Solving time: 22:23
I was fearing a stinker after a couple of easy days. And a brief look at the clues seemed to confirm my suspicion. But once started (with the simple 9ac), all went well, ending in the SW. The slight antipodean theme helped.
Across |
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1 | BESPOKE. Two meanings. ‘Indicated’ as in ‘The Bentley in the driveway bespoke money’. |
5 | BOSCH. Sounds like ‘bosh’. |
9 | AMIGO. A, MIG (fighter plane), O{ld}. |
10 | TASMAN SEA. Anagram #1: as Smetana. Separates the rest of New Zealand from its West Island. |
11 | LETHEAN. Le, The, An. (Articles in Englench.) Got this hot on the heels of a discussion of the Greek word a-letheia (roughly ‘truth’) which some take to be connected to un-forgetting. Forgetting via Lethe: the river of Hades which, when its waters are drunk, causes souls to forget their earthly existence. |
12 | NANNIED. Annie is our little orphan. Inside {lo}ND{on}. |
13 | PHLEGMATIC. Anagram #2: place might. |
15 | SEES. A palindrome. |
18 | NOSE. Enough said? (Though POSY was my first guess.) |
20 | SCALE MODEL. Anagram #3: some called. Chuckled at the def for this one. |
23 | B,LADDER. |
24 | SIGNORE. Move the S from IGNORES (passes over) to the front. |
25 | CAMEL HAIR. Anagram #4: like a charm; minus the K. |
26 | LEASE. Included in the clue. (Must be Newcastle NSW?) |
27 | SYNOD. S (second), Y (year) + DON reversed. |
28 | NIGERIA. NIGER + I{r}A{q}. |
Down |
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1 | BRISTOL. BRIL{l} (fish) inc S{ailor} and TO. |
2 | STONE-AGE. ONE (cardinal number) inside STAGE (step). |
3 | OFTEN. Delete the S from SOFTEN (moderate, verb). |
4 | ESSENTIAL. Two meanings. |
5 | BRAWNY. BRAW (Scots for ‘fine’) + NY (a city). |
6 | SISTINE. SISTE{r} inc IN (home). Of the popes called Sixtus. |
7 | HOAR,D. |
8 | TAILSPIN. TAILS (dogs, verb), P (from P{ell-mell}) + IN. |
14 | ASCERTAIN. A, S, CERTAIN (firm). |
16 | SOLDERER. L inside reversal of REREDOS (screen). |
17 | SMUGG(L)ER. |
19 | SWAGMEN. Reverse NEWS, insert AGM (meeting). |
21 | DIORAMA. DIOR (Christian from 19ac in 25476), then M (mass) inside AA (areas). |
22 | ADD,LED. (Light-emitting diode). |
23 | BACKS. Sounds like ‘Bax’ (Arnold). |
24 | SPRIG. =‘Shoot’; delete the N from ‘spriNg’ (well). |
It’s not often we get two straight sound-alike answers, one composer and one painter. I had BOSCH in mind having recently watched the superb BBC4 documentary series “The High Art of the Low Countries”.
Edited at 2013-05-22 05:16 am (UTC)
As, no doubt,the setter intended, wasted time trying to remember who the Two Gentlemen were. Nice clue, but yields CoD status to SCALE MODEL for the PR definition.
‘I struck the board, and cry’d, No more.
I will abroad.
What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the rode,
Loose as the winde, as large as store.’
Edited at 2013-05-22 10:03 am (UTC)
There were a few things in here that I half knew – LETHEAN, SISTINE, REREDOS, BAX, the nationality of Hieronymus BOSCH – where I think the absence of that half-knowledge would have slowed me down a lot. Of course this half-knowledge all comes from doing crosswords.
Not for the first time, my knowledge of Waltzing Matilda was helpful. No half-measures there.
The jury is still out – I will send you a text message
Some of the answers took me far longer than they should have done. I did the same as joekobi at 16dn when I thought of reredos immediately but discounted it and I didn’t go back to the clue until much later. I also thought of SWAGMEN straight away at 19dn from the definition but thought the information referred to in the clue was ‘gen’ so I didn’t enter the answer until I saw the obvious much later. PHLEGMATIC took me too long to unpick and I didn’t see it until I had the P checker from TAILSPIN, and only then did BRISTOL, BESPOKE and ESSENTIAL fall into place.
I thought the clue for SCALE MODEL was very good.
Finally, as jackkt said, “The High Art of the Low Countries” was indeed a superb documentary series.
Agree that the definition for scale model is brilliant.