Club Monthly 20145 October 2012 – Creative Edition

Solving Time: Not recorded, but this felt about averagely hard. I notice that Jason J (second in the recent Championships) completed it in 21 mins 18secs, whereas the winner took 31mins. Remarkable.

The crossword itself is as good and as query-free as ever. It seems to me to have a slightly waggish air about it this month, as if the setter was enjoying himself. Some quite creative stuff, all very enjoyable..

cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as *(–)

Across
1 coloboma – insensible state = COMA containing launch = LOB + O(NES)
5 affear – distant = AFAR containing fine English = FE. The old poet referred to is good old Edmund Spenser, god’s gift to both setters and lexicographers
9 ria – AIR rev. I assume that air in the sense of someone having, eg, an air of unconcern, is what is meant here. A ria is a drowned river valley
10 longinquity – pine = LONG + enclosed by = IN + cleared out = QUIT + Y(ARDS)
12 dissatisfy – *(I’D SAY FISTS)
13 wadt – (A)T DAW(N) rev. Na being sodium. Tricky!
15 scampi – have = SCAM + mine = PI(T)
16 no-hoper – drama = NOH, + OPER(A)
18 cotonou – resting place = COT + close to = ON + “where in Benin” = OU, the official language of Benin being French. Cotonou is its largest city.
20 inhume – cruel = INHUM(AN)E. Inhume’s antonym, exhume, is perhaps better known
23 esse – looks = SEES, inside out = ESSE
24 maquisards – *(SQUADS I ARM)
26 electric arc – “awaiting office installation” = ELECT, as in Chairman elect, etc. + R(HODE) I(SLAND) + CAR + C
27 iou – another clever device I haven’t seen before, at least in The Times. I got 19dn and promptly wrote this in, in both places! It goes diagonally down to the left from the I in 3dn.
28 ivy-tod – IVY TO(WERE)D. The setter is in a creative mood today. Ivy-tod is an unusual word; it pops up in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Coleridge.
29 dewy-eyed – I’m struggling with this one a bit. Let’s see, action = DEED one assumes, so we have WYEY to explain. And aha, Chambers tells me that WYE = “the letter Y, or anything shaped like it.” So we have WYE and Y as “followers of ex (X).”
Down
1 corody – modest = COY containing ROD
2 liassic – C(HANNEL) I(SLES) + (FOSSIL)S + drift = SAIL, all rev. A synonym for the Early Jurassic epoch.
3 bellarmine – call = BELL + Arab = AR + “associated with me” = MINE
4 manrikigusari – “nearly twice to provoke” = IRK + IR, containing “American soldier turning on his country” = IG + USA, + Vietnam = ‘NAM. All then rev. This clue caused problems (beyond the obvious) since it appears that in some editions of Chambers it is misspelt. I’m not sure which editions that would be, since it seems correct in all the ones I have (the last four).
6 fiqh – F(OLLOWING) H(ENRY) containing a measure of wit = IQ. A useful Scrabble word!
7 epicarp – on a grand scale = EPIC + ARP which stands, or rather stood, for Air Raid Precautions. Unless you were around during WWII you probably need to have seen Dad’s Army
8 roysters – R(OYAL) S(OCIETY) containing someone secretive = OYSTER. One of my heroes, Samuel Pepys Esq., was a founder member and later President of the RS. In that capacity he was the publisher of Isaac Newton’s famous work Principia Mathematica. I am more used, incidentally, to roistering than to roystering.
11 infundibulate – for a laugh = IN FUN + stretch = DILATE containing BU(T)
14 phthisicky – P(EEVIS)H + T(HRUS)H + IS ICKY. Hard to credit that this word actually exists, but it does..
17 acoemeti – master = ACE containing old = O, + object up = METI
19 tushery – (MEAN)T + to show = USHER, + Y(EARS). The Black Arrow was held up by its own author as an example of rampant tushery
21 mercify – MERCI + F(RENCH FAMIL)Y
22 osmund – *(MUD’S ON)
25 otto – fulsome = OTT + O(VER). Otto is like attar, as in “Attar of roses” etc.

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

2 comments on “Club Monthly 20145 October 2012 – Creative Edition”

  1. After another desperately slow start I had all but 28ac and 27dn in place after about 35 minutes. However, I wasn’t at all sure about COTONOU, and although I eventually remembered IVY-TOD, tiredness got the better of me and in the end I could only think of ACAEMETI (which sounded right, but didn’t look right), making the stupid assumption that “object” = IT and hoping vaguely that “master” might somehow = ACME. Of course as soon as I resorted to Chambers, I remembered ACOEMETI, and the wordplay became blindingly obvious!

    Jason (fluent Japanese-speaker) would no doubt have the edge over Magoo when it came to 4dn, though I’m not sure whether that would be enough to account for a 10-minute difference.

  2. A couple of minor wordplay corrections:
    28ac: IV(OR)Y-TO(WE’RE)D. “Ivory-towered” is in Chambers.
    21dn: MERCI (= thanks to the French) + F(AMIL)Y.

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