Well, I found this crossword an absolute pig to complete. Heaven alone knows how long it took me to finish, but it must have been over three hours all told, in bits over the course of a week or so. I did a few of the shorter ones.. ifs, lat, riyal, ecad etc.. on the first pass, then Adam and Eve, and then gradually ground to a complete halt and it seemed to take ages, to get going again. I don’t know if it’s just me or not and would be interested to hear how others got on.
Unfortunately I’m pressed for time today (a bit forswoncked?) and have skimped on the blog a bit but I will be happy to answer any queries anyone has, about specific clues… the blog is published before the solution is available don’t forget, so the answers are not guaranteed correct!
Sadly I must report that Grumpy, the cat whose picture you see above left, had to be put to sleep last week, aged 18 or thereabouts. He was a true feline intellectual (“the brains of the partnership,” my wife says), and will probably continue to grace this blog, if nowhere else, for some time to come. RIP, old pal.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | coreferential – Heart = CORE + wild = FERAL containing TEN*, I |
| 8 | urdy – the barrel organ in question being a hURDY gURDY |
| 9 | rose quartz – increased = ROSE + QUART = two pints, + Z, a variable |
| 10 | mulloway – to heat & spice = MUL + O + WAY = old style |
| 11 |
baetyl – |
| 13 | Adam and Eve – ah, CRS! (ie cockney rhyming slang) – Adam & Eve = believe, or have confidence in. Technically they were gardeners I suppose, in that they inhabited one, until they were given their marching orders for nicking the produce. These days such a penalty would be viewed as a serious breach of their human rights |
| 16 |
ecad – |
| 17 | scat – chair = SEAT, only with one side of committee = C, replacing the other ie E… |
| 18 | klendusity – KY = Kentucky, containing LEND * US + IT |
| 20 | tsotsi – must = IS TO + ST = holy man, all rev. |
| 22 | erigeron – poet’s always = EER + wolling = ON, around RIG = to set up |
| 24 | hierophant – clue = HINT, containing A + H + PORE, rev. |
| 26 | hadj – HAD + J |
| 27 | swinge buckler – SWINGER containing BUCKLE, making this month’s useful descriptive phrase. “Oh, you old swinge-buckler, you!” |
| Down | |
| 1 | circumducts – situation, ie circumstances, = CIRCS containing U + MD + UCT, or cut in pieces.. |
| 2 | riyal – have = LAIR brought up and containing Y = yen |
| 3 | forswonck – KNOW + SR + OF, brought up around C = cape. Another odd word, used by Spenser but seldom since.. |
| 4 | restyle – nervous = RESTY + LE = “empty lounge.” |
| 5 | niqab – catch = NAB containing IQ |
| 6 | imageless – I + M + (SEA LEGS)* |
| 7 |
lat – LAT |
| 12 |
yeast powder – (PASTRY WE DO)* containing |
| 14 | metatarsi – more bones.. ME + I containing TATARS |
| 15 | endeictic – conclusion = END + CITE rev.m and containing C = Curie |
| 19 | ewe-lamb – E + WEB containing LAM, to make an adjective that I have previously come across several times, notably in Wodehouse, without ever realising its biblical origins |
| 21 | in pig – alternate letters of kIdNaPpInG |
| 23 |
|
| 25 | ifs – lives, = IS, containing F = folio |
I can’t say that I found this any harder than usual. The wordplays were reasonable precise, with the possible exception of the mythical ADAM AND EVE who lived in a mythical garden. Chambers defines “gardener” as one employed to tend a garden”, which they clearly weren’t.
Adam at least is conventionally referred to as a gardener (think of Kipling’s The Glory of The Garden for example, or, further down the scale, The Darkies’ Sunday School).
So Adam was certainly a gardener, and given that Eve was made as “an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18), it’s a pretty fair guess that she was called upon to do a bit of weeding as well (mythical weeds, of course :-).
I rest my case.
I really enjoyed this one, mainly because I either knew the answer to each clue from its definition or could deduce it from the wordplay, so that I finished pretty much 100% certain that I had it correct before stopping the clock and checking with Chambers (which all too often reveals that I’ve made some daft mistake or bad guess).
I agree with dorsetjimbo about ETHAL.
I’m very sorry to hear about Grumpy’s demise. Our beatiful white cat died last year, and we still miss her very much. However, we now have a nice visiting cat – a very satisfactory situation since although she spends most of her time with us and sleeps on our bed almost every night, her nominal owners feed her and pay her vets’ bills :-). (This is almost certainly because her owners have acquired two dogs which she dislikes.)
Without getting involved in Biblical detail, there’s another just possible explanation of “gardeners” – that the setter is extending the “-er” trick from the usual “something that does this” meaning to “someone who comes from here” as in “New Yorker” or “Londoner”. (“banker” for a river is a similar extension as a river has banks rather than being something that banks, but other trips into this territory are very rare.)
– of course Jimbo is quite correct about ethal. It seems my prize must wait for yet another month..