Easier and hopefully less controversial than the usual Wednesday jobbie, I thought. It took me half an hour while watching the tennis over tea and toast. It could have been faster if I wasn’t multi-tasking. Had to check 2d afterwards as it was an unknown definition. Oh, and there’s a couple of cricket clues,
de rigeur.
Across |
1 |
DEMOTIC – DEMO = protest, TIC sounds like TICK = approval; D popular. |
5 |
WIRETAP – All reversed (retiring): PATER, I, W = old man, one, with; D bug. |
9 |
PERSIMMON – Insert I MM into PERSON = individual; D fruit. |
10 |
COROT – (S)CO(T) inside ROT: D he painted. He was good, too. |
11 |
CLIVE – C = constant, EVIL = bad, back = reversed = LIVE; D fellow. |
12 |
LACED INTO – (CITADEL ON)*, anagrist ‘rocks’; D attacked. |
14 |
HEADMISTRESSES – HE STRESSES, insert ADMI(N) = endless paperwork; D teachers. |
17 |
THE GREAT GATSBY – Insert EG (say) into THREAT (danger), then GATS (guns) BY (reserve, as in ‘put by’ presumably); D novel.
|
21 |
CHARACTER – Odd sort of clue, this; I think it’s a DD, one &lit, one literal. |
23 |
MURAL – MUL(L) = partly think, about RA: D painting. |
24 |
IMPEL – LE = empty limousine, P = parking, MI= motorway, all reversed (turning); D drive. |
25 |
BACKBITER – (BRICKBAT E)* anagrind ‘nasty’; D spiteful person. |
26 |
ROEDEAN – ROE sounds like ROW = line, DEAN = administrator; D independent school. Up school, Up school, Up school!
|
27 |
LEEWARD – (LEADER W)*, anagrist ‘debauched’; D islands, in the Caribbean. |
Down |
1 |
DEPICT – Insert EPIC into D(ORSE)T; D show. |
2 |
MARLINE – MARLIN = large fish, E end of ‘the’, D rope. Apparently a light rope made of two strands, used for binding larger ropes. If you knew that, have an extra cup of coffee. |
3 |
TAIL-ENDER – Insert AIL = trouble into TENDER = small boat; D last man. Today’s first cricketing clue. |
4 |
COMPLAISANT – COMPLAINANT is your plaintiff, change the N for S: D willing to please. |
5 |
WON – W = wicket, ON = cricket side: D secured victory. Cricket again. |
6 |
RACED – AC inserted in RED: D dashed. |
7 |
TYRANTS – TY sounds like THAI, RANTS = tirades; D cruel people. |
8 |
POT-HOUSE – THOU = you, inside POSE = sit; D old pub. |
13 |
CATEGORICAL – CATEGOR(Y) = class, with last letter to leave; I, CAL (state); D unqualified. |
15 |
ESTIMABLE – E, STABLE = firm, insert I’M; D highly valued. |
16 |
STOCKIER – COTS (beds) turned over = STOC; KI(PP)ER = penniless sleeper; D squatter, more squat. |
18 |
EXAMPLE – EXAM = test, L in PE; D lesson. |
19 |
BIRETTA – Hidden reversed in H(ATTER I B)ELIEVE; D headgear, of a religious nature. |
20 |
BLARED – B, then R inside (DEAL)*; D trumped. |
22 |
ALLEE – Alternate letters of w A t E r E d = AEE, insert L L for litres; D path with trees. |
25 |
BAN – BAN(D) = players, D(ay) off: D stop. |
COD to WIRETAP. Thanks setter and Pip.
I’m also not familiar with LACED INTO and I’m curious as to where it is used or was used as I can’t imagine anyone saying it.
Edited at 2016-01-27 11:32 am (UTC)
Pip, is this a new sport? Tennis over tea and toast? Must be messy.
I’ll go and have my extra cup of coffee now Pip 🙂
I counted half a dozen words and phrases I wasn’t familiar with, so this was a good exercise in making me feel ignorant – something I normally leave to the wife.
I’d also never come across LACED INTO in the required sense, nor ALLEE. Oh, and I committed the blunder of putting COMPLAINANT as the answer, which I suspect caught out several people on the Club leaderboard. No complaints, or even compliants, though, it’s perfectly clear which is required when you think for a second.
So, all in all, I feel “well schooled”, as the young people say.
Rob
Seriously, I am prepared to offer my brain to science, if someone wants to work out why people find it so easy to forget words which…er, what was I saying?
Some neatly deceptive clues. The oddities were all derivable from wordplay, so credit to the setter for that.
Watching from the battlements at the moment as local rivers flood and rain teems down in very strong winds. One US export we could have done without!
Is ‘Roedean’ hard for US solvers? Until recently, it had called to mind the manner of speaking of a posh girl, and I had only recently come to know that behind the accent was a school. So, maybe.
I hardly noticed the cricket, and had heard of ‘laced into’ and ‘allee’, so off I went.
Edited at 2016-01-27 12:54 pm (UTC)
I delayed myself by putting in CRICK for 11ac as one of my first ones (C+RICK giving “bad back” as the literal). I didn’t know MARLINE but it looked reasonable (and it fitted CRICK as a crosser). Eventually I got TAIL-ENDER and realized my error. Somehow putting one in wrong when it is not even tentative causes a lot of delay. There was one a couple of days ago (TANNED I think) which also fitted the clue but was both wrong, and not how the clue worked anyway.
Last night was all Belgian beers, real ones from Belgium, so I should think that you should be able to get them (Duvel, Delirium Tremens, Dupont Saison, raspberry lambic, that kind of thing).
Goose Island and Dogfish Head are good. Some of the Dogfish ones are ridiculously strong though (the more “minutes” in the names of the IPA, the stronger the alcohol).
I would put a link in to San Francisco beer week but then I go into the naughty box for spamming. But you can google it.
Edited at 2016-01-27 02:27 pm (UTC)
I thought I knew MARLINE from the spike version in Treasure Island, though apparently it’s spelt there without the E.
I liked POT HOUSE, but it took a while to find out why.
Lots of wild (correct) guesses today. Thanks blogger!
Oh yes, I did complete the puzzle (correctly for the first time this week) in just over an hour despite all the unknowns.
Edited at 2016-01-27 11:48 pm (UTC)
DEMOTIC held me up – I didn’t know it, and tentatively wrote it in from the wordplay. Likewise LACED INTO – I’d only ever heard “laid into”, and “laced” didn’t sound very probable. POT-HOUSE was vaguely known, as was BIRETTA (though, without the wordplay, I’d have spelled it “beretta”). MARLINE was a NHO; I’d heard of a “marline spike”, but (a) didn’t know it was a rope and (b) would have spelled it as “marlin” given the choice. Also NHO COROT, but no doubt he’s never heard of me either.