A much more enjoyable effort than last Wednesday’s test, taking me about 25 minutes with the SW corner putting up some resistance at the end. I liked the 3 part construction of 9d and the Frenchness of 16d best. Have we seen 3d before? I think so. LOI was 26a.
Definitions underlined in bold, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, anagrinds italic, (deletions).
| Across | |
| 1 | Officer caught wearing little jumper that’s ornate (6) |
| ROCOCO – CO (officer) C (caught) inside ROO (a baby Kanga, little jumper). | |
| 4 | Feature inspiring answer saying something cutting (8) |
| CHAINSAW – A for answer inside CHIN for feature, then SAW for a saying. | |
| 10 | Ceremony with a grim style adopted by The King? (9) |
| POMPADOUR -POMP = ceremony, A DOUR = a grim. I’m not sure if our King is wearing a pompadour hairstyle or adopting Madame! | |
| 11 | Ally involved in machinations (5) |
| CHINA – not very hidden as above. | |
| 12 | Criticises half-hearted search for taxi to return (7) |
| REBUKES – All reversed (to return); SE( |
|
| 13 | Wager’s banked after tax for woman (7) |
| ANNETTE -ANTE (wager) has NET (after tax) inserted. | |
| 14 | Inadequate chances to seize area in retreat (5) |
| SADDO – All reversed (in retreat); ODDS = chances, insert A for area. | |
| 15 | How Spooner may serve macho male thug smuggling drug (5,3) |
| LADLE OUT – this is the first time I can remember where “Spooner” doesn’t refer to the esteemed Doctor, but to someone who spoons! LAD = macho male, LOUT = thug, insert E for drug. | |
| 18 | Tally of money ending in many killings? (8) |
| COINCIDE -very droll. COIN for money, ‘CIDE’ being the ending of many ‘killing’ words; fratricide, homicide… | |
| 20 | Squirrel away from tip of Chile pine (5) |
| CACHE – C( |
|
| 23 | Cockney’s present wish soon given poetic form (7) |
| ERELONG – ‘ERE being Cockney for HERE, = present; LONG (for) = wish (for). | |
| 25 | Falls in a river over to the west (7) |
| NIAGARA -all reversed (to the west); A, R, AGAIN = over. | |
| 26 | Maybe ensure no shooting from football team without right back (5) |
| UNARM – reverse (back); MAN U ‘without’ R. Does this mean chop off your arms? Or is it the same as disarm? | |
| 27 | Passed with top grade, after clear knowledge (9) |
| OVERTAKEN – OVERT = clear, A top grade, KEN = knowledge. | |
| 28 | What could be sigh or dry, rough cough? (3,5) |
| EYE RHYME – I couldn’t get this one until I had the checkers from 19d and 22d so E*E had to be EYE, then I recalled what an eye rhyme was; rough and cough, for example, look as if they rhyme but they don’t. Or here and there. | |
| 29 | Decorous or forward? I need to think about that (6) |
| PROPER – PROP a front row forward in rugby, ER… | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sharper novel contains English word again (8) |
| REPHRASE – (SHARPER E)*. | |
| 2 | Makeshift retirement arrangement affected teacher (4,3) |
| CAMP BED – well, an affected teacher can be a camp Bachelor of Education. | |
| 3 | Tough approach to solve a clue like this (9) |
| CRACKDOWN – if you solve a down clue such as this, you CRACK a DOWN clue. | |
| 5 | Lady’s with Fancy Dan, hiding in bush? They’re lovers (4,3,7) |
| HERO AND LEANDER – HER (lady’s) OLEANDER (type of bush) insert (DAN)*. Or biff it if you knew the Greek story. | |
| 6 | Preserved from civilisation once (5) |
| INCAN -if it’s IN CAN, it’s preserved, waiting for a tin opener. | |
| 7 | Asian pressing suit has to fail (7) |
| SHIATSU -(SUIT HAS)*. It’s a kind of Japanese massage. | |
| 8 | Sailor healthier after whiskey (6) |
| WHALER – W for whiskey (why the Irish one?) HALER = healthier. | |
| 9 | Where one sees patient official can tidy up (10,4) |
| CONSULTING ROOM – CONSUL (official) TIN (can) GROOM (tidy up). Nice construction. | |
| 16 | Parisian in to sing is one with charms (9) |
| ENCHANTER -EN French for in, CHANTER French verb infinitive ‘to sing’. | |
| 17 | A rentier’s high fee paid up front (8) |
| RETAINER -(A RENTIER)*. | |
| 19 | Media reporting that leader’s abandoned excess (7) |
| OVERAGE – COVERAGE loses its leading C. | |
| 21 | Raise standing entering competition (5,2) |
| CRANK UP – RANK (standing) inside CUP (competition). | |
| 22 | Hosting queen, fetch up rug (6) |
| PERUKE – ER for Her Majesty, inside PUKE. Rug as in wig. | |
| 24 | Dash round repeatedly with speed (5) |
| OOMPH – O O (round repeatedly) MPH (miles per hour). | |
10m 27s, with the last two and a half minutes spent on COINCIDE – took me that long to start thinking about the other meanings of tally. Very nice, even if it didn’t stretch the possibilities of the idea: e.g. ‘Tally killing a bit?’
