Solving time : well after 25 minutes and 34 seconds, I hit submit on the Crossword Club, which is telling me I’ve got two wrong. I’ve scoured it and can’t see right now where I’ve gone wrong, though there are a couple I am unsure of (note, I found it, I had THEIF and EVENENG so it was a typo).
I don’t think I’ve ever had an experience like this… I flat out cannot parse the wordplay for about a half a dozen of these clues. From definitions they look like they could only be one thing, but how to get there from subsidiary indications has got me stumped.
I have to go to a show now, so I won’t be able to check in for a while – if you’re reading this you may want to check comments first, I’m sure these will be explained in time.
Away we go…
Across | |
---|---|
1 | JURY RIG: since the reverse would be RIG JURY |
5 | DEBITED: BIT(part) in the centre of DEED |
9 | REFECTORY: FE |
10 | BLISS: ref Arthur Bliss |
11 | ALIEN: A LIEN |
12 | NUMBER TEN: since there are ten commandments. Thou shalt not kill, covet, steal, worship false idols, use indirect anagrams, use living people in crosswords (other than the queen), double unch, clue I as A, clue A as I, use two-letter words |
14 | UNDERSTATEMENT: hidden (rather well I thought) |
17 | UNEARNED INCOME: I guess you are always earning it if you are doing labour |
21 | BREAK A LEG?: it fits the definition, but I don’t see the rest. Edit: as noted in comments – a (bone) setter is an old term for a doctor |
23 | PARMA: I didn’t know PARMA HAM and PARMESAN both referred to this region of Italy. R in PA and MA |
24 | THIEF: I don’t get the part about the cherry-stone at allEdit: see comments for explanation of the “tinker, tailor” game to count cherry stones, which ends in “thief” |
25 | PRECISIAN: IS in (A,PRINCE). New word for me, but obtainable from wordplay |
26 | Deliberately omitted, as it’s not my team by a long stretch |
27 | SYNONYM: since CHILDREN and ISSUE are example of SYNONYMS |
Down | |
1 | JORDAN: DR reversed in JOAN. Umm, not sure the connection between Joan and old partner?Edit: “Darby and Joan” is a term for an old married couple |
2 | deliberately omitted |
3 | RACONTEUR: (TO,RACE,RUN)* |
4 | GROUNDS,WE’LL |
5 | DRY: double definition |
6 | BIBLE: the ends of IDIOT and SAVANT are OT and NT |
7 | THISTLE?: put this in from definition (plant), is down referring to THIS? Help!Comb through the comments – thistledown protects the plant |
8 | DISUNITY: SUN,IT in DIY(Do It Yourself) |
13 | MEANINGLESS: (SINGLE)* in MEANS |
15 | EXCEPTION: rather nice double definition – you may take EXCEPTION to a decision, and there are EXCEPTIONS to rules |
16 | SUNBATHE: (HEATS,BUN)* |
18 | EVEN,IN,G: the clue tells us that EVEN and IN come before the G |
19 | MARXIAN: X(vote) in maid MARIAN |
20 | MAGNUM: again from definition, no idea about the rest |
22 | KAFKA: F in KA, which I guess has something to do with honours?Edit I should probably have known this – honors in cards – King and Ace |
25 | PAD: A(lexandre) D(umas) under P |
21ac presumably refers to a broken leg being work for a (bone)setter – do they still exist?
1dn refers to Darby (or is it Derby?)and Joan.
The reference in 24ac is to the childrens’ game of counting fruit stones “Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggarman, thief”. Think of the John le Carre novel.
7dn – thistledown is the fluff attached to the seeds, so if you delete the ‘down’, you get THISTLE, and if the thistledown is blown away you get a new thistle started. Nice clue
20dn – the putative accusative case of King Magnus – not such a ggod clue
No idea re the thief, unless it’s something to do with Chekhov.
I rather liked the clue for 26ac – so apt in describing England’s efforts last year in the Republic. Put in ‘sanctum’ for SYNONYM in desperation after an hour and ten minutes! 5ac is rather clever – I think ‘central part in exploit’ as shorthand for ‘part goes into a central position in exploit’ is quite acceptable.
I interpreted 7dn as a cryptic definition, a thistle starts out as blown down.
I think that “top honours” refers to the king and ace (of trumps) in certain card games (after a quick search it seems bridge and whist).
There were some very clever clues here, such as ‘synonym’, ‘Parma’ and ‘break a leg’, all of which I did understand.
I had to ponder hard to get the right composer, since Havergal Brian was the only five-letter composer beginning with ‘B’ I could think of for a long time. Bridge, Bax, and Brahms don’t fit. I nearly cheated by walking over to the B’s in my record collection, which would have given it to me, since I have the Lyrita of the Colour Symphony conducted by Hugo Rignold.
I thought the clue for ‘Bible’ was brilliant, and I can think of at least one regular who will enjoy this &lit.
