12a proved yet again the wisdom of the old crossword adage “if you see a clue where you really cannot work out what on earth is going on, it’s probably a hidden…” – and sure enough it was. It’s a tip I happily pass on to new players, as it is one of the most useful things I have learned over the last few years doing this stuff.
I should also make special mention of the quality of the surfaces in this puzzle. Most were very elegant and conjured up pleasing images whilst simultaneously cluing the answer most fairly. 1a and 21d were standouts for me in this regard, but most of the remainder between those excellent “book ends” were pretty damned good in my opinion.
So, thanks to Felix – look forward to seeing how you all got on. I may not be particularly responsive to comments today as I am on holiday and will be tramping moorlands rather than looking at my computer – but I’m sure the usual crew will address any queries.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–): omitted letters indicated by {-}
| Across | |
| 1 | Swimmer with the deep, deep voice (3,4) |
| SEA BASS – SEA (the deep) + BASS (deep voice) | |
| 5 | Chess player’s wine? (5) |
| WHITE – I guess you could call this a DD, but I think (on balance) the first part is more of a cryptic steer towards the answer rather than a definition as such. Either way, it works fine and held me up until I got the H cross checker as I was trying to think of the names of chess players and only came up with two – Fischer and Kasparov! | |
| 8 | Deem rallies out of order in Ireland (7,4) |
| EMERALD ISLE – *(DEEM RALLIES) with “out of order” signalling the anagram | |
| 10 | Where you could see stallion bolt (4) |
| STUD – DD | |
| 11 | Inspector very sour when put out (8) |
| SURVEYOR – *(VERY SOUR) with “when put out” indicating the anagram | |
| 12 | Not all appreciate the rector’s tie (6) |
| TETHER – Hidden in (not all) appreciaTE THE Rector’s. And very well hidden it was, too – and a lovely surface: top flight clue. | |
| 14 | Railed aloud, as trespassers do? (6) |
| INVADE – Sounds like (aloud) INVEIGHED (railed) | |
| 16 | To look impressive, make a slight reduction? (3,1,4) |
| CUT A DASH – If you make a slight reduction in something you might be said to be cutting it a dash | |
| 18 | Point after animal is beheaded (4) |
| EAST – {B}EAST (animal is beheaded) | |
| 20 | Azure reprint, strangely lacking a controversial award (6,5) |
| TURNER PRIZE – *({A}ZURE REPRINT) -“lacking A” – with “strangely” signposting the anagram. And for anyone unsure of the ‘controversial’ tag, you might want to read this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/turner-prize/8834871/The-Turner-Prizes-most-controversial-moments.html | |
| 22 | Oil? Carful does, regularly (5) |
| CRUDE – Every other letter (regularly) of CaRfUl DoEs | |
| 23 | Drinking vessels broken by German assailants (7) |
| MUGGERS – MUGS (drinking vessels) with GER inside (broken by German) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Old girlfriend, perhaps, to dine and pass out (5) |
| EXEAT – EX (old girlfriend) + EAT (dine). As a young fellow I received an instructive introduction to the English class system when I was sent to a boarding school in a west country town which had two such schools. I was told that our school was socially superior on the basis that “when parents come to take one of our boys away for a weekend, the boy gets an EXEAT: when the same thing happens at the school down the road, the boy gets a PERMIT”. These people actually believed this sort of stuff – God help us! | |
| 3 | How wide is the cut beneath loaf? (7) |
| BREADTH – TH{E} (the cut) ‘beneath’ BREAD (loaf) | |
| 4 | Spring appears, finally, every year (3) |
| SPA – S (appearS finally) + PA (per annum – every year). And I can’t wait… | |
| 6 | Holds note, displaying urgency (5) |
| HASTE – HAST (holds – somewhat archaic form) + E (note) | |
| 7 | Do hotel breaks: useful base for mountaineer? (7) |
| TOEHOLD – *(DO HOTEL) with “breaks” pointing to the anagram | |
| 9 | Rather “unfair” putting old vessel in plate (7) |
| DARKISH – Put ARK (old vessel) in DISH (plate) and there you have it. Playful definition with the quote marks telling us something a bit cheeky is going on. | |
| 11 | Appellation of vase, outwardly identical (7) |
| SURNAME – URN (vase) with SAME around it (outwardly identical) | |
| 13 | A torque, twisting, that has zero latitude (7) |
| EQUATOR – *(A TORQUE) with “twisting” indicating the anagram | |
| 15 | Watching struggle by faction (7) |
| VIEWING – VIE (struggle) + WING (faction) | |
| 17 | A call at first clear and sharp (5) |
| ACRID – A + C (A Call at first) + RID (clear), my LOI for no obvious reason | |
| 19 | Female meeting the queen becomes complete (5) |
| SHEER – SHE (female) + ER (the queen) | |
| 21 | Girl’s tips on gamesmanship for you (3) |
| PRU – Last letters (tips) of gamesmanshiP foR yoU | |
I’d have gone with your alternative parsing at 5ac. If both definitions (chess player / wine) would not be out of place in a Times Concise puzzle then DD does it for me.
Edited at 2018-02-21 10:12 am (UTC)
Also wasn’t 100% about stud and cut a dash.
I parsed 6d as: has te (holds | note)
Liked East and Exeat, but COD to muggers.
I parsed 6d slightly differently, and avoided the archaic HAST. In my head the parsing went HAS = holds, with TE = the note (from the tonal scale, variously written Ti and Te).
On edit, sorry, I just saw that flashman has already made that comment. Stupid of me!
Nice blog Nick!
Edited at 2018-02-21 10:22 am (UTC)
PlayUpPompey
Didn’t know darkish but got the dish part of it, hadn’t heard of the name Pru, which made it impossible to get 23 across.
Enjoyable offering
Thank you to the blogger.
Nice puzzle. 14a my COD which I thought might delay a few people. Similarly 9d.
David
Thanks Nick
Slow solve today. Struggled with SURFACE for SURNAME. EXEAT seems the kind of word that only a certain strata of society would know. Poor choice.
We’ve also had a few other things along those lines, like (IIRC) the Hilary term at Oxford. There’s less of that sort of thing in the Guardian 😀