Solving time: Squeaked in under the hour at 59:14
A few new words for me – HECATOMB & LLANERO, also DAUBE. Plus several entered without full understanding. I particularly struggled in the NE corner, but in general I found this quite tough all the way through. Although that may be because, having forgotten to do the blog last night, I was feeling under pressure to solve it quickly.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
Across | |
---|---|
1 | CENOTAPH = (NOT CHEAP)* |
9 | A + M(PUT)ATE |
10 | NIHILIST – cd |
11 | CHI + NA |
12 | WIDOW SPEAK |
14 | S |
15 | H(ASS)OCK – the ASS is ‘in hock’, i.e. pawned |
17 | DISCORD – the way to party being the DISCO RoaD |
21 | CAUL – cd – it covers the head of a new-born baby |
22 | HEL(I + GO)L + AND – As area of the North Sea between the Netherlands and Denmark. I’ve long been a fan of the board game Diplomacy which has the Heligoland Bight as an area on the board, so no problem for me. |
23 | TRIM + ARAN – although the word order is a little confusing |
25 | EMENDING = ME rev + ENDING |
26 | MILLINER – I’m struggling with this one. I can’t really see a definition anywhere. A felt can be an item made of felt, such as a hat, but not a hat-maker as far as I can see. I assume the ‘lots of litres’ is the LL, though I’ve no idea where the AA come into it. Thanks to the anonymous contributor for providing the crucial piece of information I was missing. The AA is a reference to AA Milne, the author behind the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. So it’s MIL(L + I)NE + R. Which means that the definition is ‘Felt one’s consuming lots’ which I still don’t really get, but it’s a lot clearer than it was. |
27 |
|
Down | |
2 | EXIT VISA = AXE rev about (VISIT)* |
3 | O + PINIONS |
4 | A + |
5 | HATCHET = “HATCH IT” |
6 | S(P + RINK)LING |
7 | BASSANIO – cd – Bassanio was one of Portia’s three suitors in the Shakespeare play. The suitors are offered a choice of three caskets made of gold, silver and lead. Bassanio correctly opts for the lead one. |
8 | BE(DAUBE)D – I didn’t know DAUBE as a meat stew so this was my last in. The E-A checkers had me confused into trying to put an anagram of MEAT into something. I nearly invented HEMATOME to mean covered in blood, but then SNOB came to my rescue and the B gave it away. |
13 | SACCHARINE = (AIR CHANCES)* |
15 | HECATOMB = HE-CAT + (MOB)* – Tom for he-cat was quite sneaky. |
16 | STUPIDLY – another sneaky one. ‘Builds’ = ‘puts up’ or STUP, then ‘in vain’ for IDLY. |
18 | COL(A + |
19 | R + ENOUNCE |
20 | LLANERO = ALL rev + NERO |
24 | TEES = “TEASE” |
As for the rest, I had to seek assistance for BASSANIO, CAUL and DAUBE; I invented BEGARBED for 8. A complete rout for me, then, after so much effort. COD to WIDOWS PEAK.
I solved MILLINER from the AA which immediately triggered MILNE in my mind for some reason I don’t really understand. The definition seems rather contorted to me to produce a misleading surface reading
I didn’t know or had forgotten LLANERO but the cryptic was very clear.
Some good clues overall and an enjoyable tussle after the easier fare of earlier in the week
DAUBE was new to me too but I worked it out from the wordplay. I failed on the Shakespeare character as I knew neither the name nor the lead reference so there was no way into it for me, and I still don’t understand 26ac despite spotting the AA Milne reference for myself.
I also errored at 12 where I bunged in WIDOW’S NECK intending to go back later to check the wordplay but forgot to do so. Not a very encouraging morning.
I think the def is a sort of Yoda-speak version of “One’s consuming lots of felt”, but who knows?
AA only made me think of booze and cars (help! I’m turning into Jeremy Clarkson!) so in the end I just had to hope for the best. Again.
Great challenge overall.
Loved HASSOCK
Felt – one’s using lots – from (of) – litres I (LI) – with Milne round.
Blimey.
CoD to WIDOW’S PEAK, witha side order of Not the Meaning of Life.
AVID nearly scuppered me by trying to be ACID (triple stretched definition).
I’ve been doing some puzzles from 1962 this week, and if “First-day cover” had appeared then, I’d have had little hesitation bunging in CAUL; but it seems perhaps a little unusual nearly 50 years on. However, I’ve really no objection to it.
MILLINER I simply parsed wrongly, stupidly failing to spot MILNE.
All in all a cracking puzzle. My compliments to the setter.
Milliner is just a dreadful clue and caul is poor too. Contrived.
This took me about an hour. I mostly enjoyed the clues, although it felt like I’d picked up the Guardian by mistake.
However it was spoiled for me by CAUL and BASSANIO. I think the former is too obscure for a cryptic definition like this. The latter is just a knowledge test, not a cryptic clue. If you don’t know the play you can’t get it. As it happened I knew CAUL but not BASSANIO, so a DNF for me.
And the MILLINER dsurface was unbelievably tortuous.
Still, apart from that … 🙂