Club Monthly 20149 February 2013 – Elegant words edition

Author   JerryWPosted on Categories Monthly Club Special
Solving Time: About 1hr 20mins, a bit longer than usual though I’m not sure it is in fact any harder than last month. One thing I did notice is that this month, there seems to be an unusual number of rather fine words, such as jinjili, bavardage, crocosmia, and (particularly) coquelicot etc.. not much use in daily conversation, but very picturesque.

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

Across
1 life coach – supposing = IF + EC, in LOACH, one of various freshwater fish species, likely in most cases to prove rather a disappointment to the fisherman in question
6 hejab – gas = helium = He + JAB = injection. More commonly hijab
9 bezique – *(QUIZ) in buzzer = BEE. Bezique had a great run of popularity in the 1950s, along with canasta
10 Ustinov – hidden.. seek & ye shall find
11 spider mite – WRIST in EPIDERMIS, with the E & S having swapped places. Is that what “inverted” means? I would have said it meant “turned upside-down,” but Chambers does have “reversed” as well
12 girr – GI + RR, and not RR = right reverend, just for once. Oddly, Chambers has only the religious version, and ODO only the railway one
14 cerci – anglican = CE + Catholic = RC + I. A cute definition, a cercus being a tail or tail-like appendage
15 dolce vita – NATIVE CLOD, rev. Very neat clue!
16 crocosmia – miniature = MICROCOSM + IA = Iowa
18 Keble – KEELE University, with the central letter replaced by a B. A reference to John Keble, who I hadn’t heard of, though I knew the college he gave his name to, so not hard to guess. Assuming you also know Keele, of course
20 aitu – WAIT UP. I was nervous about this since Antu is also a goddess, and I’ve been caught out like this before. Not this time though
21 Addis Ababa – sum = ADD + (tax free) ISA and a (rum?) BABA
25 Godunov – government = GOV (as in Yougov.com?) containing O + plague = DUN. By quite a coincidence, just as I wrote this, I was listening to an old recording of Desert Island Discs, and the castaway (Wilfrid Thesiger) picked “The Death of Boris Godunov” by Mussorgsky as one of his records..
26 dupable – hardy = DURABLE, with the R converted to a P, as described.. I’m a bit of a sucker for what I think of as “physical” clues like this
27 emery – English = E in EMRYS. I’m a sandpaper man myself, but my father was always using emery cloth
28 low-necked – *(NEW) in secured = LOCKED
Down
1 labis – place for test tubes = LAB, + IS. I suppose that “is” = “occupies a position,” in the sense of “He is Prime Minister”
2 fuzzier – drone = BUZZ in *(FIRE)
3 coquelicot – fool = COOT containing mostly quiet = QUEL(L) + I(N) C(OMMUNISM). A tricky clue for a lovely word, the french word for the wild corn poppy, which makes some fields so colourful in summer, amongst other places in Flanders; hence its use by the British Legion
4 abeam – ABE + A(BRAHA)M
5 haustella – take that = HA + USA containing TELL. Haustella are sea snails
6 hote – pension, possibly inadequate = HOTE(L). The former laureate is Edmund Spenser, to whom the use of “hote” as an alternative for “hight,” to call or be called, is attributed in Chambers though not, oddly, in the OED.
7 jinjili – trendy = IN, in judges = JJ + vIlLaIn
8 bavardage – variety = VAR in spoiled generation = BAD AGE
13 verkrampte – notice = MARK + gun = REV (an engine), both rev., + private = PTE.
14 cockaigne – company = CO, + *(KING + ACE). A mythical land of plenty.
15 demi-devil – D(WELLING PLAC)E + surrounded by = MID + sin = EVIL. I suppose if you can have a demigod, you can have a demidevil too.
17 outedge – revealed a secret = OUTED + EG rev.
19 blaubok – (INDI)A in cry = BLUB, + right = OK. Antelope of the month, one of an apparently endless variety
22 indew – a dd. IN DEW = wearing glistening beads. The old poet is our friend Spenser again. The man seems virtually to have had his own private language.
23 aredd – *(DREAD). A word used by, guess who?
24 inly – AMYL NITRATE, rev.

Author: JerryW

I love The Times crosswords..

2 comments on “Club Monthly 20149 February 2013 – Elegant words edition”

  1. I have to agree with you that there was an elegance to this puzzle which I very much appreciated

    I found demi-devil in Chambers under demi rather than as an entry in its own right. Helped by looking up Aitu and finding it defined as a demi-god

    Not sure I’m as keen as you on 26A – a bit laboured I thought but agree that 15A is very good

    Once again an excellent overall offering so thanks to the setter

  2. A very fine puzzle, but perhaps rather tougher than usual? I finished in just under an hour, but with two stupid mistakes: JINGILI (which I worked round to from the more familiar GINGILI, hoping that “Jg” might be short for the OT book and failing to spot the obvious) and ADERD (having initially bunged in the familiar ADRED, and then – with tiredness starting to get the better of me – failing to spot AREDD, which was also annoyingly familiar once I’d thought of it).

    I liked 26ac as well (I spotted the R -> P change quite quickly, but was foxed by the final R that I initially had from ADRED), and I was particularly taken with 15ac and 16ac. My compliments to the setter.

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