Time: 21 minutes
Music: Elgar, Enigma Variations, Boult/LSO.
Not so easy a Monday, for a change. I made a decent time only because I biffed like mad, and only used the cryptics when needed. This setter used a lot of wordy and indirect literals, as you often find in Mephisto and puzzles like that. I did have a little trouble finishing, though, but then I saw how my LOI worked and finished. I suspect many beginners would be rather baffled by some of the indirection here, and there are very few chestnuts or obvious anagrams.
| Across | |
| 1 | Clinging drunk associated with southern family (9) |
| SKINTIGHT – S KIN + TIGHT, where the trick is to get the elements in the right order. | |
| 6 | In leading clubs one creates talking point (5) |
| TOPIC – TOP(I)C, not exactly, but close. | |
| 9 | Fugitive taking cover inside English diocese (7) |
| ESCAPEE – E S(CAP)EE. | |
| 10 | We are not starting marathon soon (7) |
| ERELONG – [w]E’RE LONG. | |
| 11 | Monkey we might catch in this American city (5) |
| TAMPA – Sounds like TAMPER – I nearly biffed Tempe. | |
| 12 | Nuclear scientist appearing as NHS boiler explodes (5,4) |
| NIELS BOHR – Anagram of NHS BOILER. | |
| 13 | Having ducks in horses area causes commotion (3-2) |
| HOO-HA – H(O,O)H + A, a simple single-letter charade. | |
| 14 | Two possible newspapers coming round see church feature (5,4) |
| ORGAN LOFT – ORGAN (LO) FT, newspapers you often see in cryptic clues. | |
| 17 | Great soldier cross when entering a famous rowing club (9) |
| ALEXANDER – A LE(X)ANDER,. The real Leander was a swimmer, not a rower, but the name of the club is easy to guess if you don’t know it. | |
| 18 | Husband involved in manoeuvre for some time (5) |
| WHILE – W(H)ILE. | |
| 19 | Hulk perhaps has delightful woman round (9) |
| SUPERHERO – SUPER HER + O. | |
| 22 | Irish breaking step in skating competition (5) |
| PAIRS -PA(IR)S. | |
| 24 | Bridewell one that would do for Dickens? (3,4) |
| OLD NICK – Double definition, the first merely descriptive. | |
| 25 | Letter attached to old poem about Dubai for example (7) |
| EMIRATE – ETA + RIME backwards. | |
| 26 | Rugby man and Lisle the worse for wear (5) |
| ELLIS – ELLIS, the obvious answer, but who? Research reveals the answer: William Webb Ellis. | |
| 27 | Grouse put on pan makes for traditional fare (5,4) |
| ROAST BEEF – ROAST + BEEF, in various senses. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Piano, delivered outside, provides beat (5) |
| SPENT – S(P)ENT. | |
| 2 | Hassle as government department cuts pay (9) |
| INCOMMODE – INCOM(MOD)E. | |
| 3 | Boss to lead with article, followed by stories (3,6) |
| TOP BANANA – TO + PB + AN + ANA. Instinctively, you’ll think to lead = top, but that’s not it – back to chemistry class. | |
| 4 | One knocking forest spirits? (5,10) |
| GREEN WOODPECKER – GREENWOOD + PECKER. The UK had to hurriedly revise their slang when the GIs showed up. | |
| 5 | Gay musical in which George Best playing with a harp (3,7,5) |
| THE BEGGARS OPERA – Anagram of GEORGE BEST + A HARP, a musical entertainment by John Gay. | |
| 6 | Something of a shock — tension initially relieved (5) |
| TRESS – [s]TRESS, cleverly clued as not the whole shock. | |
| 7 | Nothing to add to concert advertisement (5) |
| PROMO – PROM + O. | |
| 8 | Deceptively great in name, one serving drag performer? (9) |
| CIGARETTE – CI(anagram of GREAT)TE, with an elaborate bit of misdirection for the literal. | |
| 13 | Makes tracks for Tyneside region, passing information on here? (9) |
| HEADSTONE – HEADS TO NE, another clever literal. | |
| 15 | Times for one on this recent run (9) |
| NEWSPRINT – NEW SPRINT, where unwary biffers will put newspaper. | |
| 16 | Start to speak pompously having necked one drink (9) |
| ORIGINATE – OR(1 GEN)ATE. | |
| 20 | Reported deal in work with press from Oxford? (5) |
| PEDAL – Sounds like PEDDLE, with another tricky literal. Not the OUP, but the shoe. | |
| 21 | Hawk-headed god exists to save lake birds (5) |
| RAILS – RA + I(L)S. I can’t keep my Egyptian gods straight, and nearly biffed Horus. | |
| 23 | Book-keeper making flesh creep (5) |
| SHELF – Anagram of FLESH, with more good indirection. | |
I raced through this one at first, but by the end I was really being put through my paces! The lower-left corner involved a lot of half-guessing on my part, and in the end I could only convince myself of PEDAL as “reported deal in work” (homophone of PETAL in a wooden design?) or “press from Oxford?” as Vinyl explained.
In any case, a fine time for me, rescued by most of the puzzle being on the nose. Much thanks to Vinyl for all the explanations!
PS. So Bridewell is an old prison?
The needlessly chopped up sentence fragment, “Gay musical in which George Best playing with a harp” irritated me greatly. It’s worse than the most elliptical New York Post headline, and would have been so easy to fix. You couldn’t do “George Best playing with a harp in gay musical,” of course, because you can’t uncap “Gay”; but “plays” works just as well as “playing,” no?
The WOODPECKER was my POI (ORGAN LOFT last), and I realize now that I didn’t really parse it.
Edited at 2021-04-05 03:05 pm (UTC)
Although it’s a point lost on most and probably the setter, as a nostalgia buff I enjoyed the clue as a reminder of another Gay who wrote musicals, namely Noel Gay (1888-1954) whose most famous work ‘Me and My Girl’ is often revived to this day. It’s otherwise remembered as the show that gave us ‘The Lambeth Walk’.
Didn’t know GREEN WOODPECKER as a specific bird and didn’t parse EMIRATE.
FOI 12ac NIELS BOHR – my grandfather played football with him and brother Harald at Cambridge. How’s about that for name-dropping Jack!?
LOI and COD 23dn SHELF!
WOD ORGAN LOFT – as per Nicholson & Lord.
Quantum of time: between 33 and 35 minutes.
Edited at 2021-04-05 04:44 pm (UTC)
My favourite Bohr:
“No, no, you’re not thinking; you’re just being logical.”
Would anybody but a physicist say that?