An enjoyable mix of some tricky stuff tempered with a few gimmes – and with an overall style I’d describe (in a very positive way, I should stress) as “quirky”. From an ST enthusiast’s perspective, Harry seems to plough quite a different furrow to Dean and Jeff.
I’m struggling to encapsulate in a few words exactly what the singularity of Harry’s clueing style really is, but it (at least for me) contains novel devices (e.g. the TT in 12a), complex constructions with a twist (e.g. 13d and 21d) and intriguing (but spot on) definitions (such as 27a).
Many thanks to our setter for a first rate challenge. On edit: and thanks very much to Jack for pointing out this is a pangram, which I had completely missed…
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by (–)
| Across | |
| 1 | Perhaps Spooner’s nursery outside Bath? (3,3) |
| HOT TUB – TOT HUB possibly being the Reverend’s rendition of a nursery. Mercifully a generous definition (particularly with the enumeration) as I often find Spoonerism clues hard to unravel | |
| 5 | Philosopher arouses university reforms (8) |
| ROUSSEAU – *(AROUSES) with U (university) also in the mix and “reforms” as the anagrind | |
| 9 | Comprehensive behind in achievement (8) |
| DETAILED – TAIL (behind) is ‘in’ DEED (achievement) | |
| 10 | Rook by Cornish river is a high-flyer (6) |
| FALCON – FAL (Cornish river) ‘by’ CON (rook). Easy when you see it, but I did spend some time trying to make something out of the River Fowey and an R from chess notation before I hit on Cornwall’s other F river… | |
| 11 | Something one may put on an island (6) |
| JERSEY – Gentle DD | |
| 12 | Left to separate scuffling pair of ratty Oasis musicians (8) |
| ALTOISTS – *(OASIS) with L (left) and TT (pair of raTTy) also in the mix, with “scuffling” as the anagrind. A tricky surface that sent me down a number of dead ends (looking for L separating two other component pieces, and failing for an age to spot the TT device) until the cross checkers arrived. Even then I was uncertain that Altos might also be described as Altoists… | |
| 14 | Brilliant how some food is stored by fall (12) |
|
INCANDESCENT – |
|
| 17 | Lot battered with storms in Spa? (7,5) |
| BOTTLED WATER – *(LOT BATTERED) + W (with) also in the mix, and “storms” as the anagrind | |
| 20 | Sanction shock, retired men very involved (8) |
| APPROVAL – OR (men) reversed (retired) + V (very) ‘involved’ inside APPAL (shock) | |
| 22 | Brought back English volume, fine edition (6) |
| EVOKED – E (English) + V (volume) + OK (fine) + ED (edition) | |
| 23 | One’s put in two pounds for 17? (6) |
| LIQUID – I (one) between L (the first pound) and QUID (the second one) | |
| 25 | Outlandish claim Mark heard about the weather (8) |
| CLIMATIC – *(CLAIM) – with “outlandish” as the anagrind – and homophone of TICK (mark) | |
| 26 | Stupid sign or antique hoarding (8) |
| IGNORANT – A very nicely concealed hidden in sIGN OR ANTique | |
| 27 | Tough to take in edging with thread? (6) |
| THEMED – TED (tough – as in Teddy boy) ‘takes in’ HEM (edging) – and an ingenious definition | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Dictionary covering writer unwrapped (6) |
| OPENED – OED (dictionary) ‘covers’ PEN (writer) | |
| 3 | Brief word with awful St Martin TV provider? (11) |
| TRANSMITTER – TER{m} (brief word) prefaced by (with) *(ST MARTIN) with awful as the anagrind | |
| 4 | Beef and possible result of gorging on it (9) |
| BELLYACHE – Another generous DD | |
| 5 | Doubly sore end of tendon, pulled again? (7) |
| REDRAWN – RED & RAW (doubly sore) + last letter (end) of tendoN | |
| 6 | Out of shape squad drinking in France (5) |
| UNFIT – UNIT (squad) taking in (drinking in) F (abbrev. France) | |
| 7 | Mexican lager marketed out of Germany (3) |
| SOL – SOL{d} (marketed) loses its D (out of Germany). My inner nitpicker started to query the “out of Germany” = loses D, but the answer was clear enough so I told him to be quiet. And it’s quite possible I’ve missed a nuance that makes it all terribly neat… | |
| 8 | Taking on ace performing boxing exercise (8) |
| ADOPTING – A (ace) + DOING (performing) around (boxing) PT (exercise) | |
| 13 | Mix old record’s first parts in my head (11) |
| INCORPORATE – Intricate stuff here: O (old) + R (first letter of Records) comes between (parts) IN + COR (my!) and PATE (head) | |
| 15 | Revolutionary new timer held in old way (9) |
| EXTREMIST – *(TIMER) – with “new” as the anagrind – ‘held in’ EX (old) + ST (way – i.e. abbrev. street) | |
| 16 | Changing pain reliever’s good for energy (8) |
| MORPHING – MORPHINE (pain reliever) but with the E replaced by G (‘good for energy’) | |
| 18 | WC with tidal waves? Commercially risky! (7) |
| WILDCAT – *(TIDAL + WC) with “waves” as the anagrind. Whilst very familiar with wildcat strikes, I’d not come across the (according to Chambers) US usage of a commercially unsound/high risk venture. | |
| 19 | Concerning wind noises said to change in scale (6) |
| RESIZE – RE (concerning) + homophone of SIGHS (wind noises said) | |
| 21 | A peacemaker cut up about vitamin shot? (5) |
| VODKA – A DOV{e} (a peacemaker ‘cut’ and reversed – ‘up’) going around K (vitamin). Not ashamed to admit I had to phone a friend to get the parsing of this one sorted out. Whilst the answer was clear enough from definition and cross checkers, unravelling the byzantine complexity of the clue was one notch above my current proficiency level. | |
| 24 | Hearts used in fun and showy card game (3) |
| UNO – Middle letters (hearts) of fUn aNd shOwy. Had not heard of this particular game, but the wordplay (not to mention the cross checkers) made it pretty comfortable. | |
BTW Nick, the varieties of Vitamin K don’t include potassium, which is a metal.
adj 2: commercially unsound or risky.
The Lucille Ball ref comes from:
noun 2: an exploratory oil well.
It’s a pangram, btw.
Hard work as nearly always on a Sunday but mostly enjoyable. UNO as a game had to be taken on trust but at least I’d heard of, and even better tasted, SOL, though it’s not one of my preferred tipples. I wish we could consign Spooner clues to the dustbin, especially those that are as forced as today’s example.
Edited at 2016-05-15 05:17 am (UTC)
We thought the TT devices a bit loose. Could as easily been AY, RY etc. Usually ‘pair of” indicates the first two letters of a word.
Jan & Tom
Toronto