36 mins but I had to look up PERUKE and EYE RHYME, both NHO and as they intersected, I was never going to get them.
No problem with PERUKE – have fond??? memories of children and grandchildren “mewling and puking in the (parent’s/grandparent’s) arms”. As others have noted, some dictionaries (Chambers included) link the word with periwig.
A spoonful of syrup or two?
Just under 20 minutes for this intelligent and witty offering. I liked the invention of COIN-CIDE and the non-Spoonerism, and (now that I understand the eye-rhymes-with-sigh-and-dry connection) the concoction for EYE RHYME. For this, I tentatively essayed EAR RHYME (probably an invention) while wondering what cough and rough were suggesting.
Interestingly (well I think so) Chambers doesn’t really allow the Elvis version of POMPADOUR, which I didn’t spot anyway, concentrating on Madame’s hairstyle which was a great deal higher, together with other non-hairy meanings which I didn’t know.
Always good to have a crossword where there is pleasure to be had from working out the wordplay after an inspired biff, such as for both of the long ones and the taxi bit.
On a technical note, could I also mention my delight that on the new site, nobody can see the damning “edited at (time)” which always used to betray the fact you hadn’t properly proof read your entry.
20:21.Nno problem with EYE RHYME, but the Spooner trickery foxed me for a while even after I guessed L OUT was going to feature. Spent a while wondering if CRACKDOWN had a similarly constructed synonym ending in O so I could fit in genocide. But it hasn’t and eventually I didn’t need to. Fun puzzle.
Like many others defeated by the Sw corner. Didn’t know peruke and misinterpreted the direction by looking for an alternative word for fetch in backward form.
Just over the hour on this one but did quite enjoy it. I was slowed down by entering “Ear Rhyme” (bonkers, I know) until I finally saw “Overage”. I was also very slow to see “Annette” for some reason.
Could the decline of that civilisation be referred to as Incan Descent? Is that a clue we’ve seen before?
PERUKE was archaic and quaint
Not sure if that’s quite a complaint
It turns out that CHAINSAW
Chimes well with POMPADOUR
But an EYE-RHYME it certainly ain’t
I didn’t know Peruke or fetch up in that sense, so you know what corner I had problems with. Cute that the highbrow/lowbrow adoptive King could have been Louis or Elvis. I still think of Uber as a brand of hire-cars or taxi substitutes, so I looked unfavourably on the product placement.
38 mins – half of them on coincide! Grrr. Slight falter at Leander, mixing her (it is a she, right?) with Lysander.
No, Hero is the girl. Leander swam across the Hellespont(Dardanelles) every night to be with her.
Great puzzle Took me a long time. Just finished it. LOI EYE RHYME.
18.42. Not too shabby. The non-Spoonerism Spooner had me going for a while.
DNF
Struggled and gave up the ghost on the hour
Two unsolved
PERUKE – see comments passim
COINCIDE – see Keriothe’s comments even to the point of cheating but still not getting it. Actually missed the -cide idea so was a long way from understanding what was going on
Otherwise, think I enjoyed it. Uber one to remember
Thanks all