Solving time: 28:45
Not at all at my best this morning, perhaps as a result of Australia’s miserable showing against Oman in Sydney yesterday or perhaps from the drop in interest rates on my super. But this is a good puzzle which I enjoyed struggling with for the best part of a half hour.
Talking of time: this is my last post before British Summer Time starts on Sunday. Some overseas solvers may like to know about this because it means the puzzles starting on Monday (1st April) may arrive at a different time. (In my case an hour earlier.)
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | DECLAIM. Can be split as ‘de-claim’. Similar to the device at 27ac. |
5 | PERSEUS. PERSE{vered} + US. |
9 | TROMBONES. Anagram: no mobster. |
10 | CHINO. CH (Companion of Honour), IN (wearing), O (old). |
11 | BREAK ONES DUCK. BREAK (holiday), ONES (singles), DUCK (love, nil, zero). Today’s cricket clue; bringing to mind Stuart Broad who was in the spotlight yesterday (24ac). |
13 | ACRIMONY. A, CRONY inc IM. |
15 | FINEST. F (following), 1, NEST. The def is A1. Couldn’t see this for ages. So many possibilities for _I_E_T. My LOI and the main reason for the slower time. |
17 | SATINY. SA (sex appeal, it), TINY. |
19 | CANNIBAL. CA (about, circa), reversal of LAB (party) and INN (pub). Interesting definition. (Etymology: distortion of “can nibble” [e.g., on one’s bones].) |
22 | DESIGNER LABEL. Anagram: bling dealers; inc E (European). Maybe a slight costumery theme today? |
25 | VIPER. VIE (struggle) inc P (power), R (resistance). |
26 | PERDITION. P (page), EDITION (publication) inc R (last of ‘dictatoR’). |
27 | RETREAT. Two defs, the first being ‘re-treat’ (renegotiate, as in treaty). |
28 | ASSEGAI. ASS (donkey), last half of ‘carrIAGE’ reversed. A favourite crossword weapon, along with KRIS and a few others I can’t think of right now. |
Down |
|
---|---|
1 | Omitted. |
2 | C(L)OBBER. L for ‘line’. I’ve been in Australia since 1975 and have never heard the word ‘cobber’ actually used. |
3 | AMBLE. M (miles) inside ABLE (fit). |
4 | MONOKINI. ON (being worn) + OK (fine), all inside MINI (skirt). Pants! |
5 | POSING. PO (Petty Officer), SIN (crime), G (good). |
6 | RECESSION. RE (about), sound-alike for ‘session’. |
7 | EPICURE. PE (exercise) reversed; I, CURE (smoke). |
8 | STOCK-STILL. STOCK (goods for sale); STILL (whisky producer). |
12 | PASSED OVER. PASSÉ, DOVER. (Topical if you know your Jewish calendar.) |
14 | MENAGERIE. Anagram of ‘mange’, ERIE (the lake). |
16 | {s}MALL,ORCA. |
18 | TOSSPOT. Reversal of TOPS (ace) and SOT (drinker); &lit. |
20 | BELTING. Two meanings; the first connected with A1, finest, tops, ace, etc. |
21 | KEEP AT. First of T{hings}, A{lways) + PEEK (look), all reversed. |
23 | BRITS. B{rutal}, STIR (become restless) reversed. |
24 | Omitted. |
Back later. I’m off now, posing in my itsy-bitsy chino-satiny designer-label monokini!
Edited at 2013-03-27 02:08 am (UTC)
there is mallorca bread and also mallorca pearls.Not sure I would take the case to court.
I put in ‘monokini’ right away from the definition, then worked out the wordplay – but then, I was the blogger for the ‘Francesca da Bikini’ puzzle.
I was held up at first by carelessly putting in ‘keep up’, corrected only when I saw ‘retreat’, and then at the end by the clever literal for ‘cannibal’. Once that was in, ‘belting’ was obvious.
‘It appears that in Australia it has become popular to clobber your cobber, and we happen to be your cobber,’ he said. (Canberra Times, quoting a New Zealander let it be noted.)
Needed the wordplay for MONOKINI, where I found it difficult to see past Borat in his mankini, and ASSEGAI only a vague memory from doing these things. Held myself up a little by bunging in stand-still at 8.
Like Jack, I was finding it very difficult to justify ‘from Mediterranean island’ for Mallorca. The best I could come up with was the noun used as a modifier as, for example, in ‘Canada Dry’, but ‘Mallorca ham’ instead of ‘Mallorcan ham’, while possible, is rather a stretch.
Edited at 2013-03-27 02:37 am (UTC)
I can also similarly advise for some other crossword favourites from the Great South Land such as “sport” (a familiar term for a male person as in ‘good on you sport’), “digger” (as for “sport”); “drongo” (term of derision); “cooee” (a loud greeting”); “fair dinkum” (true/correct).
Solving piecemeal to begin with, I was temporarily blinded on 11 across to find the last 4 letter word crossed by *U*K and clued by “score”. Surely not!
ASSEGAI’s spelling saved by the wordplay, and BELTING, as Janie says,had to have the B or it could have been anything. I’m now painfully aware that there are too many Greek heroes, 7 letters, ends in -US.
CoD to the sneaky DE-CLAIM,though CANNIBAL’s def is a belter.
Nice links, mc!
FOI Menagerie and LOI Dote. Thought Amble, Stock Still and Finest were particularly good but COD to Cannibal for its witty definition.
At 13A I think of a crony as a close friend rather than as a colleague. I can’t see the justification for “from” at 16D and certainly don’t buy the “from definition one gets wordplay” argument.
I guess Oz slang in crosswordland is rather like all those dropped “h” being described as cockney. I loved the definition at 19A and thought 17A a very neat clue
> Given rating, is prone perhaps to reflect and climb down (ABSEIL)
> Sort of rubber almost a success in making dye (INDIGO)
Took a while to get MALLORCA: I still spell it Majorca and pronounce it Ma-jaw-ka, crusty old sod that I am.
I agree with the comments about “cobber”; it appears in C J Dennis’s The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, which was published in 1915. (You’ll find the whole thing in Wikipedia; The Intro is the poem I know well.)
Is it really BST again this weekend? We’ve had deep snow in Lancashire since Saturday, as you’ll see from the pictures in today’s Times of the aptly named Winter Hill. It’s snowing as I write and the bitterly cold wind is preventing even a single daffodil from opening in my garden, though the snowdrops have been spectacular this year.
Like others, I loved the definition in 19. 15 and 17 were also neat.
Otherwise I don’t see why wordplay from definition is any worse than definition from wordplay. Both are indirect ways of arriving at the answer: neither is the answer.
Edited at 2013-03-27 01:13 pm (UTC)
The only exception that I can think of offhand is the composite anagram, which the Times crossword doesn’t go in for.
Edited at 2013-03-27 04:47 pm (UTC)
I’m entirely happy with keriothe’s “From definition, [you get] wordplay”, even though, having typed in MALLORCA, I had a brainstorm and changed it to MINORCAN (at least I could justify “little”, even if no other part of the wordplay), before hastily switching back to MALLORCA again.
A delight from start to finish. My compliments to the setter.