Solving time 20 minutes
Standard fare with nothing too difficult or controversial – shouldn’t present too many problems
Across | |
---|---|
1 | FACETIOUS – FAC(E)TIOUS; E from (delegat)E; |
6 | PACED – P(ACE)D; Pd=Palladium which is one of the platinum group of metals; |
9 | OUTCAST – OUT-CAST; reference “sent to Coventry” meaning shunned (derived from a punishment for misbehaving monks who were sent to the strict, silent monastry at Coventry – nothing to do with nude women on horseback; |
10 | NEONATE – N-(one)*-ATE(s); behind=backside=nates; |
11 | SQUAD – SQUA(LI)D; one left = I-L then back=reverse=LI; |
13 | PRURIENCE – (epic re-run)*; why the monk went to Coventry, perhaps; |
14 | MEDICINAL – (male)* surrounds DICIN(g); |
16 | OMIT – TIMO(n) (of Athens) reversed; |
18 | CORN – two meanings 1=swelling on foot 2=plant in field; |
19 | SKYJACKER – SKY(JACK)E-R; resistance=R (electrics); JACK=Union Flag; |
22 | THEME,PARK – THEM-(uncl)E-PARK; leave=PARK; Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, et al; |
24 | HERON – hidden (anot)HER-ON(e); we have a large heronry on my golf course – beautiful birds; |
25 | ARGUING – A-R(GU)ING; |
26 | OVERALL – OVE(n)-RALL; RALL=rallentando=slow the music down; |
28 | LATHE – LATHE(r); |
29 | CONCEITED – CON-sounds like “seated”; |
Down | |
1 | FLOTSAM – F-LOTS-A(drift)-M; FM from F(oa)M; good clue; |
2 | CUT – two meanings; |
3 | TEAR,DUCT – TEAR=rush=fly; DUCT sounds luck “ducked”; |
4 | ON.TAP – (panto)*; |
5 | SENSUALLY – SEN-(u)SUALLY; SEN=State Enrolled Nurse; |
6 | PROLIX – PRO-LIX; LIX=59 in Roman numerals; |
7 | CHAIN,SMOKER – restrain=CHAIN; to cure is to smoke; not sure “with consuming passion” is needed; |
8 | DEEPEST – loath=detest then change t=time to EP=old extended play record; |
12 | UNDERWEIGHT – UNDER(W)EIGHT; with=W; OK if you only count in whole numbers; |
15 | NOSTALGIC – (losing cat)*; |
17 | CASHMERE – CAS(HM-ER)E; HM=Her Majesty; does this clue really work?; yes, I’d made a typo in the blog!!; |
18 | CATCALL – CAT-CALL; queen=female cat; |
20 | RANKLED – R(ANKLE)D; |
21 | BELIZE – BELI(Z)E(f); |
23 | KNOWN – N-WON-K all reversed; NK from N(ic)K; out=in public=KNOWN; |
27 | APT – (c)A(r)P(e)T; |
17dn works for me.. the queen is in a case, twice.
Compliments to setter and solver…
On edit: of course cast = shade/outward appearance is the right way to look at it.
Edited at 2013-05-14 11:12 am (UTC)
THEME PARK and OUTCAST were my last two in.
Another DNF for me today… had ‘pro-il’ at 6dn, certain that the roman numerals had to come before the L (dk PROLIX. Or NATES). Also I didn’t get BELIZE. Maybe had I realised it was a pangram I could have sorted both of those out!
Thanks for explanation of 22ac – I’d got stuck on that Mephisto favourite: ‘uncle’ = EME.
I wasn’t happy with the clue to 3dn, where the second part is a homophone, but the first isn’t.
But that’s not what happened here, the EM is from THEM, the E is from unclE.
Rob
Noted the possible pangram early which helped with BELIZE towards the end. Had a few underlinings for CAST (appearance), NATE{s} (behind), PARK (leave) but they all turned out to be good. So “Park your nates here before your cast of countenance goes red”.
The clue to 20dn brought back introducing folk songs in the 60s and 70s: “Here’s a little number I learned at my mother’s knee and various other low joints”.
Edited at 2013-05-14 09:04 am (UTC)
“she had a somewhat masculine cast of countenance”.
Was prepared to come complaining about HERON dropping a random two letters to become hen…
Ran through the Greek alphabet repeatedly trying to get OMIT…
Didn’t remember from not long ago that leave=PARK, probably because I am old enough to remember when THE children’s favourite was Uncle Mac (“hello children, everywhere”)
Tried all the possible symbols for Palladium except the proper one…
Was prepared to complain that suit=case in 17 was a DBE…
You can get too practised at the dark solving arts. Too much knowledge gets in the way.
Lots of clues to like today (for example Outcast, Nostalgic, Chain-Smoker, Cashmere) but COD to the excellent Flotsam.
Thanks to all,
Chris G.
These included, unsurprisingly, cast, nate and rall. Perhaps more surprisingly I didn’t understand heron, always miss the legal link between suit and case and had doubts about cut for ignore.
Agree that flotsam is a fine clue.
Yesterday’s contribution disappeared into the ether so fingers crossed as I hit Post Comment.
It took me almost an hour. All in all a bit of a disaster (that’s my solving, not the puzzle). I liked several clues, 1 and 23 in particular. Pd/palladium was completely new to me.
I loved both FLOTSAM and UNDERWEIGHT.
For Ann (falooker): did you see Chris Hadfield’s Space Oddity video? He is now officially the coolest astronaut ever (and they’re all pretty cool).
A very sound puzzle though, which left me in no doubt that I had it right by the time I finished.
28 minutes – slow and steady, many tricky wordplays took a while to work out, and without the usual 10 minutes at the end for the last one or two answers.
Have to disagree with Jimbo’s summation, I thought it was a cut above the standard Times fare. Wavelength, no doubt.
Rob