41 minutes for this delightful and lively puzzle. When I first saw the grid with no three- or four-letter words I was expecting a toughie but 1ac went in on first reading and most of it flowed very nicely from then on in. Indeed so much so that I thought I was on course for sub-30, but four somewhat unfamiliar words in the SE corner delayed me towards the end. I had a feeling there’s some sort of theme going on here but, if so, I’m unable to nail it, however the first four letters in row 2 fit rather well with 6 and 1dn.
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | ALCOCK AND BROWN – COCK (raise) inside A LAND (a country), BROWN (toast). The British aviators who made the first non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919. |
9 | OLD BAILEY – OLD (previous), BAIL (conditional freedom), YE (you) reversed. In case anyone doesn’t know, this is the colloquial name for the Central Criminal Court, hence the reference to returning ‘here’ after being on bail in the surface reading and definition. |
10 | COYPU – COY (evasive), UP reversed |
11 | NEIGH – Sounds like “nay”, with echoes of Francis Howerd |
12 |
GANGPLANK – GANG (group), PLAN (scheme), |
13 | THEODORA – ODOR (Californian fragrance – indicating US spelling) inside THE and A (articles) |
15 | CADDIS – DI (detective – inspector) inside CADS (no gentlemen). A moth-like fly whose name is only known to me through crosswords. |
17 | EVER SO – E (English) VERSO (page). ‘Recto’, the right-hand page of an open book, came up in the Quickie I blogged on 1st June and I mentioned for the benefit of newbies that its opposite number ‘verso’ is also worth knowing. |
19 | PUT TO BED – PUTTO (pretty boy – as depicted by Italian Renaissance painters amongst others), BED (qualified teacher – Bachelor of Education) |
22 | LEASEHOLD – Anagram of HOLES inside LEAD (front) |
23 |
MOSUL – S (small) inside MOUL |
24 | CLUBS – L (large) inside CUBS (youngsters) |
25 |
CHASSEING – S |
26 | WELLINGTON BOOT – WELLING (rising up), NOT reversed, BOOT (advantage) which according to my dictionaries survives in common usage as a verb but its noun equivalent is considered archaic and obsolete. |
Down |
|
1 | AROUND THE CLOCK – AROUND (circling), THE CLOCK (grandfather) |
2 | CODEINE – Anagram of DIE ONCE |
3 | CLASH – L (large) inside CASH (funds). ‘Not go’ is the definition in the sense of colour co-ordination, for example. |
4 |
ALLEGORY – ALLE |
5 | DRYING – R (rook) inside DYING (failing) with reference to forgetting one’s lines on stage etc |
6 | ROCK PLANT – ROCK (music), PLANT (factory). If this were the Guardian no doubt it would have been cross-referenced to 1dn. |
7 |
WAYLAID – Anagram [crooked] of LAWY |
8 | TURKISH DELIGHT – RUT (frenzy – as in the mating habits of deer etc) reversed, KISH (kiss – said drunkenly), DE-LIGHT (plunge into the dark) |
14 | DISPERSAL – Anagram of L (line) + IS SPREAD |
16 | QUADRANT – QUAD (court) RANT (passionate speech). ‘Suppressed’ seemed to indicate enclosure but here it means something like sitting on top of, or holding down the other element of the answer. |
18 | ERASURE – ERA (period), SURE (fixed) |
20 | BUSHIDO – SUB (boat) reversed, HID 0 (revealed all). It’s a feudal code of Samurai. |
21 | TOUCAN – Anagram of OUT, CAN (tin). Where’s my pint of Guinness? |
23 | MESON – SO (such) inside MEN (people). A particle physics thingy beyond my ken but will no doubt please Jim by its inclusion. I’d be more interested in its alternative meaning of a Mexican pub. |
Never heard of the dance or CHASING (in that context) either, so CHASSEING was ungettable for me.
Totally fair though, mustn’t grumble. Agree with Jack that it was another excellent puzzle.
A moment of relived ineradicable shame with EVER SO – being the class swot at 7 and putting my hand up to ask how to spell it (one word or two?) to be told firmly I should not be using such an expression. Hubris, eh? Who needs it at that age. Thanks Mr Downing.
TOUCAN – the definition made me smile, so CoD.
Skids under a fast time in the SE with BUSHIDO, CHASSEING and QUADRANT all resisting staunchly. MOSUL sadly very topical this very day, with the large Christian community desperately fleeing the advancing ISIS forces, their churches being destroyed. Not a MainE city, then.
I always feel a bit sorry for Alcock & Brown as Charles Lindbergh always seems to get far more credit for his transatlantic crossing, yet A&B did it 8 years previously.
And my knowledge of barn dancing came in useful: a chassé is where you and your partner in ballroom hold slide to the left (chassé left) or the right (yes, chassé right!), though I don’t think I’d heard the term “chasséing” as such. Fortunately, I got it through the engraving technique of “chasing”.
Thanks for the blog, Jack, and especially for parsing 8d which was pretty fiendish. Lots of nice clues today.
There’s always tomorrow.
I knew CHASSE from dancing and of course MESON (thank you setter). I loved the definition of TOUCAN but my favourite clue has to be 9A with not a wasted word and a supurb surface reading.
Ah, the whisk and chasse! I could hear the tinkling pianos of “Dancing Club” on writing in 25.
Another first rate puzzle, if I may say so, with a good variety of clues, from the succinct 17 to the clever 9 to the tortuous 8. Wonderful beginning to the day.
Gave up well over the hour with a blank at CHASSEING. I always seem to come a cropper when accents are involved. Otherwise a challenging (for me)-in-a-good-way puzzle.
I was utterly convinced that 16dn was going to be something inside CT: I should have resorted to the old ‘try a Q before a U’ trick earlier.
Both the dance and ‘chasing’ to mean ‘engraving’ were unfamiliar to me, but they both sounded kind of right. Still, I had to do a lot of alphabet work before concluding that I couldn’t find anything better.
So I found those three clues very satisfying. The rest of it a bit less so, as quite a lot just went straight in from the definition, but it’s a nice set of clues.
Edited at 2014-06-27 08:37 am (UTC)
As for 1ac, john_from_lancs, it was not in my world a dancer who attracted this epithet. (0n edit, well perhaps he was, as well as a singer)
Edited at 2014-06-27 02:46 pm (UTC)
BUSHIDO took me a while as well. I guessed the BUS part, but I didn’t see the answer until I’d gone away and come back, whereupon it just leaped out at me unexpectedly. QUADRANT also held me up, as I thought the “court” was a CT, and took the wrong meaning for “passionate”.
Overall, I thought it was an excellent puzzle and well worth stealing the library’s Times and the librarian’s pen for. No doubt I’d have thought different if I hadn’t finished. Glad (in a slightly unkind and gloaty way) to see one or two others stumped. Stunned to see that tony_sever (a) finished this in eight minutes and (b) was galled by this time. My only consolation is that I got 8.63 times as much diversion out of the puzzle as Tony.
I’m missing out on the Friday night fun, being off duty tonight. However, the earlier part of the day saw two award winners. Award for Most Unnecessary Visit to A&E went to a young lady who’d been stung by a nettle in an unusual place*. Award for Most Creative Accident Using a Benign Object went to a gentleman who had put his eyeglasses on “very crossly” during an argument with his wife and stabbed himself in the eye.
*Haverhill
I only got about 3 times as much diversion out of this puzzle as Tony did, but it is his just punishment for being a former National Champion and all-round clever clogs