This was just great fun—FAIR and SATISFYING—consisting entirely of pretty common words, with only one definition sending me to the dictionary, but all clued ingeniously enough to keep it interesting to the end… which came soon enough.
I indicate (Ars Magna)* like this, and words flagging such rearrangements are italicized in the clues.
| ACROSS | |
| 1 | Small flat type of poker I love (6) Seems an odd fetish, but to each his own… |
| STUDIO STUD, “type of poker” + I + O, zero, “love” (in tennis) |
|
| 5 | Advance in line (8) |
| INCREASE IN + CREASE, “line” |
|
| 9 | Upper motion of sea surge tackled by a soldier? (14) |
| ANTIDEPRESSANT AN(TIDE)(PRESS)ANT …The somewhat traditional Sunday drug reference is for once not a bit of underworld argot but instead SO very LICIT! |
|
| 10 | Running out of stock all at once (8) |
| STAMPEDE CD |
|
| 11 | Bashful nicks Doc’s stuff for entertainment (6) |
| COMEDY CO(MED)Y |
|
| 12 | Promotion before commotion (10) |
| PREFERMENT PRE, “before” + FERMENT, “commotion” |
|
| 14 | Call centre in Lati{n Ame}rica (4) |
| NAME Hidden |
|
| 16 | Pretty fine voice (4) |
| FAIR F(ine) + AIR, “voice” (as in “AIRed their grievances”) |
|
| 17 | Enjoyable meeting (10) |
| SATISFYING DD |
|
| 19 | When you choose a fabric (2,4) |
| AT WILL A TWILL |
|
| 21 | On vacation there, note English in abundance (8) |
| TENERIFE T |
|
| 23 | Straight face worthless, I suspect (2,3,4,5) |
| AS THE CROW FLIES (face worthless, I)* |
|
| 24 | It’s coated in oils for nibbles (8) |
| CRUDITES CRUD(IT)ES |
|
| 25 | Liberal working with fellow author (6) |
| LONDON L(iberal) + ON, “working” + DON, random “fellow” That’s Jack L. (1876–1916), of course—born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco. “A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.” (Wikipedia) |
|
| DOWN | |
| 2 | Excellent rhubarb dessert served up in restaurant (9) |
| TRATTORIA AI, “excellent” + ROT, “rhubarb” + TART, “dessert” <=“served up” |
|
| 3 | Raised dirt walls at starting line (5) |
| DATUM MUD<=“raised” “walls” AT Merriam-Webster has as the second definition “mathematics : something used as a basis for calculating or measuring,” and Collins has for British English, more generally, “a proposition taken for granted, often in order to construct some theoretical framework upon it. See also sense datum.” …The definition here seems closest to the former, American, one. I’d always thought DATUM was just the singular of data. |
|
| 4 | Granny’s unusual role — dad (3,4) |
| OLD DEAR (role, dad)* |
|
| 5 | Enlist pantomime cast for performances (15) |
| IMPLEMENTATIONS (Enlist pantomime)* |
|
| 6 | Rowers on canal do the minimum? (4,3) |
| CREW CUT CREW, “Rowers” + CUT, “canal” |
|
| 7 | Quick profit but not hard cash (4,5) |
| EASY MONEY EASY, “not hard” + MONEY, “cash” |
|
| 8 | Assembly, say, ignoring a positive gesture (5) |
| SYNOD S |
|
| 13 | Rigged vessel gets searched on banks (9) |
| FURNISHED F(URN)ISHED |
|
| 15 | Declaration could be made by means of it (9) |
| MANIFESTO (means of it)* |
|
| 17 | Very legitimate request (7) |
| SOLICIT SO LICIT |
|
| 18 | Melodious type of music enthrals new girlfriend (7) |
| SONGFUL SO(N)(GF)UL |
|
| 20 | Boomerang was tested again as a weapon (5) |
| TASER RESAT<=“Boomerang” …This is the one clue here with distinctly unpleasant connotations. (The weapon, not the exam…) |
|
| 22 | Check over golf rule (5) |
| REIGN REI(G)N |
|
3D: The best-known “starting line” version in a UK context is probably Ordnance Datum, the version of “sea level” reflected in contours and spot heights on Ordnance Survey maps.
