After last week’s walk in the park, Dean’s offering this week was always going to be tough.
I stared at it for about 20 minutes before I entered my first answer, having read through all the clues as far as 23d. It got me a foothold in the SE corner and I gradually expanded from there. I think the last three (4/9/10) took another 20 minutes all on their own.
I seemed to have a lot of question marks scribbled down at the end of this one, which undoubtedly contributed to my slow time – 10a, 13a, 25a, 26a, 4d, 6d – although I think 6d is fine now I look at it again. I cover my doubts against each clue below, and any or all of them may well be my own lack of understanding, of course.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | OUT OF THIS WORLD – dd |
| 10 | CAD + M(I)UM – I wasn’t happy about this definition. Cadmium, as an element, is a silvery-blue in colour, but Cadmium Sulphide is often used as a yellow pigment. The yellow colour though, comes from the sulphur and not the cadmium. Cadmium is also used to make oranges and reds, so the yellow seems something of an arbitrary choice. |
| 11 | CO(LOG)NE |
| 12 | MARRIED MEN = MA + (REMINDER)* |
| 13 | DUCK – I must be missing something here. All I can see is two words meaning zero being used to clue a third, but there must be more to it than that, surely? |
| 15 | NARRATORS = ARRAN rev + TORS – I rather liked this one for it’s easy surface and simplicity. |
| 17 | A + SPEN |
| 18 | HOVE + L |
| 19 | ENDEAVOUR = END + “EVER” |
| 21 | GOLF = GO + L + F |
| 22 | PLA(CID)NE + S |
| 25 | TOGGLED = GOT (took) rev + G (good) + LED (little light) – I’m not sure whether the definition is ‘with switch’ or just ‘switch’ as neither seems quite the right part of speech to me. |
| 26 | C + RIMS + ON – Is ‘see’ for C not an undeclared homophone? |
| 27 | AUDIO ENGINEERS = (DIE NEAR IGNEOUS)* – Although I nearly discounted this anagrist as containing far too many vowels. |
| Down | |
| 2 | UNDERPRIVILEGED – cd – i.e. what is common to such people is having very little |
| 3 | ORIGINALLY = O + (I + GIN) in RALLY – Another one I particularly liked. I think it’s the use of RALLY = ‘stages’ that appeals. |
| 4 | TIMID = DIM + IT all rev – another definition that confused me slightly. Timid is an adjective and doormat is a noun so I fail to see how the two can be synonymous. |
| 5 | INCREASED = (AS NICE RED)* |
| 6 | WILY = W1 (Mayfair) + L |
| 7 | REGIUS PROFESSOR = (GOES FOR SURPRISE)* |
| 8 | DOES + KIN |
| 9 | ACUMEN – A tricky bit of wordplay that uses CUM meaning ‘with’ from the Latin, as in ‘garage-cum-workshop’, so it’s A-CUM-EN = one letter with another. |
| 14 | FAR AND WIDE = FA (nothing, as in Sweet F.A.) + RAN (published) + (WE DID)* – another tricky bit of wordplay |
| 16 | OVERLADEN = (NEVER LOAD)* |
| 18 | HIGH TEA = |
| 20 | R + I + SING |
| 23 | CACTI – rev hidden – my FOI, after about 20 minutes! |
| 24 | A + LSO (London Symphony Orchestra) |
A few points:
The ‘c’ in ‘crimson’ is probably not a homonym, but a footnote abbreviation for Latin ‘confer’.
How the ‘duck’ clue works will become obvious if you think of ‘luv’ and ‘duckie’.
I had thought that the ‘wily’ clue involved our old friend the Women’s Institute, but I think the postcode is a better interpretation.
I was a bit taken aback by the ‘Regius Professor’ clue. In the US university system, a ‘Lecturer’ is an instructor of the lowest rank, not the highest. But that obviously would not apply in the UK.
The ‘golf’ clue was brilliant, my COD. What a hidden literal!
Edited at 2012-12-16 01:05 am (UTC)
I think 10ac is fine though as COED has an entry for “CADMIUM yellow” and the definition in the clue is “A yellow”.
Edited at 2012-12-16 06:15 am (UTC)
I don’t entirely equate “cad” with “devil” but I’m fine on the colour. Vinyl is right to note that a lecturer is much further down the academic food chain than a professor, in the UK as in the US, and that especially applies to a regius prof.
Quibbles aside, an Anax is invariably fun.
The def for TIMID is ‘a doormat’, so it’s a fair substitution in a sentence – “He is timid” / “He is a doormat”.
Best wishes all.
.
I didn’t actually know this (despite being a motorsports fan) until some years ago when the company I worked for sponsored an amateur rally team – when they did events, the word ‘rally’ was not actually used in the event name. Thus their annual North Midlands ‘rally’ was billed as the North Midlands Stages.