Lost sight of my turn to blog this, and started it late last night but got stuck with much of the NE corner blank. Report later today after another look and cheating if necessary.
Solving time: about 75 minutes in two sessions, with Chambers used for roughly the last half.
A not too hard puzzle which, as the first comments suggest, I made a meal of. I took a break after getting stuck late last night with the clock showing 55 minutes. My last answers in, after a night’s sleep, were all in the NW corner apart from the final one – 1, 2?, 13, 3, 2 (correct this time), 11, 15, 24, 22.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | N(O=ordinary,F=fellow)EAR – I made a hash of this by looking for a three-letter “ordinary” in FAR = “Definitely not close”, meaning “fellow”. I failed to follow the advice I must have given dozens of times to others – if it seems that you’re barking up the wrong tree, try another tree! |
| 6 | TUS(h),SAH = has rev. – I knew tusseh was some crude kind of silk, so this seemed a very likely variant |
| 12 | RITORNELLE = (entire roll)* |
| 13 | IGAD = “I had” with the “second letter” H changed to G – I wasted time by trying to apply the same procedure to something more complex – a synonym for “I” or “I had”. Another basic lesson: never overlook the bleedin’ obvous! |
| 14 | T=tense,RANTER = extravagant preacher – a tranter is a hawker, and to bark is to advertise your wares |
| 15 | NUNATAK – solved by knowing that this is a bit of rock sticking through a glacier or ice sheet – looking in C now, I find kata = karate practice, which is reversed after NUN, so NUN must be “old top” – this is nun2 – a spinning top |
| 18 | DECAD – had to be right from checkers and the relation to 10, but I couldn’t make “One hundred bucks stuffed into most recent” – I assumed C in DEAD, as C = $100 (US informal) is there in black and white, but only just saw “dead” as in “dead gorgeous” = recent slang for ‘most’ – unless of course, you know different |
| 20 | TIM (Moorey), I = current, D = director |
| 22 | FLAT = prone, LONG = “to yearn” – the obvious answer but I missed it twice while looking too hastily under FLAT in C. |
| 24 | WALD(o) = gadget, RAP = chat, P = priest – never heard of this creature but WALD made it easy to find in C |
| 25 | (c)OSIER |
| 27 | WAEFU’ – A = highest category, in rev. of U,FEW |
| 30 | EKISTIC – hidden – I think I must have seen this word before |
| 32 | TRUM(p) = blast, EAU = water – “piece of wall” is exactly what C says |
| 33 | ARCH – double def masquerading as text from Chambers – “embow (archaic)” |
| 34 | UNLADYLIKE – (ankle I duly)* |
| 35 | BEE(f),NAH – corrected from BEENAY after looking in C and finding this Sri Lankan wedding |
| 36 | LA,VEER2 = slack (vb.) |
| Down | |
| 2 | ORGUE – 2 defs, one of which (“alternatively, an instrument”) is lurking in the etymology (“Fr, organ”) if not in your knowledge of foreign-language musical instrument names. OR,GAN was my initial flaky stab at this. |
| 3 | FRAN = girl, COLIN = boy – a known word, so a doddle once the F was there |
| 4 | A = American, TIT5 = promptly |
| 5 | ROTAPLANE = (para let on)* |
| 7 | UN = one, A = accepted, PT. = pint |
| 8 | SENSILLA – NS = “North-South” in rev. of allies=joins – organs in some critter or other |
| 9 | AL(E)P IN E – another new word for me – a cloth possibly named after Aleppo |
| 10 | HER, M=medium – bust in the statue sense |
| 11 | W = with, I = one, N = new, DOW = lateen-rigged vessel – absurdly simple when you see it from the checkers. The hopeless punt RIFT,I,N is hopefully written next to the clue on my copy |
| 16 | KNAPSKULL = a Scots helmet (has it really taken us until 16D to mention Scotland?) – rev. of LL = lines, UK, SPANK = whack, the last of which took much too long to see in one of my last bits or inspiration before retiring |
| 17 | SMOKETREE = (reeks to me)* – spot the anag. and -TREE, and the rest is easy |
| 19 | ALDER = a fishing fly, MAN = geezer |
| 21 | C = Charlie, ‘AS = ‘olds, ERNE2 = a Spenserian spelling of yearn – Spenser is to 21D as Scotland is to 16D! I didn’t know the final silly word but remembered CASERN(e) as some kind of grim building sur le continent – prison, I thought, so barracks was close enough |
| 23 | GAUCH(e),O |
| 26 | RUEDA = (a rude)* – near &lit, though the C def implies no rudeness in the dance |
| 28 | FICHE – ch. = chirurgeon = “old surgeon”, in fie = fey = a bit odd |
| 29 | STUB – rev. of buts = objections = cons |
| 31 | IX = nine, I = in, A = a – I knew IXIA meant something, from long ago memorising ILIA / INIA / IXIA as a set of “vowel dumps” for Scrabble. The plant name comes from ixos = Gk. mistletoe (or bird lime, which suggests possible confusion in Attic general stores at Christmas!) I was disappointed not to confirm my guess about a botanist called Ix. |
K
I solved NO FEAR on screen as I was printing off and feared I was in for another doddle. Thankfully it was not like that and I thought it of about average difficulty. I had the same problem with “dead” at 18A but what else could it be? I didn’t think of your explanation and could find no answer to the dilemma in C (which I’ve just checked doesn’t give your suggestion either). What you say sounds reasonable.