A curious beast this Friday I thought, boasting both a number of answers that could be filled in within milliseconds (e.g. my FOI, 9A, one of that pleasant genre of clues that can almost be solved just from the enumeration), and also some very chewy stuff indeed; plus formidably highbrow references jostling shoulders with the down-and-dirty demotic. A Times puzzle in the classic mould then, I suppose. I brought it home just inside of 18 minutes, but I can imagine it being done either much faster or much, much slower, depending on how gracefully the individual solver takes the speedbumps.
My LOIs if I remember correctly was 12A and to an extent 3D – which I filled in much earlier, and then took out in a fit of self-doubt, as I initially couldn’t quite parse it, and surely it had to be an anagram of “director”, with an extra letter insertion? Not to say that the difficulty of a clue is the be-all-and-end-all of its quality, but these two vie to be my Clue of the Day, splendid penny-drop moments both.
Elsewhere I’m a classicist and I *knew* I was spelling it right, but I still became plagued by self-doubt over 21A, especially when for the life of me I couldn’t think of any French river beginning Y (had to look it up to check in the end). 10A and 19D hail from a family of words you don’t bump into very often, that seem to have highly concealable definitions, and are not necessarily easy to spot from the developing shape of the crossing letters, so a gift to setters I expect, but two in one puzzle seemed noteworthy. The device of performing mathematical operations on Roman numerals utilised at 1D turned up only a few Friday puzzles ago, didn’t it? And finally, I’m no equestrian but are reins and bridles really synonymous? Or did I miss something?
Anyway, must dash, children aren’t going to take themselves to school. Many thanks to the setter!
| Across | |
| 1 | MAHARAJA – prince: “from the east” (i.e. right-to-left) AJAR A HAM [only just opened | a | joint] |
| 5 | MOSAIC – artwork: I [one] “found in” MO SAC [Jiffy | bag] |
| 9 | CUT A DASH – to make a big impression: CU TAD ASH [copper | touch| wood] |
| 10 | ABLOOM – out: LOOM [threaten] “to follow” A.B. [a sailor] |
| 12 | LUIGI – Italian: homophone of LOO E.G. [ladies, say, “making themselves heard”] |
| 13 | LOONY LEFT – “politicos out to lunch”: (ON OF TELLY*) [“switching”] |
| 14 | DONKEYS YEARS – an age: Y [{idioc}Y “ultimately”] with DONKEYS’ EARS [features for dimwits] “all around” |
| 18 | ELEVENTH HOUR – at the last minute: (VOLUNTEER HE*) [“arranged”] “to go round” H [hospital] |
| 21 | DITHYRAMB – song of ancient Greek: (MYTH I [one] BARD*) [“adapted”] |
| 23 | ALTAR – table: “some” “retired” {aristoc}RAT LA{ying} |
| 24 | REIGNS – obtains: homophone of REINS [20s, i.e. bridles, “broadcast”] |
| 25 | CAREERED – shot: D [duke] after CARE ERE [protection | before] |
| 26 | EVENER – flatter: VENEER [insincere face], with one E moving back to the start of the word [European “becoming leader”] |
| 27 | EDITABLE – subject to change: EDIBLE [for consumers] “without” TA [a word of thanks] |
| Down | |
| 1 | MUCHLY – a lot: L [left] in DUCHY [duke’s place] with the D becoming M [initial number doubled, i.e. from 500 to 1000] |
| 2 | HOTTIE – Bond girl, typically: HOT [close] + TIE [Bond] |
| 3 | RUDDIGORE – opera: RUDDE{r} [director at sea, “failing finally”] “to grasp” IGOR [Stravinsky] |
| 4 | JUST LIKE THAT – straight away: JUST T [proper | time] “to wear” LIKE [fancy] + HAT [headgear] |
| 6 | OH BOY – my: O{pinions} H{arden} B{ecause} O{f} Y{ours} “at first” |
| 7 | AS ONE MAN – unanimously: A [answer] + NAME NOS [identify | opponents of motion] “rising” |
| 8 | COMATOSE – out of it: (SOOT CAME*) [“fresh”] |
| 11 | GO BY THE BOARD – be overlooked: double def with “take directors’ lead”, i.e. act according to the board’s wishes |
| 15 | YOU NAME IT – anything: (ANY TIME*) [“ordered”] with O U [nothing | posh] “included” |
| 16 | LEAD-FREE – (type of) fuel: LEAD FREE [van | to deliver] |
| 17 | BEATRICE – girl: BEAT RICE [buffet (with) staple foodstuff] |
| 19 | ATHROB – beating: T{oug}H [“extremely” tough] + ROB [boy] after A |
| 20 | BRIDLE – “what’s for horse”: but sounds like BRIDAL [not for groom, “we understand”] |
| 22 | YONNE – French river: YON [that] “is seen by” N and E [two at bridge] |
good stuff though – we seem to be in a run of classy efforts at present
I had an alternative answer at 12ac i.e. LUCIA (LOO+”cheer”) before RUDDIGORE put paid to it.
