Solving time: 19:33
Not a difficult puzzle — three in a row then this week. So maybe expect a stinker tomorrow? I’m off in search of a decent set of baritone ukulele strings, so may not be around to fix up any errors for a while. I’m sure no one will 28 on that account. 29s!
Across | |
---|---|
1 | FAMED. 10ac=F{r}AMED. |
4 | DIPSTICKS. D{aughter} {l}IPSTICKS. |
9 | CONCERN,ED. |
10 | SET UP. Two defs. Tennis hangover from Monday? |
11 | LAHORE. Anagram of {c}HOLERA. |
12 | SIGNALLY. N (new), GI (recruit), all reversed in SALLY (attack). |
14 | FOR A CHANGE. Charlie CHAN inside FORAGE (search). |
16 | Omitted. As camera swings back to get picture. |
19 | SIC,K. |
20 | ACT ONES AGE. Here’s yesterday’s (1dn) ‘behind bars’ to mean (in) A CAGE. Then insert TONES (characters). |
22 | PROSPERO. PRO (top player) ’S, reverse REP (theatre), O (round). |
23 | BALBOA. Reverse LAB{rador} + BOA (killer snake). He discovered Panama and is now the eponymous currency. |
26 | PRADO. P{icasso}, RA (artist), DO (event). |
27 | OBJET D’ART. O{ld} B{ritish} JET (plane) DART (weapon). |
28 | SHED A TEAR. DATE inside SHEAR. |
29 | CHE{st}ER. |
Down | |
---|---|
1 | FACELIFTS. Reverse FILE inside FACTS. |
2 | MU(N)CH. N for ‘noon’. |
3 | DIET,RICH. |
4 | DEN,T. |
5 | PADDING,TO,N. The def is ‘London terminus’. |
6 | TISANE. &lit made up of letters from TEA, S{age} IN. |
7 | CATALONIA. Change the middle letter of ‘CataTonia’. |
8 | SEPOY. Reversal of YES (certainly), inc PO (Petty Officer, Pilot Officer … take your pick). |
13 | MASCARPONE. M{eal}, anagram of ‘canapés or’. |
15 | RECT,ORATE. Sounds like ‘wrecked’. |
17 | POETASTER. Reverse OP (work), insert the T from ‘satirisT’ into EASTER. |
18 | Omitted. The apostrophe here denotes the possessive. |
21 | APNOEA. Anagram of NAP; OnE,hAs. &lit. |
22 | PEP,YS. PEP (energy) + Y{e}S where the E{nergy} is deleted. |
24 | B,RAVE. |
24 | A,JAR. ‘Grate’ as a verb (as in ‘on one’s nerves’). |
I did like ‘Paddington’, a nice change from the usual bear clues.
I’m with vinyl1 on this one as I didn’t find it particularly easy and took around 50 minutes with one cheat at the end to look up the explorer as I knew I’d never heard of him and the wordplay route to the answer was eluding me. I had problems with an answer or two in every quarter but managed to work all the others out eventually including the unknown APNOEA.
Not quite sure why GI = recruit at 12 across.
Edited at 2013-01-30 02:28 am (UTC)
I also query GI=recruit. Vasco BALBOA has appeared before but he’s not amongst the most well known of explorers. However other than “lap” I can’t think of another dog -A- besides “lab” so very gettable from wordplay.
I liked 6D
Subtext: Didn’t know Balboa, couldn’t work it out from the wordplay. The rest a bit tricky but all solved.
Rob
I first encountered tisanes as a young reader because Hercule Poirot habitually drank them as an alternative to a nice cup of English Breakfast, thus demonstrating to Captain Hastings what an odd man he was.
Mascarpone
What cheese would you use to coax a reluctant bear out of a tree?
Camembert!
SIGNALLY was LOI, and held me up for far too long.
Janie_l_b (can’t log in for some reason…!)
Catalonia was fresh in my mind as I had to telephone the wretched place yesterday to pay a speeding fine.
What’s with all the cosmetics after yesterday?
Thanks to the setter.
Edited at 2013-01-30 12:48 pm (UTC)
The DT has started putting apostrophes in enumeration -one would have been nice in 27a.
Those unfamiliar with BALBOA the explorer are at least in excellent company. Keats, in his poem “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”, commits a famous schoolboy howler by crediting another conquistador with the discovery of Panama (then called Darien) and being the first European to set eyes on the Pacific:
“Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific – and all his men
Looked at each other with a wild surmise –
Silent, upon a peak in Darien”.
I’ve no objection to “new recruit” = NGI since a new soldier is a new recruit.
Edited at 2013-01-31 04:13 am (UTC)