9:59. A really nice puzzle from Harry this week with a range of clueing devices, some really witty clues and lots of smooth surfaces. My only unknowns were the pottery and the ‘flag officer’ referred to in 14d: indeed I’m still not entirely sure who he is but it doesn’t really matter. Edit: thanks to Kevin for pointing out the fact (which I somehow missed in spite of looking in him up in Wikipedia) that the most famous Drake was a vice admiral, which would qualify him as a ‘flag officer’ even though it appears (from the OED) that the term wasn’t yet in use at the time. So I assume he is the intended reference.
How did you get on?
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Sick of being rained on? |
| UNDER THE WEATHER – definition and cryptic hint. | |
| 9 | Hobby a corporate exec picked up |
| PURSUIT – sounds like ‘per suit’. | |
| 10 | Key ingredient of jam? |
| TRAFFIC – CD. | |
| 11 | Loaded or high |
| RICH – DD. I’m not sure how ‘high’ equates to RICH. The high life perhaps? Or a reference to the flavour of game? Both words also mean intoxicated of course. Edit: See comment from maninthestreet below: you can say that something is high/rich in vitamin C, for instance. | |
| 12 | Evil females sons seemed to revolt |
| DEMONESSES – (SONS SEEMED)*. | |
| 13 | Holy? Not so much if condemned to pit! |
| BLESSED – B(LESS)ED. Lovely clue. | |
| 15 | Labour fall behind, a victory snatched |
| TRAVAIL – TR(A, V)AIL. V is in Collins as a symbol for victory. | |
| 17 | Coverage provided by work for abuse |
| OPPRESS – OP, PRESS. | |
| 19 | Thrilled police department wins contract |
| PLEASED – P(LEASE)D. | |
| 20 | Unreasonable? Me? Mediator must be mad! |
| IMMODERATE – (ME MEDIATOR)*. | |
| 22 | Force beginning to hamper ICE |
| METH – MET, H |
|
| 25 | Repair shop bishop opened for cobblers |
| GARBAGE – GAR(B)AGE. | |
| 26 | City you mostly love in a state |
| ECUADOR – EC, U, ADOR |
|
| 27 | Old cat going cheap at a million |
| PALAEOLITHIC MAN – (CHEAP AT A MILLION)*. A somewhat purrplexing definition! | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Starterless meal in Oxford area? |
| UPPER – |
|
| 2 | End of third, a pitcher scuppered a steal |
| DIRT CHEAP – ( |
|
| 3 | Thrashing headless fish |
| ROUT – |
|
| 4 | Rash one with fever possibly gets on nut |
| HOTHEAD – HOT (with fever), HEAD (nut). | |
| 5 | Lacking husband, Wag dated around |
| WITHOUT – WIT(H), OUT. OUT in the sense ‘old hat’. | |
| 6 | A messy wet area around bit of glazed pottery |
| AGATEWARE – A, (WET AREA)* containing G |
|
| 7 | Paw warmers male removed for hot pets |
| HUFFS – MUFFS with M (male) replaced by H (hot). | |
| 8 | Firm or infirm; sick or old |
| ROCK SOLID – (SICK OR OLD)*. | |
| 13 | Left in debt, local’s up about inflation |
| BLOWING UP – PUB reversed around L, OWING. | |
| 14 | Projectile finally going off by flag officer … duck |
| SHELDRAKE – SHEL |
|
| 16 | Grad putting up a mum in capital abroad |
| AMSTERDAM – MASTER (grad) with the A ‘put up’ to the front to give AMSTER, then DAM (mum). | |
| 18 | Soldiers invading Urals worked like a dream |
| SURREAL – (URALS)* containing RE. | |
| 19 | Right-granting document one’s put in case |
| PATIENT – PAT(I)ENT. | |
| 21 | Exam head of maths goes over in lesson |
| MORAL – M |
|
| 23 | Man of the match perhaps seen by new winger |
| HERON – HERO, N. | |
| 24 | Ex-smoker initially found using joints intoxicating |
| FUJI – initial letters of ‘found using joints intoxicating’. FUJI is still active, so this definition isn’t strictly accurate, but it hasn’t erupted for over 300 years. | |
Couldn’t spell PALAEOLITHIC so had to look it up, but no problem with ‘man’. I seem to remember ‘high’ being used to describe something with a strong odour, and I think you’re right with the cheese/game connection, but I think it can also refer to some folk being a little ‘higher’ than others, think bathrooms! Also, not sure if it was something to do with ‘stinking rich’.
