Solving time: 63:50 – with 2 mistakes
I rattled through most of this quite quickly, but then I got bogged down with the last few and started to get tired. I ended up throwing in a couple of random answers in blind hope after an hour but got them both wrong. 28a I’ve now worked out, but 1a still has me flummoxed. No doubt someone will explain.
Anyway I really have to get to bed now I’ll never get up for work in the morning!
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
Across | |
---|---|
1 | Man, loaded, in disreputable club, sits at one end (5)I got this one wrong so I still don’t know what it is. Someone needs to let me know though, as it’s annoying me intensely. I went for DAVIS as a man’s name, but I couldn’t see any other reason, so I was assuming it was wrong. It could be DIVES because of the ‘disreputable club’ reference. It is DIVES, of course, being a biblical reference for a rich man. I dare say I have come across this before, but I couldn’t recall it at the time. |
4 | SUPERB + OWL |
9 | NIGHTFALL = (THING)* + FAL |
10 | UN(F)IT |
11 | MANTIS = |
12 | ANGLICAN = I + CAN replaces the E in ANGLE (corner) |
14 | KITCHENER = ITCHEN (river in Hampshire) between K and ER – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener was drowned in the North Sea when the HMS Hampshire was sunk by a German mine. |
16 | SWISS = S x3 about W1 (a postcode area within London) |
17 | MA + LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) |
19 | MEMORANDA = ME (writer) + (ON DRAMA)* |
21 | LOOPHOLE = LOOE (Cornish town) about P (power) + HOL |
22 | EDITOR = TIDE rev + O + R |
25 |
|
26 | ANTIPASTO = ANT (worker) + PAST (background) in IO (satellite, a moon of Jupiter) |
27 | HARD (toughened) + TIMES (by) |
28 | T + WAIN – Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Clemens. A wain is a farm cart, as in Constable’s The Haywain |
Down | |
1 | DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH = (DUKE + HAMLET AMONG)* |
2 | V(EG)AN |
3 | S |
4 | SPAR |
5 | PALINDROME – ‘test on Erasmus sums are not set’ is one big palindrome |
6 |
|
7 | OLFACTION = |
8 | LET ONE’S HAIR DOWN = (WHERE OLD NATIONS)* |
13 | ANIMAL FARM = MINA (bird) rev + F in ALARM |
15 | TALL ORDER = TALE + R all about LORD |
18 | ATHIRST = AT FIRST with the F (fine) replaced by H (Henry) |
20 | RED SPOT = RED’S POT |
23 | TESLA – hidden |
24 | OTIS – I’m not sure how this clue works exactly, but there’s definitely a reference to the Cole Porter song ‘Miss Otis regrets’ in there. It’s O (love) + T |
I was also pretty unsure about 1a, which seems to be a convoluted way of indicating the terminal S to tag onto ‘dive’, but the def. isn’t in doubt:
noun
1. the rich man of the parable in Luke 16:19–31.
2. any rich man.
Edited at 2013-10-25 01:36 am (UTC)
Just about dragged up my memory of Dives. (I wonder if the pub called The Dives still exists in Sleaford, Lincs. Many a happy hour.)
Have to give the COD to the Superb Owl. (Though I have a feeling I’ve seen it before somewhere.)
And in puzzle 25231, 2 August 2012 SUPERB was clued the other way round.
1a Definition = man loaded = DIVES a rich man in the Bible.
Edited at 2013-10-25 01:30 am (UTC)
Not helped by not knowing who Clemens was and I was relieved to find I didn’t need to know anything about Erasmus in order to solve 5dn.
Once again I was glad not to be on duty this Friday as I suspect I’d still have been puzzling over the wordplay at 12ac.
Edited at 2013-10-25 01:42 am (UTC)
Cluing ‘red spot’ as a ‘huge storm’ implies some knowledge of climactic conditions on Jupiter, but what the heck. We are supposed to know everything, after all.
My ignorance of American sports is such that I thought Super Bowl was spelt as one word.
Edited at 2013-10-25 02:39 am (UTC)
On the other hand, DIVES went straight in, and I liked the clue for OTIS, both in wordplay and definition.
Edited at 2013-10-25 08:20 am (UTC)
I completely missed the PALINDROME in the clue for 5dn and didn’t have the foggiest what it was trying to tell me, and I’d convinced myself that 19ac was the name of a Spanish writer that I didn’t know with the anagram fodder representing the first seven letters of the answer and “d or c plus a” representing the notes at the end of the answer. I should have got up, made myself a coffee, and got my brain back into gear because when I sussed out the answers via aids I was amazed I could have been so far off track.
For DIVES I just went with the laboured but obvious cryptic. I knew the song for OTIS so reverse engineered it. I agree with keriothe – that “but” is very misleading padding.
The Itchen isn’t that far from me so guessed KITCHENER from the cryptic. Not sure why I should be aware that the guy drowned in a ship called Hampshire. There was a better known KITCHENER of poster fame that the setter could have used. The PALANDROME is a real giveaway if you’ve seen it before (like “able” and “Elba”)
Well blogged Dave and good luck tomorrow – at least you don’t have to give a speech!
