After a good start I made rather heavy weather of this and took the best part of an hour to complete it. The RH side and most of the NW (excepting the elusive 9dn) went in fairly easily but I came a cropper in the SW where I encountered a number of difficulties, the main one being that without checkers in place I couldn’t get an angle on 14dn and I really needed that answer to open up the SW quarter. Realising immediately that I wouldn’t know the word at 19dn didn’t help matters. For all that, I think it was a perfectly fair puzzle and I enjoyed it a lot until I got stuck. Having been a bit down in the dumps over that I cheered up again when I completed the grid with a “doh” moment at 9dn and recalled the events of long ago in Blackpool as recounted by Stanley Holloway.
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | DO(PIN)G |
4 | A,S(BEST)OS |
10 | FUR |
11 | Deliberately omitted. |
12 |
|
13 | BEN,EFAC,TOR – CAFÉ reversed between mountain and hill. |
15 | HINDUSTAN – Anagram of IN TH |
16 | MO(A)NS – Mons in Belgium was the site of the first battle fought by the British in the Great War. |
18 |
|
19 | FE(MINIS)E,D |
21 | FLAT,SCREEN |
23 | FAST – Two meanings. This was nearly my last in because I hadn’t thought of fast colours in the wash, for example. For most of the solve I was considering HALT here. |
26 | VINE,GAR – I’m not sure I knew this meaning of the word. RAG reversed |
27 | LE(A)RNER – Alan Jay Lerner was the lyricist on “My Fair Lady” and many other songs and shows. |
28 | SALUTING – SAL replaces the O in Outing |
29 | BAR,ROW |
Down |
|
1 | DA(F,F)Y |
2 | P |
3 |
|
5 | S(URGE)ON |
6 | EX,CLAIMING |
7 | T(A)INT |
8 | SURPRISED – Sounds like “Sir prized”. I can’t hear any rumblings in the SW yet so maybe this homophone is acceptable. |
9 | ALBERT – The A from attack is followed by TREBL |
14 | OUT OF SIGHT – A horrible expression meaning astonishingly excellent as can ‘ace’. I’d have thought it was from the 1960s but according to Chambers there are examples of its usage way back in the 19th century. |
15 | HIGH FIVES – Sounds like “Hi, fives” and is also a greeting originating in the US. |
17 | ABSTAINER – Anagram of TEA IN BARS |
19 | FOR,TRA |
20 | MUESLI – Anagram of USE MIL |
22 | ANNAL –Â |
24 | Deliberately omitted. Seek and ye shall find. |
25 | MAY,A – A language of Central America. |
Like you, I’m not sure of SCREEN but PLAY works as well as anything else as a definition of “dramatic episode”. As for VINEGAR, I got it from wordplay then checked dictionary.com which gives one definition as : “sour or irritable speech, manner or countenance.
Lastly, in 25d, if it’s a language that’s being referred to, shouldn’t it be MAYAN?
Hmmm, suspiciously only four comments here that I can see. Strange feeling that I may be posting something that’s already been pointed out several times. Oh well.
Speaking of languages, not too many computer experts are using FORTRAN these days.
Good fun puzzle, particularly the mention of young Albert. Only ever heard it once, on some radio show down here many years ago, but have never quite got it out of my head. Great stuff. Can’t remember if they ever got their money back?
I particularly enjoyed ALBERT (I half-remembered the Stanley Holloway song) but my COD goes to ABSTAINERS.
Well remember Albert and of course FORTRAN which after writing complicated actuarial formulae in machine code came as a great relief. Rather like COBOL I suspect it’s a personal skill that no longer has any market value.
Actuarial formulae in machine code eh? No wonder you find these crosswords such a doddle!
VINEGAR (‘ill-temper’) is climber (VINE) + rag*.
Last in: that pesky FURBALL
VINEGAR in this sense was unfamiliar to me, and I couldn’t parse the wordplay for SALUTING, so thanks to Jack for that.
Louise
I knew WAWA was language (see Collins English Dictionary, “speech, language, to speak”), and convinced myself that the clue’s “several weeks to acquire a …” was W+A twice (several times?).
WAWA not in Chambers, though.
Duh!
http://oxforddictionaries.com/view/entry/m_en_gb0982360#m_en_gb0982360
Talking of arks, thought everyone might like the Bill Cosby version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0KHt8xrQkk
Hope that doesn’t get quarantined.