Solving time: 25:14
In retrospect should have seen some answers much more quickly. But I was having a bit of a dose of blogger’s nerves, so wanted to check everything against parsings before I put them in. Also had to solve bottom to top, finishing in the NE, then 2dn. Just noticed we’re a J short of the pangram. Any takers? (I have one very obscure solution at present.)
Found from an interview that I now have two things in common with Anax. We both play bass left-handed and both solve on paper with a pen. What’s next? Setterdom?
Lastly, the Club site wouldn’t let me past the log-in screen this morning. Had to go to the Times (paper) site to get the puzzle and put up with the horrible non-Times font. Hope this is not a sign of things to come. Update: it’s working now just before 05:00 BST.
Across
1. SOFTLY. L from “L{engthy}” inside SOFTY, a rather Beano-ish word for a coward/wimp.
4. EMIGRANT. Your GRAN inside EMIT.
10. ABOUT-TURN. TURN (attack) following A, BOUT. Anon and Ulaca have it. It’s more like A + BOUT (attack) + TURN (shock). The “following” is a bit deceptive, but it can work that way.
11. TOQUE. TO{p}, QUE (Fr. for “that”); for several sorts of hat including the one worn by chefs.
12. CHEWING OVER. WIN (victory) by CHE (guerrilla leader … this time — a change from “revolutionary”); then GOVER{nment}.
14. INN. Two defs, including a Swiss/German/Austrian river.
15. TRAYFUL. Anagram of “a fruity” minus I; add L (length).
17. NICEST. ICES (desserts) inside the N&T from “nuts”.
19. STORER. ST (street, way), OR (gold, heraldry), ER (sovereign).
21. CHIMERA. C (caught, cricket), HIM (male), ERA (years). “Later” just tells us where to put the last of the three. We had this two days ago at 9ac.
23. YEP. Yep, it’s inside “eYEPatch”. A good place to start.
24. ASTRINGENTS. Anagram of “trains” signalled by “working”, GENTS. The def is “applications” as in lotions.
26. DHOTI. HOT (sexy) in DI{m}.
27. SCENARIST. Anagram of “Racines”; ST (stumped, more cricket).
29. GUYANESE. GUY (fellow) then AN, ESE sounds like “ease”.
30. DEMEAN. DEAN (cleric) includes ME.
Down
1. SCARCITY. S (south), CAR CITY. The potential anagram of “S. DETROIT” was very tempting to start with.
2. FROZE. Supposed to sound like “throws” (pitches) in the East End. I doubt it somehow. But LOI.
3. LIT. L (learner), IT (computer technology). Another mercifully easy 3-letter answer.
5. MINIVAN. MIN{t}, IVAN.
6. GET CRACKING. EG (say) reversed, T (ton), CRACKING (A1, superb). This is written prominently on an egg farm truck I pass regularly. Doesn’t crack me up though.
7. ACQUIESCE. QUI{p} inside ACES (services, tennis), CE (church).
8. THE END. HE inside TEND. In Swedish, appropriately perhaps, it’s SLUT.
9. CUDGEL. U{nsophisticate}D, GEL (girl, posh) after C (Conservative).
13. INFORMATION. IN, FORM, {r}ATION (helping).
16. ANTIPHONY. PI reversed inside ANTHONY (our Saint).
18. PASS IT ON. T (from “sweethearT”) inside PASSION.
20. RETESTS. Anagram of “setters”.
21. CRIME,A. A very topical clue and answer.
22. PYE-DOG. YE’D inside PO (river) and the final G from “drowninG”. With just the Y, I was expecting our old friend, the AYE-AYE.
25. NOISE. No. 1 SE{t}.
28. AXE. A{1}X, E{ngland}.
Edited at 2014-04-23 06:28 am (UTC)
Before I had more than one checker I was fixated on PERONIST at 29a. It felt very Times Crossword for “south american fellow” but I couldn’t see the wordplay. Well, because it’s the wrong answer.
I managed all but 1ac and 2dn in an hour, then turned the lights out, and couldn’t sleep until those last two came to mind.
