I thought this was going to be quite straightforward but time started to run away as I progressed around the grid and after about 40 minutes I came to a grinding halt with several incomplete answers in the NE segment. After spending ages on these I eventually resorted to aids to finish it off. I was very distracted by what turned out to be mistaken thoughts about 4dn and, to a lesser extent 16dn, and I think this added to my problems completing the grid. I’m only pleased that I realised my errors in this regard before expressing misgivings about the clues in public.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
Across | |
1 | Bill, grabbed by impertinent girl, leaving coat on road? (7) |
MACADAM – AC (bill) contained [grabbed] by MADAM (impertinent girl). I wonder if some may not have come across this colloquial meaning of “madam” as a conceited or precocious girl or young woman (SOED). | |
5 | Glib accounts one ignored following travel books (7) |
GOSPELS – GO (travel), SP{i}ELS (glib accounts) [one ignored]. Books of the New Testament. This was among the clues that led to my downfall as I simply couldn’t see the answer even though I had considered GO for “travel” along the way. | |
9 | Provision of refreshments that would suit a small congregation? (4,7) |
ROOM SERVICE – A straight definition with a cryptic hint | |
10 | Simple dwelling lacking home for vehicle (3) |
CAB – CAB{in} (simple dwelling) [lacking home = in] | |
11 | Deity to be celebrated with event coming round (3,3) |
SUN GOD – SUNG (celebrated), DO (event) reversed [coming round] | |
12 | Most considerate, giving information before learner enters exam (8) |
GENTLEST – GEN (information), then L (learner) is contained by [enters] TEST (exam) | |
14 | A bolder flirt, one plays around — it can be shocking (13) |
DEFIBRILLATOR – Anagram [plays around] of A BOLDER FLIRT + I (one) | |
17 | One ruined team, after transformation, went to great heights? (13) |
MOUNTAINEERED -Anagram [transformation] of ONE RUINED TEAM | |
21 | Commanding little devil, last in the den, retreating (8) |
IMPERIAL – IMP (little devil), {th}E [last], LAIR (den) reversed [retreating] | |
23 | Failure, I admitted in retrospect, making observation (6) |
ESPIAL – LAPSE (failure) containing [admitted] I, reversed [in retrospect] | |
25 | Maiden rejected by flood survivor — the one demanding obedience? (3) |
SHE – SHE{m}(flood survivor = son of Noah) [maiden – “m” – rejected]. The definition refers to “She who must be obeyed”, the main character in a novel by Rider Haggard, and also to Hilda, the imperious wife of “Rumpole of the Bailey” by John Mortimer. | |
26 | Proper identification for additive in 2017? (5,6) |
PRIME NUMBER – PRIM (proper), E-NUMBER (identification for additive). Will their name survive post-Brexit, I wonder. A DBE. | |
27 | Town has to manage growth — that’s hard (7) |
RUNCORN – RUN (manage), CORN (growth that’s hard). Industrial town in Cheshire. | |
28 | It’ll be easy, not as we planned (2,5) |
NO SWEAT – Anagram [planned] of NOT AS WE. A response I seem to come across almost daily when thanking somebody for a service they have provided e.g. in pubs or shops etc, along with “no problem”. Whatever happened to “thank you” or “you’re welcome”? |
Down | |
1 | After a short time wine makes one anything but cheerful (6) |
MOROSE – MO (short time = moment), ROSE (wine) | |
2 | Loveless individual in army bashed on the head (7) |
CROWNED – {o}NE (individual) [loveless] in CROWD (army) | |
3 | Distress of female in US university after party (9) |
DISCOMFIT – DISCO (party), then F (female) in MIT (US university, the only one I know apart from Yale and Harvard, and then only from crosswords) | |
4 | Islamic ruler’s beginning to sink in boggy ground (4) |
MIRE – E+MIR (Islamic ruler) has its beginning “sink” to make MIR+E (boggy ground). My nightmare for parsing as I was convinced it was a contaimment clue with R{uler} in MIE (something Islamic???). | |
5 | Female in uniform given old-fashioned punishment for making suggestions (10) |
GUIDELINES – GUIDE (female in uniform), LINES (old-fashioned punishment). Another one that eluded me. | |
6 | Loudmouth putting men off the tube (5) |
STENT – STENT{or} (loudmouth) [putting men – OR – off]. And another. I didn’t know the word for “loudmouth” although I later recalled “stentorian”. | |
7 | Property returned in the case getting knocked about (7) |
ESCHEAT – Anagram [getting knocked about] of THE CASE. Another unknown. I thought it was an anagram but was unable to make anything recognisable out of the grist. | |
8 | Thus heartless boss, political type, makes attempt to arouse sympathy (3,5) |
SOB STORY – SO (thus), B{os}S [heartless], TORY (political type) | |
13 | A bishop has way of speaking about a regrettable royal event? (10) |
ABDICATION – A, B (bishop), DICTION (way of speaking) containing [about] A | |
15 | A bit of fun with footballers appearing in bloomers (9) |
LARKSPURS – LARK (bit of fun), SPURS (footballers) | |
16 | Hindu god outside prison set up somewhere in India (8) |
AMRITSAR – RAMA (Hindu god) contains [outside] STIR (prison), all reversed [set up]. AMAR might well have been the Hindu god for all I knew. | |
18 | Lots of superior chaps keeping private (7) |
UMPTEEN – U (superior), MEN (chaps) containing [keeping] PTE (private) | |
19 | Something to make small hole, allowing river to enter in trickle (7) |
DRIBBLE – DIBBLE (something to make small hole – usually for planting seeds or bulbs) containing [allowing to enter] R (river). DIBBLE is my WOD. | |
20 | Holy woman with little time for wine (6) |
CLARET – CLARE (holy woman – saint), T (little time). I guessed there would be a St Clare but didn’t actually know it. Wiki lists two of them, so take your pick. | |
22 | Copy, somewhat inferior perhaps, on reflection (5) |
REPRO – Hidden [somewhat] and reversed [on reflection] in {inferi)OR PER{haps} | |
24 | Capital to suffer 1666 event as reported (4) |
BERN – Sounds like [as reported] “burn” (suffer 1666 event). The year of the Great Fire of London. The capital of Switzerland that’s also spelt ending in “e”. |
Similar story as Jack, with all done bar the top right in about 30mins or so. Then spent far too long alphabet-running, and failed to get the last ones. I even had ESCHEAT in at one point, and discounted it as it looks so odd. GOSPELS and STENT never made an appearance. Also had a blank at ESPIAL, another weird-looking word. Oh, and I see now I had Rangoon in at 27ac. Dismal failure all around, really…
After our visit from EULER last week, COD has to be PRIME NUMBER.
