Solving time: about 2 hours with C used from the start
This will teach me to leave Mephistos unstarted on the Sunday! It turned out to be very tough, with lots of stuff that was new to me and some tricky clues.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | E.F.T.,SOONS – the whole is an old word for ‘very shortly’, so I assume ‘soons’ is supposed to be the same as ‘zounds’, which is an oath. But I can’t find this in Chambers 2006 on paper or 2003 on CD-Rom. Am I missing something? |
| 7 | I,GLU(e) – it turns out that “igloo” is also a hollow in the snow made by a seal over its breathing hole. IGLU is the Inuit spelling given in the etymology. |
| 10 | SUS,PENSION – board in the ‘bead and board’ sense. |
| 11 | ELUL – Hebrew calendar month. Comp. anag – (find Elul)* = unfilled* |
| 14 | AL GOR(e),IS,M – unfortunately the Alg__ made me think first of Alger Hiss, a spy rather than politician. Answer was a new word but the relation to algorithm makes it easy enough to understand. |
| 17 | TO(PONY)M – {tom = he} is justified as tom is ‘the male of various animals’ |
| 18 | I.(NLAC=clan*)E. |
| 19 | NANISM – (sin in man) rev. – think nano- to see the def. |
| 21 | PSY=spy*,CHE=Chemical Engineer |
| 27 | ARACH,AE,AN – ae = Scots for ‘same’ – probably something I should have picked up years ago. |
| 32 | KA(T)Y – kay = old spelling of quay. |
| Down | |
| 1 | ELEA – referenced in the def. for Eleatic |
| 2 | FALLEN,S,TAR – some splatty blue algae thing… |
| 3 | TSUGA = (a gust) rev. – the hemlock spruce genus, fairly useful for barred-grid setters |
| 5 | OP(HIT)E(n) – a greeny kind of rock. Not to be confused with ophiolite or oolite |
| 6 | NE(L,’S)ON |
| 7 | ISOGONAL – don’t know whether ‘igloo’ in the clue is any kind of hint at the intersecting 7A. |
| 8 | GI(E)D – gid = sturdy = a disease of sheep |
| 9 | ‘UNS ‘UMMED |
| 13 | SKY,’S,C(R)APER – yes, the def. for caper(2) does inlcude ‘crime’ |
| 15 | LIPS = spil(t) rev.,TICK |
| 20 | ARC,HIVE – arc = a discharge of electricity, HIVE = to collect into a hive |
| 23 | TEC = dick,KEL(t) = salmon – a Teckel is a dachshund. |
| 25 | REP,R.O. – short for reproduction proof |
Bill