An elegant puzzle today from Joker, a delightful man I had the pleasure of meeting at the TfTT anniversary shindig last November. A couple of bits of GK required (nothing too taxing, I’d have thought) but – even if you did not know the name of Darwin’s ship the associated wordplay was generous and could lead you quite easily to the answer.
5d was the stand-out clue for me, but several other delightful surfaces and constructions. Many thanks to our setter.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–)
| Across | |
| 1 | Stiffener for fabric of structure to right of street (6) |
| STARCH – ARCH (structure) follows (to the right of – in an Across clue) ST (street) | |
| 4 | Company returning mongrels is found to exist (6) |
| OCCURS – OC (CO – Company – reversed – returning) + CURS (mongrels) | |
| 8 | Reliable writer I rubbish? I have (13) |
| AUTHORITATIVE – AUTHOR (writer) + I + TAT (rubbish) + I’VE (I have). Neat word sum. | |
| 10 | Toxic gas round area (5) |
| OZONE – O (round) + ZONE (area) | |
| 11 | Burn wooden case outside empty emporium (7) |
|
CREMATE – CRATE (wooden case) goes round (outside) EM (empty E |
|
| 12 | Hate picture designed so as to have a healing effect (11) |
| THERAPEUTIC – *(HATE PICTURE) with “designed” as the anagrind | |
| 16 | Ribbon development of street naught will interrupt (7) |
| ROSETTE – *(STREET) – with “development of” as the anagrind – and O also thrown into the mix (naught will interrupt) | |
| 17 | Work very hard to put money aside when about fifty (5) |
| SLAVE – SAVE (put money aside) goes around (about) L (Roman 50) | |
| 18 | Gold strong box has sailor planning behind the scenes (13) |
| ORCHESTRATING – OR (abbrev. gold) + CHEST (strong box) + RATING (sailor). | |
| 19 | Therefore tops must be three-dimensional figures (6) |
| SOLIDS – SO (therefore) LIDS (tops) | |
| 20 | Bad cut given by key (6) |
| SEVERE – SEVER (cut) + E (musical key) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Follow famous Irish playwright around party (6) |
| SHADOW – SHAW (famous Irish playwright) goes ‘around’ DO (party) | |
| 2 | Say a rich plot’s needing development, like properties of the stars (13) |
| ASTROPHYSICAL – *(SAY A RICH PLOTS) with “needing development” as the anagrind | |
| 3 | First among chefs to be very fond of a piece of garlic (5) |
| CLOVE – C (first letter of Chefs) + LOVE (be very fond of) | |
| 5 | Two forms of Assam, say, served by upper-class French house (7) |
| CHATEAU – CHA + TEA (two types of tea – ‘Assam, say’) with U (upper class – as opposed to ‘non-U’). Super clue, I thought – elegant, inventive and very neat surface. | |
| 6 | Dull local is led by university wise men (13) |
| UNIMAGINATIVE – NATIVE (local) preceded by (led by) UNI (university) + MAGI (wise men). | |
| 7 | Run through botanic gardens amid heads of some English roses (6) |
| SKEWER – KEW (botanic gardens) inside (amid) first letters (heads) of Some English Roses | |
| 9 | In Channel Islands, inept manoeuvring just beginning (9) |
| INCIPIENT – IN CI (In Channel Islands) + *(INEPT) with “manoeuvring” as the anagrind | |
| 13 | Consult text again about temperature for remoulded tyre (7) |
| RETREAD – REREAD (consult text again) around (about) T (temperature) | |
| 14 | Good accommodation for those looking after horses (6) |
| GROOMS – G (good) + ROOMS (accommodation) | |
| 15 | British bird of prey on which Darwin worked (6) |
| BEAGLE – B (British) + EAGLE (bird of prey) giving us HMS Beagle, the ship on which Darwin sailed and conducted much of the work that enabled him to develop his theories | |
| 17 | Point seen in last agenda (5) |
| STAGE – Hidden in (indicated by ‘seen in’) laST AGEnda | |
It was the two long Down clues that gave most trouble, with ASTROPHYSICAL not a word I come across very often, and 5dn with its seven checking letters, all vowels, hampering my attempts at biffing.
No complaints though. The puzzle was an excellent workout.
Edited at 2016-08-24 08:06 am (UTC)
Brian
I was solving this on a very hot train to London earlier and fell asleep so time was an approximate 25 minutes. Each clue took some work and my LOI was 7d. COD to Chateau. David