I went through this completely sequentially, from top to bottom then left to right. Either I was on that mysterious ‘wavelength’ or Pedro was being especailly kind to us for the bank holiday weekend. Only you can tell me which it was and I look forward to reading your comments. Many thanks to Pedro (who I don’t think I have blogged before? Certainly not more than once or twice anyway) for a gentle start to the week.
Following my comments above I don’t really need to say that my FOI was 1A and LOI 19D. But there, I’ve done it anyway. I think my COD was 11A which took slightly longer than the others to go into the grid.
Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.
Across | |
1 | Militia crazy to jettison leader (4) |
ARMY – |
|
3 | I’m supporting exercises, right? Wrong (8) |
IMPROPER – IM (I’m) + PRO (supporting) + PE (exercises) + R (right). | |
8 | Church provided most of item for baptism — material for gown? (7) |
CHIFFON – CH (church) + IF (provided) + FON (‘most of’ FON |
|
10 | Prosper — not, say, going backwards (3,2) |
GET ON – NOT + EG (say) all ‘going backwards’ (i.e. reversed). | |
11 | About to move round striker in later game (6,5) |
RETURN MATCH – RE (about) + TURN (to move round) + MATCH (cryptically a ‘striker’). | |
13 | Desire a bit of sunshine in most of the days of November (6) |
THIRST – S (a bit of Sunshine) ‘in’ THIRT |
|
15 | A second court case will liberate one of the stars (6) |
ASTRAL – A + S (second) + TR |
|
17 | Anti-regalia, possibly, being against class distinction (11) |
EGALITARIAN – straight anagram (‘possibly’) of ANTI REGALIA. | |
20 | A bishop not entirely sharp? These assist with calculations (5) |
ABACI – A + B (bishop) + ACI |
|
21 | Pens, say, recreated a connection in the mind (7) |
SYNAPSE – straight anagram (‘recreated’) of PENS SAY. | |
22 | Article put behind sailors in drink (8) |
ABSINTHE – THE (definite article) ‘put behind’ ABS (Able-Bodied Seamen, or sailors) + IN. | |
23 | Fool left in bed (4) |
CLOT – L (left) ‘in’ COT (bed). |
Down | |
1 | Precise account supported by clergyman (8) |
ACCURATE – AC (account) ‘supported by’ CURATE (clergyman). As this is a down clue CURATE is ‘underneath’ AC and therefore ‘supports’ it. | |
2 | Damp fog — nothing visible in that (5) |
MOIST – it’s that least favourite Susie Dent word again. O (nothing) ‘visible in’ MIST (fog). | |
4 | Note on area identifying low points (6) |
MINIMA – MINIM (a note of two beats as I remember it) ‘on’ (i.e. ‘above’ in this down clue) A (area). | |
5 | A hart rising after injury, quite fit (5,2,4) |
RIGHT AS RAIN – straight anagram (‘after injury’) of A HART RISING. | |
6 | One throwing a jug (7) |
PITCHER – double definition. | |
7 | Area of frozen water? Heading away from edge (4) |
RINK – |
|
9 | People here are often told to go to blazes (4,7) |
FIRE STATION – cryptic definition. | |
12 | Resonant scheme supported by man (8) |
PLANGENT – PLAN (scheme) ‘supported by’ (i.e. ‘above’ in this down clue) GENT (man). | |
14 | Cold areas? One cold area turning up here (7) |
ICECAPS – I (one) + C (cold) + ECAPS (SPACE (area), reversed, i.e. ‘turning up’ in this down clue). | |
16 | Equipment given to school is trashy stuff (6) |
KITSCH – KIT (equipment) + SCH (school). | |
18 | The writer’s heading for Pamplona, taking on the Spanish force (5) |
IMPEL – I’M (the writer’s) + P (heading for Pamplona) + EL (‘the’ in Spanish). | |
19 | Asian island language used by programmers (4) |
JAVA – double definition. |
Spent an age on ICECAPS even though I could see how the clue worked, 13a THIRST also took time, and ‘days of November’ signalling ‘thirty’ looks obscure to me. Tried many ways to get N=November in there.
12a PLANGENT. Is a word I don’t think I really knew, certainly not it’s meaning.
Isn’t ABACI one of those bogus plurals like hippopotami that is used by writers of grammar books but never by specialists in the field who write about them every day?
COD ABSINTHE, also my favourite drink
My COD ASTRAL although I note that absinthe makes the heart grow fonder. Certainly dizzies my head. I think I will stick to a glass or three of Chablis although last night’s dinner of venison in dark chocolate sauce (interesting, courtesy Gordon R) occasioned a robust burgundy.
PS Another outing for PITCHER, getting to be a regular chestnut.
Edited at 2021-05-03 09:25 am (UTC)
Thanks to astartedon
Thirty days hath September
April, June and November
So I think it still works 😀
FOI: 21a SYNAPSE
LOI: 5d RIGHT AS RAIN
Time to Complete: DNF
Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 15
Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 3a, 1d, 12d
Clues Unanswered: 10a, 13a, 4d, 7d, 14d, 19d
Wrong Answers: Nil
Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 18/24
Aids Used: Chambers
I started off very slow, and that dictated my progress for the rest of this puzzle. Some of the clueing seemed a little too difficult for me. However, if I am honest, once I saw the answers it seemed easy enough. I guess that’s always the way.
4d. MINIMA – An unanswered clue, and a word I am not familiar with. I have heard of minim/s, used, for example, in entomology, but minima was not in my vocabulary. It is now.
14d. ICECAPS – Another unanswered clue, and one that had me frustrated. I had worked out the IC, but the rest eluded me. Again, easy enough when I saw the answer.
12d. PLANGENT – A life used here. Not a word with which I was familiar, though I did get the PLAN part of the answer. But I kept trying to think of a man’s name for the rest.
