I expect to see some fast solving times today as most of this was very easy indeed. I got held up towards the end by a couple of shades of meaning I didn’t quite see though the answers should have been plain enough. There’s not much to say so I won’t waste time saying it.
* = anagram “
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | GOSSIPER – GO (quit), 1 inside PRESS* |
6 |
BALLAD – BAL |
9 | VACANT – CAN (tin) inside VAT (large tank) |
10 |
GYRATION – G |
11 | TYPE – Hidden inside ‘fifTY PEnce’ |
12 | ENTOMOLOGY – (GLOOMY TONE)* |
14 | HUMORIST – RI (religious subject) inside MOUTHS* |
16 | MAID – I AM reversed, D (diamonds) |
18 | USED – US (American), ED (media chief) |
19 |
ENROLLED – ROLLE |
21 | STORYBOARD – (BROODY STAR)* |
22 | GIBE – GIB (Gibralter, rock), E (English) |
24 | ALL-CLEAR – ALL (everyone), CLEAR (tidy away) |
26 |
EXTENT – X TEN (ten by ten) inside |
27 | ADJUST – AD (plug), JUST (precisely) |
28 |
SATIRIST – SAT (posed), 1, |
Down |
|
2 | OVARY – 0 (shape of egg), VARY (change) |
3 | STAKEHOLDER – dd, one humorous |
4 | PATHETIC – PATH (way), CITE (evidence) reversed |
5 | ROGET’S THESAURUS – (SOUGHT TREASURES)* |
6 | BIREME – B (British), I, REME (military engineers) |
7 |
LOT – LOT |
8 | ALONGSIDE – A LONG SIDE (hypotenuse) |
13 | LAMPLIGHTER – PLIGHT (promise) inside LAMER (comparatively weak) |
15 | UNSETTLED – SETT (where to find badger) inside UNLED (lacking guidance) |
17 | GRADIENT – (GET DRAIN)* |
20 | ABSENT – AB (sailor), SENT (told to leave) |
23 | BONUS – B (bishop), O (over), SUN (newspaper) reversed |
25 |
CRU – CRU |
I also liked ALONGSIDE but I must admit that STAKEHOLDER made me laugh out loud, unlovely and much abused word that it may be.
LOI .. ROGETS THESAURUS, which I had to work out very painstakingly, just as I had to the last time it was anagramatized.
Not as much fun as yesterday’s, but this left time to go over to the Guardian puzzle.
CoD STAKEHOLDER, just for being amusing.
Touch of the 1940s with ALL CLEAR – I can still hear those sirens that they used to test for years after the war ended – and LAMPLIGHTER who walked round every evening and every morning to switch the gas lamps on and off
Were they really testing the sirens? In my part of the world (North Kent) the air-raid siren became the signal in the 50s for the voluntary fire engine crew to get to the Fire Station at once.
Where I grew up in one of the rougher parts of London the gas lamps were around until well into the 1950s. They were nearly useless and left large stretches of very dark road between little pools of light. Those dark patches were put to good use by we teenage boys and girls!
The lamplighter would walk round with a long pole that he used to pull down on a chain that switched the light on. In the morning he did the reverse.
Edited at 2013-11-01 12:06 pm (UTC)
I don’t quite see how ‘pieces’ works as a container indicator in 11.
I saw the wordplay for 19 once I had the answer, but I don’t think it really works very well. The synonymous phrase for finally is ‘in the end’, not ‘in end’. I like this sort of cryptic wordplay but it’s got to be precise to be kosher.
Easy as pie today with 17 minutes on my clock.
13 Person who secured post and a kind of pension? (11)
That puzzle was blogged here by some bloke called Magoo. I wonder what happened to him … ?
http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/8077.html
I don’t remember having seen the anagram at 5dn before and it took me a while to see that “puzzling” was doing double duty as both the anagrind and part of the definition. TYPE was my LOI after I finally saw the wordplay for OVARY.
LOI Stakeholder, which made me chuckle. FOI Gradient.
FOI the cricket clue. Enjoyed STAKEHOLDER, a “laugh out loud” moment, but rather sad to read it’s an old chestnut. Also enjoyed the surface of 28ac – no doubt male solvers went haring down some amusing but ultimately futile rabbit-holes. Liked ALONGSIDE, VACANT and PATHETIC, but thought the clueing for BIREME (a potentially tricky word) was, well, pathetic. LAMPLIGHTER brought back memories, not only of childhood in Yorkshire but also of the Smiley novels. 5d nicely constructed – the anagram could have been at either end, so needed checkers before wasting time by trying both.
My LOI was ABSENT – truth to tell I’d thought of it early on, but it didn’t feel right, either in the cryptic or in the definition: sent = “told to leave” just seemed too vague, and I wasted time looking for something more precise.
Perhaps next week they’ll bowl a googly and give us a stinker for Monday?
Edited at 2013-11-01 06:51 pm (UTC)
Apparently, only 50% of troths are still plighted, 10 years later…
Wasn’t convinced by the clue for “ROGETS THESAURUS”. Taking “for puzzling” as the cue for an anagram, where does the “treatment in this” come in? And if, as [joekobi] pointed out, a “thesaurus” is a “treasure”, it’s still a bit of a disorganised clue.
‘Stakeholder’ never fails to irritate me. In the modern NHS, stakeholders are treated by other stakeholders, often having been X-rayd, CTd and probed by yet more stakeholders. It’s this sort of ambiguity that leads to the wrong bits being amputated from the wrong people. Bring back the old days, when doctors were doctors and patients were patient.
Day off today, so I have time to earn a really good hangover for tomorrow. It’s always nice to have a common bond with the patients.
//Apparently, only 50% of troths are still plighted, 10 years later…// Wouldn’t that be ‘plought’?
Edited at 2013-11-01 09:36 pm (UTC)
If I have the misfortune to be rushed to hospital, I want to be treated by Thud – I may not get cured but I’ll certainly be entertained. I hope it doesn’t hurt when I laugh.
George Clements
With S‑A‑E‑‑‑D‑R in place, SHAREHOLDER seemed the obvious answer, so when the O was confirmed, I was convinced that had to be it. Wasn’t the name of the solicitor in Bram Stoker’s Dracula something like HARE? Eventually I decided I must be on the wrong track, and kicked myself when light dawned. (The solicitor’s name is of course HARKER.)
It took me a long time to get ROGET’S THESAURUS as well – like others, I’m not entirely convinced by the clue.