Quirky, economical clueing here in this puzzle; nothing too obscure but much to admire in this fine example of the setter’s art. I had the right side completed quickly with a couple of blanks on the central long answer, but the left followed smoothly and it was all done in 25 minutes. One or two needed more thought as I wrote this, to understand what was actually going on below the surface even though the answers were there. The more you look at it, the cleverer it becomes.
Definitions underlined as usual.
Across | |
1 Man with knife, sharper, cutting meat about (8) | |
MACHEATH – This was actually my LOI. I spent an age trying to work MAC (the man with knife) into something but then it wasn’t obvious where the definition lay. Then I realised; CHEAT = sharper, as in cards, and HAM is the meat reversed around it; the definition is ‘man with knife’, as in the song lyrics this was his surname, not just Mac. Follow me? | |
6 Crafty: can it work at first, being in debt? (6) |
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SHREWD – Actually my FOI. “Can it!” means shut up, or SH. in RED = in debt, insert W being work at first. | |
9 Style of emperor, short on staff (6) | |
MANNER – MAN = staff, NER(O) = emperor, short. | |
10 Free entry to Wimbledon? Has it any value? (4,4)/i> | |
WILD CARD – Two unrelated definitions, or questions to which the answers are yes. | |
11 Even I can make a snowman (4 | |
YETI – YET = even, I. | |
12 Have room next to brother for meditation (5,5) | |
BROWN STUDY – to OWN STUDY is to have room, precede by BR(other). | |
14 Funds in an instant old woman provided for backing (8) |
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FINANCES – Reverse all of this: SEC (instant), NAN (old woman), IF (provided). | |
16 Stole whiskey, facing charge (4) | |
WRAP – W = whiskey, RAP = charge, as in rap sheet. | |
18 Second most important road sign (4) | |
STOP – S = second, TOP = most important. | |
19 Ancient script’s inconsistent, grammar finally failing after the greeting (8) | |
HIERATIC – HI = the greeting, ER(R)ATIC = inconsistent with one R removed, the R being the end of grammaR. Not a word I knew but it seemed to be a likely relative of hieroglyphic. | |
21 A month back, sounded off about the end of Europe being certain (10) | |
GUARANTEED – GUA = AUG (month) back, RANTED = sounded off, about E = end of Europe. | |
22 Parties needing hard cash (4) |
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DOSH – DOS being the plural of DO = party, add H(ard). | |
24 Chess among others independent school introduced to me (4,4) | |
MIND GAME – IND = independent, GAM = school (of whales), insert into ME. | |
26 Beyond repair? I don’t care (3,3) |
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TOO BAD – Cryptic double definition. | |
27 Sue the French about a dog (6) | |
BEAGLE – BEG = sue, LE = the French, insert A. | |
28 Deep desire to be studying with new head (8) | |
YEARNING – Change the ‘head’ of LEARNING L to Y. |
Down | |
2 Opening letter scandal, as it were, is a gem (5) | |
AGATE – I find there is a real list of “-gates”, my current favourite is perhaps Penelopegate, but A-gate isn’t there; if it was, it would be an opening letter scandal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_with_%22-gate%22_suffix. AGATE is more of a semi-precious stone, than a gem. |
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3 Useful foreign character, told to be race official (11) | |
HANDICAPPER – Horse racing official who sounds like HANDY KAPPA (Greek letter K). | |
4 Flying stunts, not at these exercises (8) | |
AEROBICS – AEROBATICS would be flying stunts, leave out the AT. | |
5 Ahead of rival, the ways German poet pens start of sonnet in time please (3,4,3,5) |
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HOW GOES THE ENEMY – HOW = the ways, GOETHE = German poet, insert an S (start of sonnet); add ENEMY = rival; you get a (not very?) well known phrase meaning “what time is it?”. | |
6 Like the sea? Nothing bobs up in it, surprisingly (6) |