Interesting!
If measuring a really awkward space to build something into one starts with a datum line and measures from that – so that was a familiar definition to me.
I’ve never met the word SONGFUL… Just me?
Me neither.
I solved this quickly enough, and didn’t like songful either. I’m sure it’s in the dictionary, but it should probably stay there. Solving from the cryptics, I didn’t even consider the literal for datum, which was probably just as well.
Time: 26:51
27:20
DNK the relevant sense of DATUM. I liked OLD DEAR, CREW CUT, AS THE CROW FLIES, TRATTORIA.
51 minutes. No queries because I didn’t even think past the wordplay to get to DATUM and recognising it as a known word.
I agree with vinyl1 about SONGFUL. The ODE would seem to have concluded that’s it’s a word we don’t need and omits it whereas it’s still to be found in the multi volume OED and SOED. Collins and Chambers have it too.
Merriam-Webster has bot-gleaned citations for “songful” from major newspapers as recent as 2022, whereas the latest in Collins are from 2017.
The language is full, replete, laden, packed, crammed, stuffed, stocked, flush, chock-a-block, bursting, overflowing with words we don’t need.
Quite – if we only had necessary words, I don’t think cryptic crosswords would be viable.
Of course I wasn’t being entirely serious, but I had in mind that ODE is the one dictionary used by Times crosswords that I know removes words from time to time when they are no longer used regularly enough to meet their criteria. Followers of the TV show Countdown will be aware of this.
Well, since the 2017 date mentioned by Guy, there have been about 8 different Times or ST music critics who have used “songful”. I’m honestly puzzled by objections to using words with meanings which are easy to understand from a common word plus a prefix or suffix.
Kept trying to make ‘soulful’ the answer but had to settle for the silly SONGFUL in the end.
50 minutes. Same experience with DATUM as several others; in with a shrug from wordplay alone. Spent some time trying to make the 10a cryptic def into a def with wordplay clue which was never going to work. I agree about SONGFUL being an ordinary word, even if it is in the references and I didn’t even consider it until I had the S from SATISFYING.
COD to TENERIFE.
Thanks to Dean and Guy
My last two took a long while, the crossing INCREASE and CREW CUT. The former doesn’t immediately lend itself to ‘advance’, although I realised when the answer occurred to me that it was valid. That meant CREW CUT became obvious, but it still didn’t mean anything much to me – is a crew cut the shortest cut you can get? Never having visited a barber, I wouldn’t know. The only word I had to look up after entry was DATUM, its sense here being unknown to me. I liked COMEDY, CRUDITES and ANTIDEPRESSANT.
I thought this was such an excellent puzzle that I’ve come back a week later to say so here. Thoroughly enjoyed how clever and witty this was.
9:26. Straightforward puzzle.
Like jackkt I solved DATUM without even noticing that I didn’t recognise the meaning.
COD 18dn SONGFUL. What a lovely word.
Two goes needed.
– Was glad the cluing made the spelling of CRUDITES clear
– Never heard of LONDON the author (and thought the ‘don’ part was a university don rather than a random fellow)
– Happy to trust that DATUM can have that meaning
Thanks Guy and Dean.
FOI Old dear
LOI Furnished
COD Trattoria
My thanks to Dean Mayer and Guy du Sable.
Not too difficult, and enjoyable.
21a Tenerife, COD.
3d Datum, DNK that meaning, but I did know it as the singular of data. If I needed to say that I would use axiom, but I know nothing.
22.02 with a typo
Excellent crossword. I really should have got ANTIDEPRESSANT sooner with the checkers I had but completely failed to see the definition. Nice one.
Thanks Dean/Guy.