Solving time : 10:50. Greetings from New York City, where I just got back from a rather good show (Kinky Boots). It’s the 9th innings in the final game of the World Series, and Australia is off to a rollicking start against South Africa in cricket. Oh and there’s a puzzle! I have the second best time right now though I don’t think there was anything particularly obscure in the grid though I wasn’t familiar with the phrase in 11 in that form.
Away we go…
Across | |
---|---|
1 | MATHEMATICS: THEMATIC(describing motif) in M.A.’S |
7 | BUS: shorten BUST |
9 | DIALECTIC: DIAL(face) and then HECTIC missing the first letter |
10 | MERGE: ERG inisde ME |
11 |
JANITOR: TOR |
12 | RUN WILD: RUN(single) W, LD(lord) after I |
13 | RESIN: REIN containing S |
15 | APPARATUS: US(American) following APP and ART containing A |
17 | SHIPWRECK: cryptic definition |
19 | CIRCA: ACC reversed containing IR |
20 | REFRACT: REF(official), ACT(legislation) surrounding R |
22 | STROPHE: SHE(a ship) surrounding PORT reversed |
24 | IRISH: I replacing PA in PARISH |
25 |
BEATITIUDE: BEAT IT(be off) then |
27 |
EAT: |
28 | READING ROOM: READING university then ROM(computer storage) including O |
Down | |
1 | MAD: remove I from MAID |
2 | TWAIN: W, I in TIN – strange to see W=with used twice in the same puzzle |
3 | EVERTON: NO reversed after EVERT(to turn out) |
4 | AFTERCARE: AFT(back) then an anagram of CAREER |
5 | INCUR: everyone would be following the IN CUR |
6 |
SEMINAR: reverse RAN |
7 | BARRISTER: ST in BARRIER |
8 | STEADY STATE: S then TESTATE containing an anagram of DAY – a theory used in kinetics |
11 | JURY SERVICE: cryptic definition, though here it is called JURY DUTY |
14 |
SKINFLINT: SKINT containing FLIN |
16 |
PAKISTANI: P |
18 | WEATHER: WE(our team) then RATHER(more readily) with the first letter missing |
19 | CURLING: L in CURING |
21 | TIBIA: A BIT reversed containing I |
23 | PLUTO: L in PUT, O |
26 | ELM: MALE reversed missing the A |
Dereklam
Edited at 2016-11-03 06:30 pm (UTC)
36 minutes with no particular goats being gotten.
FOI 1dn MAD LOI 22ac STROPHE
COD 7dn BARRISTER (echos of BARRIE) WOD SKINFLINT
13ac was a bit naughty because of its first unchecked letter. The substance applied to bows is undoubtedly a resin but in that context it’s called, spelled and pronounced “rosin”. I considered Dereklam’s alternative parsing leading to the correct word but decided it wasn’t good enough so opted for what I knew to be an incorrect spelling in the given context in order to complete the puzzle correctly.
I had to reset my zoom to 90% yesterday to accommodate the badly formatted heading at the top of the championship puzzle (will they ever sort it out?) and had expected to return it to the customary 95% today, but it wasn’t to be. I needed to rest my eyes after reading through this set of lengthy clues!
Edited at 2016-11-03 06:25 am (UTC)
Dereklam
I must admit I had rude thoughts about that and laughed out loud!
Edited at 2016-11-03 07:22 am (UTC)
Most of the rest pretty much bunged in with, um, impressionistic parsing.
‘Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.’ MT
I too have only read Twain Part 1 .. my favourite bit was when he told President Grant to get a grip and pull himself together .. I will read part 2 the moment my county library obtains a copy, which so far it has not. Actual expenditure, is of course reserved for Samuel Pepys Esq.
Did not know:
ERG for unit of energy.
Ld for Lord
She for ship
EVERT = to turn out
Im not sure what the definition is in 14d skinflint. &lit?
Edited at 2016-11-03 08:32 am (UTC)
19 under par for the week so far, but Friday’s have a habit of bringing me undone, so let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Thanks setter and George.
Edited at 2016-11-03 09:39 am (UTC)
At least there was a nice balance of art and science here, with STEADY STATE being a write-in for me. Happy to have (eventually!) remembered DIALECTIC from a previous puzzle.
I was also slowed down for a while by have ‘retract’ instead of ‘refract’, and took a long time to think of Everton until I finally decided to look at the wordplay.
Alan
I managed not to slip up on the RESIN, and it’s perhaps worth pointing out that rosin is simply a type of resin (and, I guess, a variant on the same word). No problem either with STEADY STATE and, given that it’s one of only two major theories as to the origin of life, the universe and everything, there’s really no excuse for not being familiar with it.
I did appreciate the geeky clues and, since Feynman has come up, I would recommend his two quasi-autobiographical collections of anecdotes and adventures – not a lot of physics, but beautiful insights into the brain of a remarkable man.
I got STROPHE only thanks to having seen it here before, and DIALECTIC despite never really knowing what it means (I always thought it was another word for “insulator”).
But to come back to my “Oh dear!” – I completely blew 4d, having parsed the clue completely farce about ace. I ended up with “alternate”, which is about as far from the correct answer as it is possible to get, given the checkers.
What I find particularly frustrating is that the only things preventing me from entering and winning the championship are my slowness and my abundant errors.