My apologies for not getting this up earlier, but I only remembered it was my turn to blog as I was going to bed. I tried starting it then, but it was very late and I was too sleepy, so I didn’t get very far. I gave up after about 25 minutes with only about 8 done. I got up early the next morning and found it much easier when I was a bit more alert.
All the wordplay seemed fair enough, so I don’t see anything to winge about. Nothing particularly jumped oput at me as being particularly noteworthy either though. The reversed MEASURE in 17 was quite a good spot by the setter, but otherwise a sound but unremarkable puzzle.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
Across | |
---|---|
1 | BANGLADESHI = A in (BAD ENGLISH)* |
7 | BAR – dd |
9 | BOOBY TRAP = BOOB + PARTY rev |
10 | O + RACY – not a word I knew, but easy enough to deduce. |
11 | SPE(LL)ED |
12 | RADICAL = RADI |
13 | OH BOY = O + HOY (sailing vessel) about B |
15 | VICARIOUS = VARIOUS (different) about (I + C |
17 | JERUSALEM = MEASURE + J all rev about L |
19 | CUT + IE – To ‘cut’ comeone is to refuse to acknowledge them, hence ‘pretend not to see’ |
20 | MINI(MU)M |
22 | LENIENT = |
24 | INTRO = IN (batting) + |
25 | DIACRITIC = AID rev + CRITIC |
27 | GUY – dd |
28 | SMARTY-PANTS = MS rev + ARTY + PANTS |
Down | |
1 | BOB – dd – ‘short (hair)cut’ / ‘money once’ |
2 | NO + ONE – A cipher is someone unimportant, a nobody |
3 | LOYALTY = ROYALTY with the initial letter switched from R to L |
4 | DAREDEVIL = LIVED rev about (A + RED) |
5 | SU(P)ER |
6 | IN + ORDER |
7 | B(RANCH)OUT |
8 | ROYAL ASSENT = (ANALYSE + SORT)* |
11 | SHOW(JUMP)ING |
14 | BARONETCY = (A |
16 | COMPLIANT = COMPLAINT (condition) with AI (Capital, A-one) rev inside |
18 | SUM + MONS |
19 | CANT + RIP |
21 | MEDIA = (MADE)* about I |
23 | EATEN = “ETON” |
26 | COS – dd – ‘leaves eaten’ as in lettuce / cosine |
Agree that the JERUSALEM spot (rev of “measure”) was very good indeed. (Now someone will write in that it’s been done before.)
Judge left to probe piece of legislation about disputed city (9)
I found this very hard and struggled to complete it, not helped by having SPREAD (large farm) (b)OUT (short period of intense activity) for ages at 7dn resulting in a lengthy delay in completing the NE corner.
Glad once again not to be blogging as I went well over the hour on this one.
Edited at 2013-07-19 06:41 am (UTC)
Wasn’t OH BOY a pop song from my youth?
Edited at 2013-07-19 12:09 pm (UTC)
Doing the TLS first (messes up mind set, and I got one wrong somewhere)
A malfunctioning biro: there must be a factory somewhere where they specialise in making pens that skip.
Clues that I simply didn’t understand for ages: COMPLIANT (looking for a reversed city, rather that AI)
COS – apart form anything else, I don’t care for lettuce much, so uneaten would have been better
RADICAL sort of got “complete”, forgot set=radio
CANTRIP one of those spiky things? DNK, made it up from wordplay
SUPER – I doubt “wicked” means that any more, perhaps pants does. See also OH BOY. I’m getting old and I can’t keep up.
SPELLED – seemed like a very stretchy definition.
JERUSALEM – very clever, took a while to reverse engineer, my CoD
I didn’t know ORACY, and I was a bit surprised to find that CANTRIP (my last in) was a word. I think I knew that DIACRITIC was a word but I certainly didn’t know what it meant.
Thanks for explaining COS: I thought it must be some kind of triple definition too, assuming “leaves” to be one of them.
Edited at 2013-07-19 08:16 am (UTC)
George Clements
(*Biro Lacking INK, which we should probably parse as an &acronym)
Incidentally, my BLINK is exacerbated by my FLACK – Fingers Lack Any Capability on Keyboards
No complaints from me. Vice la difference.
CANTRIP went in from the wordplay, LENIENT took me a long time to untangle, and COMPLIANT was my LOI. As others have noted, the clue for JERUSALEM was very good.
Time was about an hour.
In my defence, I had a different kind of drug problem to John of Lancs’. I had just taken a drug (prescription, I hasten to add – no need for WADA to get involved) which has a side effect of ‘May turn you into a zombie, but happier’.
(*Drugged Up Like ‘ell)
Radical = complete and Spelled = pointed raised frowns but the wordplay was clear. Liked Super = wicked, Smarty-Pants and the cross-reference between 23dn and 26dn (which I didn’t understand until coming here).
FOI Bangladeshi, LOI Cantrip.