Solving time 25 minutes
Quite a lively puzzle with a wide range of clue structures that include only one anagram. There’s a levening of general knowledge required but no real obscurities with the possible exception of “quint” that should be familiar to card-playing anoraks. Good to see a mention for Alan Turing, to whom a lot of people owe a great deal.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | POSTMISTRESS – POST-MI-STRESS; after motorway journey=POST MI; |
| 9 | TURIN – TURIN(g); reference the immortal Alan Turing 1912-1954 code breaker extraordinaire; |
| 10 | RIDGE-POLE – RID(G)E-POLE; |
| 11 | MANDALAY – (a)MANDA-LAY; where Kipling’s road goes to; |
| 12 | QUAINT – QU(A)INT – a five card sequence in piquet is a QUINT; |
| 13 | COCK-EYED – CO(C-KEY)ED; clubs=C; COED=school; |
| 15 | LARVAE – LA(R)VA-E(ndanger); |
| 17 | AMERCE – A-MERCE(r); |
| 18 | WATERLOO – W(ATE-R-L)OO; |
| 20 | TENNER – note=TENNER (ten pounds); sounds like “tenor”; |
| 21 | BOOK-REST – B(O-OK)REST; over=O; right=OK; BREST is a French naval base on the coast of Brittany; |
| 24 | CONDUCIVE – plot=”connive” then replace “n”=knight by DUC=French nobleman; |
| 25 | NIECE – NI-(t)E(a)C(h)E(s); NI=Northern Ireland=province; |
| 26 | TRAIN-SPOTTER – T(RAINS-P)OTTER; an anorak is somebody who has a dull and unsociable hobby; Begbie’s father’s question of his son; |
| Down | |
| 1 | POTOMAC – PO-TO-(CAM reversed); |
| 2 | SPRING-CLEANING – SPRING-C(hars)-LEANING; |
| 3 | deliberately omitted – if puzzled seek help in the usual manner; |
| 4 | SERRATED – SE(R-RAT)ED; |
| 5 | RIDE – RID-(hous)E; answer used in 10A; |
| 6 | SPECULATE – (“use past clue” without “us”)*; |
| 7 | NON-INVOLVEMENT – NON-(INVOLVE(d))-MEN-T(rue); women=NON MEN; |
| 8 | GENTLE – GENT-L(ikeabl)E; |
| 14 | EXCHEQUER – EX-CHEQUER(s); Chequers is the PM’s official residence at the foot of the Chilterns; |
| 16 | BARONESS – BAR-ONE-SS; start to composition=BAR ONE; ship=SS; |
| 17 | ATTACK – A-T(T)ACK; |
| 19 | OUTWEAR – OUT-WEAR; not allowed=OUT; the Wear is a well known river in Durham; |
| 22 | KENDO – hidden (bro)KEN DO(or); Japanese sword fighting; |
| 23 | GIGI – GI-GI; 1958 movie starring Leslie Caron with music by Lerner and Loewe; |
All I can find for “livery” is:
1 special uniform worn by a servant or official.
• a special design and colour scheme used on the vehicles, aircraft, or products of a particular company.
2 short for livery stable.
3 (in the UK) the members of a livery company collectively.
4 historical: a provision of food or clothing for servants.
Still, I’m happy, as ever, to be corrected.
1. Something assumed or bestowed as a distinguishing feature; a characteristic garb or covering; a distinctive guise, marking, or outward appearance.
This sense should probably be regarded as a figurative development of sense 2 [the dress worn by a livery company member], though it is recorded earlier.
I endorse Jimbo’s comment on Alan Turing who arguably contributed more to victory in WWII than any other individual and was subsequently disgracefully treated. I was pleased to sign the petition for the apology which was issued by the government last year.
There was a fascinating TV documetary some years ago in which he participated that went into all this and his wartime activities and this encouraged me to read his autobiography Between Silk & Cyanide.
There was a new TV documentary about the SOE on the History Channel last night of which so far I’ve watched the first hour but his name hasn’t come up yet. He used to set Times cryptics.
Sadly we know hardly anything about the early days setters other than Adrian Bell and Ronald Carton (the first xwd editor – the information about him in the 75th anniversary book strongly implies that he set puzzles). In the BBC One Show item with Mark Goodliffe a few months ago, there was a tantalising shot of a crossword in an archive copy of the paper, with “Adrian Bell” written next to the puzzle as if the accounts department might have used these copies to calculate payments to setters. If that little guess is right, someone could at least collect their names.
http://www.64-baker-street.org/organisations/orgs_the_fany.html
Anyway, looking forward to reading it.
And thanks to the bloggers btw – I read you every day even if I don’t often have anything to add 🙂
I’ve seldom been so grateful to a blog as this time, having solved the puzzle without figuring out WHY e.g. ‘serrated’, ‘Waterloo’, ‘cockeyed’, and–I blush to admit–‘Turin’ were the solutions. If one can call that solving.