Didn’t understand:
5ac. ‘Central part’. If ‘central’ indicates enclosure then ‘in’ is redundant. OTOH ‘bit’ for ‘central part’ doesn’t make sense.
6dn. Completely missed the ‘OT’ ‘NT’ references. Can’t decide whether this clue is brilliant or awful.
7dn.I saw the plant and the association with ‘down’ and I’ve read the comments but I’m still not entirely sure how this is supposed to work so I reckon it’s scrappy clue.
Had to go to SOED to confirm JURY-RIG. The usual sources only have ‘jury-rigged’.
Does one decline Scandinavian kings?
COD to NUMBER TEN (fairly easy, but it made me smile and I did understand it). Overall I’m somewhat ambivalent about this one: there were too many unresolved elements for me to be truly satisfied.
I (sort of) concluded that BIT is the central part of, for example, a brace and bit: it goes in the middle of the chuck, after all.
I had trouble with means=method in 13d, but my Chambers Thesaurus gives it as the first entry on means, so that’s OK then!
PRECISIAN was new to me (are we allowed long forgotten religious insults?), gettable from cryptic, but tricky if you’re playing around with HOMONYM at 27. Yes I know…
Our team? Who we?
CoD to No. 10 – might have been even better if it hadn’t been squatting in the Prime Minister’s Press Office two doors down.
Like others, much of this went in from definitions and I couldn’t parse them even after solving. The NE corner took forever.
Thanks to George for explaining BIBLE and essex_man and others for Joan, the fruit stones and MAGNUM.
The difficult clues here are partly brilliant, partly dreadful. For me BIBLE is the former, MAGNUM the latter: a matter of taste. I still don’t understand THISTLE in spite of all the explanations.
Overall though I enjoyed the challenge. There’s a slightly arcane whiff to it but there’s nothing wrong with that from time to time.
All the clues seem to have been parsed now, and only 7dn and 20dn appear in any way questionable to me.
Re 20dn, Magnum is indeed the accusative of the latin word Magnus = great, and since King Magnus surely obtained his name from the same source, it does not seem such a stretch to link the two. Proper names are declined in Latin aren’t they? Et tu, Brute?
Re 7dn, clearly it relates to thistledown but I don’t see why the clue as worded is different to “Plant that blows down for a start.” Why the just? Still, I won’t say its a bad clue because its more likely I am just missing something here..
The only Magnus I can bring to mind is Magnus Pym in “A Perfect Spy” (le Carre, again).
The shortcomings have all been aired and one or two of them in a single puzzle would be livable with – but not the whole lot in one go. Our team and the cherry stone are particularly ludicrous.
Afraid that even after seeing explanations here, I found this unsatisfactory rather than whimsical, especially 20 down. To quote Stephen Fry, “If that’s not absolute balls, then kindly fax me an explanation of what is”.
As has been observed above, no need for “Central” in 5. I read it as BIT placed centrally in DEED.
I agree with dorsetjimbo’s comments.
Funny how religion seems to provoke more controversy that anything else on the blog, far more than the other traditional no-go areas of sex or politics. Although with sex we seem to be stuck in a Fifties timewarp – it’s always either SA or IT.
I do like a good C of E service once in a while myself, preferably one with a slightly doddery and eccentric country vicar of the kind I remember from childhood, though they’re becoming harder to find . Obviously, that’s not necessarily a religious experience but it does make me feel that all’s right with the world, especially if there’s a glass of sherry afterwards (or before, in the case of my Aunt Clarice).
Having said that I wouldn’t have got today’s BIBLE clue in a month of Sundays without the ‘b’ of BLISS finally falling into place after several runs through the alphabet. Too subtle for me.
24:24 here, with probably half of that on those last two clues. Had no explanation for the THIEF clue, but I should have known it – it’s spelt out in Milne’s “Now we are Six’ which I certainly read in childhood. I rather liked MAGNUM. Takes all sorts.
I do object (and there is one setter in particular) when a puzzle contains a plethora of always Christian based clues that require an arcane knowledge of your tribe’s beliefs and practices.
This puzzle is slowly moving away from its bishops, civil servants and retired generals image and I want to see that continue. The day I see Alhazen as an answer I’ll know things are really happening.
After a run of easyish puzzles, I found it quite refreshing to have something a little tougher, and despite not being able to finish it, I enjoyed this one. I quite liked the THIEF clue (one of the ones I did understand!). Not really sure why it’s been given such bad press!
1d reference to derby and joan, old partners.
Edited at 2011-12-01 04:45 pm (UTC)
… but there’s no December in the calendar. Though it shows two posts for the last day of November!
I thought this was a delightful puzzle, and have absolutely no objection to anything in any of the clues. My compliments to the setter.
PS: If there’s an animal disease (of dogs?) called KAFKA-PAD, then I claim a Nina with the symmetrically placed DRY-BIBLE.
Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief. I found this on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker,_Tailor
Scandinavian King is Magnus
Magnum is the latin dative derivative of Magnus(ie ‘in another case’: eg as in ‘magnum opus’)
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