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SALINE – NIL reversed in an anagram of SEA (here ‘it’). If you sea what I mean. | |
7 Fabulous flyer missing end of crag (3) | |
ROC – ROCK = crag, endless. | |
8 Wild arrow loosed in major conflict (5,3,1) | |
WORLD WAR I – (WILD ARROW)*. How easy was that? | |
13 Different leaders take own groups in city (4,3,4) |
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TOWN AND GOWN – OWN has different ‘leaders’ i.e. T and G. Expression used in Oxford and other university cities to describe the factions of differing interests and values. | |
15 Like a trespasser, confusing sin with virtue (9) | |
INTRUSIVE – (SIN VIRTUE)*. | |
17 Aim to break old soldier — army’s vicious campaign (8) |
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VENDETTA – END = aim, insert into VET = old soldier, TA = army. | |
20 Packed away as a precaution (2,4) | |
IN CASE – Double definition, one cryptic. | |
23 Mark, there’s only one time for heart pill (5) | |
STAIN – Some loose medicine going on here, but we know what he means. STATINs are pills taken to lower cholesterol levels in the blood and supposedly decrease the risk of heart disease; remove one of the Ts = there’s only one time. Fortunately after 20 years I have stopped taking them, so can enjoy grapefruit and Earl Grey tea again. | |
25 Travel down at first, then up, to keep following (3) | |
DOG – D = down at first, then GO = travel, up = OG. |
Lots of stuff I’ve never heard of: brown study, how goes the enemy, hieratic, handicapper…all quite gettable though
My last one was 1ac too; had to write the clue down on a piece of paper to get it
Best clue was ROC
Edited at 2017-10-11 05:57 am (UTC)
I couldn’t get MACHEATH, even though I know the song and I even know his surname. I wasn’t sure that the long down started HOW and I was fixated on trying to make 1a HASHTAGS (sharper, the sign for a sharp in music), especially since there seems to be a definite effort to get the newer words in the dictionaries into the crossword. I even had the backwards HAM bit, just couldn’t see what went inside.
Everything else done pretty quickly, while cooking dinner.
Edited at 2017-10-11 06:03 am (UTC)
I was right about not knowing HIERATIC but not about MACHEATH, and I kicked myself for not getting that one as I am a huge fan of the music of Kurt Weill and had the work from which the original song came (Die Dreigroschenoper) in my mind as it was featured last week in the excellent documentary series currently showing on BBC4 called “Tunes for Tyrants”.
I worked out 5dn eventually but I have never heard the question before.
Failed to parse 6dn which I biffed. Then I spotted NIL reversed and SA clued by ‘it’ but was left wondering where the E came from.
Edited at 2017-10-11 05:25 am (UTC)
I didn’t even bother to parse 5dn though, and having looked at the somewhat tortuous solution I’m glad I let Pip do it for me. Great phrase though, and one I might try to reintroduce into popular use.
Edited at 2017-10-11 06:50 am (UTC)
Some clever stuff but not a puzzle I feel bad about failing on. Clearly beyond my ken.
For me 1ac was third to last in (followed by the Dog/Beagle crossers) – but MacHeath must be COD. Brilliant. And what a great reminder of some sumptuous use of language: scarlet billows, oozin’ life, cement bags droppin’ on down, etc.
Also mostly I liked: ‘can it’, Wrap, HandiKappa, ‘sin with virtue’.
MER (minor eyebrow raise) at 5dn (but we have had enemy=time not that long ago) – and Statin now being in common parlance.
Thanks sumptuous setter and Pip.
I eventually worked out the ENEMY clue, with thanks to my very short list of German poets – though Goethe was a long shot as part of a clue, surely. A quick Google reveals it was first seen in print in the Brighton Gazette and Lewes Observer of 26th October 1826. How did I miss that?
Being a fan of “My Word” wordplay, handy kappa makes it as my CoD.
Bizarrely, I lost time wondering whether WW1 ended with an I, a lower case l, or a digit 1. I’ll try to be less obtuse in the future.
