This puzzle features a couple of those otiose indefinite articles so unbeloved of our resident setter, as well as an example of an ‘a’ being gainfully employed. We have another example of a punctuation clue (a type which seems to be all the rage at the moment), as well as another visit to Ilium, much frequented by the over-wintering compiler. At 13 across, we also have a clue I can’t fully get my head round. But it seems ingenious and I loves me a bit of ingenuity.
But far be it from me to suggest this is in any way an inferior offering. As always, I enjoyed the challenge – the irritating bits, the quirky bits and all. It stands as a metaphor of the marital state.
23:47
| Across | |
| 1 | Next to sex we French like wine (6) |
| VINOUS – VI (six in Latin, AKA ‘sex’) NOUS (‘we’ in French); a nice one to kick off with | |
| 5 | Robbers finally caught and punished (8) |
| STRAPPED – [robber]S TRAPPED (caught) | |
| 9 | Senior officers nearly all perished in rebellion (10) |
| LEADERSHIP – anagram* of AL[l] PERISHED; ‘in rebellion’ is the anagram indicator, while the deletion of the final letter in the target word is indicated by ‘nearly’. This seems a bit odd to me, but maybe I am now finding oddness everywhere… | |
| 10 | Politician in city of Paris making right move (4) |
| TORY – TROY with the letter R moving towards Galatia and Pontus | |
| 11 | Bloody duck — its neck’s all pink! (8) |
| FLAMINGO – FLAMING (bloody, as in Till Death Us Do Part Alf Garnett speak: ‘flaming [immigrants]’) O (score of nought, or duck, in cricket) | |
| 12 | What unites neo–Marxists? (6) |
| HYPHEN – our punctuation clue du jour | |
| 13 | On way back deliver £1000 weapon (4) |
| DIRK – |
|
| 15 | Cockney gets too hot and goes on binge (8) |
| OVEREATS – sounds pretty much like ‘overheats’ as spoken by a stage Cockney, and many a real one, I would hazard | |
| 18 | Sailor straying? That’s peculiar (8) |
| ABERRANT – AB (able seaman) ERRANT (straying) | |
| 19 | Heartless modern flirts (4) |
| TOYS – TO[da]YS; as in ‘today’s kids don’t know how lucky they are’ | |
| 21 | Medic on track nursing rebel fighter (6) |
| CONTRA – hidden in [Medi]C ON TRA[ck] | |
| 23 | Better to expose indecent act? (8) |
| OUTSTRIP – OUT (expose) STRIP (indecent act – rather depends who’s doing it, I’d have thought) | |
| 25 | Player at Lord’s knocking back the lager? (4) |
| SLIP – PILS reversed; slip is a cricketing fielding position next to gully | |
| 26 | This will wound a greedy person’s heart (10) |
| PIGSTICKER – PIG (a greedy person – another errant ‘a’, no?) TICKER (heart) | |
| 27 | In court historic charge causes apprehension (4,4) |
| COLD FEET – OLD (historic) FEE (charge) in CT (court) | |
| 28 | Tax inherited property (6) |
| STRAIN – double definition (DD), the second genetic | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Romantic declaration of a pusher? (5) |
| IDEAL – a drug dealer (pusher) might say I DEAL, but not to the police, presumably | |
| 3 | Occasional builder holding second job at bookies (9) |
| ODDSMAKER – S (second) in ODD (occasional as in ‘I have the odd cigar’) MAKER (builder) | |
| 4 | Analyst finding quiet place to skate (6) |
| SHRINK – SH RINK | |
| 5 | Plato’s Academy perhaps providing a particular perspective (6,2,7) |
| SCHOOL OF THOUGHT – pretty much a DD (complete with dangling article) | |
| 6 | Crooked husband peers at list of his convictions? (3,5) |
| RAP SHEET – H (husband) PEERS AT* | |
| 7 | Host running one way and another (3,2) |
| PUT UP – the letters read the same from the top and the bottom; unaccountably I had ‘put on’ (NOT UP when reversed) for too long | |
| 8 | Seriously premature to enter hideout? On the contrary (9) |
| EARNESTLY – not EARLY in NEST, but NEST in EARLY; I’m not a huge fan of this type of clue | |
| 14 | Corrupt oil rig mob in a dilemma (9) |
| IMBROGLIO – OIL RIG MOB* (plus a dangler) | |
| 16 | Hurry back to collect official vehicle (6,3) |
| ESTATE CAR – STATE (as in ‘state funeral’) in RACE reversed | |
| 17 | Disturbing letters in papal bed: a malign influence? (3,5) |
| BAD APPLE – PAPAL BED* (with dangler) | |
| 20 | Importance of figures executor initially concealed (6) |
| STATUS – STATU[e]S (STATUES with no initial letter of E[xecutor]) | |
| 22 | Drank too much in station, keeling over (5) |
| TOPED – reversal (keeling over) of DEPOT | |
| 24 | Rebellious Brits get rid of National Insurance (5) |
| ICENI – ICE (get rid of) NI; the tribe based in modern-day Norfolk led by Boudica (AKA Boudicca and Boadicea) | |
12:41. Rather pleased – and a bit surprised- at my time. It seemed tougher while solving, but in the end took about the same time as today’s QC. ICENI fished from somewhere deep, but otherwise no particular quibbles, unknowns or pauses.