I think the cryptic for this clue is a bit unfair, because the word “but” strongly suggests that you have to find a word for “courtly love” with no H in it. In fact you might argue that it requires it because “but” is otherwise redundant in the wordplay. For this reason I considered and rejected the possibility that “courtly love” might be O. So I’m dead impressed by anyone who managed to solve the clue without knowing the song.
There are a few other places where this puzzles requires just the sort of knowledge I don’t have (admittedly a large category): DIVES (didn’t have a clue, followed what appeared to be the wordplay), KITCHENER, Clemens. So I didn’t enjoy it much.
I agree thought that “but” is required for the surface.
Edited at 2013-10-25 09:48 am (UTC)
Edited at 2013-10-25 10:51 am (UTC)
Count me among the fans of OTIS, a particularly delightful clue if you also happen to know the Cole Porter song. Can’t see anything wrong with the “but” either, which it seems to me could equally well indicate the omission of H from “a word for courtly love” or from “this”, as is the case, and makes for a lovely surface read.
The question is whether you think “but” is acceptable as a filler word. I’m not very keen on it but I don’t object particularly strongly, and of course my view is coloured by the fact that I didn’t get the answer!
For my taste you are trying too hard to apply the syntactical logic of normal prose, as it were, to the wording of a cryptic xword clue, where I at least (though Ximenean purists might not be) am prepared to allow the setter rather more latitude. In a non-cryptic context you are quite right, of course, about the proper use of “but”, but (just to hammer home that point) its use seems to me justified here for its contribution to the surface read and as misdirection/deception, precisely because it does not obey strict grammatical rules.
I acknowledge I’m being rather Ximenean about this though and I’m very happy to agree to disagree.
There was an album of Cole Porter covers called Red Hot and Blue in the 90s, which included the Pogues doing a segue from Miss Otis Regrets into Just One of Those Things. I suspect CP would have been slightly more charmed by Kirsty MacColl’s vocals on the former than the unique stylings of Shane McGowan on the latter.
To that end – sorry – there was a sprinkling of GK, but this is The Times, for goodness sakes, and I’m not a fan of the idea that crosswords should be entirely plain in this regard. In any case, it’s Friday, and where the cryptic is fair (and/ or very good, which it is today) I sometimes wonder why we go on about it. I’d prefer more!
Some lovely stuff in there, I’m plumping for the clever KITCHENER clue as CoD, ‘body made for tennis’ had me smirking, and OTIS, as you may guess, I found entertaining as well as sound.
Thanks Dave Perry, and setter, for the good works.
Two missing today: olfaction and Anglican. FOI Twain. Otis from wordplay.
Vegan = conscientious consumer made me smile.
Just been reading about Nikola Tesla on wikipedia – interesting stuff.
Loved the Superb Owl.
Given my surname, 28a was always going to be a gimme for me.
In the end, happy to limbo under the half-hour pole.
George Clements
Much enjoyed it. Didn’t know how Kitchener died but got the answer anyway.
C of E + biblical reference + physicist + inventive unhackneyed cluing: I’d guess this is one of Don Manley’s puzzles.
Meic Goodyear
Could “antipasto” mean several dishes, in the same way that “breakfast”, “lunch”, and “dinner” can refer to several plates of food?
I know that there is a plural form, “antipasti”, but you can also say “breakfasts” etc.
I wouldn’t normally think twice about it but I am trying to read a long and incredibly boring report today.
I agree that life is too short for too much pedantry, but there is something about this sort of things which irks me.
I was served a single “ravioli” the other day. Mind you, it came with “candid” beetroot, so I didn’t know where to start. And even I don’t insist on calling a toasted sandwich a panino.
Bob
Edited at 2013-10-25 03:36 pm (UTC)
Ulaca
Edited at 2013-10-25 01:13 pm (UTC)
antipasto /an-ti-päsˈtō/ (Italy)
noun (pl antipasˈti /-tē/)
An hors d’œuvre, an appetizer
A poor clue.
Sorry to be anonymous – can’t master the technology!!
Edited at 2013-10-25 03:12 pm (UTC)
Ulaca
Edited at 2013-10-25 04:17 pm (UTC)
Loved the palindrome!
And definitely an improvement on yesterday’s.
Edited at 2013-10-25 04:30 pm (UTC)
Otherwise a great crossword this. Unlike the comments, some of which make me quite sad. Heaven knows what the setters must think.
Edited at 2013-10-25 06:12 pm (UTC)
Had no clue about “Kitchener”, but half-knew the Itchen and the intersections left no alternative.
“Dives” expanded my list of “biblical words and names I do not know”; the “dive” was inevitable, but I spent a long time trying to morph it into “divan” (on which one “sits”), or even a “diver” (a man, who at a pinch might be “loaded” with weights).
Strangely, given my professional familiarity with members of the enebriata, I knew neither “sottish” nor “athirst”. I am sure I will find a use for them both later, as the Friday night flotsam wash up on the welcoming beach of A&E.
Glad to note that I’m not the only one who spent time trying to come up with a writer for 19ac – only got that one after all the intersections were in.
Nice to see Io appearing in 26 across, but I thought “antipasto” was singular, with antipasti being the plural (“dishes”). Or perhaps antipasto is the plural of antipastus.