I too nearly had aye aye, but worked out the unknown PYE DOG with the help of all the checkers. The unfamiliar ST for ‘stumped’ gave a lot of trouble at 27ac.
The four 3-letter words went in first to give me a foothold in each quarter and then I worked my way slowly but very tidily through the grid completing each section in turn.
Two of the trickier words, TOQUE and DHOTI came up here recently and were subject to comment and discussion , so that helped a bit. And PYE-DOG also lodged in my brain from a previous occasion.
I have no problem with the homophone at 2dn.
I note the Grey/Black Print buttons on the Club page are still broken and nobody at the Times seems to give a damn. I thought the complete breakdown of the site in the early hours might have indicated maintenance to fix this but no such luck!
Edited at 2014-04-23 06:08 am (UTC)
Are you using any anti-tracker software (e.g., Ghostery)? They sometimes block the Grey/Black option.
Edited at 2014-04-23 06:39 am (UTC)
The other error is that if I go via the newspaper and select Grey, the button is at least active and appears to work, displaying the puzzle in grey until Print Preview comes up and it reverts to black.
In the Club, the Grey/Black and size buttons do not respond at all to any command.
Edited at 2014-04-23 07:10 am (UTC)
If anyone’s interested: On the Times newspaper puzzles page, click Print Grey then click Cancel then click Print Grey again and proceed as normal. What a palaver!
SCARCITY was a bit of fun, INN a guess based on Innsbruck, which must be where the bridge is, and SCENARIST just looks made up. I quite liked TRAYFUL, though.
Thank you setter, thank you blogger.
Edited at 2014-04-23 08:29 am (UTC)
Otherwise, very nice puzzle. Or not. I don’t know. I probably shouldn’t be solving or commenting. Now, I must find some heavy machinery to operate before going on a long drive …
From some of the comments above it looks like it was fortunate that I saw FROZE relatively quickly, and the F checker from it certainly helped me get SOFTLY. I had the most trouble in the SW and PYE-DOG was my LOI after GUYANESE.
I didn’t mind this as much as some, but like others I wasn’t particularly keen on some of the un-wordy words – STORER, TRAYFUL, YEP – and the odd loosish definition.
Edited at 2014-04-23 09:44 am (UTC)
There’s something clunky about a lot of these clues that never quite caught my imagination
Is a “softy” a coward? Certainly not in every day language. And I suggest the setter visits the East End of London to discover just how different things are these days.
Didn’t understand Froze but this was the only word I could think of that fitted the checkers (turns out there’s another one: Frore (= very cold)).
Topical to see Crimea in the grid but no obvious references to (today being) St George’s Day or Shakespeare’s birthday.
Edited at 2014-04-23 12:16 pm (UTC)
Trayful is fine as well. A waiter can drop a trayful of drinks and any food market will have a stall selling chicken breasts, salmon fillets or pork chops by the trayful.
Pye-dog and scenarist unfamiliar but gettable, thanks for the parsing of chewing over – once I’d got it into my head that victory had to be V I was never going to figure that one out.
Having said that I’m not sure a playful of actors would be quite right. Or a bashful of guests.
Edited at 2014-04-23 08:32 pm (UTC)
FOI YEP, LOI INN – rather in desperation, not recollecting the river but thinking there must be a connection to Innsbruck. (There is!)
ANTIPHONY = music in church? I wonder when the setter last went to church. Since the 70s you’re lucky if you hear a well tuned guitar. Nowadays, antiphonal chant at a church service is something you have to track down and get to at unearthly hours.
Against the grain, I thought SOFTLY quite a clever clue – had me barking up all sorts of trees without a paddle …
I wonder how much setters bother with pangrams. I have to admit I wouldn’t notice them most of the time if they weren’t mentioned here.
Apart from SOFTY = “coward” (which doesn’t seem right at all), I thought this was a very fine puzzle with some excellent surface readings. Hard to choose a COD, but I think I’ll plump for 6dn (GET CRACKING). No objection to FROZE (or STORER or TRAYFUL).