Time taken to solve: Off the map but somewhere in excess of two hours with some resort to aids after the first hour had passed.
I feel like pasting in yfyap’s comments about yesterday’s puzzle here almost word for word with reference to today’s offering. The only thing I would need to change would be his first sentence where he expressed relief that it was not his day to write the blog as unfortunately that did not apply to me today.
I’m struck by the difference compared with yesterday. That was very hard too and had some obscure words and meanings (today’s has very few if any) but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to grips with it and winning through in the end without aids. This was just a horrible dull slog. I knew within the very first minute that I was in trouble and hated every moment of the solve. Of course this is a personal opinion. I can’t find anything to complain about on a technical level so I imagine others will find it perfectly acceptable though I rather doubt anyone will be comparing it with a stroll in the park.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | TOMTIT – TO, M |
| 5 | BIRDLIME – MILD RIB reversed, |
| 9 | MILANESE – Anagram of ‘isle name’ which for some reason managed to escape my notice until the very end. It was my last in. |
| 10 | GROUND – G |
| 11 | PERSIA – Per |
| 12 | HELIPORT – ‘ Edge’ = LIP then ‘soldiers’ = OR enclosed by anagram of ‘the’. ‘Bombed’ is the anagram indicator. |
| 14 | UNREMARKABLE – ‘Plain’ is the straightforward definition. The paper referred to is an exam paper which cannot be re-marked. |
| 17 | UNREASONABLE – Double definition, the second as in ‘dear’ meaning ‘expensive’. |
| 20 | CROTCHET – ‘Delicate craft’ = CROCHET enclosing |
| 22 | Deliberately omitted, please ask if baffled. |
| 23 | CAIMAN – AIM inside CAN. This reptile is more commonly spelt with a ‘Y’ I think. |
| 25 | RHINITIS – Hidden |
| 26 | MEMORIAL – ME,MOR(I)AL |
| 27 | NUMBER – Double definition. |
| Down | |
| 2 | OLIVER – The thespian is Sir Larry Olivier who loses his second ‘I’ to give us OLIVER (Twist) who famously demanded more. |
| 3 | TRANSLUSCENT – Anagram of ‘reluctant’ signalled by ‘degenerate’ enclosing N |
| 4 | THESAURUS – The star sign TAURUS enclosing HE’S (man’s). The reference book was consulted more than once during this morning’s ordeal. |
| 5 | BEECHAM – BEECH,A,M |
| 6 | RIGEL – Irish’ = IR reversed as signalled by ‘rampant’ and followed by GEL (setter). RIGEL is the brightest star in Orion. |
| 7 | LOO – My first in. Double definition, a WC and a card game. |
| 8 | MANDRILL – MAN as in chess followed by DRILL gives us this member of the monkey family. |
| 13 | PLANETARIUM – Anagram of ‘arena it’ enclosed by PLUM. ‘Best’ as in ‘plum job’. |
| 15 | REBELLION – B for ‘bowled’ inside REEL followed by LION . |
| 16 | INCREASE – ‘Old people’ = INCAS encloses RE = ‘on’ followed by E for ‘energy’. |
| 18 | NATURAL – Another musical reference. A ‘natural’ is one semitone lower than the same note with a sharp sign. ‘Natural’ meaning a simpleton is new to me and is in the dictionary as an archaism. |
| 19 | BELIZE – A somewhat disrespectful reference to our own dear HMQ enclosed by BEE. I think the idea is that a woman said to be ‘queen bee’ is in a position of dominance over others in her circle. I can’t find any reference to these people necessarily being her friends but the question mark covers that I suppose. On edit: It has been pointed out in the comments below that ‘among friends’ refers to the informality of LIZ rather than being applied to BEE. Thanks! |
| 21 | HANOI – H,AN, (and to grab your attention) OI !!!! |
| 24 | MAO – This is |
I think the “among friends” in 19 signals the informal LIZ for OODQ.
Didn’t like anything much, but OLIVER, last in, makes it as my CoD
Last four in order were 26, 18, 17, 16.
Persia and Siam – yes, former countries strictly, but “A country and an old country shortly merge to make another old country” seems a plodding kind of clue.
RIGEL at 6D fits my pet “the 20 brightest stars are all you need to know” theory, coming in at no. 6.
It’s always a shame when one can only find things one doesn’t particularly like in a puzzle with no balancing gems. I too think having two defunct countries, neither signposted, is unreasonable as is the archaic use of NATURAL (fair enough in bar crosswords, where the archaic use would almost certainly have been highlighted and the use of the dictionary normal practice). I don’t buy the “among friends” in 19D nor queen=BEE and I’m not that keen on LIZ for HRH. Finally at 21D “required” seems like surplus padding.
To balance that I can find nothing. This puzzle is best forgotten. I’m off now to do the highly recommended offering from yesterday
Although archaic, ‘natural’ is in the Concise Oxford and is an everyday English word rather than something you’ve never seen in print and have to look up in Chambers to verify that it’s a word at all.
I agree, a bit of an annoying puzzle, but it really should not have seemed that hard. The words are not that obscure, you should be able to guess most of them.
It’s nice to have a challenge, but I share the general feeling that this puzzle was a comparatively unrewarding slog. A few points of detail that haven’t been made above:
I don’t see how ‘obscure’ can be an anagram indicator (9ac MILANESE). 17ac (UNREASONABLE) is not a genuine double definition, as the second part (“dear?”) is just a special case of the first part (“Not fair”). Beginners should note that 26ac (MEMORIAL) relies on the thought that tour = go round, go round = surround, ∴ tour = surround, a fallacy sanctioned by convention. The wordplay in 13dn (PLANETARIUM) is botched but defensible: schematically, it reads “PLUM containing ARENAIT is anagrammatized”, which gives an anagram of PLUM-containing-ARENAIT rather than (as no doubt intended) PLUM containing an anagram of ARENAIT.
Clue of the Day: 8dn (MANDRILL), despite the padding.
But even if the other royals called her Doris, the clue is just a joke, and I think acknowledges that by including “?” after ‘among friends’.
I just do not accept that one should have to treat the daily crossword as a rehearsal for the Mephisto!
By the way, Jimbo, I would be interested to hear your views on 24566.
Only one amused me – 21 down, HANOI. I used to live there, and to attract someone’s attention, you call out their name, followed by ‘oi’, e.g. Dan – oi! It’s not considered at all rude.
I agree with Kororareka’s comment about teeth and spittoons – very well put!
Some, like Kevin, have been able to explain their difficulties as they were unfamiliar with a number of the words/meanings but apart from the alternative spelling of CAIMAN and an archaic meaning of NATURAL I can’t offer that excuse. Linxit has mentioned the lack of multi-word and hyphenated answers and I agree this may have had some bearing, but I still have absolutely no satisfactory explanation of why I and some others found this one so hard. I’m not sure I have ever gone over 2 hours before today. I am baffled.
Given the deep level of piscesit incest between Jacky Fisher and Mohammed Reza Shah, all true sons of BP, like Tony Hayward, are know as Shans. So with a toot from Lilibet de Fart Hayward’s Bob went three sheets in the wind, i.e. a fit hit the shan.