Solving time: 69:45 – With two wrong apparently, although I can’t for the life of me see where one of them is.
That was a real struggle from start to finish. There were a couple of words I didn’t know – HERSTORY & PIPE ROLL, plus several others that I only knew vaguely – HELIOSTAT, A FORTIORI & TE DEUM.
There was quite a bit of devious wordplay in here, and it’s late so I’ll move right along. Although, as I mentioned above, I still have one wrong somewhere, so I’d be grateful if someone can point it out. I spotted the other mistake while writing the blog (see 25a). I have it now, see 5d.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
Across | |
---|---|
1 | ALICE SPRINGS = LICE (insects) + SPRING (bound) all in A + S |
9 | RAT ON = NO (number) + TAR (pitch) all rev |
10 | PHOTOCALL = HOT (burning) + O/C (gaseous elements) all in PALL (cloud) – not sure about gaseous elements – Oxygen, of course, but Carbon? I suppose it is in the form of CO or CO₂, but on its own it’s a solid at room temperature. |
11 | HERSTORY = RY (track) after (OTHERS)* – a feminist history |
12 | TE DEUM = TEDIUM (something to send you to sleep) with an extra E (pill) instead of the I (one) |
13 | WORMHOLE = OR (golden) + M (mile) all in WHOLE (complete) |
15 | SKUNKS = SUNK (ruined) + S (singular) all about |
17 | UNTOLD – dd |
18 | TOP-NOTCH = (PONCHO + T/T)* |
20 | AUTHOR = THO (all the same) in AUR |
21 | FITFULLY – dd – the perfect matches would FIT FULLY |
24 | A FORTIORI = FORT (castle) in AI (excellent) + OR + I |
25 | GUANO = ON + AUG (a bit of summer) all rev – ‘business to aid growth’ is the rather excellent definition. This was one of my mistakes – I had GUACO thinking it was AUG rev + CO (business) with ‘aid growth’ being the definition as it’s a plant used in first aid (to cure snakebites), but when I came to blog it I realised it didn’t quite work. |
26 | STOKE-ON-TRENT = (STREET TOOK + N/N)* – I loved ‘Chinatown’ as a definition, Stoke being famous as the source of much pottery and china. |
Down | |
1 | AIR SHOW = AIRS (Wind’s) + HOW (the way) – Wellingtons being WWII bombers |
2 | INTERPRETATION = INTER (put into final plot) + PRE (before) + TATI (French director) + NO (objection) rev |
3 | ERNST – I can’t see where the ERN comes from, but ST is presumably street, and Max Ernst was the artist. It is STERN with the the ST moved down – thanks to rosselliot who got there first. |
4 | PIPE ROLL = POLL (vote) about I (one) + PER (for each) |
5 |
|
6 | GOOSE-SKIN = GO (try) + (ONE KISS)* – I’ve not come across this particular variation before, but I know goose-bumps and goose-flesh, so it’s not much of a leap. |
7 | PATERNITY LEAVE – cd |
8 | GLAM (variety of rock, think T Rex or Sweet) + I’S (one’s) – wasn’t Shakespeare’s Macbeth the Thane of Glamis? |
14 | HELIOSTAT = (TOILET HAS)* |
16 | POLITIC + O |
17 | UTAHAN = U (university) + TA (Cheers) + HAN (Dynasty) |
19 | HAYLOFT = “HAIL OFT” (to keep greeting) |
22 | FIGHT = FT (paper) about ‘IGH (i.e. High as in High School, with the initial H dropped in a Cockney manner) |
23 | Doctor coming from county fair (4)CO + OK – as in ‘cook the books’ |
I needed 7 minutes to find my first answer but having got started things began to flow and I filled in the whole of the top half steadily if somewhat slowly including PIPE ROLL which I’ve never heard of.
But I came unstuck in the lower half and as the hour approached I used aids to dispose of HELIOSTAT (also unheard of) and, to my shame, COOK. [Later in mitigation: Who’d have thought there could be so many possibilities for -O-K? 66 according to Chambers! It was to be my last one in and I was nearly brain-dead by that point, losing the will to live].
As our anon friend has indicated 5dn is hidden but also reversed. IVOR the engine was not part of my childhood but I had heard of him.
Edited at 2013-02-15 06:57 am (UTC)
And Ivor the bloody Engine! (Online, indeed!) What next? Muffin the Mule? If so … can I write the clue … please.
