22:40 on the club timer. Some tricky stuff here, among the more obvious elements, but a generally good and entertaining midweek solve.
Across |
1 |
COCKATRICE – COCK(=herald of dawn) A TRICE(=a second). A sort of dragon, basically. |
6 |
ADDS – Daughter in ADS. |
10 |
BOURREE – laBOUR REElected. I’d love to say this rang a bell from its appearance here in 2011, though it actually came just from the wordplay. It remains, now as then, “”A brisk dance in duple time, from the Auvergne or the Basque provinces”. No, me neither. |
11 |
DRUMLIN – Large in DRUM IN(=drive home). This did ring a bell, however, probably from the extensive study of glaciers which I remember being really important in geography O-level. |
12 |
RECESSION – R.E. (=troops) + PROCESSION(=train) minus the PRO(=hooker). There’ll be letters from Tunbridge Wells, I tell you. |
13 |
GNARL – (RANG)rev. + Learner. More commonly seen in the adjectival form “gnarly”. |
14 |
ADMIT – AD(VERT), MIT. See the most recently blogged Saturday puzzle for discussion of whether MIT is a college, university or other institution (I think for crossword purposes, we just have to accept that “college” is fine). |
15 |
HEADCOUNT – HEARD(=tried) without REX, COUNT(=nobleman). |
17 |
PENTECOST – (E.P.)rev. + (CONTEST)*. |
20 |
LADEN – L.A., DEN. |
21 |
AGGRO – A GANG, (O.R.)rev. with an &lit suggesting (convincingly or not) an encounter between OAPs and some younger antagonists. |
23 |
SCUPPERED – Caught in SUPPER, EDward. I’d always thought of it as “That idea’s been well and truly put to bed”, rather than “sent to bed” myself. Close enough? Ignore me, as ulaca points out, it’s a naval scuppering, and perfectly straightforward. |
25 |
SCOURGE – SCOUR(=purge) +(E.G.) rev. |
26 |
FIREARM – EAR(=attention) in FIRM. Nicely misleading surface where the Colt with a capital is hidden at the beginning of the clue. |
27 |
LYNX=”LINKS”. |
28 |
DEJECTEDLY – EJECTED(=cast out) in DeLaY. |
|
Down |
1 |
CABER – CAMBER(=bank) minus the Motorway. The sort of trunk which is traditionally sent skyward by muscular men in kilts. |
2 |
CHURCHMEN – [CHIME without the I] in CHURN. |
3 |
ACROSS THE BOARD – double def. Chess bishops, of course; it took me far too long to stop looking for a religious phrase. |
4 |
RHENISH – (HISNHER)*; along with tent and sack and It, one of those wines which is today found in many crosswords, and few wine lists. |
5 |
CADENZA – (berlioZADANCE)*. |
7 |
DELTA – DEALT(=handed out) with the A moved. |
8 |
SINGLETON – (NOTENGLISH)* without the Hospital. In bridge, whist etc., a single card of one suit in a hand. |
9 |
SURGICAL SPIRIT – cryptic def., which turns out to have no connection to Andrew Lloyd-Webber. |
14 |
APPRAISAL – [R.A. IS] in APPAL. |
16 |
UNDERHAND – because a hand (as in the measurement of horses) equals 4 inches. |
18 |
OBSCENE – (BOY)rev. + SCENE(=commotion). The adult sort of “blue”, and a nice lift-and-separate. |
19 |
TRUFFLE – Tummy RUFFLE. |
22 |
GROWN =”GROAN”. |
24 |
DIMLY – gluM pupiL in D-I-Y. |
Of which, I think the clue refers to the original literal: to scupper a ship, to deliberately sink it and so send it to the sea bed.
On edit: Ulaca got there first. I shall have to learn to type more quickly!
Edited at 2013-09-24 08:55 am (UTC)
Edited at 2013-09-24 01:25 am (UTC)
Other than that Orl Korrect, after a look-up to check bourree.
DNK DRUMLIN or BOURREE, and couldn’t parse RECESSION. Nor could I parse ‘repentedly’ at 28ac. I guess that’s because it’s wrong. And not a word.
No unknowns today. I don’t know how I knew that DRUMLIN was a word, but I did. My son had to learn a BOURREE for grade two piano recently, so that was fresh in my mind.
Liked especially the clues for HEADCOUNT where “Tried to get rid of King” misled cleverly, and SCUPPERED for its Bunterish flavour. Yaroo!
I think this one is best suited to working from wordplay to solution – as witnessed by a number of solvers trying to “fit” guessed definitions into the wordplay. Well done setter!
The BOURREE I know best is from Bach’s third cello suite. I’ll not give the link as that inevitably sends my comment to the spam bin but if you’re interested, Google “rostropovich bourree”.
My second day on the road using the iPad for this and struggling a bit. Yesterday I couldn’t submit at all (but that was thanks to being in a house where the internet dies whenever the phone rings!), today I lost 10 minutes or so to general iPad weirdness.
COD .. probably CADENZA, maybe because it made me think of the pianist Jon Kimura Parker who I saw demonstrating his fondness for working little bits of sci-fi film music into cadenzas of classical works. He managed to get a bit of the Star Wars theme onto a full recoding of a Beethoven concerto without the conductor noticing.
MIT doesn’t help its own cause by describing itself as an Institute, ala the WI..
I only knew cockatrice from Heston Blumenthal’s attempt to make an edible one on telly.
It doesnae seem to be widely known that the winner of a caber-tossing contest is the one who throws it “straightest” rather than furthest.
I don’t remember BOURREE from the last time it appeared and it was my LOI. I took a while to see the DELTA/GNARL crossers, and I struggled in the NW much as crypticsue did, but at least I managed to get that corner correct …………
—Isaiah 11 8
BOURREE was LOI: as we had a near pangram, was trying for -QU-R-E (doubted CABER, as not parsed) until I eventually saw it was hidden.
And so to bed (since an early night is clearly called for).
Has anyone else said that it would be good to welcome sotira back to the U.K. If repatriation comes about?
George Clements