I’m posting this on Ken’s behalf, as he’s on holiday. Sorry about the weird formatting, but it was sent to me as a text file which I’ve already spent half an hour on to prevent double spacing between every line. The html looks OK now, but there are still extra line-breaks where there shouldn’t be which I don’t have time to correct now. Windows must have inserted hidden characters here and there. All fixed now (I hope) – couldn’t leave it like that! Over to Ken…
I’d be interested to learn what others thought of this. My time of 49:54 should put it in the really tough category, but having written this report I can’t really see why it took so long. This is either a sign of a really well-crafted puzzle where it all looks easy once you’ve got the answer, or a sign of me not being in the right frame of mind to tackle it. I suspect the former with a touch of the latter. Whatever the reason I thoroughly enjoyed it and offer my thanks to the setter.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PERIWIG – GP around 1 WIRE all reversed |
| 5 | BOOKCASE – BOOE[d] around SACK rev |
| 9 | TOMTIT – first letter of “Told Me That It’s True” with 0 inserted |
| 13 | OXFORD UNIVERSITY – OX (steer), FOR,DIVERSITY with U (posh) ,N (new) inserted. “Hmmm, collection of colleges…..it’s Oxford something or other”, I thought. Couldn’t get it for ages! |
| 14 | ABUSER – (EAR)* around BUS. One of my last few in, made difficult by my insistence that it was (EAR)* inside a vehicle and not the other way round. I’m beginning to think I wasn’t in a solving frame of mind. |
| 16 | UP,SET |
| 17 | TWADDLE – WADDLE after [co]T |
| 18 | AQUITAINE – QUIT,A(area) in A1 N.E. – actually a SW part of France |
| 19 | EYE OPENER – two definitions, one a bit cryptic, “wake-up call?” |
| 21 | CONGEAL – N[o] G[ood] E[nergy] in COAL |
| 22 | ROUGH – sounds like “ruff” |
| 23 | AT,T,IC[aught] |
| 25 | ORCHESTRA – OR (soldiers – Other Ranks) CHEST (box) RA (gunners – Royal Artillery). Another that took too long, having convinced myself that “box” was an insertion indicator |
| 27 | COGNATE – TANGO rev in CE. I know it’s one of those things that we all accept but is there an example of CE meaning Church of England anywhere other than in crosswords? I only know it as C of E |
| 29 | TUNING PEG – (GET UP N[ew] GIN)* Nice oblique definition here, “that affects tightness of gut” refers to a string on a violin etc |
| 31 | CRYPTANALYSIS – CRY IS around (SPY ALAN T[uring])*. Very clever. I knew that I knew who Alan Turing was but my brain wouldn’t allow me to remember. In the end I worked it out from checkers and the word play and then kicked myself. |
| 34 | SUPERANNUATED – (PUT AS UNEARNED)* |
| 35 | COMBATANT – TA (Territorial Army) in COMB,ANT |
| 37 | FATUOUS – FA (note) then (OUT)* then US (unserviceable) |
| 39 | REP,AIRMAN |
| 42 | HAITI – A(area) in HIT I (island) |
| 43 | CHEAP – CHAP around E. Budget here is an adjective. |
| 45 | MACBETH – BE in (MATCH)* An obscure play by an unknown playwright (only kidding Tony) |
| 47 | UNMARRIED – ‘URRIED around (MAN)* |
| 49 | AGAMEMNON – ANON (soon) around GAME M[e]N |
| 50 | COMPERE – COME around PER. Very nicely done |
| 52 | SABRE – hidden in powER BASe reversed |
| 54 | KERNEL – RN (Royal Navy) in KEEL |
| 55 | HONEST TO GOODNESS – HOOD + NESS around NEST, TOGO |
| 56 | RESIST – REST around S.I. (Système international). I don’t understand all this metric nonsense, it’s far too complicated. What was wrong with 12 inches to the foot, 3 feet to the yard, 220 yards to the furlong and 8 furlongs to the mile? …. or 16oz in a lb, 14 lb in a stone, 8 stone in a cwt and 20 cwt in a ton? It was all so simple in the old days! |
| 57 | MEAT-FREE – ME around (AFTER E[ights])* |
| 58 | EREWHON – NOH,WERE reversed. A novel by Samuel Butler and solved entirely from word play. If you didn’t know that Noh is Japanese drama, remember it – it’ll be along again very shortly |
| Down | |
| 1 | PROTUBERANT – “diatribe advocating Underground travel” is a PRO TUBE RANT. Marvellous! |
| 2 | RUFUS – sounds like “roof us”. RUFUS is the Latin word for “red”. Well I never! |
| 3 | WIRETAP – (WRAP TIE)* |
| 4 | GLUT,TON FOR PUNISHMENT |
| 5 | BRIC A BRAC – the first halves of BRIngs CABbie RACing |
| 6 | ON END – 2 meanings |
| 7 | CASHEW NUT – AS,HEWN in CUT |
| 8 | SATIATE – A[rrangemen]T in Erik SATIE. I only knew satiate as to satisfy, but it can also mean to over-satisfy |
| 10 | OR,BITER – nicely defined as “one captured by attractive body” convincing me that this was the word play part of the clue. |
| 11 | TESSITURA – A RUT IS SET all reversed. My last one in, again solved entirely from word play. |
| 12 | THREE CHEERS – the clue is “show of approval typically on hips” which suggests HIP HIP HOORAY! But can the clue surface be read in a way that makes any sense? |
| 15 | PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE – PUBLICITY with IT replace by EN,EM then NUMBER ONE (top of hit list) . EM and EN (and EL) are all terms from the earlier days of printing presses and represent spaces of different widths, Em being the same width as the letter M, En N and El L |
| 20 | EATEN UP – E in (PEANUT)* |
| 21 | CREW CUT – “navy’s attempt to economise” made me smile. |
| 24 | CON BRIO – included in garCON BRIOche |
| 26 | AZTEC – first letters of American Zone That Europeans Colonised. An &lit (all in one) clue referring to the Spanish colonisation of the Americas |
| 28 | GOLIATH – GO (try) + TAIL rev then H (husband) |
| 30 | GLUER – LUGER with the G moved to the beginning |
| 32 | YIDDISH – Y[oghurt) I’D DISH |
| 33 | SWAHILI – 1 after S[ons] and WAIL around H husband). A more obscure meaning of keen is to lament |
| 34 | SAFE, CRACKER – I think pearl here means something impressive. “What a pearl!” – “What a cracker!”. I’m open to better ideas though |
| 36 | THIRD PERSON – I really like this clue. “Perhaps he” is the definition (“perhaps” because it could also be SHE or IT) and “equitable distribution among three male heirs” is THIRD PER SON. Well played that setter. |
| 38 | THESAURUS – TAURUS around HE’S – the opposite of “the man’s full of bull” |
| 40 | PRESCIENT – CI (101) in PRESENT |
| 41 | MOUSE HOLE – (HOUSE)* in MOLE |
| 44 | POETESS – very nicely cryptically defined “Woman behind the lines?” . Another of the ones I struggled with until the penny finally dropped |
| 46 | CONSOLE – 2 meanings |
| 48 | RESIDUE – RES[t] 1 DUE. At best a semi &lit. I like the idea but am not convinced. “Most of the remainder one expected?” |
| 51 | MOTOR – T[ime] in MOOR |
| 53 | BEECH – BREECH without R |
Except AGAMEMNON: A GAME NON, so far so good; but MEN sans E gives us A-GAME-MN-NON, no? Please tell me I’m right; it’s been a discouraging week.
I came to exactly the same conclusion about AGAMEMNON – either it’s a misclue or we’re both missing something.