Everything else was fine except that I spelt Ecuador as Equador for some reason. Liked SHELDRAKE and PURSUIT.
After a quick google, I found this:
Rear Admiral Drake was a human female Federation Starfleet flag officer active in the mid-23rd century, appearing in Star Trek: Discovery. Maybe the clue refers to this?
Thanks K and setter..
28:52
I assumed that DRAKE was Sir Francis, and that he was a flag officer, especially since I knew no other Drake; Wikipedia says he was a vice admiral. PALAEOLITHIC MAN struck me as green paint. COD to AMSTERDAM.
Ah, so he was: I missed that somehow. On that basis I assume he is the intended reference even though the term ‘flag officer’ doesn’t seem to have been in use at the time.
MER at ‘high / RICH’ when solving, and still not entirely convinced.
Used aids for PALAEOLITHIC MAN as my LOI. Although realising it was an anagram and the anagrist was in plain sight, I bored of trying to fit it all together. I had been distracted by the cat reference and had already spent far too long thinking the answer might be an ancient feline that I’d simply didn’t know. Should have thought jazz!
The parsing of AMSTERDAM also beat me, but the answer was too obvious to waste time on. Ditto worrying about the Flag Officer rank when SHELDRAKE had jumped off the page at me.
Frustrating one this week, with clues ranging from brilliant- 1a and 16d-to the frankly ridiculous – 27a . If you didn’t know this word ( and good for you if you did ) then putting the letters in the right order was pot luck and putting ‘cat’ ( a throwback to the 1950s?)in the mix was absurd.
Perhaps he sang (or grunted) what might pass as a sort of proto-scat!
15 minutes.
– Had to spell PALAEOLITHIC MAN very carefully
– Initially had INNER rather than UPPER for 1a, until PURSUIT set me straight
– Not sure I’d ever seen the word AGATEWARE before
Thanks keriothe and David.
FOI Meth
LOI Palaeolithic man
CODs Under the weather / Garbage
I thought there would be more to 10ac Traffic than a cd, hadn’t seen PD for police department before that I remember so didn’t get Pleased parsed and also didn’t twig master=grad in Amsterdam. None of this detracted from an enjoyable solve.
So did I, and I’m still not sure there isn’t.
I thought the same, mainly because of the apparently unnecessary use of the word ‘key’. I can’t see anything though.
I think the high/rich connection maybe as in a concentration of something. For example, we could say an orange is high in vitamin C, or rich in vitamin C.
Yes that works, thank you.
My thanks to David McLean and keriothe.
Not tooo challenging.
In 19a Pleased; I don’t use PD for police department but I do recognise “NYPD Blues” and LAPD.
27a PalAeo Man, I don’t spell it that way but that is OK. Not sure why he was a “cat” though.
Not too hard except I mistyped DEMONESSES as DEMONESESS so a technical DNF. Annoying. I still don’t really get PALEOLITHIC MAN as “cat”. Yes, I know it is slang for a male jazz fan, but that still seems too much of a stretch.
Had fun with this, mainly because I had an immediate start with UPPER ( still not sure what an Oxford shoe looks like, but it’s my first go-to when I see the word). Then when DIRT CHEAP appeared, and the first word of 1a had to be UNDER, well, then it was obvious, and my COD. Got stuck on 27a, (only had the MAN part, but had to use an Anagram site to discover the PALAEOLITHIC.
In a rush, I bunged in ORPHEUS at 17a ( because it fitted!); but apart from that it was relatively plain sailing for me, for a Sunday.
Thanks David and keriothe
Was a little late to this one, taking just over the hour across three sessions to get it out – probably more through distractions than the difficulty of the puzzle. Started out easily enough getting both 1d and 1a straight off the bat, which generated a lot of initial letters of the crossing clues.
Was another who gave up on trying to spell PALAEOLITHIC and used the anagram finder to help with it. Had not seen AGATEWARE before, nor the term ‘pit’ for a BED. Took a while for the word play for PURSUIT to make itself known.
Finished in the NE corner with HUFFS, WITHOUT and TRAVAIL – all easy enough and wondered why they were last, given I started up at the top !