I felt this was a pretty standard Monday puzzle with a lot of the types of clue that I find most straightforward. I think there were three anagrams, four double definitions and two hidden words. I know some people have said that they find double definitions difficult and I agree that in the 15×15 they can sometimes be quite elusive but the ones that spring up in the quickie don’t normally give much resistance in my experience and such was the case today. Also one very obvious homophone at 5D. The rest of the clues were mostly charades that fell into line without much thought, such as 10, 15 and 22A, and 4, 6, 13, 16 and 18D. So all in all a very pleasant stroll to start the week off. Many thanks to Orpheus for that.
FOI was 1A. I can’t really remember what my LOI was. For some reason I don’t think it was 21D although it should have been because I think this puzzle could very well have been a sequential solve. As it was it was more a case of seeing lots of answers more or less at the same time and breaking off the natural sequence because I couldn’t resist putting answers in that had caught the corner of my eye as I was filling in something else. No discipline at all, I’m afraid, and I think my old school and university teachers might have recognised the pattern with more than a tut of disapproval.
Nothing really stood out as a COD any more than the others. Maybe 17A just because it was a little different and now I come to think of it perhaps that was my LOI as well.
Definitions are underlined and everything else is explained just as I see it as simply as I can.
| Across | |
| 1 | In fiction, an inspector on public transport (5) |
| REBUS – RE (on) + BUS (public transport) gives Ian Rankin’s famous detective. | |
| 4 | Onset of terrible pain in artist’s windpipe (7) |
| TRACHEA – T (onset of Terrible) + ACHE (pain) ‘in’ RA (Royal Academician, artist). | |
| 8 | Love affair rocking Cremona (7) |
| ROMANCE – straight anagram (‘rocking’) of CREMONA. | |
| 9 | Nocturnal primate girl observed crossing river (5) |
| LORIS – LOIS (girl) ‘crossing’ R (river). | |
| 10 | Urchin knocked back fish and a toasted cake (10) |
| RAGAMUFFIN – RAG (GAR (one of the famous Crossworld varieties of fish that we were talking about the other week) ‘knocked back’) + A MUFFIN (a toasted cake). | |
| 14 | One stopping to get an item of tack (6) |
| HALTER – double definition, I suppose the first slightly cryptic. | |
| 15 | Stiffener celebrity required before church (6) |
| STARCH – STAR (celebrity) before CH (church). | |
| 17 | When eventually in credit, girl gets squeeze-box (10) |
| CONCERTINA – ONCE (when eventually, as in “ONCE I have finished this crossword…”) ‘in’ CR (credit) + TINA (girl). | |
| 20 | Perfect declaration of one distributing cards (5) |
| IDEAL – one distributing cards is a DEALER, who might presumably declare “I DEAL”. | |
| 22 | Old club in Northern Ireland initially bearing defeat (7) |
| NIBLICK – NI (Northern Ireland) + B (‘initially’ Bearing) + LICK (defeat). Niblick is an old type of golf club, along with mashie. There were also mashie irons and mashie niblicks but I can’t explain the difference off the top of my head. Suffice to say that I believe a niblick was a bit like a modern wedge, i.e. a club with a lot of loft. | |
| 23 | Escape? I don’t believe you! (3,4) |
| GET AWAY – double definition. | |
| 24 | What lovers sometimes do in Handel operas (5) |
| ELOPE – hidden word: ‘in’ HandEL OPEras. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Lightly cooked? It’s not common (4) |
| RARE – double definition. | |
| 2 | Union leader overwhelmed by British politician’s impact (4) |
| BUMP – U (Union ‘leader’) ‘overwhelmed’ by B (British) + MP (politician. | |
| 3 | A line she’s rewritten in Sri Lankan language (9) |
| SINHALESE – straight anagram (‘rewritten’) of A LINE SHE’S. | |
| 4 | Old Greek citizen in the bar (6) |
| THEBAN – THE + BAN (bar). A citizen of Thebes. | |
| 5 | Be sick, alcoholic drink being spoken of (3) |
| AIL – sounds like ALE (alcoholic drink). | |
| 6 | Bovine animal at this place on crossing (8) |
| HEREFORD – HERE (at this place) ‘on’ (i.e. ‘above’ in this down clue) FORD (crossing). | |
| 7 | Sailor’s article about popular liqueur (8) |
| ABSINTHE – ABS (sailor’s) + THE (definite article) ‘about’ IN (popular). | |
| 11 | Tunnel Abe engineered, impossible to defend (9) |
| UNTENABLE – straight anagram (‘engineered’) of TUNNEL ABE. | |
| 12 | Appalling treatment in resuscitation room? (8) |
| SHOCKING – cryptic definition. | |
| 13 | Mournful bloke weighed down by scheme (8) |
| PLANGENT – GENT (bloke) ‘weighed down by’ (i.e. ‘underneath’ in this down clue) PLAN (scheme). | |
| 16 | Mean street in outskirts of Grimsby (6) |
| STINGY – ST (street) + IN + GY (‘outskirts’ of GrimsbY). | |
| 18 | Cover over open-air swimming pool (4) |
| LIDO – LID (cover) + O (over, as in cricket). | |
| 19 | Island contributing to risky enterprise (4) |
| SKYE – hidden word: ‘contributing to’ riSKY Enterprise. | |
| 21 | Vulgar thing cattle often do (3) |
| LOW – double definition. | |
FOI REBUS (my favourite crime novels, and Ken Stott brought him to life superbly in the later TV series, which occasionally still appears on “Drama”).
LOI SHOCKING
COD STINGY
TIME 3:42
Got there eventually with HALTER LOI having narrowly rejected HOLDER which lurked as an easy way just to get to the finish.
29:50 in the end. ORPHEUS outplayed me but I enjoyed the tussle.
David
FOI — 1dn “Rare”
LOI — dnf
COD — 10ac “Ragamuffin”
Thanks as usual!
Oh well, not in my camp.
This was difficult and I DNF. Well I gave up with 50% incomplete.
Old-school-Orpheus strikes again.
Utterly out of my league
Thanks all
John George