Solving time: 12:58
Another tough-ish one, I think, but full of good things. Perhaps someone will explain exactly how 24 works. (Peter did. See below.)
As an HP fan, I was delighted to see quidditch appear, though it seemed daring to include it without indicating that it is a fictional game. I am not sure why, as I wouldn’t see any need for 22 to indicate that Jo March was a fictional person.
Across
1 | BAR(O QU.)E – you can read this with “style” as the definition, but I prefer to read the whole clue as a definition as a semi-&lit |
5 | POST BAG – surprisingly deceptive structure for such a short clue |
9 | BAL(L IS)TIC |
10 | A DELE – dele is a printer’s mark for deletion, and Adele is the maid of Rosalinde von Eisenstein in die Fledermaus. (I had to look that up afterwards. The only Eisenstein I could think of was the Battleship Potemkin one.) |
12 | NEA(P) T IDES |
17 | FIFTH COLUMNIST – I guess this should be read with “subversive” (n) as definition, though the whole thing can be read as a joke definition. |
21 | DIAERESIS, (AS I DESIRE)* – subtle definition |
23 | (ho)T + RASH |
24 | INTRO – not sure how to read this one. INTRO means “the start”. Is the point of “literally, of” that it is also the start of a word? On edit: Thanks to Peter for the information that the clue in the paper was: “24 The start – literally, of Troilus and Cressida (5)” That play begins with the words: “In Troy, there lies the scene.” So it wasn’t an incomprehensible clue, it was a transcription error for one that required detailed knowledge of a little-known play. |
25 | PRE((musi)C)LUDES |
26 | EX-CLAIM – very clever |
Down
1 | BUBBLE – “the bubble reputation” is from the fourth of Jaques’ seven ages of man in As You Like It |
2 | RELAPSE, being ESPAL(i)ER(rev) |
4 | EATING IRONS – RESIGNATION* |
5 | PIC (=”pick” = best) |
6 | S(MAR)T – another well-disguised (at least from me) structure |
8 | GREY SEAL (=”grace eel”)! |
13 | ARTHUR’S SEAT – I enjoy the way “behind” switches to a noun for the cryptic reading |
15 | DONATE + L, L, + O(ld) |
16 | OFF + DRIVE – at least this seems to be the only cricket reference today |
18 | FR + ANTIC |
19 | STAND-IN(g) |
20 | C(irca) + HASTE |
22 | RIOJA, being A(JO)IR(rev) |
I think Richard does OK with the lit, so he may beat me on time as well as correct answers. I stopped the clock at 11:35.
It was all a long, hard slog but the NE corner gave most trouble because I had written a wrong answer at 1dn early on which screwed everything up until I spotted BALLISTIC at 9ac and realised my mistake. Actually I quite liked my answer at 1dn: GLOBAL (geddit?) which I had managed to persuade myself worked rather well though I now see it didn’t really fit the bill.
24 The start – literally, of (5)
when we should have got
24 The start – literally, of Troilus and Cressida (5)
(It turns out that the play starts with the words “In Troy”, though I’m not sure how many solvers will claim to know this. The obscurity of this reference has balanced my guilt about not knowing something from the Seven Ages of Man speech, which I’d count as well-known Shakespeare.)
So the club version of the puzzle is still incapable of doing text-formatting like bold or italics, as well as proper numbers. Dearie me …
My biggest problem was thinking that 1 across was ‘tonsure’, a plain hair style that is ‘not sure’ – I was quite sure there was some way to make it fit the clue. That totally messed up the NE.
Other than that I was good, putting in ‘off drive’ without even recognizing it as a cricket term.
And now to George’s demise… guessed bubble at 1d. Guessed diaeresis at 21 (knew the word, was fumbling with placing those vowels). Guessed AMELA at 10ac – of course I had “GRAY SEAL” at 8d. Two errors for the price of one!
COD goes to 17a
I didn’t mention Troilus and Cressida in my rant above, but I solved it from the online version and only had “the start – literally,of”. I just thought it was a shabby cryptic def hinting at “the start of a book”. Obviously, being a world authority on the works of Willy Waggledagger, I would have got it immediately if I had the full clue 🙂
Dafydd.
6dn ‘SMART’ – even better
17ac ‘FIFTH COLUMNIST’ – a beauty
9ac ‘BALLISTIC’ – really nice wordplay. I’m not so sure about the definition.
10ac ‘ADELE’ – very guessable, especially if you knew your printers’ terms (I made it interesting by persistently reading it as “Einstein’s maid” – I won’t even try to explain where that led me)
24ac ‘INTRO’ – how very postmodern that it was truncated in the online puzzle
1dn ‘BUBBLE’ – hmm. For once I’m joining 7dpenguin in the “Down with Waggledagger” camp. Arguable just how cryptic this is. I ended up babbling in dunce’s corner with Pete, having first gone ‘global’ with jackkt. And that’s despite knowing the quotation.
Apparently a baroque (n) can mean “an irregularly shaped pearl”. Which nicely describes this puzzle for me.
I agree with 7dP that an otherwise excellent puzzle was spoiled by the setter taking the p**s with all the literary nonsense.
I gave up after 55 minutes with a slack handful of blanks in the top half. Needless to say I didn’t get bubble and is “moved by gravity” exactly fair for ballistic? According to Wikipedia (not the most reliable source in the world I’ll admit, but still) “A ballistic body is a body which is free to move, behave, and be modified in appearance, contour, or texture by ambient conditions, substances, or forces, as by the pressure of gases in a gun, by rifling in a barrel, by gravity, by temperature, or by air particles”. Moved by gravity to me would suggest tides, moons and apples.
COD 4dn
COD was 6d – would never have worked out the “chips in” part.
A lot of good clues. I personally don’t mind the literary references. For March always think Amy,Beth,Jo or Meg. I can see how these clues can irritate but if the other part of the clue and the checking letters leave no other logical option then it seems fair game – i.e. wine = r-o-a
JohnPMarshall
INTRO is just ludicrous, even worse than the rubbish Jack refers to that was served up last Saturday. BUBBLE is nearly as bad – only guessed this by relating B?B?L? to something round and to those add the hopeless obscurity Eisenstein’s maid and a very questionable homophone – utter hogwash and moonshine.
The great pity is that there were some excellent clues mixed in there with the dross. Jimbo.
I loved some of the definitions (one sent to cover, a bit of capital that’s raised) and although I got bubble I had no idea what it had to do with Shakespeare.
That was a tricky ‘un right enough. To my great surprise I completed it all correctly despite guessing at 1d BUBBLE (all-round) and 24a INTRO (the start) for the Shakespeare and 10a ADELE for the J Strauss II. No problem with the Harry Potter reference at 3d – sums up my literary knowledge!
There are half a dozen “easies”:
11a Oil, say, I had put on part of face (5)
LIP I’D
14a (Erect RADAR site)* at sea, where access can be controlled (10,4)
RESTRICTED AREA. The caps for RADAR are mine – acronym.
27a Easily defeat in (recount)* that’s ordered (7)
TROUNCE. An anagram that took me ages to see for some reason.
3d A hundred pennies drop: the game is up! (9)
QUID DITCH. Easy if you had children in the 1990s.
7d Mixer in litres taken in drunken spree (7)
B L ENDER
25d Dog needs a clean up (3)
POM