Paul S.
Paul.
It’s a shame that piquet is regarded as a game for “card-playing anoraks” – it’s one of the best card games for two.
Intrigued by the combination of “non-men” in 7D with two uses of an old Times trick at 1A and 16 – using the female form of a word for a person rather than the male one which lazier male solvers might favour.
Answers written without full wordplay understanding: 10 where I thought R?D?E?O?E would allow no other possibilities – just true, as RIDGE BONE and RIDGE ROPE are in Chambers only. 4, where I relied on the teeth=projecting parts.
Pedant’s corner: that should be leAvening in the intro – not that errors of omission or addition matter too much in solving – it’s substitutions or wrong orders like “pharoah” that cause real grief.
Oh, well, there’s always tomorrow, and I’m still basking in the glow of solving Saturday’s toughie!
I managed to understand all the wordplay and got all the references without resort to books apart from not knowing QUINT.
BOOK-REST is particularly brilliant I have to admit. “Novel”, “support” “over” and “right” all sent me in the wrong direction, and with the B unchecked BREST was never going to be easy.
As for 17, I even thought of mercer but wasn’t sure enough to put it in even though Mercers Hall is about 500 yards from me as I write. Doh!
BARONESS – brilliant.
Bravo (through gritted teeth).
There were some good clues here, although I never saw the cryptics for ‘noninvolvement’ and ‘book rest’.
Whole clue: “Office manager showing tension after motorway journey”.
Office manager: definition
showing: def/wordplay link
tension after motorway journey: same thing as “post-M1 stress”
What does journey have to do with it? Just the fact that journeys are the usual motorway experience – though I guess a weary builder of the road could have had “post-M1 stress” too.
an absolute beauty.
Thanks
If you’re new to this game, you might get something out of a couple of the old posts in the “Solving Tips” category (follow the “Memories” link at the top), and the ‘YAGCC’ section of my website.
Didn’t get a time, but around 30 minutes, I found this one tricky. BOOK REST from wordplay, the rest worked after some pondering (and a few gins and tonicses).
I would say MANNA and MANNER the same way, so no whirredploy.
Because of the reality Gucci remained as being a high-class producer, pretty just a few men and women resort to these outlet shops to acquire Gucci items.
Her skin finsher, Fiona Locke, of St Tropez said; ‘Kelly has a very milky, flawless complexion so for the Oscars we wanted to achieve a golden tone that would complement the colour of her dress’ She used St.
Each watch sold will result in one hundred meals being purchased for the Watch Hunger Stop campaign begun by Kors and Berry..
Nike Air Max series on running shoes, the soles are made from the air.
There are many products from this brand that are being sold by various dealers either on various custom stores or Internet sites including the Gucci bags , belts, sunglasses etc.
Time to switch gears and head out of Manhattan to enjoy nine innings of America’s greatest pastime.
A cool, sexy barn, where all the models wore $4000 dresses.
Le BW porte toujours un statut de culte, et quand Sneaker Nouvelles vous a montr茅 ce coloris blanc, noir, violet fonc茅 et il ya un mois, la Air Classic BW fans sortis des boiseries et fait l’茅loge d’锚tre rendu une belle 芦 inverse 禄 脿 l’original colorway BW.
Melanoma is the most serious type of skin cancer.
Yeekz.
The interest in layered separates bodes well for menswear-inspired styles, said Brandon Holley, editor-in-chief of Lucky magazine.
Le design de cette basket star se devait lui aussi d’en jeter.
“Never again”, I said back then, and have stuck to it.
But to me, retail is imperative to growth.
Nina Garcia, who has always mixed her time on “Project Runway” with her role as fashion editor for Marie Claire magazine, recently announced the start of her own fashion themed show on AOL..
Comme une reconnaissance d’茅motion, de proximit茅 avec la fa莽on qu’elle avait de se perdre.
So there is a significant difference in identifying products based on gender.
A little black dress with a fuller skirt looks great and is timeless.
There were many Estee Lauder cosmetics in stock, but no fragrances.
My incredibly long internet search has at the end of the day been honored with beneficial knowledge to go over with my family.
Before you aspire to look like a model, remember that the photos are heavily airbrushed, the models have personal trainers and certain body types that can stay leaner.
I rarely make designs inspired by other people’s work, but in this case I had seen a blogpicture of a gorgeous design that I decided to use as my inspiration for this design.
About 75 guests mixed and mingled with Michael (a real charmer!) and gorgeous store manager, Tory Beneke, who was beaming.
“Les d茅linquants mineurs dans l’enqu锚te, jusqu’脿 Bacheng plus intim茅s ont admis leur crime et le faible acc猫s 脿 l’information sur le r茅seau, plus de Jiucheng des r茅pondants souvent dans le caf茅, 脿 proximit茅 de la Jiucheng des r茅pondants se consid猫rent comme 芦addiction禄.