Solving Time: Less than an hour.. About 50 minutes in all, making it average difficulty for me.
And just for once, I don’t need to add the qualification that since the solution has not been published, the answers are not guaranteed. From now on they are guaranteed, since the shiny new Crossword Club website tells you how many points you scored as soon as you submit the grid, so you can see immediately if you got them all correct or not..
Nice to see a fair few bits of science creeping in with 5dn, 15dn, 17ac and 26ac. And 1dn and 3dn as well, I suppose. Brilliant, keep it up! It would be fascinating to see a grid in which an attempt had been made to find an equal split just for once, between art and science.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Chrestomathic – (CHIT-CHAT’S MORE)* .. An impressive anagram. I was wondering if it is quite ok to say “for useful learning” rather than “of useful learning,” it being an adjective not a noun. The surface would change, but would still make intriguing sense.. |
| 9 |
Laksa – LA |
| 10 | Dithyramb – “your old” = THY + RAM =scheep, contained in DIB = bid rev., “rebuffed attempt.” |
| 11 | Spray paint – SAINT containing PRAY + P. A starter clue, this one. Like Mephisto, this crossword is seeded with some easier clues that help to get things under way. |
| 12 | Iraq – Irish = IR + Q = question is about A.. |
| 14 | Iambist – current = I + AMBIT containing S for singular. Through crosswords I am inured to iambs, trochees, feet and similar terms even though my idea of a great poet is Hilaire Belloc or Harry Graham |
| 16 | Corella – kernel = CORE + LLA = everything, rev. A corella is a species of white cockatoo. |
| 17 | Linear B – LI(NEAR) B, a script in which early Greek texts were written and a successor to (you guessed it) Linear A, which remains undeciphered. |
| 19 |
Bunraku – BUN(RA)KU |
| 20 |
Lwei – |
| 21 |
Jumhouriya – “short hike” = JUM |
| 24 | Bretwalda – (TALE BARD + W)* – Bretwalda being a title meaning “ruler of Britain,” at a time when most kings still weren’t.. |
| 25 | Elchi – E + L + CHI (Greek letter). Elchi is an obscure Turkish word, perhaps useful for Scrabble.. |
| 26 | Virgin neutron – let’s see.. Iridium = IR inside “five gram bar” = V + G + INN with NOR TUE rev – (not a day over). A virgin neutron is a neutron that’s never been kissed (ie, collided with) by another subatomic particle.. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Celestial globe – (OGLE A LIST CELEB)* – a fine anagrammatic find by the setter! There is a particularly large one in Peking, sorry, ..Beijing |
| 2 | Roker – RE + R containing OK = “acceptable.” A roker is a fish, a skate or type of ray, and nothing to do with Roker Park, the former home of Sunderland FC before they moved to the “Stadium of Light.” |
| 3 | Spagyrical – LACY GAPS rev., containing RI, one of the most usual abbreviations for a US state, along with Cal and NY. |
| 4 | Old Dart – ODD ART containing L for lakes. Old Dart is a colonial phrase meaning England.. |
| 5 | Actinic – work = ACT + I NIC(K). Actinic light seems to have several definitions but usually used in the sense of very bright, tending to the ultraviolet. More familiar to me from science fiction than from actual science, if I’m honest.. |
| 6 | Hoya – Ahoy, a “sea-hail,” with the first letter transferred to the end… |
| 7 | Caudrilla – C + A DRILL + A containing U = “classy.” I find the continual references to U and non-U which occur in Times crosswords, and nowhere else in the world since the 1950s, rather irritating. Time to move on, or is it just too convenient to let go of? |
| 8 | Absquatulation – well now, the def. is “splitting in the US,” though I doubt the word gets a lot of use. How I got to that, I can’t quite now remember. I see AB in there, also a LAT, for the two muscles, containing SQUAT, the weightlifiting exercise, and U for “you finally,” and lastly I ON for one leg, is that everything, yes I think so 🙂 |
| 13 | Art nouveau – (A TO RUN)* containing UVEA, which turns out to be part of the iris of the eye, to make the “curvy designs.” According to Wikipedia, Art Nouveau is characterised by “highly stylized, flowing curvilinear forms” so that seems fair enough. |
| 15 | Mendeleev – another one I am having trouble remembering the wordplay for. Memo to self: do the blog as soon as you’ve finished the grid! Let us see, workers = MEN. To remove could be DEL from the del. Key, though not in Chambers.. Ah! DELE means to delete or efface, so now we just need E for ecstasy, and V which means see, short for the Latin vide, and we’re there! Mendeleev, who discovered the periodic table of elements, was a truly great man |
| 18 | Bouilli – side of beef = B + “Escoffier’s certainly” = OUI containing unfavourably = ILL. Its relative, bouillon is more familiar. |
| 19 | Bahrain – “I’m not impressed” = BAH (as, topically, in “Bah, humbug” 🙂 + RAIN = showers |
| 22 | Incur – IN + CUR, an easy one in case you’re having trouble starting.. |
| 23 | Ower – and another one, a dd. so easy I won’t insult you by explaining it.. I often start in the SE corner of a difficult crossword, in the hope of clues like these |
This puzzle maintained the very high standard of Club Monthly clues and like you I was very pleased to see the science based terminology. It shows that it can be done if the setters will take the trouble rather than stick to their comfort zone of poets and musicians. Thank you setter.
I use Chambers even with ordinary cryptics, at least to check up on meanings. With these crosswords I also use Roget, and occasionally Google if I must. I don’t have Bradford, and what is TEA?