM gives the original root as isengrin, meaning “iron helm” – cf. 10d.

    Thanks for the link to the port a beul, I’d never come across this before and I loved it.

  3. I also found this one easier than most, and finished all but 5 or 6 without reference to the dictionary. PORT A BEUL, MYGALES and RITUXIMAB were the only words new to me.

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