As I say though a really nice puzzle with loads of super surfaces, cunning devices, and abundant fun to be had. 20ac was my first one in, perhaps because you can’t get away from Bond film ads at the moment, and a couple of easyish anagrams at 5dn and 17dn meant that getting started on this one was not a problem. Talking of anagrams I really liked the better hidden one at 27ac, which evaded my notice for a long time; I enjoyed “Cooke’s last Letter from America” a lot at 21d, 1ac was very interesting and elegant too, but my COD has to go to 6dn, with such a good surface reading and referring as it does to my spiritual kindred. Thank you setter!
And so nearly a pangram too. But I just have to say, what’s the deal with doing a puzzle the week a new James Bond flick comes out that has Q missing?
Across | |
1 | CROUP – throat trouble: CRO{p s}UP [arises “when coating of P{ill}S is removed”] |
4 | MEGAPHONE – PA: A GEM [a treasure, “returning”] + PHONE [call] |
9 | VANCOUVER – “here in Canada”: VAN COVER [vehicle | insurance] “giving” U [universal] “protection” |
10 | BATON – this mustn’t be dropped by team: BAT ON [to stay at the crease] |
11 | LARVAE – grubs: R [river] put in LAV [can] + {w}A{t}E{r} [water “oddly lacking”] |
12 | HELL-BENT – with reckless intent: HE’LL BET [what the gambler’ll do] “seizing” N [note] |
14 | SPELLCHECK – validate words of: CHECK [constraint] at end of SPELL [session] |
16 | JAMB – part of window frame: homophone of JAM [“when called out”, fix] |
19 | DUPE – kid: P [power] “within grasp of” DUE [outstanding] |
20 | SPITEFULLY – with malice: SPY [agent] “carrying” (FUEL LIT*) [“explosive”] |
22 | SIDEREAL – dependant (though shouldn’t it be dependEnt?) on stars: SIDE [team] + REAL [money from Brazil] |
23 | SPACER – astronaut: PACE [one step] “described by” SR [senior] |
26 | OUTRE – unconventional: {acc}OUTRE [attire “a C{ricket} C{lub} initially rejected”] |
27 | LONGITUDE – location marker on map: (TO INDULGE*) [“criminal”] |
28 | CASHEW NUT – nutritious food: AS HEWN [as chopped] in CUT [chop] |
29 | TILED – with protective cover: TI{ll -> L}ED [worked “half-heartedly”] |
Down | |
1 | CIVILISED – cultivated: LIS [French lilies] in C IVIED [cape | covered with greenery] |
2 | OWNER – one who has: W [wife] enters RENO [divorce centre “from the rear”] |
3 | PROBABLY – most likely: L [learner] in BABY [pet project] headed by PRO [master] |
4 | MOVE – suggest: MOV{i}E [“I should be kept out of” the picture] |
5 | GARDEN CITY – urban development: (DICEY GRANT*) [“messed up”] |
6 | PEBBLE – “often seen on beach”: PE{op -> B B}LE [folks “preferring books to work”] |
7 | ON THE BALL – alert: (HELL + BATON*) [(first) half of 12(ac) with 10(ac) “unusually”] |
8 | ERNST – “this drawer”: “restricted by” {mod}ERN ST{andards} |
13 | CHAPFALLEN – melancholy: CHAP FALLEN [report of Adam’s transgression?] |
15 | EXPEDITES – dispatches: P [page] + EDIT [revision] accepted by EXES [old partners] |
17 | BOYFRIEND – steady: (DERBY INFO*) [“broadcast”] |
18 | OFFPRINT – copy: OFF [cancelled] + {s}PRINT [run “short of initial”] |
21 | BREEZE – current: BR [duo starting BR{oadcast}] + “recalled” E ZEE [{Cook}E’s last | Letter from America] |
22 | STOIC – “I’ll bear it”: I “invested in” STOC{k} [fund “showing ultimate loss”] |
24 | CHURL – “he’s far from gracious”: C [caught] on HURL [pitch] |
25 | KNIT – double def: what Aran workers may do / to fuse |
Was cross at TILED, thinking it was T(o)ILED. Silly me! Also, dnk RENO as divorce centre, so that was biffed. All others ok, but slowish…
PEBBLE gets COD from me too today.
A good Friday puzzle and the bonus of a long Verlaine intro – did the kid’s drive themselves today?
PEBBLE was also my COD.
No problem with CHAPFALLEN as I recalled the Hedley Mobbs WWI poem – ‘Chapfallen under the tarpaulin’ – written at Ypres.
LOI 21 ac
horryd Shanghai
Thanks to Verlaine for fully explaining how BREEZE worked and also for putting me right on TILED. (29A). There wasn’t any other answer possible once the cross-checkers were in place, but I had taken “worked” to be TOILED and couldn’t see how this could be made “half-heartedly” to produce what was obviously the right answer.
Edited at 2015-10-30 10:34 am (UTC)
‘Cooke’s last letter from America’ is brilliant.
I don’t think I would have got this if I’d looked at it any longer, so I’m not too chapfallen.
Edited at 2015-10-30 09:41 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2015-10-30 11:32 am (UTC)
CHAPFALLEN was today’s QUICKTHORN for me, except that this time I wasn’t alone.
BREEZE was my LOI and COD. Thanks setter and Verlaine.
With all the talk about Magdalen and Merton above, can I put in a plug for the relatively sproggish King’s College London, where I am currently sitting. Less classics, but respectable nonetheless.
Thank you to setter and to blogger for explaining the parsing of a few that eluded me.
I’m with joekobi over CHAPFALLEN. I was going to say that I haven’t come across CHOPFALLEN other than in Hamlet, but I see that the OED includes a citation from Scott’s The Antiquary. Perhaps I just missed it there; anyway I suspect CHAPFALLEN is a lot more common.
An interesting and enjoyable puzzle: I join others in praise of “Cooke’s last letter from America”. My compliments to the setter (and as usual to the blogger).
Part of the reason for that – besides the advancing years – is that Scott explains it as he writes it, so one doesn’t have to look it up: ‘Sir Arthur, during this investigation, had looked extremely embarrassed, and, to use a vulgar but expressive phrase, chop-fallen.’
Mind you, with the online dictionary of the Scots language getting a good workout when reading Scott or George Macdonald, there are limits to what I, at any rate, am willing to look up!
The editors of a “Scottish dictionary” (and indeed the editors of Chambers) are committing intellectual fraud in claiming a word as “Scottish” rather than “dialect.”
Whcih is another way of saying: couldn’t get chapfallen. 😉
Rob