A disappointing DNF, but an enjoyable puzzle nonetheless.
Edited at 2021-05-03 08:37 am (UTC)
After 9 minutes I needed two: THIRST took a while and then I had to have a long pause over ICE …
I resisted biffing Icebays or similar and eventually found CAPS. COD to that.
10:31 on the clock.
David
Like Merlin I wondered a bit about Abaci. But my dictionary suggests that it is indeed an acceptable plural, along with Abacuses, as the word reached English via Latin. I gather its origin is much earlier though, as (according to some sources) it is from the Semitic (Phoenician or Hebrew) Abaq “sand strewn on a surface for writing”. Inevitably other sources, not unconnected with Beijing, claim that on the contrary the abacus was invented in China, while over in Silicon Valley I gather there are serious claims that it stands for Abundant Beads, Addition and Calculation Utility System.
At least Abaci is a plausible word. I would never attempt the Monthly Club Special, but I do enjoy reading the blog for it, and today’s, by Verlaine, contains a comment about “a word the chances are you haven’t heard of”. I haven’t heard of fully three-quarters of the answers to that crossword!
A good start to the week, and many thanks to Don for the blog.
Cedric
Thanks, Don and Pedro, for the QC, which I enjoyed and very nearly finished.
Diana
Held up by JAVA (I have only a smattering of IT knowledge; fortunately this fell within it) and MINIMA (where I read the “note” as MI for a long time).
FOI ARMY, LOI MINIMA, CODs ICECAPS & THIRST (both v clever), time 10:16 for 1.6K and a Decent Day.
Many thanks Pedro and Don.
Templar
Thanks to Pedro and astartedon
Brian
Edited at 2021-05-03 09:30 am (UTC)
LOI ICECAPS. Also slow on JAVA until penny dropped, and hesitated about MINIMA.
Thanks all, esp Don.
Edited at 2021-05-03 09:36 am (UTC)
Regards
AndrewK
On edit, I forgot to say that I agree with Cedric’s comment about the Club Special and Verlaine’s blog — it looks like a foreign language to me.
Edited at 2021-05-03 09:36 am (UTC)
Felt there were a lot of clues where you had to find an equivalent meaning for a particular word and take off a letter here and there — 7dn, 13ac and 20ac are just a few that come to mind.
9dn seemed so straightforward that I thought “Fire Station” surely couldn’t be right. But, the checkers said otherwise.
FOI — 1ac “Army”
LOI — 15ac “Astral”
COD — 11ac “Return Match”
Thanks as usual!
My LOsI were MINIMA and PITCHER (I couldn’t see beyond ‘minors’ and ‘pottery’), but the key to their solution was finally getting RETURN MATCH (I was thinking of ROTORS or ROTARY something, and I don’t remember seeing MATCH for striker before). Eventually, I finished, all correct and fully parsed (except CHIFFON), in 50 minutes. Challenging!
Mrs Random finished in 37 minutes, although she nearly DNF’d with ‘data’ for JAVA, but she corrected her error and said that she too found it quite tough today. Perhaps she’s being kind – she has a better way with words than me.
Many thanks to Pedro and astartedon (I’m amazes you were able to solve this sequentially).
FOI – 1ac ARMY
LOI – 19dn JAVA
COD – 9dn FIRE STATION – raised a smile!
FOI ARMY
LOI MINIMA
COD ICECAPS
TIME 3:33
5:55.
Not fast, not slow. ABACI LOI as I’d bunged in FIRE STARTER mistakenly. Correcting that made it fall into place.
I didn’t understand why Thirst but it had to be, but my confidence dented I gave up with Icecaps, Abaci and Java remaining.
Plangent would have been impossible for me except I do recall it from before — when it was a word that annoyed me so much at the time that I haven’t forgotten it! Not that I could recall what it meant!!
I haven’t heard the ‘right as rain’ expression in many a year though.
Thanks all, a good but tricky puzzle.
John George
Katy
You are absolutely right of course. Both to point out the difference and that there are quite a few scientists here. I am, or have been (I have been many things), one myself.
My philosophy on doing the blog is more or less if I can see what the setter is trying to achieve then I will just parse the clue and move on. Only if there is a mistake in the way the wordplay works or some glaring error will I point it out. But of course sometimes it is subjective: every now and again there is something that just gets my goat and in that case I may just comment on it because it bugs me personally.
But largely I will leave it to the commenters to pick up on — as you have done! And as
kevingregg did in the first post of the day (he’s ALWAYS the first post by the way — or nearly always) regarding SYNAPSE, and you will see a similar reply from me there. Because you are the people we do the blogs for anyway and we love it when you get involved, start a conversation, challenge someone’s thinking.
Having said all that, I did just check on the online dictionary and the first definition of ACCURATE gives:
“…free from error or defect; consistent with a standard, rule, or model; precise; exact.”
So what we often find is that language moves on, and sadly for some of us pedants, walls are broken down and definitions start to include other terms that were originally quite distinct. Examples are endless and I gave up tearing my hair out over them long ago. Language is whatever it becomes. I fully expect, for instance, that the distinction between PRINCIPAL and PRINCIPLE will be eroded by the tides of ignorance at some point in the future simply because nobody out there (including subeditors of certain newspapers that shall remain nameless) really gives a damn.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m with you on this and I do give a damn. But that’s how it is.
But lovely to hear from you. Why not join up and become part of the community? Then when you get involved in a discussion we’ll feel like we know you!
Kind regards
Don
Edited at 2021-05-03 07:58 pm (UTC)
Accuracy: 1 The state of being accurate; precision, correctness. M17.
Precision: 2 The fact, condition, or quality of being precise; exactness, definiteness; distinctness, accuracy. M18.