I found this a challenging puzzle, and needed 12:51 to complete it – and that after a flying start with my FOI being the 10-letter anagram at 1D. But then Teazel is a setter I often have more difficulty with.
There are a couple of all-in cryptic clues, one reverse cryptic (or “backwards clue”) and a few where I thought our setter was playing a bit loose with the definitions. I’m still not convinced I have fully understood 23A, and I’d welcome enlightenment!
I look forward to hearing how everyone got on.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Finish off Chablis just opened during meal (7) |
| SCUPPER – C (Chablis “just opened”, ie take the first letter) inserted into (ie “during”) SUPPER (meal). | |
| 5 | Our side at PT showed distress (4) |
| WEPT – WE (our side) + PT (from the clue). | |
| 7 | Fabulous bird’s music heard (3) |
| ROC – Sounds like Rock (music “heard”). The roc is a legendary bird of prey seen in just two places: Middle Eastern mythology, and Crosswordland, where it is a useful 3-letter combination for setters. | |
| 8 | Returning pet I go with few words (8) |
| TACITURN – TAC (cat, ie pet, “returning”) + I + TURN (go). | |
| 10 | Regularly one is moved to take in paper (5) |
| OFTEN – OEN (anagram of one, with the anagram indicator being “is moved”) containing FT (a newspaper). Slight doubt that Often and Regularly are close enough synonyms – I regularly have roast turkey, in fact I do every Christmas Day, but that hardly qualifies as often. | |
| 11 | Lead implicitly offered by Roosevelt? (3,4) |
| NEW DEAL – This is what I think is called a reverse cryptic, where the clue is in the answer and the answer is in the clue. The wordplay is “new deal”, ie an anagram of deal, and the answer this gives is Lead – which is in the surface for the clue. | |
| 13 | Scottish dish is given to witch: good (6) |
| HAGGIS – HAG (witch) + G (good) + IS (from the clue). Haggis, sometimes considered not just a Scottish dish but the National Dish of Scotland, is something of an acquired taste – I find it delicious, but I did once give it to a friend from overseas who tasted it, looked puzzled and then said “But this is not food”. I think my mistake may have been to tell her what it was made of … | |
| 15 | Sat at length after this? (6) |
| FRIDAY – Another clue which requires some mental gymnastics. “Sat at length” is Saturday, which is indeed after Friday. | |
| 17 | Disturbed, seeing end of libellous book (7) |
| GENESIS – (seeing)* + S (end, ie last letter, of libellous), with the anagram indicator being “disturbed”. One of the best examples for some time of the need to “lift and separate” – Teazel is not categorising the Book of Genesis as a “libellous book”! | |
| 18 | Swimmer over the top, I hesitate to say (5) |
| OTTER – OTT (common abbreviation for Over the top) + ER (verbal hesitation). | |
| 20 | Wife in the stand looking very warm (8) |
| SWEATING – W (wife) inserted into SEATING (stand, for example at a sports stadium). The definition could be either “very warm”, or perhaps “looking very warm”. | |
| 22 | Scrap boisterous practical joke (3) |
| RAG – A straightforward DD. | |
| 23 | Literal contribution to party politics (4) |
| TYPO – Hmm. I don’t really see the definition here. The answer is a hidden, in parTY POlitics, and I think the intended definition is “literal”, with “contribution to” indicating the hidden. But if anyone has a better reading of the clue, do let me know in the comments.
