There’s a fair amount of GK here but none of it really obscure. A pleasant enough solve but not a taxing puzzle.
Across | |
---|---|
1 | GROUP,CAPTAIN – (a cop it rang up)*; Sir Douglas Bader CBE DSO* DFC* perhaps; |
9 | LIPPI – sounds like “lippy”; Filippo 1406-1469 from Florence; |
10 | AGINCOURT – A-GIN-COURT; St Crispin’s Day 1415 English victory for Henry V; |
11 | HASH,MARK – HASH-MARK; drug=HASH; biblical book=MARK; #; |
12 | FENNEL – FE(N-N)EL; think=FEEL espicially in trite news interviews; |
13 | DETONATE – D(NOTE reversed)ATE; |
15 | LEANED – LEA(r)NED; |
17 | GENERA – GEN-(ARE reversed); dope=info=GEN; |
18 | VENTURER – (never)* surrounds TUR(n); as in the FORBES Midas list; |
20 | OOMPAH – OOMP(A)H; Salvation Army Band; |
21 | FLAT,SPIN – FLAT-S(P)IN; pawn=P (chess); Government response to winter weather; |
24 | CHEMISTRY – CHEMIS(e)-TRY; that certain je ne sais quoi – makes the world go round; |
25 | QUITO – QUIT-(eur)O; capital of Ecuador; |
26 | SECOND,PERSON – SECOND-PER-SON; bit=small amount of time=SECOND; a=PER; definition is “you”; |
Down | |
1 | GALAHAD – (A-LAG reversed)-HAD; Knight of Round Table, the illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine of Corbenic; |
2 | OPPOSITE,NUMBER – OPPO-SITE-NUMBER; china(plate)=mate=OPPO; a counterpart; |
3 | PRIAM – P-R(I)AM; king of Troy during the Trojan War; |
4 | ALACRITY – A-LA(CRIT)Y; opposite of Government’s reaction to winter rains; |
5 | TWIG – two meanings, “get”=suddenly understand=TWIG=PM once Tory heartlands flooded; |
6 | INCLEMENT – IN-C(L)EMENT; home=IN; litre=L; no comment; |
7 | RUNNING,REPAIRS – (in prang insurer)*; Government’s panic solution to winter weather; |
8 | STOLID – DI-LOTS reversed; |
14 | NARRATIVE – NA(R-RA)TIVE; R from R(elated); RA=Artist; |
16 | DEPLOYED – DE(PLOY)ED; the Army and Navy down here to counter flooding; |
17 | GROUCH – (tu)G-R-OUCH; me in the morning; |
19 | RANGOON – RAN-GOON; old Colonial centre now renamed Yangon; |
22 | TOQUE – TO(r)QUE; a chef’s brimless hat; |
23 | OTTO – OTT-O; rose scent; |
I associate OOMPAH more with Souzaphones and tubas than with trombones but can’t find any definition that’s more specific than brass instruments in general.
Edited at 2014-02-18 08:47 am (UTC)
Seems the weather is another “off-topic” that passes without reprimand. So … it’s bloody boiling here today with 37˚ predicted tomorrow.
However, the clod we call a “Prime Minister” went to Longreach the other day to inspect the drought … and it rained for the first time in years. We could send him to sort out your troubles if you like.
Oops! Done it again eh?
Edited at 2014-02-18 09:55 am (UTC)
I saw this cartoon and thought of… well, no names, no pack drill!
LIPPI went in on vague memory. Wiki sternly reminds us not to confuse Filippo with his son Fillipino. Apparently Spurs failed repeatedly to attract the services of either when shopping for a manager.
26 another of those clues (for me) which needed checkers before I worked out how clever it was being. Before that, I had thought of something with NIPPER involved, which might also have been clever. My CoD for being -um- clever.
Didn’t know TOQUE as a chef’s hat, but as a 20’s flapper titfer. We live and learn.
Will be passing close to AGINCOURT tomorrow on a day trip to France with my granddaughter to visit her great great grandfather’s memorial at Villiers Bretonneux.
On edit: Apologies for anything that might be deemed off-topic.
Edited at 2014-02-18 09:58 am (UTC)
I parsed 26ac slightly differently, with “a child?” as “person”, and both parsings work but I’m sure Jimbo’s is the one the setter intended. I was held up slightly in the SW because I didn’t read 17dn properly and entered “grouse”, and it was only when I couldn’t solve 24ac that I looked at it again, realised it was GROUCH, and then CHEMISTRY was my LOI.
Count me as another who was sidetracked by thinking about Cairo for 25ac and Runcorn for 19dn, but I didn’t enter either because I couldn’t parse them, although it was only when I thought of TOQUE for 22dn that QUITO dropped into place.
I always associate TOQUEs with those sharp-tongued Edwardian aunts portrayed by Saki and P.G. Wodehouse. If you search images for “Edwardian toque hats” you will find some splendid examples and imagine the straight-backed, imperious ladies who wore them them.
I came across the term “octothorpe” only recently in a review of a book about such symbols: Shady Characters by Keith Houston. It also enlightened me about pilcrows, interrobangs and manicules.
SECOND PERSON has to be my favourite clue today for its economy.
Particularly enjoyed 11ac.
Learning new stuff each time. Today’s lesson was “on the radio” (as in “sounds like”)- spent ages trying to work in an AM/FM R1 (as in radio 1) or similar.
Happy to finish it all unaided (but without FU of how OPPOSITE NUMBER or SECOND PERSON worked), but took about an hour all told.
Got massively stuck in the SW, and could only finish once I’d changed grouse and narration. Also, the fact that OTTO was unknown vocab didn’t help at all. Cairo and Lowri almost went in too. Good puzzle, just the right difficulty for me.
I had never heard the expressions ‘running repairs’ and ‘flat spin’, but the cryptics were perfectly obvious.
Of course, the real masterpiece was 26!
Nearly got bowled out by putting in Employed at 16d, no idea why, just seemed to fit in.
Liked the clues for 17ac and 17d.
Nairobi Wallah
The avatar celebrates Miss bt visiting and actually walking her dog.
As our esteemed blogger points out there was a lot of GK needed for this. In my case otto and toque were unknowns. I also thought a chemise was a shirt (from the french). I was also in the narration camp for a while.
It was nice to see twerp used in a clue for a port that wasn’t Antwerp. As for inclement equating to awful, I’d wager that Jimbo would welcome some weather that was merely the former.
Thanks J for explaining opposite number and second person which I only half understood.
I think you’re being a bit harsh on our esteemed leaders, Jimbo. I’ve been impressed by the ALACRITY with which they have appeared on TV in wet places wearing high-vis clothing and pretending they have a clue what to do.
Edited at 2014-02-18 03:46 pm (UTC)
A pleasant post-supper half-hour.
LOI was TOQUE – mainly because I didn’t think it was an “old” hat. Overall, though, it was a slow and steady solve, and easier than I had thought after a first pass.
Shocked to discover that they’ve renamed Rangoon as Yangon – when will people stop meddling with perfectly reasonable place names that can be found in the finest English atlases? In the interests of conservation, I suggest that all these discarded but still serviceable place names be donated to Wales where they are sorely needed.
It would be appreciated if the site could be used solely for its intended purpose.