Club Monthly 20127 – April 2011

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Monthly Club Special
Solving Time: Once again, longer than it should have been – perhaps two hours altogether in odd sessions here and there. I prefer not to use any solving aids beyond a dictionary and hence sat for quite some time looking at the last two to fall, 16dn and 25ac. Once again the clues seem to have a strong Latin flavour

This crossword is both a pangram and also technically beyond reproach, so far as I can see, which seem standard characteristics of the Club Monthly. One or two of the surface readings are a little stretched, eg 13ac, 14dn. On the other had some are rather wonderful. I would die happy, having written the clue for 22ac.. overall, another world-class effort, the highlight of the crossword month for me.

Looking at the blog before publishing, I see I have made a few references to the rarity of some of the words used. Please don’t take this as any sort of criticism – on the contrary I love them, and see them as a fun part of this particular exercise.

Across
1 Lowness – C LOWNESS. Simple one to start with
5 Piquet – PIQUE + T. Piquet/picquet is an alternative spelling of picket.
8 Zapodidae – destroy = ZAP + “one in funny” = ODID + AdorablE. Zapodidae are jumping mice, the mere thought of which would make my daughter faint, judging by her reaction to the ordinary kind.
9 Arrow – HARROW, Harrow being in north London, and cockneys supposedly in East London
11 Notum – MUTTON rev. to make a handy word for an insect’s back
12 Jaborandi – JAB + overdose = OD + I, containing “did speed” = RAN. Jaborandi according to Chambers is useful indeed: “A sweat- and saliva-inducing Brazilian drug.”
13 Easy-care – ILLITERACYS AESOP rev. Cleverly hidden at the cost of a somewhat opaque surface. One of my pet hates is the sort of company that uses this style of phrase, often spelt “e-zee care” or similar. You know, to help keep things kleen.
15 Egbert – such as = EG + to lay = BET containing R for republican. Egbert is a common Saxon name but usually Egbert of Wessex is the one referred to. Saxon England was a fascinating place, which deserves to be better known than it is
17 Hi tech – “electronic add-on” = E (as in email, ecommerce etc) in difficulty = HITCH. Hi-tech is a word used by those too ignorant to spell the word “high.” See 13ac above
19 fedelini – fine, exotic = FENI containing DELI. Only Italians could make such an amazing fuss about a mixture of flour and water. I suppose you would have to, to make it seem interesting
22 Prom Queen – all you really need to know is that “que” is Spanish (and thus Mexican) for “that.” What a lovely clue!
23 Pi-dog – GO + DPP rev. The reference to Perth would appear to be an error, since both Chambers and Oxford Online say something like: “a stray mongrel, especially in Asia” and neither of the Perths I am familiar with are in Asia. When small I left a jumper in a B&B in the Scottish one. my mother’s letter of thanks took 8 months to arrive, guess why…
24 Dubai – to name = DUB + A + I. “Key” is common as a handy way of specifying one of the letters A to G.
25 Pew-fellow – terrible = FELL contained in sports = PE + dazzle = WOW. This and 16dn were my last in. It is hard to believe this word has been used in anger since Pepys, and I don’t remember him using it either.. though I see the OED has managed to scrape a few quotations together, including one from 2000. Another technically brilliant clue, using only five words altogether.
26 Exempt – extension = EXT containing European = E + politician = MP. Not to be confused with the actual European politician, who is an MEP
27 Dies non – makes a meal of, = DINES ON, with the first N pushed back two places. The indefatigable Wikipedia has an article about dies non.
Down
1 Lozenge-shaped – bounded = LOPED containing Buddhist = ZEN + GEISHA. I found this one difficult – quite often I seem to find the longer clues harder.
2 Wapitis – quarry = PIT inside WAIST. The wapiti is one of a large family of deer, gazelles etc that seem to inhabit only crosswords and the wilder parts of Africa or Asia. Nyala turned up only the day before writing this, and Chital and Chamois not so long ago.
3 Ek dum – (DUKE)* + M. Apparently ek dum is Hindi for immediately.
4 Soda jerk – very mysterious = SO DARK containing JE, the French for I. We all knew they speak French in Quebec, ne c’est pas? Vive le Quebec libre, and all that.. As Wiki makes clear, the term is not as uncomplimentary as it may sound
5 Plebby – “covered in small stones” = PEBBLY, this time with the L moved three spaces upward.
6 Quadrigae – QUAD + RIG + ASSEMBLE. Quadrigae were an early version of a F1 Ferrari, a team of four horses pulling a two wheel chariot. Qv Ben Hur – do watch this link whatever you do, they really don’t make them like that any more!
7 Enrange – knight = N contained in ENRAGE = anger. Where would we be without Edmund Spenser? Even the OED can’t find that this word has been used by anyone since 1596..
10 Whistling swan – game = WHIST + heather’s = LING’S + pale = WAN. Simple, isn’t it, this clue-writing business? Six words needed, this time. The whistling swan, or tundra swan, is a very pretty bird
14 Caciquism – bill = AC + current = I + question = Q, all inside (MUSIC)* – apparently caciquism used to be all the rage in the Greater Antilles
16 Begnawed – Appeal = BEG + North America = NA + join = WED, to make a word that means bit. If you’re Spenser it does, anyhow.
18 Toolbox – hmm, tricky. Computer startup = BOOT, and if we back up and involve large, we get TOO(L)B. And we must also back up cross = X and (cricket) over = O to get toolbox, where you store tools.. like files. Over = O has turned up several times lately, and always causes me trouble.
20 Indulin – diabetic treatment = INSULIN, with a very neat instruction to exchange the S for a D. Indulin is a dyestuff
21 Sexpot – PO, a petty officer inside SEXT – one of the various components of the Divine Office that I have learnt purely from crossword clues.
23 Preve – P + always = EVER, rev.

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

6 comments on “Club Monthly 20127 – April 2011”

  1. I find these very difficult- barred puzzle clues in a blocked grid, so checking is not generous at all!

    Agree about PROM QUEEN. Super clue.

    BW

    Andrew K

  2. Agree with everything you say. Another excellent puzzle that is technically perfect with some excellent clues, including of course PROM QUEEN.
  3. Well, I still sweat over these things for hours; largely for lack of vocab in crucial places. To wit: ZAPODIDAE, FEDELINI, NOTUM, QUADRIGAE, BEGNAWED, JABORANDI, CACIQUISM, PEW-FELLOW, DIES NON and, natch, EK DUM! That’s 10/30 that were simply unknown. Can’t moan but: you get such things with comps and, if I can improve both my time and (more importantly) enjoyment, I might even get into the barred grids one day. But then I might also acquire a taste for biting off my own left arm.
    1. You can’t expect to have these words in your vocabulary. You have to derive them from wordplay and then check in Chambers to see if you’re correct. That’s exactly how the bar grids work as well. One of the reasons Jerry and I laud these puzzles is that it is possible to do that from such precise clueing.
    2. Personally I think there is something of a logical progression here; you learn to solve cryptic clues leading to a familiar word, and once you can do that, the next thing, if the crossword is good enough, is to enjoy solving clues leading to an unfamiliar word.
      If nothing else it is excellent training for normal cryptics which do contain unfamiliar words from time to time. You see people in the TFTT blog saying “Oh well, I would never have got that” as if they can only find words they already know and I think well, why not? Crosswords like this one prove that it can be done, and it can be fun..
  4. There is a difference between these puzzles and a typical barred grid puzzle with obscure wordplay: in the latter, especially with the Listener for example, obscurities are often used in the wordplay. Here the checking is less generous, but on the other hand the wordplay tries to help the solver without resorting to additional obscure vocabulary

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