A chewy 25 minute puzzle with a good deal of GK required including a reference to UK coinage that overseas solvers will find very difficult if not impenetratable. We don’t often see astronomers here and today we have one of the oldest but I’m hoping one of the best known.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | TRANSEPT – (patterns)*; wing of a church at right angles to the nave; |
5 | OOMPAH – OOMP(A)H; Bavarian brass as heard at the Octoberfest or in a mildly offensive phrase; |
10 | PTOLEMAIC – P(T)OLEM(A)IC; TA=Territorial Army=volunteers; Claudius 90-168; he wrote the Almagest, based upon a mixture of theory and observation – the scientific approach – that listed a number of constellations; quite remarkable for his time; |
11 | CLIMB – C-LIMB; |
12 | YETI – YE-(IT reversed); the Abominable Snowman from Nepal; |
13 | OFFERTORY – OFFER-TO(R)Y; |
15 | LAY,HANDS,ON – two meanings 1=move to confirm=religious rite; 2=attack; |
17 | HERO – hidden (t)HE-RO(of); |
19 | CUFF – two mainings 1=hit with hand 2=end of sleeve; |
20 | GOLDILOCKS – GOLD-I(LOCK)S; |
22 | SCRAMBLER – two meanings 1=security device on telephone 2=sporty motorcyclist; |
24 | ROAM – “half hearted”=ROM=Random Access Memory; also (me)MOR(y) reversed; weird clue; |
26 | E,COLI – IE=that is reversed contains COL=officer; nasty germ; |
27 | ATTENTION – two meanings; |
28 | POSSET – PO(SSE)T; milk mixed with spiced wine – disgusting; |
29 | FLEETEST – FLEE-TEST; |
Down | |
1 | TAPE – reference “red tape”; |
2 | A,COMEDY,OF,ERRORS – (eyes card room for)*; modern government; |
3 | SHERIDAN – S-HER(I)D-AN; 1751-1816 Dubliner who owned Drury Lane Theatre; |
4 | PIANO – ON-A-I-P=”on a one pence coin” which indeed has a portcullis on it; much puzzling I’m guessing along the lines “It must be PIANO but why?” Full marks if you actually solved it from the cryptic; |
6 | OSCARS – O-SCARS; |
7 | POISONED, CHALICE – PO(I’S-(done)*-CHA)LICE; arrested=”held by POLICE”; back to Plato and Socrates; |
8 | HOBBY,HORSE – mounted policeman=BOBBY on a HORSE then change first B to H; |
9 | SCAFFOLD – SCA(OFF reversed)LD; “I’m OFF”=run (away); Tyburn; |
14 | BLACK,SHEEP – B(LACKS-H)EEP; sounds like “lax”; |
16 | DROP,LEAF – pine trees drop needles not leaves; |
18 | CLARENCE – CLARE-(o)NCE; 1449-1478 brother to King Edward IV and Richard III, who had him murdered in prison by drowning in a barrel of wine. |
21 | UMPIRE – powerful state=empire then chane “e” to “u”; |
23 | RATEL – RATE-L; the honey badger; |
25 | GNAT – TANG reversed; |
I took nearly 90 minutes to get through this rather odd puzzle but I never stood a chance at PTOLEMAIC without resort to aids so technically this was the second DNF for me this week , and it’s only Tuesday!
Is an empire a state? Has anyone actually ever heard of Poor Clare of Rimini? Otherwise some really good clues which I enjoyed solving for the most part.
Edited at 2013-11-26 09:22 am (UTC)
I knew I was in trouble when, after the first 5 minutes, I had the A and the Of in 2d and nothing else. Unlike yesterday’s, when obvious definitions made decent cluing superfluous, disentangling definitions was part of the fun: “family reject”, “girl visiting bears” “potentially a last drink” – the last, with its labyrinthine wordplay, a cracker. Easy(ish) once you’ve worked out where to put the dividing line, but the surfaces were really smooth.
Perhaps a bit easier if you’re an Anglican, when 1a, 13 and 15 are part of the vocab.
For what it’s worth, I concur with Jack’s reading of 24, though Jim is to be congratulated on making it much more complicated.
I worked out the cryptic of PIANO from the literal – I seem to remember that a threepenny bit had a portcullis on it too.
http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/22103
40+ years ago, I used to twiddle at the church organ at Grantchester. The highspot for me was on dark December night in an empty church and I started to play some of the spooky music that only a church organ can produce. I did not realise that a couple had entered the church but I did when they screamed and ran out.
My LOI was CUFF and I interpreted “one on hand” as “handcuff” with the reference to the part of a sleeve as the definition.
I found the RHS easier than the LHS, but the LHS would have opened up quicker had I seen TAPE a lot earlier. Z8 has already pointed out a lot of the cunning definitions so I won’t repeat them.
However, the news about John Graham has certainly made this a sad day.
My only* quibble would be with 29ac – someone who is the FLEETEST is indeed “very quick”, but more aptly described as “quickest”. A bit like “BEST” being clued as “very good”.
(*This is strictly true only in the context of this puzzle.)
The usual story of the death of Clarence involves ‘ a butt of Malmsey’ Not known whether this is one of Shakespeare’s dramatisations (Richard lll) but if true it must have been pretty dramatic. A butt holds 105 gallons so it is not something that you just roll into a cell.
RIP The Rev John
Ta, folks involved.
The PIANO and FLEETEST clues were my favourites
Edited at 2013-11-26 05:04 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2013-11-26 04:49 pm (UTC)
On edit: as Jack says, 24ac is not weird but a lovely clue in that both RO(a)M and R(o)AM are memory; read-only and random access respectively.
The Poor Clares seem to be fairly regular crossword fodder. Google shows three other TFTT appearances, but I’m sure I remember them turning up quite recently. A T2 jumbo perhaps..
Edited at 2013-11-26 05:49 pm (UTC)
The “held by police” device at 7dn was what done me in guv. And this stilted the whole RH side. Last in were the UMPIRE/POSSET pair. Only knew the latter with reference to baby puke.
PS dorsetjimbo Highly unlikely – as totally unnecessary – that Richard of Gloucester had Clarence murdered. You mustn’t believe all you read in Morton’s Tudor propaganda.
PS dorsetjimbo Highly unlikely – as totally unnecessary – that Richard of Gloucester had Clarence murdered. You mustn’t believe all you read in Morton’s Tudor propaganda.
I didn’t have a clue how PIANO worked so thanks for clearing that up for me.
Edited at 2013-11-27 11:48 am (UTC)