A good challenge from Jalna today, especially to parse everything properly.
As usual, my hopes of a speedy (for me) time were dashed by 1a and 1d, both of which brought nothing but a blank response from the grey matter so I retreated to the sanctuary of the SE corner to get started. Worked steadily from then on, before finishing with 1a as my LOI (surprise, surprise, not really that hard after all) in 10:12. No cryptic defs, which was a help.
Thanks to Jalna for a puzzle which I found enjoyable and difficult enough to be satisfying to solve.
Definitions underlined in bold, letter deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Heart-rending depression ultimately ate into us (7) |
| PITEOUS – PIT (‘depression’) |
|
| 7 | Sound broadcasting organisation (7) |
| CHANNEL – Double definition
‘Sound’ as in a narrow stretch of water, not the sort of ‘Sound’ that first came to mind, especially with the second def. |
|
| 9 | Finished in the short stuff next to the fairway (7) |
| THROUGH – TH The wordplay seems not to make sense, but the ‘stuff next to the fairway’ really was ‘short’ at the recent Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club, more so than at The Open at Portrush. I bet the Americans were relieved to have a wayward drive not be punished as severely as it would have been on their US courses. |
|
| 10 | Casting starting late is cause of irritation (7) |
| ITCHING – |
|
| 11 | Crass, somewhat bacchanalian affair (4) |
| NAFF – Hidden (‘somewhat’) in ‘ I think of NAFF as a very British word. |
|
| 12 | Be successful with computers and such? Don’t be daft! (4,3,2) |
| COME OFF IT – COME OFF (‘Be successful’) IT (‘computers and such?’) | |
| 14 | By the way, when agitated, Ann’s a pest! (2,7) |
| EN PASSANT – Anagram (‘when agitated’) of ANNS A PEST
A term from the French but it is in 2/3 of the standard dictionaries in this sense. |
|
| 16 | Mountain in France and North America (4) |
| ETNA – ET (‘in France and’) NA (‘North America’) | |
| 17 | Inform of a competition reward on the radio (7) |
| APPRISE – A (‘a’) then aural wordplay (‘on the radio’) of PRIZE (‘competition reward’) | |
| 20 | New route up peak maybe being developed (7) |
| NASCENT – N (‘New’) ASCENT (‘route up peak maybe’) | |
| 21 | Good-natured, socialist family (7) |
| KINDRED – KIND (‘Good-natured’) RED (‘socialist’) | |
| 22 | Following a strike, senior journalist is humiliated (7) |
| ABASHED – ED (‘senior journalist’) after (‘Following’) A (‘a’) BASH (‘strike’)
I couldn’t find ‘humiliated’ specifically in the dictionary definition for ABASHED in the usual sources, although it is included as a synonym in eg Oxford Dictionaries. ‘Humiliated’ just seems a bit strong to me; “embarrassed” would be the first synonym to come to mind. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Show of approval from group of animals eating that bone frantically (3,2,3,4) |
| PAT ON THE BACK – PACK (‘group of animals’) containing (‘eating’) anagram (‘frantically’) of THAT BONE
My second last in and COD for the descriptive surface. Yum! |
|
| 2 | Computer processing speed changed after large operation (8) |
| TERAFLOP – Anagram (‘changed’) of AFTER then L (‘large’) OP (‘operation’)
Maybe we’re all meant to know such things these days, but to me this qualifies as geek speak. Looking it up, a teraflop is an indication of how powerful a computer is, “representing one trillion (=tera-) floating point operations (mathematical operations with numbers containing decimal points) per second”. I’m not sure if this is correct but AI tells me my laptop can operate at several hundred gigaflops. I was also misled into thinking ‘after’ was a positional indicator so didn’t spot the anagram immediately. |
|
| 3 | Responsibility of old group of students (4) |
| ONUS – O (‘old’) NUS (‘group of students’)
NUS for National Union of Students, a crossword stalwart. |
|
| 4 | School is on top of multiplication and division (6) |
| SCHISM – SCH (‘School’) IS (‘is’) above in a down clue (‘on’) M |
|
| 5 | Be careful how a cut possibly throbs initially (5,3) |
| WATCH OUT – Anagram (‘possibly’) of HOW A CUT then T |
|
| 6 | Against books getting fed into AI (4) |
| ANTI – NT (‘books’) contained in (‘getting fed into’) AI
NT for ‘books’ = New Testament. The surface is referring to the concerns about the misuse of Artificial Intelligence. I used my browser’s AI to help explain 2d above and 19d below. As far as I’m aware, no books were harmed in the generation of either explanation. |
|
| 8 | Jovial girl hated the dancing (5-7) |
| LIGHT-HEARTED – Anagram (‘dancing’) of GIRL HATED THE | |
| 12 | Dismisses employees who take money? (8) |
| CASHIERS – Double definition
In the first sense, used as a verb in usually (?exclusively) a military context. |
|
| 13 | Female travelling to their ruby wedding anniversary (8) |
| FORTIETH – F (‘Female’) then anagram (‘travelling’) of TO THEIR | |
| 15 | List of information absorbed by a US legal representative (6) |
| AGENDA – GEN (‘information’) contained in (‘absorbed by’) A (‘a’) DA (‘US legal representative’)
The ever-reliable DA. |
|
| 18 | Lightly-coloured tattoo beneath bottom of hip (4) |
| PINK – INK (‘tattoo’) below in a down clue (‘beneath’) Shades of pink which are not ‘lightly-coloured’ are often preceded by a modifier, eg hot pink, bubblegum pink. |
|
| 19 | A southern island area where most people live (4) |
| ASIA – A (‘A’) S (‘southern’) I (‘island’) A (‘area’)
Asia is the most populous continent, containing about 60% (ie ‘most people’) of the world’s population. At least that’s what AI tells me. |
|
For 11 across I put in anal from bacchanalian!
Didn’t see naff even once I had put in 1 down
This resident (geek obviously!) of the SCC was delighted with TERAFLOP. As is often said, one person’s NHO or “totally obscure GK” is another person’s “obviously” 😊. This clue played to my strengths, thanks Jalna.