Solving time 25 minutes
Perhaps a little harder than of late but still not a really difficult one. The cell may cause some problems I guess. All in all a reasonable puzzle.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | GANYMEDE – G(ANY)MEDE; satellite of Jupiter, largest moon in our system (oh – and as this is The Times – Zeus’s lover); |
5 | TUAREG – TU(ARE)G; the Berbers of North Africa; |
9 | AGA – (p)AGA(n); as in Khan not cooker; |
10 | CONSTRAINED – CO(N-STRAIN-E)D; E from (tumbl)E; |
12 | COAT,OF,ARMS – (a from ascot)*; posh badge; |
13 | PLEA – P(au)L-E(mm)A; grisly clue; |
15 | PATHOS – PATH-OS; OS=Ordinary Seaman; one of Aristotle’s rhetorics; |
16 | CHATTER – C-HATTER; about=circa=C; HATTER makes hats (probably in Luton); |
18 | CLANGER – CLAN-GER(man); reference slang phrase “drop a clanger” – old fashioned management-speak; ; |
20 | NELSON – two meanings 1=Admiral who has his own square 2=wrestling hold; |
23 | TRAP – (s)TRAP; |
24 | GET-UP-AND-GO – (gag done)* surrounds TUP; “mate with ewe” a bit of a giveaway!; |
26 | MERCHANDISE – (medicare + nhs)*; |
27 | EAR – (b)EAR; |
28 | NUMBER – NUMB-ER; ER=Edward Rex; |
29 | AGITATED – AG(TATI reversed)E-D; D=departs (train timetables); |
Down | |
1 | GLANCE – G-LANCE; arm=weapon; |
2 | NIAGARA – (AGAIN reversed)-RA; falls is well hidden definition; |
3 | MACROPHAGE – MAC-ROP(HAG)E; son of in Gaelic=MAC; type of cell found in blood vessels; |
4 | DENTAL,SURGEON – (also need grunt)*; |
6 | URAL – hidden reversed (tin)U-RAL(ucsavoidrac); |
7 | RINGLET – R(INGLE)T; as worn by proper girls of the wandering kind; |
8 | GOD’S,ACRE – (AS-DOG reversed)-C-RE; reference “man’s best friend”; caught=C (cricket); on=RE; a boneyard; |
11 | TIME-CONSUMING – cryptic definition; |
14 | PARLIAMENT – PAR(LIAM)ENT; the Diet is Japanese Parliament; |
17 | SCOTSMAN – S(COTS-M)AN; William Wallace 1270-1305, with Andrew Moray, hero of Stirling Bridge; |
19 | ANAGRAM – “meatballs” is well known anagram of “stale lamb”; |
21 | ODDMENT – O(DD-MEN)T; |
22 | CONRAD – C(ON-R)AD; Joseph Conrad 1857-1924; Pole who didn’t become a plumber; |
25 | SHOE – S-HOE; S=spades (cards); a last is a tool used by a cobbler; |
Didn’t know that “meatballs” and “stale lamb” combined to make a chestnut. So I was impressed by this one.
MicText
Màthair agus mic
So that’s “mic” as the plural of “mac”. Will try to make the genitive work if I can. Watch this space. Working from dictionaries here. But MAC-RO… is obviously right. No question.
I haven’t been doing crosswords nearly long enough to have come across the meatballs ANAGRAM, which I thought was very inventive!
Jim, you have spelling error at 2dn.
I managed to read Victory`s for Victorious but that didn’t hurt. And liked 1D.
Dan Monley
Nice puzzle, though. Only major hold-ups were in the SW, where SCOTSMAN and ANAGRAM took a long time to click.
COD .. GOD’S ACRE
I couldn’t shake the idea that the cell was CAGE which meant the definition was “son of Gaelic”, witch was MA (no offence, Mum) and I needed a word meaning “apparently bound” to fit ?O?H to go in my cage. Thst got me mac?o?hage so I wasn’t a million miles away.
I also had TEAM at 23 on the basis that belt and steam both mean to move fast and a boxer’s corner is where his team is.
Earlier on I ignored the enumeration at 4 and tried to make the driller something sergeant, although the leftover letters of O,N,D,L and U weren’t terribly promising.
COD to chatter for “top fashion designer”.
By the way Bigtone, I am again unable to get today’s blog yet on the iPad though it’s readily available on this library computer. I have come to the conclusion that somehow at Livejournal the iPad version of then blog is made available later than the Windows version, but I’m no computer techie so I don’t know for sure. Or could it be something to do with the Safari browser?
George Clements
George
No problem here on iPad this morning, although sometimes I have to wait.. Like sotira, I get there though Safari.
28:03 with interruptions. Not yet the hard one we are expecting.
Edited at 2013-09-17 02:27 pm (UTC)
George Clements
Eventually remembered TUAREG, so NE corner fell, then 1d was way into NW, and finally seeing 11d got me going at SE. So a matter of fits and starts for me, with 27a LOI, as couldn’t think of any appropriate transport.
At 3d, the witch meant I needed some sort of -PHAGE, but MAC didn’t occur to me till much later.
Hope this helps,
George Clements
I am sorry that I must be a bore about my iPad, but here is what happens. I connect to the Times for the Times site, which shows the ‘latest month’ calendar page. Until recently, from early in the morning the current day’s date has been underlined and I have been able to select it and access the day’s blog and comments. Recently, however, the current day has not been underlined until much later in the day, so I have been unable to select it and, therefore submit my twopennywoth of contribution until much later in the day. On the other hand, if I follow the same procedure on a computer running windows – such as the ones at the Lit. & Phil. Library in Newcastle which I regularly haunt – I can access the blog with.no trouble. Also, later in the day, like now, the iPad works just fine.
Apologies again, but thanks for your interest.
George Clements
I do not get involved with the calendar. If I need to update, I use the ‘Recent Entries’ link at the top left of the TftT site. When it updates, the website box at the top colours from left to right but it often just stops on the way. It seems to get there in the end.
I have usually finished the xword on my iPad by 0900 and then go to the TftT site. Apart from the stoppages mentioned above, I have always managed to get there.
It occurs to me that for various reasons, some blogs recently have not come in until later in the day and as you cannot comment on a blog that is not there, this might explain some things
Good Luck, Tony
Edited at 2013-09-17 05:59 pm (UTC)
There is a Live Journal app which works fine but it a bit basic in appearance.