Times 24,702 – Aloha Aloha Aloha, what’s all this then?

Author   topicaltimPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
16:12, so a much more straightforward challenge than yesterday’s; though I’ll concede some might find this one requires more knowledge, even without the devious wordplay, making it no easier overall. As well as my solving time, the Club website reveals I had an error, but on further investigation this turns out to have been due to sausage-fingered typing rather than any failure of interpretation.

On the subject of the Club site, I’m feeling somewhat more sympathetic to the online puzzle just recently, as they appear to have been making genuine efforts to respond to the wishes of Club members as regards the features offered (not to mention that the software appears much more stable, at least as far as I can tell). I’ve been ready to point out their failings in the past, so in the interests of fairness, I will publicly commend this improvement and hope it persists.

Meanwhile I also wonder if they / we will see an upsurge in solving / blogging at this time of night from people who are sitting up to watch the Ashes? At every Test match I’ve been to there’s been a much higher than average number of crossword enthusiasts visible in the crowd.

Across
1 HELLENIST – ELLEN in HIST. I vaguely recalled “Hist!” as a Shakespearean exclamation and thought it was more like “Oi!” but it turns out it can equally mean you want someone’s attention or their silence.
6 TAWSE – (SWEAT)*, presumably suggesting you might well sweat in anticipation if you were the unfortunate on the receiving end of it.
9 LIGHTEN – LIGHTE(r) + N.
10 IDOLISE =”IDLE EYES”.
11 deliberately omitted
13 CALLAGHAN – CALL A G(ood) HAN(d), 48th PM of Britain.
14 THRONGING – THING around (w)RONG without its W(eight).
16 URAL – (r)URAL; I’d guess the river is considerably less well-known than the mountains.
18 RUDE =”RUED”.
19 COTYLEDON – T(echnology) in CO(mpan)Y + LED ON. I dragged this word up from hazy memories of biology lessons in which I learned all about monocotyledonous plants (knowledge which lasted as long as it took to get that glorious O-level, and is all but gone now).
22 POSSESSED – double def.
24 ABEAM – A BEAM, which can be contrasted with abaft.
25 AMERICA – (MA)rev + ERICA.
26 MAUDLIN – MAUD + LI(o)N lacking 0; this is Tennyson’s Maud, who was famously invited to come into the garden.
28 ESTER – (w)ESTER(n).
29 TABLE WINE – TAB + [(WE)rev in LINE].
 
Down
1 HELLCAT – HE’LL + (ACT)*.
2 deliberately omitted
3 ENTICING – (k)ENT + ICING.
4 IONIC – I(r)ONIC; Ionic, Doric and Corinthian are the three Classical Greek styles of architecture.
5 TAIL LIGHT – A ILL in TIGHT.
6 THORAX – THOR + A X (which marks the treasure). A nice lift and separate.
7 WEIGHBRIDGE =”WAY” BRIDGE.
8 ETERNAL – E(x)TERNAL, i.e. external without the kiss X.
12 VIRIDESCENT – V(ery) IRIDESCENT.
15 INCESSANT – CESS in IN + ANT, another l&s with one of those words that occur far more often in crosswords than real life. I thought it seemed familiar, and Google confirms we had cess=tax in a Jumbo last month.
17 PLEASURE – LEAS in PURE.
18 REPLACE – REP + LACE, one rough fabric, one fine one.
20 NOMINEE – MINE in (ONE)* gives one who runs for office.
21 DENIER – double def. Not the most obvious secondary definition, of course; in an easier puzzle, something to do with stockings would presumably have done. This denier, the French descendant of the Roman denarius, is the one which gives us the ‘d’ in £sd, being the original equivalent of the old penny.
23 DEMOB – DEMO + B(leed), being the transitive verb version of the word here.
27 LEI – hidden in sociabLE Islanders + &lit. the garland given to tourists on arrival in Hawaii.

53 comments on “Times 24,702 – Aloha Aloha Aloha, what’s all this then?”

  1. Well, parts of it were easier than yesterday’s but still a lot of obscure knowledge had to be dredged up or constructed from wordplay (TAWSE, CESS, COTYLEDON etc., although for some reason I was sure of the spelling of the latter). I also originally had RUED and took some time to construct VIRIDESCENT (followed by a dictionary check to make sure) and correct to RUDE. Time as usual astronomical. Many enjoyable clues, though.

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