Timed at 22:24; I had tremendous trouble with two in the SW corner, without which this would have been a very straightforward puzzle. Was I alone? We shall see…
Across | |
---|---|
1 | SPARTAN – ART in SPAN. |
5 |
BEAR HUG – BEAR HUG |
9 | BETHOUGHT – THOUGH in BET, as in “That would be my bet”. |
10 |
ISLAM – S |
11 |
TOPED – i.e TOP ED |
12 |
TAKEN DOWN – [A K |
13 | DANDIE DINMONT – DAN DIED IN MONT. Another legacy of Sir Walter Scott. |
17 | POSTMODERNIST – (IDSORTPOSTMEN)*. |
21 |
ANTIPASTI – ANT + 1 PAST + I |
24 |
DEFER – DEF |
25 |
THANE – THANE |
26 | REGARDING – double def. |
27 | RIPOSTE – POST in (IRE)*. |
28 |
OVEREAT – EA |
Down | |
1 |
SUBITO – IT in (O |
2 | ANTIPODES – (PAINTEDSO)*. |
3 |
TRODDEN – ODD in TREN |
4 | NIGHT BIRD – i.e. “BITE NERD” if Spoonerised. |
5 | BATIK – (KIT A.B.)all rev. |
6 |
AVIGNON – [G |
7 |
HELLO – |
8 | GEMINATE – (AMEETING)*, from the same derivation as the star sign. |
14 | DERRING DO – [ERRING in D.D.] + 0. |
15 | OUT OF LINE – cryptic def. referring to the anagrammatic possibilities of NEIL. |
16 |
SPLATTER – S |
18 |
MOPPETS – MO |
19 |
INDORSE – S |
20 | WRIGHT =”RIGHT”; Orville or Wilbur were “the first to stay up”. |
22 | TRAMP – THE RAMP without HE. |
23 |
SCREE – SCREE |
Apologies for the late running. I had difficulties logging in to LiveJournal; not sure why this should make it disappear from my bookmarks as it has, though, which suggests perhaps this may in fact be a local difficulty…
I’m still recovering from total failure on Saturday so pleased to get this more or less right. Thanks, tim, for persevering … a very helpful blog.
Total guess at the dog – if it’s not a collie, a westie or a labrador, I’m struggling.
I’m not sure I’d ever call this one “very straightforward”. Certainly stretched my vocab in places.
Other than that a couple went in on a hunch: DEFER (doh!); INDORSE (never heard of INDORE); SPLATTER (same reason as Tim, I guess).
20dn gets my COD for the penny dropping recognition of the airborne bros.
I had no trouble with Thane/splatter but got terribly bogged down in the SE by scree, regarding (toyed with digesting), the horrible indorse and Wright. I had Hallo for a while at 7 (Hal + summat) but couldn’t justify it so went on a mental quest for other Shakespearean bods.
Apropos 4d did you know that whenever the Rev Spooner visited the North of England he attempted to blend in by wearing a catflap on his head?
Fluked a correct finish with more from wordplay than I care to count including of course the dastardly dog. Unsatisfactory and unsatisfying.
The dog was new to me, and I’m not sure I’ve come across GEMINATE before, although it wasn’t much of a leap from the twins.
My first error was to put NIPPERS for 18 dn, albeit lightly, which delayed getting POSTMODERNIST. I’m not sure what the surface of 18 is supposed to mean, but that’s by the by. My second error was to put GRAVE for 25 (from GRAVESEND). I didn’t doubt my entry, though should have realised that the loss of 4 letters from “most of” is not Times style, so I6 eluded me for ages. Actually I don’t think the clue is all that good. Dishes displacing liquid simply cause the water level to rise, as Archimedes found, not necessarily splatter at all, so for some time I though the answer was UPsomething.
This definitely wasn’t a puzzle to tackle after a long day’s work on half a night’s sleep, and I’m not done for the day yet either, despite being done for tout court. Heigh-ho and toodle-pip!
I was thinking of ‘wright’ as a common noun, but it was the only word that fit that sounded like something else, which was clearly required by the clue.
When I was young, ‘indorse’ was widely used here in the US, and ‘endorse’ was considered a British spelling. Now ‘endorse’ seems to have taken over.
While a tramp cannot now get a mortgage, it was certainly possible a few years ago! Whoo-hoo!
Sarse = to sift
Sarse(n) = sandstone blocks scattered across The Downs
JustaMo