Yes, I too tried to work out how to fit Mac in to another word, before realising that Mac(heath) WAS the definition. Couldn’t work out how SHREWD or AGATE worked, so thanks for those. Ended with the deceptively easy MANNER and the unknown HIERATIC. I parsed SALINE as Jack did, and wondered about the final E, and tried unconvincingly to shoehorn screwy in at 6ac like Z. Oh, and was a little concerned that the last bit of WW1 should be, well, a 1.
I DNF in 55 minutes bunging in MASHIACH (Messiah)at 1ac as my LOI all to no avail! I never thought of ‘Mac the Knife’.
FOI was 7dn ROC so hardly my COD but that goes to
2dn AGATE!
WOD 22ac DOSH!
Thank-you Mr. Setter and the Wise Owl
Edited at 2017-10-11 08:47 am (UTC)
Grrrr.
Struggled with 1ac having spotted Mac as the knife owner early on, but not knowing his full name. Also unfamiliar with 5dn but knew that time is the enemy, so it looked plausible. The phrase sounds somewhat Wodehousean.. “How goes the enemy, Jeeves old pip?”
Pip, most of the dictionaries allow wiggle room for a gem to be either a precious or semiprecious stone. Eg Collins: “a precious or semiprecious stone used in jewellery as a decoration; a jewel.” The attractions of jewellery and diamonds etc., or gold for that matter, seem to have passed me by completely.
Edited at 2017-10-11 07:53 pm (UTC)
I think we can safely say that this was a tough clue.
My thought process to get 1ac was exactly as described by verlaine, with the additional difficulties that 1) I thought ‘sharper’, as opposed to ‘sharp’, was a bit odd for CHEAT, and 2) I had no idea that Mac the Knife even had a longer name, never mind what it was. So although it took me a long time at the end of my solve I’m quite pleasantly surprised that I cracked this one at all.
Edited at 2017-10-11 10:18 am (UTC)
The drunken quarrels of a rake:
Or think it seated in a scar,
Or on a proud triumphal car;
Or in the payment of a debt
We lose with sharpers at piquet….”
Swift, To Stella, 1720
Out of interest, I found it took around a minute and a half to read the clues and the same to type the answers, ignoring thinking time, so how some people get times of around three minutes or less is a bit of a mystery to me.
Maybe I’m just a bit thick?
I was trying to construct a word meaning ‘a man with a machete’ for 1, followed the cryptic blindly, and discovered I had written in ‘MacHeath’ – aha, and thank you John Gay. Fortunately, I knew the desired meanings of ‘hieratic’ and ‘brown study’. My LOI was ‘wild card’, which puzzled me for a while, as I took ‘entrance to Wimbledon’ to indicate ‘W’, but then I suddenly saw it.
Question for the group – has the golfing meaning of ‘snowman’ ever been used in a clue?
Richard
What did 0 say to 8?
Nice belt.
Oddly enough my first thought on the entire puzzle was that Mac was a man with a knife but only 19+ minutes later did I remember the MacHeath bit of the song lyric. In the intervening period I was another who tried to make up a word for a machete-wielder.
Edited at 2017-10-11 02:34 pm (UTC)
In the end, the only reason I got there after twenty more minutes was assuming the utterly unknown MACHEATH must be some obscure word for a machete-wielder—possibly Peruvian—so it’s nice to see I was in excellent company on that garden path.
Never heard of HOW GOES THE ENEMY either, and again, completely baffled by the meaning before coming here. Thought it might be some obscure piece of Scottish landlordese for chucking-out time…
39m 30s
1A LOI=COD MACHEATH: the meaning of “sharper” is well-concealed. The repetitive template .A.H.A.H was mind-freezing, making me think of HASH etc.
24A In one of their occasional acts of printer’s devilry, South China Morning Post typesetters replaced “to me” with “tome” in 24A, but this and the DNK GAM weren’t blockers.
5D HOW GOES THE ENEMY? Also DNK, but old Goethe came to mind, and HOW GOES THE E.E.Y (= rival) is not hard to biff.