I seemed to go in fits and starts today. It took quite a while to get going, and I got stuck several times. Overall, despite not quite making it in under the hour, I was quite pleased to finish under my own steam. Although, yet again, I mistyped an answer so officially registered 1 wrong – I seem to do that a lot. I really ought to check the grid before I submit it.
I think my time would have been reduced considerably if either of the two long ones down the middle had fallen at the start. I could see that 4 was an anagram ending in ATION, and the 5 was probably a cd involving turning, but both stubbornly refused to come until some time later.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
Across | |
---|---|
1 | S(NOW + B |
6 | DORIC = IC |
9 | B(RIG)AND |
10 | CALYPSO = C + (PLAYS)* + SO |
11 | deliberately omitted |
12 | ROW(DINES)S |
13 | DRAM + A |
14 | SPIDERMAN = (DREAM)* in SPIN – I’ve not heard the term, but I imagine it refers to those incredible men who you see in black and white photos, eating their lunch perched on girders hundreds of feet in the air. Here’s the great Harold Lloyd demonstrating how not to do it. |
17 | CHECKLIST = “CZECH LISZT” <groan> |
18 | O |
19 | DOBERMANN = (BAN MODERN)* |
22 | U-TRAP = U |
24 | ORIGAMI = GIRO rev + A + MI |
25 | TWINSET = WIN in TEST rev |
26 | S + |
27 | NONENTITY = (N + NOT YET IN)* – I guess we can blame Oscar Wilde for the superfluous sexism displayed here. |
Down | |
1 | SABOT = TOB |
2 | OR(I + GI)NATE |
3 | BLACK + JACK – For those not familiar with Bowls, the jack is the small white ball that you have to get your large black balls as close as possible to. |
4 | UNDERESTIMATION = (NOTED MINIATURES)* |
5 | DICK WHITTINGTON – A well-known pantomime (hence seasonal show). I’ve no idea how well-known this is outside the UK, but for those who may not know, there’s an important scene where Dick is leaving London but stops when he fancies he hears the church bells singing ‘Turn again, Dick Whittington’. |
6 | DELHI = H + LED all rev + I |
7 | RU(P |
8 | CLO(I + SON)NE – Not a word I knew, but it was deducible from the wordplay. |
13 | DECIDUOUS = DUO in ICED rev + US – fall being the American word for autumn. |
15 | EVOLUTION – cd, although only slightly cryptic. |
16 | MA |
20 | B |
21 | hidden |
23 | PATSY = PAY about |
21 is also an anagram of ‘a dyer’, although the presence of ‘fibre’ precludes the clue from being parsed as such. Nevertheless, that was how I got it. Only really tricky one was CLOISONNE; my favourite was 1ac.
I,too, would cavil at ‘newspaper’ in 24ac, although ‘paper folded’ is a bit too obvious.
Lesser solvers will spend time wondering if MAG backwards in ORIGAMI is a reference to newspaper in the clue. I certainly did.
Sounds ominous for tomorrow
Seems like a good puzzle, though up against some tough competition this week. CHECKLIST raised a laugh.
We last had CLOISONNE in 24547 on 26 May this year.
Like KevinGregg, I put in Hanoi at 6D, but I did it without any crossing letters because it looked as though the wordplay would give something starting with H and ending with I. Good thing that H_R_C and C_N_P_O are so implausible.
I liked 14A, even though I had no idea that a SPIDERMAN was a sort of building worker.
Glad to say, I understood all the cryptic defs, but did guess at some of the literal (hadn’t heard of Mr Smollett, or that meaning of SPIDERMAN, or CLOISONNE). Read ‘fall’ in 13d as just the leaves falling, not appreciating the ‘autumn=fall’ bit.
COD to 1ac for its topicality.
I can get on with the rest of my day now…have a good weekend, everyone!
Some short memories here over CLOISONNE. I was surprised to see it again in such relatively quick time.
On its own a decent enough puzzle but suffers of course in comparison to the previous two days – such is life.
I never showed up yesterday because I kept at it for 24 hours, but did not finish.
As others have commented, far more straightforward today, though after I’d filled the left-hand side in 20 minutes I initially made heavy weather of completing the right. However, after an interruption to chat to a friend, I went back and had no difficulty completing the gaps in 5 minutes. CLOISONNE, DORIC and PATSY were the last entries.
Perhaps the cryptic clues are being mistaken for coded messages. You know, “The eagle flies at dawn but eats no fish” could be an emergency comm. from M to 007 or it could be 11 across on a Wednesday.
Louise
I only know CLOISONNE from previous crosswords , and like Jimbo, it sprang to mind from a recent one.
COD to CHECKLIST. I like the cheesy ones.
I haven’t yet had a chance to try yesterday’s and Wednesday’s so can’t comment on how this compares.
my understanding of &lit clues was that the WHOLE clue had to be both the word play AND the definition – so it depends on one’s reading of the clue how one sees it. In 18ac only part of the clue is the definition (orangey colour) and the rest of it at the level of the definition is just empty verbiage.Surely that just makes it a dodgy clue – the fact that even I got it just reflects that it was an easy clue. Or am I missing something? Anyway, I’m not in a rage about it!
You’re right about it being quite straightforward though, I would think it was an immediate write-in for most solvers.