Solving time: None recorded, but probably about 45 minutes all told.
Apologies for the late blog. I volunteered to cover this one last week, but no one came back to me, so I assumed my services were not required. As it’s so late, I won’t waste time with a lengthy preamble but get straight into it.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BLACKGUARD – I assume ‘in parts’ implies that ‘bar’ and ‘keeper’ should be treated separately to give BLACK + GUARD, although I don’t really see how BAR = BLACK |
| 6 | FAZE = “PHASE” |
| 9 | CYCL(ON)E – I’m a fairly seasoned cricket follower, but I’m not sure I’ve come across ON for bowling before. |
| 10 | RI(CHAR)D – ‘clothes’ is a containment indicator |
| 12 | BACK + NUMBER = second / one for example |
| 13 |
|
| 15 | RUMPUS = RUM + SUP rev |
| 16 | PROSPECT = (COPPERS)* + T |
| 18 | S(QUAD)CAR – ‘busy’ is a slang term for police which has raised a few eyebrows when it’s cropped up in the past. |
| 20 | SNI |
| 23 | TOT = TO (nearly shut) + |
| 24 | OUT OF + W + HACK |
| 26 | C(AN)AST + A |
| 27 | C |
| 28 | SAVE – dd, although I pencilled in KEEP to start with. A weak clue as there are probably several four-letter words that would do equally well. |
| 29 | deliberately omitted |
| Down | |
| 1 | BUCK – dd – ‘blood’ is listed in my dictionary as (rare, chiefly Brit) a dashing young man; dandy; rake – I assume that’s the meaning required |
| 2 | ACCLAIM = CA rev + CLAIM |
| 3 | KNOCKOUT + DROPS – that’s ‘number’ as in something that numbs. |
| 4 | USED UP = E in US + PUD rev |
| 5 | dd – deliberately omitted |
| 7 | A LA MODE = DO rev in (A MEAL)* |
| 8 | END OF STORY – ‘That’s that’ is the definition, or |
| 11 | CHRYSANTHEMUM = (CHAT + HENRY’S)* + MUM |
| 14 | BRASS TACKS = BRASS (military officers) + “TAX” |
| 17 | SANTIAGO = (IT’S A GOAN)* |
| 19 |
|
| 21 | PU(CCI)N + I – ‘he scored’ is the definition |
| 22 | OFFCUT = OFF + TUC rev |
| 25 | deliberately omitted |
COD: 8dn
NW corner took as long as the rest of the puzzle put together. Decided at the outset that 1a was an anagram of “in parts is a”, with rogue as anagrind, and left it for later as the answer not obvious. Thus BUCK, KNOCKOUT DROPS, USED-UP and CYCLONE all had to wait until the penny dropped.
Mother Theresa was an “excellent person” but not exactly a knockout.
BACK NUMBER as an old-fashioned person was new to me.
I didn’t understand 1ac so thanks for the explanation. I share your residual doubts but Collins has “boycott” as a meaning for “black” so perhaps that’s it.
Joint COD to 18ac and 3dn for the cheeky definitions. 1dn is also brilliantly efficient, if it’s not a chestnut.
sip artisan
is a sin trap
sir ‘as a pint
PS does somebody know which key on the bottom line causes you to exit and lose your input when hit inadvertently. Must have done this 20 or more times, and it is SO annoying.
As for the puzzle, I am again surprised to be all correct, but it took longer than yesterday’s, about 45 minutes. I think the Brit-peculiar usages held me up at BLACKGUARD, BACK NUMBER, OFFCUT and BUCK, my last entry. I hadn’t understood the ‘number of drinkers’ til coming here, and I think it’s very good. Overall, a medium to tough puzzle, with some fairly obvious throw-ins to get you started, i.e. A LA MODE. Regards.
I started this with 14d – if the first few don’t produce anything, I go for the longer clue on the left – and the rest went in steadily anticlockwise, finishing in that pesky NW corner.
CAMPION was not known to me as a martyr – at the time, England had him down as a traitor and heretic.
I was mildly amused that BACK NUMBER crossed KNOCKOUT DROPS at just about the point where an epidural would be applied, perhaps alerting us to THAT meaning of “number”.
Are there references to the scandal de nos jours (or perhaps de notre propriétaire) in this one? The longer perimeter clues have a certain whiff about them, along with RUMPUS and perhaps SQUAD CAR.
CoD contenders all over the place. Let’s say USTINOV for assuming we know when All Hallows is.
Meanwhile your avatar is lying in the pumpkin patch waiting for the appearance of the Great Pumpkin (if 40-year-old memories are correct).
For a while the Sun’s front page carried a story headlined “Media moguls body discovered” [sic] – which shows that hackers may be super smart, but they’re lousy at punctuation (and writing headlines).
About 30 min for this which transmuted into 45 with three typos after having to retype and resubmit in increasing frustration.
Note to hackers: leave the crossword club out of it – they’re the good guys [see NOTW final puzzle from last week]!
I put in ‘daze’, too, alas; well, days is a spell, no? Once again, not enough patience to think of alternatives. ‘Buck’, by the way, was quite a common term in 19th-century novels, which is the only way I knew the word. Although there was the (US only?) use to refer to (black only?) men: I just recalled Vachel Lindsay’s awful poem (but I repeat myself), ‘The Congo’.
I seem to share mistakes with a number of other solvers (for example, thinking 1ac would be an anagram until I took “in parts” literally, and having KEEP at 28ac until I filled in USTINOV) and one of them, unfortunately, survived until submission: WAKE at 6ac, which certainly is to “be disturbing”, and for the rest, well, I imagined some explanation for the “spell on the radio” (new radio presenters’ slang? an amendment to the radio alphabet? that sort of thing).
No COD, but I enjoyed “brass tacks” (and never cease to wonder about the myriad strange expressions English speakers carry around with them, as if they made any sort of sense).