I wondered whilst solving if I detected the hand of Dean Mayer in this, but I don’t know if he ever sets for the weekday Times.
Edited at 2015-02-13 08:56 am (UTC)
CoD has to be for LUIGI, the perfect groan a soundalike pun.
… but, like Jack, I used “aids to check DITHYRAMB in order to firm up the checkers at 22dn before guessing YONNE which I never heard of”.
Ended with a few in the NW (inc RUDDIGORE, which went in unparsed), LOI LUIGI with a groan.
Thanks, Verlaine, for a great blog. As usual. And yes, I too thought reins=bridles was a bit of a stretch.
Either I was a bit short in the requisite GK department here or it was just a bit too subtle for me. Slight self-kicking for not thinking of rudder for “director at sea”, which is very clever.
I did enjoy LUIGI and DONKEYS’ YEARS
Favourite example of that I can remember was a clue for “closed” where the definition part was simply “to”.
Wine buffs will know the YONNE which flows through Burgundy parallel to La Loire
We have some signs of spring here but the recent cold snap has slowed it all down. My lawns need cutting but are still a bit spongy from too much rain water running off the hills behind us
LUIGI was brilliant – the best of a bumper crop. Thanks, setter.
Qaos in the Graun is of a similar standard and quality.
I found Qaos hard too today, giving up before solving 1A. Sure I would have got it if I’d seen the secret theme, but I never do!
q.v. “out” being the definition for 10.
Mrs K, who used to ride, says REINS and BRIDLE are quite different. Personally I would never climb aboard a donkey never mind a nag.
Speaking of which, I liked 14a best. And I knew where the Yonne was.
Well blogged, Verlaine, glad this wasn’t Wednesday.
On edit: OK I can see what you’re getting at (just!). But as you say, Verlaine, it’s tenuous to say the least. It spoiled a fine crossword IMO.
Edited at 2015-02-13 08:37 pm (UTC)
My compliments to the setter, though, for a very fine puzzle (apart perhaps from 24ac, where, like others, I’m not convinced by “reins” = “bridle”).
As for the meaning of the words, both “bridles” and “reins” (or their singular versions) can be used figuratively in the sense of curbing or checking something so I have no problem with it. In that context I reckon all that’s been written above about horse tack is not strictly relevant to the clue, interesting as it may be.
Edited at 2015-02-14 06:43 am (UTC)
Despite having seen “DITHYRAMB” only recently here (and complained about it at the time), I still managed to mis-spell it as “dithryamb”. Fool me once… Then, convinced that the river of 22d was an R, I put in “RENIE” on the vague idea that it was a French [person]. The Scots were in on it too, with “yon” – we really shouldn’t have let them vote to remain part of England.
Had things to do so DNF – looked up the last few and bolted.
FWIW, I had the HOT part of 2dn being not close but “close to finding” as in children’s games: getting warm, getting warmer, getting hot!
Rob