Well done Dave … I’m surprised you have hair left after that one.
Edited at 2013-02-15 04:40 am (UTC)
I share the same problem with C as a gas in 10ac but couldn’t see any alternative. I had SKANKS at 15ac which works for me – don’t know which is right.
Appreciation to setter and thanks to Dave for shortening my misery.
Let’s go for it – 10A is surely just wrong? Carbon is not a gaseous element. The clue works better if “gaseous” is removed from it.And isn’t it 2 words?
Never heard of HERSTORY – a history based in Womanchester presumably. Nor IVOR the engine – had to Google him after just guessing it was reversed within “providing” from wordplay.
Thought GUANO and STOKE very good clues indeed.
I suppose another possibility is that the setter is expecting us to know that CO is carbon monoxide and the word “elements” is being used to mean “parts” so the clue reads “gaseous parts”. I don’t like that either.
I think the best result is obtained by just leaving out the word “gaseous”
Edited at 2013-02-15 05:33 pm (UTC)
On the same lines (Merioneth to Llantisilly as I recall) great sympathy to the half of the fraternity which preferred SKANKS to SKUNKS (or the other way round, I haven’t checked) – surely either is correct?
Very, very tough. A masterpiece? Maybe, though perhaps too much like hard work for some tastes: my feeling at the end was more relief than triumph. So much deviousness, with the shortest ones providing perhaps the hardest tests of lateral thinking. Let’s give CoD to the whole dam’ thing. Or STOKE ON TRENT, which was my first admired clue.
Well done Dave!
Thanks for a decent blog,
Chris G.
I was another with SKANKS for SKUNKS; however, for once I would feel pretty confident of challenging that one with the Crossword Editor.
There were so many absolutely first-rate clues in this puzzle that it’s a pity it was let down by 10ac – I can’t see any reasonable justification for “gaseous” – and 15ac, where SKANKS could be regarded as the likely answer in such a right-on puzzle (I’m just glad I didn’t think of it).
malcj
It could be that I and others are missing something subtle, but if so I’m looking for a much better explanation than that.
Must admit I never thought of skank, equating it with slut which seems a bit too specific for the clue. I got off track with the shooting stars too, trying to fit some sort of basketball dream team idea into too few spaces. DNF
P.S. One of those interesting coincidences in crossword-land – that we get the shooting stars on the same morning as the Russian meteorite.
Edited at 2013-02-15 12:41 pm (UTC)
It was too difficult for me to say that I enjoyed it but I think a puzzle like this is good from time to time.
Andy B.
Enjoyed this puzzle despite the difficulty and the quibble as noted re Photocall. Loved seeing Wormhole in the grid. “Shooting stars” brought to mind the asteroid that will be whizzing overhead today at around 7:30pm UK time – watch out for it everyone.
Thought describing Stoke-on-Trent as Chinatown was outrageous! Guano was a fine clue too but my favourite was Fight – loved that one. Thank you setter!
Am on holiday for a week from tomorrow and offline until 25 February. Good luck to everybody with next week’s puzzles!
SKANKS is a hideous word, isn’t it? And HERSTORY would be comical were not the people who coined it such a po-faced lot.
Well done, setter, you *******!
PS Severe Gastro Enteritis necessitating IV saline. I had 2 litres for my birthday yesterday instead of a nice shiraz:-(
On top of that, I guessed IF,ON for 5 and ALUM,IS for 8. So much for that.
And you can hardly discriminate against a word for being recent in a puzzle which includes the appalling “herstory”.
Edited at 2013-02-16 08:04 am (UTC)
I went for SKUNKS and it is now confirmed as the intended answer. As a matter of interest OED has this meaning of SKUNK dating from 1841 and of SKANK from 1964.
Also, apologies for the CARBON = C = gaseous element error. Nothing to do with confusion with Chlorine, nor with the semi-plausible but far-fetched idea that C and O are the constituents of carbon monoxide. It’s simply an unexplained blind spot I have about carbon being a gas (!)
Rather surprised a lot of people have not heard of HERSTORY perhaps.
I;m glad I didn’t have to adjucate on that one!
A small desert town like Tokyo is a small Japanese city
That and the carbon annoyed me, and also being on entirely the wrong wavelength, plus having huge gaps in knowledge, like Ivor. Or what the second meaning of untold is… missing relatives? Eh? What?
A beast, but not enjoyable for me.
Rob
Rob