Solving time : 11:53, but the club timer told me I had an incorrect entry. I went back through the grid and didn’t see any typos, so I looked up the one answer I guessed through wordplay. Sure enough, the wordplay guess was close, but no cigar!
A few unusual words today, and one where there are a few alternative spellings that would fit the checking letters, so I have a feeling I won’t be the only one with one incorrect entry.
Away we go…
Across | |
---|---|
1 | CAMBRIAN: CAM(eccentric), BRIAN(chap). Got this from the definition, had to look up CAM later to verrify irregular/eccentric |
6 |
GALLOP: G |
9 | DAIL: DAILY missing the last letter, Irish legislature. Apologies for omitting this initially |
10 |
BONDI BEACH: BOND(agent), 1, B |
11 | CHANGEABLE: CHANGE, then B in ALE |
13 | BYRD: or BY RD |
14 | REVENGER: V in (GREENER)* |
16 | ENDIVE: I’VE after END |
18 | A,TRIAL |
20 |
TREE FERN: REEFER in T |
22 | ER,GO |
24 | CHANDELIER: HANDEL,I in CE, then R |
26 | MINISERIES: MISERIES(people who moan) around IN |
28 |
AFRO: A |
29 | SOUGHT: sounds like SORT(type) |
30 |
PROTEGEE: PE, |
 | |
Down | |
2 |
ABASHMENT: A |
3 | BALANCE: double definition |
4 | IMBUE: I.E. surrounding M.B., U |
5 | NAN: N(name), A, N. Can be spelled with one or two A’s, feel free to squeeze two into the middle cell |
6 |
GUINEVERE: EVER in GUINE |
7 | LIE-ABED: LIED surrounding A, B and E which could be musical keys |
8 | OSCAR: OS(large), CAR(estate). A touch of definition by example, indicated by the question mark but obvious from the definition |
12 | BIRETTA: (RAT,BITE)* |
15 | GOLDCREST: This was my downfall, thinking it was two different words for breather separated by C, I entered GILLCREST. There is a breather (REST) under C(cape), but it’s GOLD(or) above |
17 | VERTEBRAE: VERT,BRAE containing the third letter of PREHISTORIC |
19 | IRONING: I, RING(group) containing ON |
21 |
FOLIAGE: F |
23 | RHINO: RHO containing IN |
25 | DISCO: hidden in leaD IS COnservative |
27 | IMP: I then PM(leader) reversed |
Edited at 2016-02-25 03:22 am (UTC)
Lat in PROTEGEE after I finally twigged the hidden DISCO. Nice stuff.
To make it worse, I knew of BYRD, admittedly only through crosswords.
Also had the less-dopey but still wrong GILLCREST, for the same reason as the blogger. One of those days I guess. One of those weeks in fact.
Thanks setter and George.
Edited at 2016-02-25 11:29 am (UTC)
Edited at 2016-02-25 05:52 am (UTC)
ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from Ordovices, the Latin name of an ancient British tribe in North Wales, + -ian.
Edited at 2016-02-25 06:07 am (UTC)
Thank you to setter and blogger
I had the actual answer early on, but spent an inordinate amount of time trying to fit the medical ATRIAL and the legal COURT with the clue (chambers -> inns of court?) After going through the alphabet to ensure there weren’t any other words that could fit I eventually plumped for it. Only afterwards did I twig the other meaning of court.
Not keen on two random names in the clues: Brian and Gail, but at least I could biff the answer first.
But yeah, they don’t come much easier.
No problems other than that. I didn’t know CAMBRIAN but it was easy enough from checkers and wordplay, and misreading 6dn as ‘author’s wife’ deprived me of an easy biff.
This was, while not extraordinarily hard, a very wordily clued puzzle, and I don’t know about the rest of you but it always takes *me* longer to sift through everything under such conditions. Which makes the great Magoo’s sub-4-minute time today extra worthy of remark. You’ve really got to know your cryptic crosswords to be able to zero in so fast on the things that matter with so much visual noise to contend with…
LOI was DAIL, and COD for me was GOLDCREST thanks to that lovely hidden ‘or’. I also enjoyed the mental picture for ERGO.
COD to 22 now I see how it works as I wanted the “exhortation” to apply to either ER or GO and hence couldn’t parse it.
Seeing BRAE at 17 reminded me of Graeme garden and Barry Crier as Hamish and Dougall clueing Braveheart in the sound charades round on ISIHAC.
Edited at 2016-02-25 03:26 pm (UTC)
On an only tangentially related note, I have just eaten emu (emu steak, to be precise). Given that emus crop up with unnatural frequency in crosswordland, I was toying with the idea of trying to eat every animal or dish that has appeared in the Times puzzles. RHINO would obviously be logistically difficult (though I hear it tastes OK), but I’m sure GOLDCREST (perhaps with ENDIVE) would make a straightforward canapĂ©. Plan B would be to focus instead on crossword-mentioned beverages – a sort of “Drink-along-a-Cryptic”. On balance I think I prefer plan B.
Re: emus
There used to be an emu farm half way between Perth and Busselton. Every time we drove south we’d stop for fresh emu pies. Lovely.
And just 2 days ago my niece flew to Exmouth to go diving. Bought some lunch in the supermarket in the centre of town, went outside to eat it, and an emu wandered by… in the middle of the shopping centre.
Rob
I have happy memories of singing Byrd motets in my college’s chapel choir, so no problem with 13ac.
Thanks,
DB