10:02. I found this a lot of fun to solve, and was a little surprised when I came to blog it how simple many of the clues are. But the whole thing is a model of concise elegance with lots of very smooth surface readings. There’s a sartorial theme, although I’m not sure the garment described in the bottom row belongs in the clothing selection in the first. Or any other clothing selection really. Itchy!
How did you get on?
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Jump start |
| SPRING – DD. I’m not sure what the intended second meaning is here. Collins gives ‘to develop or originate’, with the example ‘the idea sprang from a chance meeting’ or alternatively ‘(of game or quarry) to start or rise suddenly from cover’, or even ‘archaic or poetic (of daylight or dawn) to begin to appear’. Take your pick! | |
| 4 | Combat medal on medic’s clothes |
| WARDROBE – WAR, DR, OBE. | |
| 9 | Picked up chest relief in shopping mall |
| ARCADE – sounds like ‘ark aid’. | |
| 10 | Countryman, fifty, into sex and booze |
| VILLAGER – VI(L), LAGER. Sex being Latin for six, among the other things. | |
| 12 | Abandon sailor, going back for soldier |
| DESERT RAT – DESERT, reversal of TAR. | |
| 13 | Feeling round the back |
| HUNCH – DD, the second definition being verbal. | |
| 14 | Champions drinking in hearty congratulations |
| BACKSLAPPING – BACKS, LAPPING. | |
| 18 | Drunken support a foreigner announced |
| BACCHANALIAN – sounds like ‘back an alien’. | |
| 21 | Daring presumption |
| NERVE – DD. | |
| 22 | Stories one’s acted out |
| ANECDOTES – (ONES ACTED)*. | |
| 24 | Plant an explorer found on an island |
| MANDRAKE – MAN, DRAKE. | |
| 25 | A scene about meeting with ghosts? |
| SEANCE – (A SCENE)*. | |
| 26 | Cloth cape remains simple |
| CASHMERE – C, ASH, MERE. | |
| 27 | Advocates underwear |
| BRIEFS – DD. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Position leader of Sunday Times defends |
| STANDS BY – STAND, S |
|
| 2 | Fight fire in carrier at the back |
| RUCKSACK – RUCK, SACK. | |
| 3 | Dramatist, after casting she rejected Bottom |
| NADIR – reversal of |
|
| 5 | Emerges outside leading hotel with a new playwright |
| ARISTOPHANES – ARIS(TOP, H, A, N)ES. | |
| 6 | A pin I held, altering bloomers |
| DELPHINIA – (A PIN I HELD). | |
| 7 | Tear rising to men’s eyes? |
| ORGANS – OR, reversal of SNAG. DBE. | |
| 8 | Natural oils, perhaps, bottled in what year? |
| EARTHY – E(ART)H, Y. | |
| 11 | Best nuts but not the ultimate biscuit |
| CREAM CRACKER – CREAM, CRACKER |
|
| 15 | This Ringo hit captured a spirit |
| SNARE DRUM – SNARED, RUM. | |
| 16 | Small amount of stone to flog to church |
| PITTANCE – PIT, TAN, CE. | |
| 17 | Dances start off just with records |
| ONE-STEPS – |
|
| 19 | Coming out with aphorisms |
| GNOMIC – (COMING)*. | |
| 20 | Swimwear for large chests |
| TRUNKS – DD. | |
| 23 | Poet’s dull ode stripped back |
| DREAR – |
|
Looking back on this, I can’ t see why I took so long (well over 40′, though I can’t remember if this was at one sitting or over lunch). POI EARTHY, LOI HUNCH. I liked SNARE DRUM.
SPRING can mean “origin,” as you indicate, and that is the start of anything, so I didn’t think twice about the second definition.
It also would make more sense to me if the year were regarded as beginning in spring, but I’m notoriously a pagan.
49 minutes, so evidently I didn’t find this as easy as our blogger, however I have no queries in the margins and no workings other than a couple of anagram circles.
48m 45s
As you saw, keriothe, In Row 1 we could well have Row 15!
Thanks for the blog, especially for Nadir.
25.34
Another masterclass – every clue smooth and precise with plenty of fun thrown in.
Actually took a few minutes to get started but then it all flowed, though it’s incredible how many types of underwear I was able to think of before alighting on the answer.
So many good clues but I did particularly like the Ringo one.
Thanks Robert and Keriothe
I did this last night after returning from holiday, so it’s fresh in my mind. A lovely elegant puzzle with lots of PDMs, especially VILLAGER, which I thought of early, but discarded as unparseable until I remembered VI for sex. Liked BACCHANALIAN – a proper homophone. I contemplated POLO as the explorer before the K suggested MANDRAKE, which amused me, as to the Spanish he was essentially a pirate. It all depends on which side you’re on! LOI was WARDROBE, where I was fooled into thinking clothes was a positional indicator and had to sleep on it before the answer came this morning.
DNF with 3 missing in the NE, failed to find Organs, Earthy and Hunch, not sure why; in retrospect they look no harder than anything else.
Thanks K and Robert Price.
37 minutes, the usual smooth and delightful concoction. I particularly liked HUNCH and SNARE DRUM. But I couldn’t really understand 1ac: it seems that both jump and start are very similar synonyms of SPRING. Maybe the fact that a jump start is a thing moves it over from being a DD to being a CD.
Didn’t keep a record of this, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t finish as I don’t remember getting EARTHY or HUNCH.
Thanks keriothe and setter.
COD Wardrobe
As usual, had to look up a few (5); but those lead me into solving at least most of the rest. LUs were BACCHANALIAN ( was looking for a foreigner), ARISTOPHANES ( didn’t know he was a playwright), ORGANS (should have tried harder), and SNARE DRUM (too clever for me!). I’m still not on autopilot with nouns like ‘foreigner=alien’ and ‘ruck=fight’ ( I clung onto KNAPSACK for too long!). But thoroughly enjoyable, and I’m still learning.