On edit: I’m reliably informed that “Literal” is indeed the definition; it is a term used in the British printing industry and means a misplaced letter, or typo. Things one did not know one did not know … Many thanks to the several people who pointed this out. |
|
| 24 | Man concealing weapon in jacket, for example (7) |
| GARMENT – GENT (man) containing ARM (weapon), with a jacket being an example of a garment. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Heavy coffins destabilised a cargo ship (10) |
| SARCOPHAGI – (a cargo ship)*, with the anagram indicator being “destabilised”. For some reason I chose to start with the down clues this time, and this was my FOI – always nice to get a long anagram first off, and it opened the left hand side of the grid nicely. | |
| 2 | Leaders of unions now conduct urgent talks in full (5) |
| UNCUT – formed from the initial letters (leaders) of Unions Now Conduct Urgent Talks. | |
| 3 | Show off, broadcast succeeded (3,2,4) |
| PUT ON AIRS – PUT ON AIR (broadcast, as in broadcast a radio programme) + S (accepted abbreviation for succeeded). I tried at first to make something of Airs sounding like Heirs (ie one’s successors), but it does not quite come together. | |
| 4 | Centre redeveloped to be modern (6) |
| RECENT – (centre)*, with the anagram indicator being “redeveloped”. | |
| 5 | Humour with appeal (3) |
| WIT – W (with) + IT (appeal, specifically sex appeal in Crosswordland). Not sure how often “it” is still used in this sense in real life today, and perhaps setters could gently retire it? There are many other ways to clue IT which are slightly more current – for example this clue could have been “Humour with computers” perhaps. | |
| 6 | Foretell the closure of Dover? (7) |
| PORTEND – Dover is a port, so its closure could be described as a port end. | |
| 9 | Shakespeare, say: fun, perfect for audience (10) |
| PLAYWRIGHT – PLAY (fun) + WRIGHT (sounds like right, ie perfect, with the homonym indicator being “for audience”). Kind of Teazel to choose Shakespeare as his example of a playwright – there are many many more obscure ones he could have chosen! | |
| 12 | Aggressive type passionate against Germany (9) |
| WARMONGER – WARM (passionate) + ON (against) + GER (abbreviation for Germany).
I think to clue “warm” as “passionate” is a bit of a stretch – for me the more common temperature-connected association would be “hot”, if not “red hot”. When I was courting Mrs S, I don’t think I’d have described my attitude as “warm” towards her – and if I had I expect she’d have quite quickly become cool towards me. |
|
| 14 | Aisle? Clear a path! (7) |
| GANGWAY – A DD, with the second meaning a common shout if one is coming through a crowd and wanting people to get out of the way. | |
| 16 | Demanding, like ruler (6) |
| ASKING – AS (like) + KING (ruler). | |
| 19 | Instructed, we hear, to get sweet cake (5) |
| TORTE – sounds like “taught”, ie instructed, with the homonym indicator being “we hear”. | |
| 21 | With energy, answer back (3) |
| AGO – A (answer) + GO (energy, vim, oomph etc). My LOI, as I stared at A-O for some time before deciding that yes, I was able to allow Ago and Back to be close enough synonyms. Think of the phrase “thirty years ago / thirty years back” if still in doubt. | |
Top blog and set of comments. DNF for me – blew out on AGO of all things. Just couldn’t see it. Otherwise 6 mins.
Thanks both.
Templar
Dnf…
17 mins, but made an error spelling 1dn “Sarcophagi” (I interchanged the “a” and “i” at the end which was annoying). Main hold ups were the 23ac “Typo” and 21dn “Ago” combo, the latter which was my last one in. As for many above, I didn’t know the print industry meaning of “literal”.
Not sure why, but I’ve seen 8ac “Taciturn” in numerous puzzles in the last week or so.
FOI – 1dn “Sarcophiga” (spelt wrong)
LOI – 21dn “Ago”
COD – 15ac “Friday”
Thanks as usual!
Too difficult to be called a QC, really. Very obscure in places and it wasn’t obvious even when I’d found the right answer, sometimes.
All correct (finally) in 62 minutes, but my last five clues took nearly 40 minutes between them. The culprits were PUT ON AIRS, TORTE, RAG, TYPO and AGO. A crossword to forget.
Many thanks to Cedric for his excellent blog and I’m astonished once again by how some solvers dashed it off in around five minutes.