A very pleasant, mostly straightforward puzzle that came as something of a relief after my last blog and several subsequent offerings. It still delayed me longer than it should have, taking me 47 minutes to complete, although I resolved recently to work out as much wordplay as possible whilst solving instead of waiting until afterwards. I’ve recognised that I’m never going to be a speed-merchant so now I prefer to enjoy the ride and take in the scenery. I was never stuck, but 27ac was one clue I had to leave and keep coming back to throughout the solve hoping for sudden inspiration, and eventually my patience was rewarded. 14dn also delayed me. I suspect I won’t be the only person who wasted time trying to make CHE part of its solution. This is the second recent puzzle with no hidden answer.
* = anagram, ” ” = homophone
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | BISMARCK – BIS (once again – encore!), “MARK”. Germany’s Iron Chancellor. |
5 | UPKEEP – UP (at university), KEEP (withhold) |
10 | SET OUT ONE’S STALL |
11 | APPARENTLY – A, PARENT (child minder) inside PLY (work regularly) |
13 | DIVA – AVID (keen) reversed |
15 |
SINGLET – SINGLET |
17 | VENDACE – VEND (sell), ACE (top quality). No doubt I have met this freshwater fish previously, but if so, I had forgotten it. |
18 |
COMMERE – COMMER |
19 | ROUTINE – “RUE” (deplore), “TEEN” (adolescent) |
21 |
ACRE – A,CRE |
22 |
PROPAGANDA – PROP (support), |
25 |
PICARESQUE NOVEL – SEQUE |
27 | DENIER – REINED (held) reversed |
28 | GOVERNED – (DOG NEVER)* |
Down |
|
1 |
BUS PASS – U (posh), SPAS (health centres) inside B |
2 |
SET – S |
3 | AQUARELLES – A, QU, A then SELLER reversed. I wasted time here trying to make it an anagram. Thin watercoloury-type art. |
4 |
CROON – C |
6 | POST – Double definition |
7 | EXAMINATION – EX (old), A, M1 (main road), NATION (people) |
8 | PILLAGE – LAG (criminal) inside PILE (large building) |
9 |
FELL OVER – FEL |
12 |
PAN-AMERICAN – A, NAME, R (a, bigwig, Republican) inside PIC (film), |
14 |
INSURGENCE – (CENSURING E |
16 | THEORISE – THE (article), 0 RISE (wage freeze, geddit?) |
18 |
CHAMPED – CH (Companion – of Honour), A, M |
20 |
EMAILED – DELI (shop), |
23 | PLUTO – U (“you”) inside PLOT* |
24 |
CREE – CREE |
26 |
VAN – VA |
First hesitation was over the intersecting SETs in the NW corner. Then AQUATINT, which I knew, didn’t fit space or clue and had to be left to much later. The real answer is today’s thing I have learned: I’ll look for one when I’m next in a gallery.
Otherwise, nailed by most of the misdirections, looking for a particular novel (probably involving Quartermain or Silver) at 25, and an improbable anagram of Egyptian at 14. I tried to make 20 VOW for a while, straining with the definition to accommodate 0 in a VW, which I thought would be clever. Why wasn’t the child minder a sitter or nan(ny) in 11? PAN-AMERICAN went in without understanding where last two letters came from.
For me, a decent contest, about 6 on my personal Mohs scale. CoD to CHAMPED for the well disguised definition. Who needs hidden clues?
Hesitated at 18A but like others went with the cryptic for a word sort of half remembered. Didn’t need to parse 12D whilst solving, which is a shame because it’s a clever construction.
Good to see you’ve opted for pleasure over speed, Jack – one of the secrets of enjoying a fruitful retirement
Jack this may be what you meant but in 12dn I think “bigwig” for NAME and “republican” for R are separate.
24m 14s today, so I’m quite happy, though some solutions went in on wordplay, to be confirmed later (17a & 18a), and I also needed help with parsing 12d – very well done Jack.
I can well understand overseas solvers having difficulties with 10a, which strikes me as a very British expression.
George Clements
Last in .. AQUARELLES
COD .. CHAMPED
The COMMERE/AQUARELLES crossers were my last two, and before that the CHAMPED/DENIER crossers.
Commere obviously unknown, vendace, aquarelles and picaresque novel all trawled up from my memory’s equivalent of the Mariana trench.
19:16 for the record, COD champed for me too.
So on seeing hostess I thought “Ha! Female setter” and plumped for what I thought was the unisex “compere” (notwithstanding that it’s not supported by the wordplay).
Couple of other unknowns too: the ‘bis’ part of Bismarck and the Vendace fish.
Most of my delays were in the SW corner, particularly Champed and Denier.
Liked the Routine and Denier clues.
It’s been a good week for Times puzzles, and this was my favorite of the lot. With apologies to Jimbo, 1 down made me smile (my parents are all about brandishing their senior freebies whenever possible), the temptation to put in DUMBO at 23, the entire clue for PICARESQUE NOVEL and the wordplay for AQUARELLES.
AQUARELLES from wordplay (though it sounded familiar), INSURGENCE and PAN-AMERICAN without getting the wordplay.
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Edited at 2013-07-12 10:02 pm (UTC)
No problem with COMMERE though, since I knew the word.