Thanks setter and Jack. (Jack, in your introduction you refer to 14dn. 14ac, perhaps?)
‘Dibble’ was the only thing I didn’t know, ‘stent/stentor’, ‘espial’, and ‘escheat’ being well within my ken. I never heard of ‘Runcorn’, the cryptic hands it to you.
Once again, I’ll probably have the longest time for a complete and correct solution.
9ac ROOM SERVICE sorted that out!
14ac DEFIBRILLATOR has two LLs – well I never! Does it in the USA?
NE was horrible especially STENT which took me 7 inglorious minutes – still believing that OR and IAN were the men! 5dn GUIDELINES did help.
7dn ESCHEAT came early but failed to engage.
COD 26ac LARKSPURS tough for our Colonial friends I dare say.
WOD UMPTEEN and DIBBLE a close second.
MOOD Meldrew
Edited at 2017-03-28 04:14 am (UTC)
I’ve seen enough now, comments here and in the club, to be satisfied it was in part a difficult puzzle, and not just me having a bad day (although that didn’t help matters).
horryd Shanghai
Pleased to get ESCHEAT and AMRITSAR without any difficulty, but ESPIAL took some time, and still looks wrong when I look at it typed out. But it was one of those answers that was really obscure, but once I had it, it couldn’t be anything else.
Lots of good clues including the unusual ESPIAL, UMPTEEN and PRIME NUMBER.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Edited at 2017-03-28 07:50 am (UTC)
4d I had Emir and so got mire, but also had no idea where the final e came from.
Biffed dribble as dnk dibble. Also biffed sun god and crowned. Flood survivor = noah so had to biff she so thanks for the explanation Jack.
For escheat, I had all the checkers so it seemed the most plausible.
Also dnk espial but was pretty clear from the wordplay.
Favourite clues: 26a prime no, 27a Runcorn and 18d umpteen.
AMRITSAR in part from the 1919 massacre, as portrayed in “Gandhi”, one of the most contemptible acts of the British Raj.
I also wasted time on 14ac when DEFIBRILATOR didn’t fit. After my careless error with CLAUSTROPHOBIC yesterday I wanted to be sure of the extra letter, which isn’t too easy when you can’t write the anagrist out on a piece of paper.
Edited at 2017-03-28 07:58 am (UTC)
Oh well… tomorrow is another day.
David
Same as Z on ESCHEAT – first year property law (interesting that Live Journal flags it as incorrect when you type it in). Also similar to Z, I had AMRITSAR from the Raj Quartet. The 1919 massacre at the Chillianwalla Bagh provides a sort of subplot in which Mabel Layton goes against all the other memsahibs and contributes to the Indian vicitms’ families, rather than General Dyer’s retirement (he was responsible and was cashiered). 18.4
E-numbers are simply the code numbers used to identify food additives that have been shown to be safe and officially approved for use in food across the EU.
Blocks of numbers are allocated to specific groups of additives. For example, the colours are all in the E100 series (eg E150 caramel and E162 beetroot red); the preservatives are in the E200 series (eg E202 potassium sorbate and E211 sodium benzoate); the antioxidants are in the E300 series and so on.
Edited at 2017-03-28 12:57 pm (UTC)
Noisy person = STENTOR is a standard here but I did have trouble in the NE. GUIDELINES these days seem to be not so much advice/suggestions as instructions.
Thanks anyway S and B
Good puzzle, and thanks, as ever, to Jack for an excellent and well laid out blog.
Annoyingly I thought of STENTOR almost immediately, but didn’t put two and two together – perhaps because my arteries were so blocked back in 2012 that I was told that a quadruple bypass was the only real option. (I actually encountered my surgeon, Mr Chukwuemeka, for the first time recently in BBC2’s “Hospital” series, where he appeared as “Clinical Director of Cardiac” at Hammersmith Hospital.) STENT and DEFIBRILLATOR in the same puzzle seems a bit OTT!
As for GUIDELINES (my LOI), without the G from GOSPELS, this was a vocalophobe’s nightmare and I was completely spooked by it.