Greetings, barred-grid fans.
I enjoy the quirky setting of Robert Teuton. There’s plenty of trickery, a little smut and many chances to smile. This was done and dusted in one fairly short solving session.
| Across | |
| 1 | Satire involved in writing Spanish piece (9) |
| PISTAREEN – anagram of SATIRE inside PEN(writing) | |
| 10 | Potter’s art? Somebody’s welcoming well-informed staff in (12) |
| ONE-UPMANSHIP – ONE’S(somebody’s) containing UP(well-informed) and MAN(staff) then HIP(in). Potter referring to the coiner of the phrase. | |
| 11 | Wallaby to strike and punch back (6) |
| TAMMAR – RAM(strike), and MAT(a punch for roughing a surface) all reversed | |
| 13 | The crowd’s given international for women little weight (5) |
| CRITH – CRWTH(the crowd, musical instrument) with I(international) replacing W(women) | |
| 14 | Rabbi’s heading off excited now it’s Nisan (4) |
| ABIB – anagram of RABBI minus the first letter. | |
| 16 | One tending to circumvent a lot of parliament’s indecision? (7) |
| ABOULIA – AIA(a nursemaid, one tending) containing BOULE(Greek parliament) minus the last letter | |
| 18 | Central American multicoloured shows (4) |
| TICO – hidden inside mulTICOloured | |
| 20 | Fantastic innings receiving support over magical spell (10, two words) |
| INDIAN SIGN – anagram of INNINGS containing AID(support) reversed | |
| 22 | Channel worried about withdrawing very good herbicide (10) |
| GLYPHOSATE – GLYPH(ornamental channel) and ATE(worried) containing SO(very good) reversed | |
| 23 | Regularly unloads in difficulties (4) |
| NODI – alternating letters in uNlOaDs In. Found under NODUS in Chambers | |
| 26 | Hell’s leading God is name to forsake (7) |
| ABANDON – ABADDON(hell) with the first D(Deus, God) replaced by N(name) | |
| 28 | Units once women’s quarters, not in this year (4) |
| REMS – HAREMS(women’s quarters) minus HA(hoc anno, in this year) | |
| 29 | Peacemaker king turning unruly perhaps? (5) |
| RAGDE – reversal of EDGAR the peacemaker | |
| 30 | Forged in English gold (Au), old bit spent? (6) |
| GUINEA – anagram of IN, E(English), G(gold), AU | |
| 31 | One breaking into store because of drug (12) |
| ISOTRETINOIN – I(one), then an anagram of INTO STORE, then IN(because of) | |
| 32 | Brawling target man injured (9) |
| TERMAGANT – anagram of TARGET, MAN | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Murphy close to Dublin drinking in pint of Guinness? (8) |
| POTATION – POTATO(murply) and the last letter in DubliN containing I(in) | |
| 2 | Semester that is for 2nd-year student at St Andrews? (5) |
| SEMIE – SEM(semester), IE(that is). Found in Chambers under SEMI-BAJAN | |
| 3 | Pillory corporation boss left wanting (7) |
| TUMBRIL – TUM(stomach, corporation), then BRILL(boss, excellent) minus L(left) | |
| 4 | Always restricting settlement to remunerate as before (4) |
| APAY – AY(always) containing PA(Maori settlement) | |
| 5 | Expressing surprise about carriage’s carpeting (10) |
| EARBASHING – EHING(expressing surprise) containing ARBA’S(carriage’s) | |
| 6 | Come in on moving eulogy (8) |
| ENCOMION – anagram of COME,IN,ON | |
| 7 | Depressions following cold wind (5) |
| CHILI – HILI(depressions, found under HILUS in Chambers) after C(cold) | |
| 8 | Plantation truck reversing into victim carelessly (9) |
| VITICETUM – UTE(truck) reversed inside an anagram of VICTIM | |
| 9 | Measure acidity value in local water (4) |
| EPHA – PH(acidity value) inside EA(local water) | |
| 12 | Member of congregation blasted proven liar (10) |
| RAIN-PLOVER – anagram of PROVEN LIAR, congregation can refer to a group of plover | |
| 15 | Arrangement to boycott Dutch administrative district that’s out of line (9) |
| BANDOBAST – BAN(boycott), D(Dutch) then OBLAST(administrative district) minus L(line) | |
| 17 | Dancing-girl performing ready to be caught by partner? (8) |
| BAYADERE – anagram of READY inside BAE(partner – hasn’t made it to Chambers, but it is in Collins and I hear it way too much for my liking around here) | |
| 19 | Respectful of bus system boarding capacity (8) |
| OBEISANT – O(of), then ISA(computer bus system) inside BENT(capacity of endurance) | |
| 21 | Veteran company investing strong cover for privates (7) |
| G-STRING – GING(old company) containing STR(strong) | |
| 24 | Lizard? Not right — half-man, half-fish (5) |
| DAGON – DRAGON(lizard) minus R(right) | |
| 25 | Side of head encapsulating cut of jib (5) |
| GENOA – GENA(side of head) containing OF minus the last letter | |
| 26 | Cockney’s behind a threat to snub King (4) |
| ARIS – A, RISK(threat) minus K(King) | |
| 27 | Maori gathering Australian bird (4) |
| HUIA – HUI(Maori gathering), A(Australian) | |
I meant BAE for partner is not in Chambers
I noticed that I hadn’t finished, so I buckled down this afternoon and managed to get through the bottom half. Not easy for me, and I couldn’t parse half of them. Surprisingly, I did recognize a genoa as a kind of jib.
I don’t know what’s happening with the Times website this week: nothing shows up in green as correct with the letters of VITICETUM in pink – yet every answer is correct. I must have submitted it as the clock’s not advancing.
Found 17d difficult to parse. Eventually discovered BAE by googling. It’s not something I’ve been exposed to.
My solution is showing up all white.
I found this really difficult, it took me over an hour and like vinyl there were a few I couldn’t parse so thanks George!
My first thought for 10ac was Gamesmanship (Stephen Potter’s first book), but that didn’t fit the word play; however, that didn’t puzzle me for long, unlike some of the others. I got 19dn Obeisant long before I could see how to parse it – not being familiar with ISA as a computing bus term. My one quibble is that I don’t like clues like 27dn, which involve an obscure word (in this case HUI) coupled with a very broad definition (“bird”), with the answer also being fairly obscure. This, for me, was the complete opposite of 19dn – I could parse the clue long before I got the answer!
To be fair 27d the Maori gathering has occurred in the not too distant past.
ISA is a bit obsolete now. About 30 years ago all disc drives on PCs we attached to the system board via an ISA bus. That’s now obsolete. SCSI, PCIe, ATA USB, SATA etc having come to the fore. I was lucky in this instance being by profession a developer/designer for computer systems. I can understand puzzlement if you’re not active in this arena.
With respect, I don’t think the fact that HUI turned up recently makes a difference to the principle. You can’t expect every solver to complete every puzzle (or to remember them!). Each puzzle should be accessible to all, not just some kind of insiders’ club.
Thanks for the info on ISA. I will now feel free to forget that one! 🙂
10ac. “Stephen Potter” is mentioned by his full name in Chambers in their entries for “gamesmanship”, “lifemanship”, and “one-upmanship”.
I’ve just watched a trailer for the 2006 US remake School for Scoundrels (“From the director of Old School”), which manages to look more dated that the rather charming 1960 film of the same name. Based on Stephen Potter’s humorous series of “-manship” books parodying self-help manuals.
Hi, the solution date was entered incorrectly, that’s been fixed now so it should show correctly for you.