Solving Time: 30 minutes
A quick romp around the north followed by a not so quick trudge around the south as the wind left my sails. Finally held up by yet another troublesome 4-letter clue ending in O; and no, I don’t want a list of all four letter words ending in O – I made one myself on Saturday night instead of sleeping.
Across |
1 |
MICROFICHE = OF + I for current + C.H. for Companion of Honour, inside CRIME*. |
6 |
Deliberately omitted. Not the Charlton Heston but a Charlton Heston. |
9 |
RAMSHACKLE = RAM + SHACKLE; the “tied to” being linkage material. |
10 |
SNUG = GUNS reversed |
12 |
ARISTOTELIAN = ARISTO + tomE inside LATIN*. Hold that Latin translation thought in mind. |
15 |
CAN’T ONE + South + East = CANTONESE |
17 |
ALTER sounds like ALTAR in certain parts of the Home Counties. |
18 |
ORIEL = ORAL with the A replace by I.E. |
19 |
PENNY has ROW reversed + This = PENNYWORT, being “a name given to several completely different plants” (Wiki), which can variously bring you out in a rash or cure one. |
20 |
PORT + LAND BILL = PORTLAND BILL. A natural feature on the Isle of Portland, Dorset (as opposed to the nearby Pulpit Rock) and an version of Barnacle Bill for children. |
24 |
IOTA = Old Testament in Iowa. Another clue in Classics vein. |
25 |
SILLY BILLY |
26 |
ERNE sounds like EARN |
27 |
MELANCHOLY = M.C. HOLY around ELAN |
Down |
1 |
Deliberately omitted. Currently not currency in Germany. |
2 |
COMB = COB around Mews
|
3 |
OTHER-WORLDLY = (ROT LOWRY HELD)*. Presumably that’s this Lowry. |
4 |
INCAS = Sex Appeal inverted underneath IN + Clubs |
5 |
ALLOW E inside HEN = HALLOWEEN |
7 |
CONVICTION, a double definition |
8 |
DEGENERATE = femalE in (GREAT NEED)* |
11 |
DECASYLLABIC, an acctwab, i.e. a clue constructed to win a bet, in this case that the word antidisestablishmentarians couldn’t be used in a clue. Anagrams anyone? |
13 |
ACCOMPLICE = A.C. for current this time + COMPLICatE, the missing part being AdverT. Why did I have trouble with this one? |
14 |
ANTIPROTON = (NOT AT RIPON)* |
16 |
EX for old + PANS for vessels + I’VE for “the writer has” = EXPANSIVE |
21 |
S for small inside BALA = BALSA. Bala Lake, I learnt very recently, was the largest natural body of water in Wales until it got bigger. The River Dee flows into and out of it at one point and just into it at another. |
22 |
ALSO = A + the London Symphony Orchestra. Item is Latin for also (see hint at 12ac). |
23 |
liveLY LYrics. Lyly did indeed write, and some lively lyrics were amongst his oeuvre. |
Medium difficulty while solving; seems lighter than that after having just cracked the Club Monthly.
Edited at 2011-08-01 10:35 am (UTC)
Bala Lake featured in Powell and Pressburger’s Small Back Room. For those that are interested in their oeuvre, as chance would have it, I’ll be posting an “Archers Top Five” later today on my eponymous blog.
My problem at 11 was that I had misspelt ARISTOTELIAN as ARISTOTLEIAN and guessed that the apostrophe S in 19 meant that the 5th letter of that answer had to be S, so I had two wrong checkers in mind. Having sorted that out I could only think MEGASYLLABIC which was obviously wrong so I reluctantly resorted to aids.
Item = also had not stuck in my brain despite having studied Latin at school for 5 years, but that was nearly 50 years ago.
Never heard of LYLY.
Always reluctant to praise a blog as it implies criticism of others but I must say how much I enjoy Koro’s delightful Monday outings.
Would have been all correct under forty minutes otherwise, which is not bad for me.
Otherwise, I thought there were some poor clues in this one, MARK and S-B in particular. “Hitting the mark” is barely the same as “hitting the big time”.
Cod (once I saw it quite late) to ACCOMPLICE.
How do you get to put your name on these posts? I’ve tried a number of times, but always get some sort of error message. So I remain anonymous.
And if you want to not remain anonymous, you could always append your name, could you not?
Koro: I’ll take the antidisestablishmentarians anagram challenge and offer…
Absinth trade instils amnesia.
(I think that works)
COD to DECASYLLABIC just for getting that word in there.
I thought 25 across was a weak clue, being so obvious.
I thought “Item” = “also once” is weak.ie Once is not much of a direction towards Latin in my book Why not Ancient Greek, or Aramaic or any largely disused language…and is Latin so dead he asked, being raised of the RC persuasion and with a son currently learning it at school(albeit with much complaint)?
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.
Olivia: O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give out divers schedules of my beauty: it shall be inventoried, and every particle and utensil labelled to my will: as, item, two lips, indifferent red; item, two grey eyes, with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth. Were you sent hither to praise me?
ALSO has cropped up in these puzzles before. I’m not keen on it as a device but recognise it when I have to. Also thought the antidis…. clue a bit daft.
Yet another Dorset landmark I see after Tollpuddle the other day. All makes me feel very much at home and pleased to see ANTIPROTON included.
Curiously, out on a walk with my grandson this very afternoon, I came across someone carrying a large bunch of St James Wort (that’s TANSY to us in the know), just like in the picture. That really hit the mark for me as a consolation, big time.
Without any checked letters to go on, I bunged in POLYSYLLABIC for 11dn, but fortunately it didn’t take too long to correct.
I was slowed down by putting NAME for 1dn and EXTENSIVE, but otherwise found this reasonably steady. I was very worried for a couple of minutes by ALSO, my last in, but fortunately inspiration struck. On another day it could easily have done for me.