Times 24774, god forgeve yow your trespas …

Author   mctextPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 17 minutes.

All straightforward, except that I couldn’t parse 18ac for a while: November Foxtrot India. Then the small coin fell. Now that I see it, a clear Charlie Oscar Delta.

Now holde your pees, my tale I wol beginne.

 

Across
 1 S,CREAM.
 5 TYPE,CAST. ‘Characters’ gives us TYPE and (acts)* gives us CAST.
 9 COORDINATE. Anagram of ‘decoration’. Now I find there’s also CAROTENOID and CORONADITE. (Thank you, Chambers Anagrams.)
10 I would prefer to omit this one.
11 IN CAMERA. Double def. (Makes me wonder parenthetically: where are films [rolls of film, celluloid] more often seen these days?)
12 SHRIKE. Exchange last two letters of ‘shriek’. The name of Christie Malry’s girlfriend in B.S. Johnson’s novel. She worked for a butcher.
13 TREK. A very tight and clever clue indeed. First letters of ‘The Red’; last letters of ‘thE blacK’.
15 GLOSS(AR)Y. The filler is A, plus the last letter of ‘writeR’.
18 PARDONER. Wrote this in right away with only the D and the R to go on. Had to suffer said Tale for A-level English. But then … why? A pardoner completely forgives a debt or sentence; as opposed to merely commuting (reducing) it.
19 BO(D)Y. The def is ‘person’.
21 APAC(H)E. The wrapper is from ‘with expedition’.
23 QUARTERS. That is, 25¢ pieces. Once had an interesting exchange about the pronunciation: |ˈkôrtər| or |ˈkwôrtər|? And why?
25 SIAM. S for small, then ‘I am’ (Latin: sum). Perhaps best known from the famous Cartesian saying, “I think they’re for one a.m.”. (Thank you, My Word.) Descartes, take that away from me!
26 DEALING OUT. I call these things reverse cryptics. The answer (‘dealing out’) could clue the word ‘aligned’. Very neat when, as here, they work.
27 STRANG(L)E. The wrapper is from ‘unfamiliar’; the def is ‘throttle or choke’.
28 HIDING. Double def.
Down
 2 CROW,N.
 3 EARMARKED. On the premiss that some animals have tags in their ears. Anagram of ‘are’; then ‘pronounced’ gives us MARKED.
 4 Down clue omitted. Ask if it bowls you over.
 5 TRAFALGAR SQUARE. Cryptic def. The National Gallery is there, sternward of Viscount Nelson, Duke of Bronte (1758–1805).
 6 PRESS BOX. ‘Crowd’ for PRESS and ‘fight’ for BOX.
 7 COWER. Double def; the second unlikely to be much used (a person who cows, intimidates). Add to the flow-er, butt-er, … list.
 8 SNOOKERED. Anagram of ‘needs rook’.
14 REAPPOINT. Anagram of ‘Part I open’.
16 SABOTAGED. Anagram of ‘boats’ + AGED.
17 UNDERDO,G.
20 PARIS,H.
22 COMMA. Double def.
24 ROUE,N.

 

44 comments on “Times 24774, god forgeve yow your trespas …”

  1. Setter here. I was expecting someone to comment that the PARDONER clue has been used before. I do recycle a clue occasionally (only my own) if I haven’t used it for a long time (in this case 30+ years). I was surprised that neither Biddlecombe nor Sever remembered it — or perhaps they are too polite to mention it (no, scratch that possibility)
    1. Good grief – I’m not sure I’d even notice if the same clue occurred twice in one week!

      However, looking back I see that the clue “Traveller to Canterbury who’s going further than commuter? (8)” appeared in as 16dn in puzzle 23,949. Not absolutely identical, but pretty close. Great minds think alike?

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