A solid sort of puzzle this week – no pyrotechnics but pleasant enough. 7d was unknown to me, but fortunately the wordplay was generous and we were given 60% of the cross checkers.
Thanks to Jeff for an enjoyable offering.
Across |
1 |
Choose dry red when touring with English MPs here (6,9) |
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SELECT COMMITTEE – SELECT (choose) + COMMIE (red) ‘touring’ TT (dry) + E (English) |
9 |
Controller loses to orderly (7) |
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REGULAR – REGULATOR (controller) without the TO (loses to) |
10 |
Softly trace around a copy (7) |
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REPLICA – RELIC (trace) goes ‘around’ P (softly) + A |
11 |
Penny consumed spread (4) |
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PATE – P (penny) + ATE (consumed) |
12 |
Everyone’s after torn pieces of cloth to make another one (10) |
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TATTERSALL – ALL (everyone) ‘after’ TATTERS (torn pieces of cloth) giving another piece of cloth, in this case the check patterned material used for shirts but originally designed for horses |
13 |
Poet takes second to think of Nancy (7) |
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SPENSER – S (second) + PENSER (to think in Nancy – and elsewhere in France) |
15 |
Absolutely motionless at the games (4,3) |
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DEAD SET – Answer is clear enough, but I found the exact parsing tricky to pin down. I think it’s just a cryptic with “absolutely” giving us DEAD (as in dead centre) and SET coming from the point immediately before a race when contestants are required to be motionless – i.e. “on your marks, set…” |
17 |
Nob is replacing ends of rope and twine in posh tent (7) |
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MARQUIS – IS replaces EE (ends of ropE and twinE) in MARQUEE (posh tent) |
19 |
Circle lake after a place to sleep (7) |
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COTERIE – COT (place to sleep) followed by ERIE (lake) |
20 |
Having dodgy locks is when mishaps occur (3,4,3) |
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BAD HAIR DAY – Mildly cryptic clue |
22 |
Leaders of Kent’s new orchestra tackle Ravel (4) |
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KNOT – First letters (leaders) of Kent’s New Orchestra Tackle the thing that might need to be unravelled… |
25 |
Poet, left say, during robbery in Bow (7) |
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ELEGIST – L (left) + EG (say) in (during) HEIST (robbery in Bow) |
26 |
Sub-standard rocket? (7) |
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TORPEDO – The “standard” rocket-like weapon of the Sub(marine)… |
27 |
Heather starting work of great importance (5-10) |
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EARTH SHATTERING – *(HEATHER STARTING) with “work” as the anagrind |
Down |
1 |
Axe green areas of Paris to the north (5) |
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SCRAP – PARCS (green areas of Paris) reversed (to the north – given this is a Down clue) |
2 |
Finally Plymouth Argyle – it’s awfully far to go! (5-4) |
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LIGHT YEAR – *(ARGYLE IT) plus H (finally PlymoutH) also thrown into the mix, and “awfully” as the anagrind. Good to see “The Pilgrims” getting an outing – true stalwarts of the lower divisions of the Football League, with Plymouth apparently being the largest city in England never to have had a team playing in the top flight |
3 |
Biting fish around lake (4) |
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COLD – COD (fish) around L (lake) |
4 |
Pirate‘s vulgar song on the radio (7) |
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CORSAIR – homophone (indicated by “on the radio”) of COARSE AIR (vulgar song). I found the urge to do a quick search for rude pirate songs irresistible, but the ones published on the internet all seem pretty tame: I’m sure there must be some good bawdy stuff out there somewhere… |
5 |
Earned ceremony in the sea (7) |
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MERITED – RITE (ceremony) in MED (sea) |
6 |
Crucial to bring in worker (9) |
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IMPORTANT – IMPORT (to bring in) + ANT (worker) |
7 |
Volunteers to lead a soldier up lots of freezing trees (5) |
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TAIGA – TA (volunteers) + AGI (a soldier) reversed (up). LOI and had to trust to wordplay here as this was unknown to me. |
8 |
Earl leads girl to a flashy pad (9) |
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EPAULETTE – E (abbrev. Earl) + Paulette (girl) |
13 |
Note from doctor, covering one priest in diocese (9) |
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SEMIBREVE – MB (doctor) ‘covering’ I (one) + REV (priest), with the whole lot surrounded by SEE (diocese) |
14 |
Prudish girl entertains leader of Quaker’s sect (9) |
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SQUEAMISH – SUE (girl) ‘entertains’ Q (leader of Quaker’s) + AMISH (sect) |
16 |
Plain ties and green buckle (9) |
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SERENGETI – *(TIES GREEN) with “buckle” as the anagrind |
18 |
Way to gag bird (7) |
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STRETCH – ST (abbrev. Street = way) + RETCH (gag) giving an alternative to bird for porridge… |
19 |
Key I placed in bed for singer (4,3) |
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COAL TIT – ALT (key on computer keyboard) + I ‘placed in’ COT (bed). Why does it always take me ages to link references to “keys” to keyboards? |
21 |
Miserable nurse at end of ward (5) |
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DREAR – REAR (nurse) after D (end of warD) |
23 |
It’s not right to pack flip-flop (5) |
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THONG – THRONG (pack) loses its R (not right) |
24 |
Yorkshire cricketer dropping a player? That’s correct (4) |
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TRUE – Fred TRUEMAN drops the MAN (player). Whilst the peerless Fred is probably pretty well known to UK folk even amongst the ranks of non-cricketers, he may be unknown across the pond (or in Greece for that matter). A gruff, earthy, pipe smoking character who epitomised Yorkshire Man (“I call a spade a bloody shovel”) and one of the greatest fast bowlers ever. |
I am the same about keys and keyboards (and I am a PhD computer scientist, I have no excuse)
I don’t see taiga as a particularly obscure word; it would be about level with pampas or veldt, in my book..
I saw 15a SET being a unit composed of games, as in tennis.
Thanks Nick.
I think in 15ac the definition is ‘absolutely’, and the wordplay is DEAD = motionless, SET = games, a reference to tennis as Pip says. This definition of DEAD SET (which is in Collins) has appeared before in a puzzle that I blogged (see here), and it provoked some discussion then, so I remembered it.
The TAIGA discussion referred to by Kevin was about this puzzle. That clue was pretty dreadful: this time we got some wordplay, so if you didn’t know the word you should just think yourself lucky!
Edited at 2016-02-07 10:07 am (UTC)
Could this be parsed as absolutely = dead set (as in dead set certainty). Also, in athletics are not sprinters dead set on their blocks just before the gun is fired = motionless at the games?
Thanks again.
Barry M
GTH
Sorry to be asking now, but my puzzle in the Toronto Star comes 2 weeks later.
Dave in Dartmouth NS