Happy to have managed this under the 30 today. Thought it was going to take much longer with, as yesterday, lengthy hold ups in the SE. It took the longish 15ac, 13dn and 21ac to crack it. All three were excellent clues as they turned out and worth the effort. Perhaps it was the puzzle? Perhaps just because my (physiological) system is a bit down at the moment? One parsing I don’t quite get; hopefully while writing up the blog.
ACROSS
1. DISPLACED. This is DECID{e} inc ALPS; all reversed.
6. CRAMP. “Crush” = CRAM; P{icnic}.
9. ANTIWAR. Reverse IT (Italian) inside ANWAR. (Mr Sadat, assassinated in 1981. Nothing much seems to go well for Egyptian presidents it would seem.)
10. MARENGO. MAN, as so often, is our island. Insert RE (soldiers). Add GO (head for).
11. ALAN TURING. Is our “code expert”. {c}AL{l}, ANT, U, RING. Great charade and one to please the science fraternity; even if, at the time, they did nothing to prevent him being hounded to death for his sexual preferences.
12. AS OF. The def is “from”. A SOF{a}.
14. TAKEN. Hidden answer.
15. PROPAGATE. Sounds like “proper” and “gait”. The def is “broadcast”.
16. PENNILESS. The river (“banker”) NILE’S inside PENS (pounds).
18. EL CID. Alternate letters of “fEeLs ChIlD”.
20. LOCO. Still not sure of the parsing here. I suspect it’s LOC{k} = “jam almost” + O for “over” (cricket). Alternatives welcome.
21. APOTHECARY. Made up of A, POTHE{r} (fuss), CA (about), RY (railway = lines).
25. GROWN-UP. Anagram of “wrong” + UP (in court).
26. REPLETE. REP (theatre), LE (“the” French), T{heatr}E.
27. TWERP. T{o}WER (keep, minus O), P{ub}.
28. RUNA{g}ROUND. Less familiar variant of “runabout”. The word has a more usual meaning — see title.
DOWN
1. DRAM,A.
2. SETBACK. Composed of SET (placed) and BACK (bet). Easy enough if your first in was the light inclusive (hidden answer) at 14ac.
3. LAWN TENNIS. The rules are LAWS. They include in reverse order: IN (home), NET (goal) and the N from “decisioN”.
4. CURER. Two meanings.
5. DO,MINIONS. Wondered about “favourites” = MINIONS but Chambers approves and refers specifically to Princes having them.
And, of course, “I caught this morning morning’s minion …”.
6. CA(R)P.
7. AMNESIA. Anagram of “men” in ASIA. Nicely deceptive definition.
8. PROOFREAD. P{age}; then OF, RE (religious ed.) inside ROAD.
13. GATEKEEPER. “Name” = TAG reversed = GAT. Then KEEP (subsistence) inside E’ER (always).
14. TOP-FLIGHT. This is TO LIGHT inc P{rivate} F{irm}. The literal is A1.
15. PIED PIPER. A cryptic definition.
17. NICE ONE. The cardinal (number) is NINE. Insert CE (church) and O{rganist}.
19. CHATEAU. Two drinks (CHA, TEA) + U (Universal, film rating, suitable for everyone — in the UK).
22. TUR(I)N.
23. YIELD. Anagram of {w}IDELY.
24. SNIP{e}.
Advert: The Stickler Weekly #2 is now available. Worth a look from occasional FT setter David Stickley.
So a bit discouraged when this was still unfinished after two LP sides. But forged on, and eventually I saw my last two, ‘dominions’ and the vaguely remembered ‘Marengo’. A good puzzle with some tricky stuff.
Solving time 5 days….
Another very enjoyable and satisfying puzzle.
An enjoyable start to the day.
So hard going, but not without moments of pleasure. Tended to rely on flashes of inspiration allowing spurts of progress: LAWN TENNIS, for example, which had very good wordplay that sadly only became apparent once you’d solved the thing. Similarly APOTHECARY, ALAN TURING (a very good clue) and GATEKEPER.
RUNAROUND I’ve never associated with a car though Chambers does. PIED PIPER a dangerous clue perhaps (and the laziest one of the set, in my opinion) in these days of Operation Yewtree.
AS OF was nearly AS TO(ol), though the alarm system in my head kept saying they never knock two letters of the end of a word. Made PROOFREAD my LOI.
A lot to like, and I have learned more about minions (not Jewish prayer groups, then?).
All entered correctly, but failed to parse quite a few, so many thanks McT for the explanations of TWERP, APOTHECARY, PENNILESS, CHATEAU. I did, however, parse LOCO in the way you suggest.
COD to ALAN TURING, which reminded me of a musical (yep, that’s right) of his life called The Universal Machine I saw earlier this year in a tiny theatre in London. So very sad, makes you really appreciate how times have changed.
Suffering from an attack of “Crossword Coincidences” again, having just finished listening to a Ray Noble – Al Bowlly 1931 recording entitled “Pied Piper of Hamelin” as I sat down with the paper.
There’s also a reference (appropriately enough for this blog) to “Puzzle Records”, discs that had three parallel grooves each producing a different song depending on where you placed the needle on the circumference. If you Google “Victor Puzzle Record” you’ll find one on You Tube, with Ray Noble and Al Bowlly credited as “Novelty Orchestra”.
I started slowly and EL CID, followed by GROWN UP, were the only two I had in after my first pass at the acrosses. The “p” checker from the latter helped me see PIED PIPER almost immediately, and I made steady progress after that. PROPAGATE was my LOI.
This was a good puzzle from a technical perspective but was a little lacking in humour for my taste.
I kept looking at TURING and TURIN suspiciously, expecting something of a thematic nature to jump out at me. I remained safe.
As has been noted, much of the wordplay was superfluous during solving as Turing, tennis, penniless and grown up all went in on def.
Turin was the only one that still puzzled me at the end so thanks, McT, for that.
I didn’t know minions could be favourites. To me they are primarily the little yellow chaps in the Despicable Me films.
Does “head for” meant “go”? Doesn’t it mean “go towards”?
Edited at 2013-09-25 02:09 pm (UTC)
Enjoyed this one very much and picked away at it all afternoon. 32/32 with FOI Drama and LOI Twerp. Liked Grown-Up and Snipe in particular.
Thanks mctext for explaining Twerp and Penniless. Couldn’t suss the wordplay there. Didn’t know the battlesite and for a while I thought it might be Morengo until I thought about the wordplay a bit more and realised Marengo was a much better answer.
Edited at 2013-09-25 03:33 pm (UTC)
COD … ALAN TURING, just because, though I thought YIELD was well done.
Historians have found no entry for Marengo in the register of Napoleon’s horses (150-ish), and it is believed to be his pet name – as was his want regarding his stable – for a horse registered as Ali (or Aly), which was reputedly captured during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign.
As a note, if a clue is Napoleon’s horse at Waterloo, although Marengo was undoubtedly one of his horses present, and therefore possibly ridden at some time during that day, historians say that his primary mount was a mare named Desiree.
Back to Marengo – captured at Waterloo, with it’s distinctive ‘N’ brand, and evermore known as Marengo, it was brought back to England, put on display in 1822, and then put out to stud, dying in 1831.
George Clements
Edited at 2013-09-26 07:01 am (UTC)