Solving Time: this took me quite a while, almost two hours in fact, though half of that was spent in mopping up the last half-dozen clues. To my intense irritation, I find I have one wrong for the second month running. I can’t see a typo, so maybe doing the blog will bring the error to light. (It did. See 27ac) Grrr!
Were I in a better mood I might have been able to appreciate more fully that this is once again a top class effort with some fine clues, starting straight off with 1ac
cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as *(–)
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | fist-law – Whitman’s = WALT’S and poem = IF, all rev. Dukes in this context meaning fists, and not some sort of central European grandees as I initially thought.. nice bit of misdirection. |
| 5 | jib boom – boy = JIM containing BOOB, with the final B moved to the front |
| 9 |
xenocryst – hmm. Presumably, and I don’t quite see how, C ONE = “maybe ninety nine.” In roman numerals 99 = IC, so I’m sure that is the idea. + unknown = X, all rev., + railway’s = RY’S + X + ( |
| 10 | spang – SPAN + “lead for gold” = G |
| 11 | video on demand – *(ONE DDD MOVIE AN) – unusual clue, in that you have to deduce the anagrist. Not hard though |
| 13 |
huaquero – house = HO containing accepted = U, + A QUER( |
| 15 |
minima – mark = M + wearing = IN + I + ( |
| 17 |
zinnia – *( |
| 19 |
shofroth – “clear, weightless” = SHO( |
| 22 | Maori sidestep – this clue made no sense to me until I discovered that there is a word “aorist” which refers to a past tense in the Greek language. Then parsing becomes simple: miles = M + AORIST + PE rev., containing team = SIDE. A Maori sidestep being no sidestep at all.. even for the club monthly that seems a hard clue! |
| 25 | rumbo – R + UMBO, a word for boss (of eg, a shield) which cropped up in another recent blog, for a jumbo I think |
| 26 |
upthunder – a word so obscure it is not in the OED, though it is in Chambers. It is rugby move = UP-AND-UNDER, with the and replaced by T( |
| 27 |
Hummers – ah, here is my error. I carelessly and without any justification wrote in HUMMERS, without even noticing that HUMVEES also fits, and has the additional merit of fitting the wordplay: colours = HUES containing M( |
| 28 |
echinus – parrot = ECH( |
| Down | |
| 1 |
foxy – following = F + Y( |
| 2 | synovia – alternate letters in: iS lYiNg On VeIn As |
| 3 | lucid – left one daughter = L + I + D containing capitals = upper-case = UC |
| 4 | wayboard – fashion = WAY + BOARD |
| 5 | jotunn – couple = JOIN, with the I replaced by barrel = TUN. A jotunn or frost giant is a creature so mythological that even Wikipedia struggles a bit to describe it |
| 6 | bas-relief – *(BELIES FAR) |
| 7 | ouakari – Proust’s agreed = OUI containing AKA + R. (o)uakari and saki are genera of South American monkeys. |
| 8 | megadeaths – motorway = M + for one = EG + *(EAST HAD) |
| 12 | rhizomorph – Hawaii = HI + personnel = HR containing trailer = PROMO + unknown = Z, all rev. |
| 14 | uliginose – Italian man = LUIGI, with the U (= superior) brought to the front, + scent = NOSE |
| 16 | bheestie – having no matches = BEST + that is = IE, containing light gas = helium = HE |
| 18 |
nuoc mam – old lady = MA + host = MC + ( |
| 20 | oppidan – an anagram of zip = O + PIN + PAD |
| 21 | si quis – sibling = SIS containing IQ |
| 23 | tough – books = OT rev., + UGH. |
| 24 |
urus – ( |
I could have sworn AORIST (familiar from Classical Greek O-level) had come up in the daily puzzle recently (I seem to recall one of the usual suspects whingeing about it), but I’m blest if I can find it now.
The MAORI SIDESTEP is the sort of thing I took up cross-country running in order to escape!