… and all that meant staying up late for Uncle Yap who is also suffering from the worst haze arising from burning of forest in neighbouring Indonesia. Fortunately, the mind is not dulled and today’s offering from Times has been a delight to solve with many splendid clues and entertaining devices. Play on …
ACROSS
1 POTAGE Rev of EG (exempli gratia, for example, say) A TOP (superior)
4 AT RANDOM *(MANDATORy)
10 STATUTORY Ins of TUTOR (teacher) in STAY (suspension)
11 RAT ON RATION (a lot, a share) minus I (symbol for electric current in physics)
12 CONVERSATIONAL *(SLOVENIAN + CROAT)
14 ROYAL dd a sail immediately above the top gallant sail
16 APPOINTED Cha of A P (page) POINTED (expressing criticism)
18 NYASALAND *(LADY ANN’S A) former British colony now known as Malawi
20 SPRAT Rev of TARPS (American slang for tarpaulins or covers) What a pleasant co-incidence to see the fish after Jack Sprat the last time
21 GREENHAM COMMON Cha of GREEN (raw) HAM (meat) COMMON (accepted) Military airfield in Berkshire, closed since 1993
25 FAUNA FAUN (creature, part human, part goat from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis) + A
26 MANIFESTO MANIFEST (patent) O (first letter of office)
27 REDSTART Ins of S (first letter of seed) in RED (cherry) TART (pie) for a European bird (Ruticilla or Phoenicurus) with a conspicuous chestnut-coloured tail; an American warbler
28 PROSIT PROSE (writing) minus E + IT. Good luck to you, a salutation in drinking toasts.
DOWN
1 PAST CARING Ins of CAR (wheels) in PASTING (hiding, beating)
2 TRAIN dd
3 GLUTEAL GLUT (a superfluity of) E (European) A (ace) L (left) of three muscles of the buttock and hip
5 TRYST TRY (crack, have a go) ShoT (shot with content removed, vacated) My COD for its elegant simplicity
6 A PRIORI A (first letter of American) PRIOR (earlier) I (one) term applied to reasoning from what is prior (logically or chronologically), eg reasoning from cause to effect, from a general principle to its consequences, or even from observed fact to another fact or principle not observed, or to arguing from pre-existing knowledge,
7 DETRACTOR DE (DrivablE) TRACTOR (farm vehicle)
8 MINI Sounds like Minnie Mouse, Mickey’s partner
9 MOUSSAKA M (maiden) + ins of US (American) in OSAKA (Japanese port) for a dish traditionally eaten in Greece, Turkey and the Balkans, consisting of alternate layers of minced lamb, aubergines and tomatoes, usu covered with bechamel sauce and cheese.
13 EDITING OUT Reversed anagram whereby the answer is like a clue for IGNITED
15 YEAR-ROUND *(AUDREY + RON)
17 PEDIMENT IMPEDIMENT (bar) minus I M (one metre) a triangular structure crowning the front of a Greek building
19 ABEYANT ABBEY (heartless church) ANT (worker)
20 SCOFFER SCOFF (food, see Chambers 2) ER (expressed hesitation)
22 HOMER HOME (in) R (first letter of raven) for a homing pigeon
23 MASKS Ins of K (king) in MASS (crowd)
24 AFAR Ins of FA (first letters of Fits & And) in A R (river)
++++++++++++++
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(FODDER) = anagram
yfyap88 at gmail.com = in case anyone wants to contact me in private about some typo
But it doesn’t matter if you are orl korrect! My time, however, was again abysmal. Very fine puzzle.
Re the tennis, Uncle Yap, surely one would hope (assuming one wants him to win) that Murray will be the player who beats Djokovic (in the Final) rather than hoping someone else will dispose of him to clear the way for Murray’s second major trophy?
Edited at 2013-06-27 02:08 am (UTC)
Greenham Common may stump a few youngsters or non-UK solvers.
I took a while to get going, and my first, lightly entered, was LINER for 14, on the basis that it might be a sail I’d not heard of. LOI 19, as I could see how the clue worked but couldn’t think which church to empty. The NW, specifically 1ac, 2 and 3 were also late entries – I was thrown by both superior (U?) and “liquid refreshment” for 1, the proper ordering of 3 and the sheer cheek of “one thing after another” in 2, which makes it as my CoD just ahead of the answer-as-clue for EDITING OUT.
Edited at 2013-06-27 08:57 am (UTC)
I usually go through the across clues first, and NYASALAND was my FOI. I used to drive past GREENHAM COMMON a few times a month so that one went in fairly quickly, although it is probably more famous for the anti-US cruise missile protests in the 1980s than being a WW2 airbase.
The bottom half went in a lot faster than the top half, and the top only really opened up when I finally saw the excellent CONVERSATIONAL anagram. My LOI was GLUTEAL after I got the “u” checker from STATUTORY.
Never heard of NYASALAND, COD: EDITING OUT, LOI: TRAIN (with a shrug)
EDITING OUT is the sort of clue I love – clever as a cartload of monkeys. And “Small female mouse picked up by the ears” makes me glad I do read surfaces!
Easier than yesterday’s but still pretty chewy.
Not all fully understood mindst, the best example of my ignorance being the notion that there must be a book or poem I didn’t know called Homer and the Raven. D’oh indeed.
Knew GREENHAM COMMON from ban the bomb brigade and also a rather good golf course that is quite near to it. Used to drive past all those smelly women in their strange camp and wave to them.
Not keen on 4A. The words of the clue are in the wrong order “mandatory changes mostly” doesn’t delete the extra letter. It should say “mandatory mostly changes”
Mention of the TfTT blog is under the “Tips for getting started” tab, just above the picture of … Inspector Morse.
I was invited to participate in the University of Buckingham study, but it was being held in winter in the middle of nowhere (or something of the sort) so I declined. Which was a pity because the woman I spoke to about it turned out to be the daughter of the woman who ran one of the clog-dance groups I used to perform with (Camden Clog), and she recognised my name from that.
Thank you to ulaca for the parsing of 6d, I had completely failed to recognise the ‘prior’ as the British ‘previous’, and, like kevin from new york, had also settled for regarding ‘conviction’ as superfluous in the clue.
My only quibble is with 11a, where I felt that the indication for removal of the letter I was a little clumsy, but it’s only a very small quibble.
Knowing at least one of the dedicated women who protested at Greenham Common, I can say with conviction that they were certainly not all ‘smelly’, whether one agrees with their political stance or not.
George Clements
Rob