Solving time: 43:18
A couple of unknowns for me in SUPERCARGO & SURCEASE, but both were gettable from the wordplay.
I’m still blogging from holiday, so I’ll keep the preamble brief and move on to the clues.
cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*, and removals like this
Across | |
---|---|
1 | SH + TICK |
4 | CORSICAN = (OR + SIC) in CAN (preserved) – I saw OR and thought this was going to be some sort of PORCINE derivative, relating to Animal Farm, but no. |
10 | PENDULOUS = (DULSE UPON)* |
11 | UTTER – dd |
12 | RE(C(A + PIT)U)LATION |
14 | ALLOT = ALL + TO rev |
16 | PASSENGER = PAGER about NESS rev |
18 | GIRL POWER = GI (recruit) + (PROWLER)* |
20 | PANEL – dd |
21 | PEROXIDE BLONDE – cd |
25 | RHINO – dd |
26 | GASTROPUB = GAB (talk) about STROP (a bad mood) + |
27 | PIT-A-PATS = PIT (mine) + APT (fitting) about A + S |
28 | POLYPS = SPY + LOP all rev |
Down | |
1 | SUPERCARGO = (SPRUCE)* + ARGO (ship) |
2 | TONIC = I in TON/C (two hundreds) |
3 | CRUMPET – dd |
5 | OUSE + L |
6 | SCUTTLE – dd |
7 | COTTON GIN = (IT C |
8 | NORM – presumably ‘lack of service’ implies NO R.M., although which service RM is is anyone’s guess. The postal service (Royal Mail) perhaps, or the armed services (Royal Marines). Actually, now I think about it, it’s probably room service. |
9 | SOUTH + PAW – Lord North, who was PM from 1770 – 1782, is something of a crossword stalwart. |
13 | TROLLEYBUS = BYE (extra, in cricket) rev in (TROLL + US) |
15 | LARCENIST = (CLARINETS)* |
17 | SURCEASE = (CASE)* in SURE – an archaic word that I had to get from the wordplay, but hence ‘old-fashioned’ in the clue. |
19 | P(HOT)OOP |
20 | PALER + MO |
22 | INGOT – hidden |
23 | NIPPY – dd |
24 | DRIP – dd |
By far the easiest puzzle of the week. Monday is another day….
I took RM as Royal Marines.
P.S. I forgot to mention an additional problem parsing 26ac was the ‘a’ in the clue being redundant other than as padding to help the surface reading. Prior to that I also wasted time on GAS being ‘talk’.
Edited at 2014-04-11 06:19 am (UTC)
Edited at 2014-04-11 08:44 am (UTC)
Transforms the taste and texture of peanut butter, though spread after toasting. Not good with marmalade.
Blogging from vacation Dave. The puzzle itself needed around 15 minutes ending with RHINO. The only hold up was starting with a platinum blonde instead of the
Chemically enhanced PEROXIDE type. INGOT quickly set me straight. SURCEASE
remembered via “with his surcease, success”. I’m guessing a CRUMPET as hot stuff is sort of similar to “dishy”, but otherwise don’t know. Regards.
RM has to be the Marines. And this southpaw can confirm Ulaca’s anaysis. (Not that I get into a lot of fights these days!)
In the SOUTHPAW clue, one would expect ‘leading with the right [hand]’, so I believe what the setter is getting at is, as Kevin Gregg alludes to, the fact that a southpaw boxer (usually a natural left-hander, but not always – as demonstrated by for example Manny Pacquiao) leads with both his right hand and his right leg, thus, ‘from the right’.
Edited at 2014-04-11 03:30 am (UTC)
Edited at 2014-04-11 05:04 am (UTC)
And crumpets are traditionally for teatime – along with muffins (by which I mean the English ones)!
Particularly liked 28a.
However it seems clear that the whole question of when to eat baked goods is entirely too controversial and should be avoided at all costs by setters from now on.
😉
As seen above, CRUMPET is fine by me as breakfast, though in the days of open fires in the “living room”, they were what you used a toasting fork for at teatime.
And let’s pay tribute to a setter who manages to get PEROXIDE BLONDE, CRUMPET (phwoar!) and GIRL POWER in the same grid.
Round here, a SOUTHPAW is the unorthodox boxer who leads with the right. What is this “baseball” of which you speak? Curiously, Henry Cooper’s ‘ammer, the one that knocked down Ali for a count of thirteen, was his left, and he should have boxed with a southpaw stance, but didn’t.
Last in PHOTO OP. The checkers just looked so unlikely and I toyed with the invented phrase PROMO UP.
Edited at 2014-04-11 08:21 am (UTC)
Just two days ago I was telling my children about all the different terms for money but RHINO is a new one on me. I presumed it would be a specific amount of money like a monkey or a pony but Google tells me it’s just money in general.
It is irritating that sometimes each “a”, “as”, &c in a clue is utterly vital to the wordplay and sometimes utterly extraneous, as the “a” in the clue for GASTROPUB.
I’m a great devotee of crumpets, but never yet for breakfast, de gustibus, etc. CRUMPET of course, is another matter.
Some trips down memory lane with SCUTTLE and CRUMPET both toasted and eaten in front of the fire (breakfast – not where I grew up) and my sixties crush Joan Bakewell.
At 21A you should wait for some checkers with these cryptic definitions – they’re quite often ambiguous
My 2nd-year room at uni had a gas fire and a previous inhabitant had tied a number of bits of wire on the grille so that the last half-inch or so of each stuck out. Toasting crumpets therefore only involved slapping them in to the wires where they stuck in front of the flame. Not for breakfast though.
(It looked something like this: http://images.denhams.com/557/557lot338.jpg )
A crumpet on a toasting-fork doesn’t seem at all likely for breakfast!
I needed all the checkers for CRUMPET because neither definition came to mind quickly. I’ve never had them for breakfast, but wouldn’t be averse to them if someone made the offer, especially with cheese on as suggested by Z8. I agree with Jimbo that the answer for a clue like 21ac shouldn’t be entered until a few checkers are in place. SCUTTLE was my LOI after PASSENGER.
SOUTHPAW confused me too, though I put it in. Afterwards, I got down my copy of Wikipedia and discovered that being left- or right-handed doesn’t necessarily correspond with the stance one uses (ie, with which hand one leads). Marquess of Queensberry rules seldom enter into the fights the aftermaths of which I see.
Spent a long time agonising over SUPERCARGO. I’d heard the word, but assumed it referred to the cargo (possibly stored above decks, or maybe just really super) rather than the person in charge of it.
All in all, a pleasant but unexciting puzzle, I thought.
Thanks for parsing polyps Dave. I got fixated on look being lo so the rest of the WP was beyond me.
I already had larcenist before I looked at 21 so “platinum” didn’t occur to me.
Macbeth, wasn’t it, who said “with his surcease, success”?