A straightforward puzzle by recent standards, with a not unpleasant mid-20th-century feel about it. I did it on paper, untimed, but I felt it was neither egregiously easy nor particularly difficult anywhere, and would guess I’d have clocked in at 7-8 minutes ish.
My FOI was 13ac (any other well-known three letter places in India?), my LOI 24ac because of its slightly more elaborate wordplay, compared to the rest of the puzzle.
I liked the low-level general knowledge requirement infusing the puzzle – nothing too obscure, but you do have to know an old prime minister, poet, author or archbishop when you hear one. And the (probably accidental) juxtaposition of the gloomy and happy fellows in the thirteenth row, which gave my blog its title today.
COD to 14dn, not a hard clue (although it took me a little while as I was looking for synonyms for “engaged, betrothed” at first) but I like the quaintness of the term and it put me in a happy reverie. Thanks to the setter, and also for going a little easier on us after Tuesday’s festivities. Good to see those of you I did see at the George!
ACROSS
1 Backward-looking archbishop is issue for TV announcement (4,6)
TIME SIGNAL: reverse all of LANG IS EMIT [archbishop | is | issue]. Cosmo Gordon Lang was Archbishop of Canterbury at e.g. the time of the 1936 abdication crisis.
Not sure how many time signals you get on TV in these days of ubiquitous mobile phones, but I assume they used to be happen and be very useful in the day?
6 Publisher wants opening chapter to be a stunning success (4)
COUP: OUP [= Oxford University Press = publisher] wants a C [chapter] at the front
9 Old king keeping dry for the most part in carriage (7)
CARIOLE: COLE [old king (in the nursery rhyme)] keeping ARI{d} [dry “for the most part”]
10 Let down after US agent returned behind schedule (7)
DEFLATE: after FED reversed [US agent “returned”], LATE [behind schedule]
12 PM very familiar with good fashion (10)
WELLINGTON: WELL IN [very familiar] with G TON [good | fashion]
13 Area at end of journey somewhere in India (3)
GOA: A [area] at end of GO [journey]
15 Couple of eggs — potentially boring tea (6)
OOLONG: O O [two eggs] + LONG [potentially boring]
16 Tighten up legal agreement (8)
CONTRACT: double def
18 Manoeuvring honestly or sneakily? (2,3,3)
ON THE SLY: (HONESTLY*) [“manoeuvring”]
20 Sports ground with companies backing game (6)
SOCCER: reverse all of REC COS [sports ground + companies]
23 Bit of scale revealed by fish (3)
RAY: double def. RAY as in doh-ray-mi-fah, the second note of the diatonic scale.
24 Degrees needing particular days — be avoiding one month for collection (10)
DOCTORATES: DATES [particular days], collecting OCTO{be}R [one month, but with BE “avoided”]
26 Left-wing sphere without love set about deep thinker (7)
BROODER: reverse all of RED O ORB [left-wing | sphere, “without” (as in outside of) O for love]
27 Sportsperson digesting very quiet team talk from him? (7)
SKIPPER: SKIER [sportsperson] “digesting” PP [pianissimo = very quiet]
28 Remainder to despatch? Put first bit to the back (4)
ENDS: SEND [to despatch], its first letter moved to the end
29 Possibility for “mint”: create money (10)
REMITTANCE: (MINT CREATE*) [“possibility for…”]
DOWN
1 Food — one who looked overfed? (4)
TUCK: double def with Robin Hood’s famously fat friar friend.
2 Feel astonishment meeting line produced by poet (7)
MARVELL: MARVEL [feel astonishment] meeting L [line]
3 Well as he’d done, it’s out of order to be conceited (7-6)
SWOLLEN-HEADED: (WELL AS HE’D DONE*) [“it’s out of order”]
4 Author with endless dynamism about to pen end of tale (6)
GREENE: reverse ENERG{y} [“endless” dynamism] and have it “pen” the last letter of {tal}E.
Graham Greene surely must be the author to have made most appearances in cryptics due to his helpful letters. Are there any other contenders?
5 Rider in habit, not cold (8)
ADDITION: ADDIC{t}ION [habit, losing its C for cold]
7 I start to grimace a lot — a nasty sort of pain (7)
OTALGIA: (I G{rimace} A LOT A*) [“nasty”]
8 Inferior writers presenting author with samples (10)
POETASTERS: POE [author] gets presented with TASTERS [samples]
11 Philosopher loud with obsequiousness when meeting bunch of celebrities (13)
FUNCTIONALIST: F [loud] with UNCTION [obsequiousness] meeting A-LIST [bunch of celebs].
How many functionalist philosophers can you name? I’ve got Hilary Putnam. All rather bleeding-edge for someone weaned on Plato and Aristotle, though no doubt refuted already too.
14 Intending to go on to the match? (10)
HONOURABLE: cryptic def referring not to any sporting fixture, but to one with “honourable intentions”, i.e. to marry the girl, not just waste her time. Sounds rather old-fashioned now I try to articulate it.
17 A wagon with beer brought round, offering a choice (1,2,5)
A LA CARTE: A CART [a | wagon] with ALE [beer] brought round. Set menus aren’t that much of a thing any more are they? At least not in the shabby circles I move in.
19 Your clothes designer brought up something hidden under the neck (7)
THYROID: THY [your] + DIOR reversed [mid-20th-c fashion designer Christian, “brought up”]
21 Reduce price of pile in exhibition centre that’s mounted up (7)
CHEAPEN: HEAP [pile] in NEC reversed [(Birmingham’s) exhibition centre, “that’s mounted up”]
22 What’s good in Paris — Tuilleries’s latest thing, excellent garden feature (6)
BONSAI: BON [what’s good in Paris] + {tuillerie}S + A1 [excellent]
25 Indian having long passage sealed off at either end (4)
CREE: {s}CREE{d} [long (written) passage, topped and tailed]. A usual suspect in crosswordland, due to the convenient letters. I remember by grandfather having a copy of the Bible in Cree, which was a thing of great alphabetic wonder.
Not sure I’d heard of Functionalism.
FOI was 13a GOA, I think, though I forgot to mark it. LOI was definitely the vaguely-known 8d POETASTERS, just after COUP, where I was thinking I should be taking away a C rather than adding one… COD 18a for the ironic anagram.
Edited at 2018-05-18 05:13 pm (UTC)
1) intended to go on to
2) the match, ie a word that is often matched with ‘the’