Solving time 15:16, so back to average again, although this was fairly high on the General Knowledge index. 1A, 1D, 4A, 15D, 23A and possibly 22D and 25A might all have been tricky in that respect.
Across | |
1 | CERES – “series”. The largest asteroid, although it’s now been redesignated as a dwarf planet. |
4 | SAPSUCKER – SAP + SUCKER. One of these. |
9 | BANNISTER – 1,ST inside BANNER. |
10 | SPLIT – double def. Croatian city, probably better known to crossword solvers than most. |
11 | ENSIGN – hidden in “ChildrEN’S IGNorance”. |
12 | SET PIECE – PIECE (rook) next to SET (all the other men). A corner in football is an example of a SET PIECE. |
14 | BE DONE WITH IT – or BED ONE WITH-IT. A bit risqué for the Times. Nudge nudge, wink wink. |
17 | STRAIGHT FACE – (craftiest hag)* |
20 | UNIVERSE – UNI VERSE. |
21 | ACTIVE – (Cymbelin)E after ACT IV. Presumably it’s a 5-act play – I didn’t bother to check. |
23 | SUPPE – SUPP(l)E. Franz von Suppé, composer born in 10A. |
24 | IN-PATIENT – (pain it)* + ENT. |
25 | HERODOTUS – HERO + DOT (hit) + US. The Greek historian known as the “Father of History”. |
26 | DINGY – DING(h)Y |
Down | |
1 | COBWEBBY – B + WEBB inside COY. Captain Matthew Webb was the first man to swim the English Channel, in 1875. |
2 | RINGSIDE – RING + SIDE |
3 | SWINGING THE LEAD – SWINGING (lively) + THE LEAD (a position of advantage). |
4 | SITE – S(p)ITE |
5 | PERCENTAGE – (PC teenager)* |
6 | UNSOPHISTICATED – (decision thus apt)* |
7 | KILLER – K + ILL + ER |
8 | RATHER – RAT + HER |
13 | SWEATSHIRT – (T wears this)*, the T from (contestan)T. |
15 | GALILEAN – double definition. Of Galileo, or someone from Galilee. Galileo was put under house arrest by the Church for saying that the earth revolved around the sun. |
16 | RECENTLY – CENT in RELY |
18 | PUTSCH – PUTS + CH. |
19 | KIPPER – (s)KIPPER. |
22 | EPOS – first letters of E(pic) P(oetry) O(ften) S(ung). I don’t think I knew that word, so I’m glad the wordplay made it so obvious. |
There are two problems with 12ac. The first is that “say” does double duty as an example indicator for both “corner => SET PIECE” and “rook => PIECE”. The second – if linxit’s explanation is correct – is that a chess SET does not consist of “all the other men”.
I made one mistake, misspelling Herodotus as Heroditus. I can’t find any justification for dot = hit in any of the standard dictionaries.
hard copy to check HERODOTUS. Sure enough had
spelled it HERODITUS. No prize this week except
for the sheer joy of doing it.
I just checked in my 2003 Chambers – it’s in there too.