30:12 today, faster than normal for me. I really like the punctuation clues, and was slow to spot this one. I thought this was an excellent crossword, with good surfaces throughout, although I agree Northern Ireland in 24dn would have been good. Until coming here, I hadn’t fully understood VINOUS, TOYS and STATUS, so I appreciated the blog, and thank you also to setter. Belated HNY to all.
39:17, a few minutes of which was making sure DIRK was right. I wasn’t fully convinced by “deliver” = RID as you wouldn’t use them the same way in speech – “rid X of Y” vs “deliver X from Y” – but perhaps that’s not important.
Enjoyable puzzle with some neat tricks I’ll try (and fail) to remember. More punctuation that took me an alphabet trawl to get… I don’t usually think much about surfaces but there are a lot of nice ones – with quite an emphasis on illegal or disreputable behaviour! Thanks ulaca & S.
Doesn’t ‘Will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest?’ get close to the mark? Feels fine to me. An enjoyable and pretty straightforward solve today, with no time owing to an interruption from the telephone.
32.19
A pleasant start to the year.
I’m another who had PUT ON for some time making the Neo-Marxists very tricky. Dilemma seems a stretch for IMBROGLIO. Clues of the “On the contrary ” type are my least favourite but then I love Spoonerisms which some others can’t stand, so each to their own. I liked PIGSTICKER and SCHOOL OF THOUGHT.
Thanks to Ulaca and the setter
A bit ho-hum, and I failed to parse VINOUS.
FOI TORY
LOI COLD FEET
COD PIGSTICKER
TIME 7:55
DNF in the time I allowed myself- couldn’t see 23a and 5d, and bunged in STATES at 20d. On the other hand, I got HYPHEN. DIRK and ICENI entered without really knowing those definitions of ‘rid’.
I saw Ulaca’s opening remarks late last night and decided not to tackle this until I’d had a good sleep. Happily finished in time to be only the 42nd commenter! (Considering the light traffic here on the holiday, I could still be the last.) And I liked it very much. Removing two letters from the “center” of a word gave me some slight pause, and my memory got a workout from a few of the answers (ICENI, say), but this was just what I needed to start a lovely day off work. Temperature in the mid-50s (Fahrenheit, bien sûr).
A bit late in the day but 1ac reminded me of one of my favourite clues from a few years ago:
“Roman sex position daughters came to see (7)” VISITED.
Sorry, I thought I had made a note of the date and puzzle number but I hadn’t.
It may not be Twelfth Night yet but Christmas is officially over: I’ve now finished off the panettone and the stollen.
Seeing I am not alone with STATES, I don’t feel quite so bad (and am very tired, anyway). When I saw the pink square, I knew right away what I should have entered and why. 33 minutes with only the one error. Hard to rate this puzzle (very tired, as I said).
22’09” but with a mistake. Back after two weeks away from the laptop, I must be getting lax. Saw figures as STATS, so put in an ‘e’ for STATES. Don’t ask how I managed to square it. The eager mind will grasp at anything. Lesson learned. Otherwise does sex not need some qualifier like Latin for it to mean six? Thanks all
26 minutes, late in the day after golf competition on a nice day. Not problems, all parsed, good puzzle. I’m not a fan of “ice” for getting rid of people, especially without a us reference. VINOUS was neat.
16.20. Recognised vinous for 1 ac but to my shame didn’t get the reference to Latin. Almost messed up earnestly by inserting den for hideout . A lucky escape.
LOI status. COD Iceni, though pig sticker was pretty good too.
Thx setter and blogger. Happy New Year everyone, hope it’s better than the last.
2.38.41. Ready for a cold towel round my head.
Maybe i misunderstood reading the blog for 1ac…
but isnt VI=Sex, the slightly crude Vaginal Intercourse?
Yep, you misunderstood the blog. Six in Latin is “sex” (e.g. as in sextet) and VI is of course Roman for 6.
Fabulous, thanks for clarifying.
It restores my faith in the more erudite nature of the clues.
Solved on treeware without aids, for the first time in a month. Presumably our month-long delay in publication in Australia has enabled revival of little grey cells after midwinter and lunar new year revels.
Thanks setter, and blogger. CoD earnestly.
Enjoyed, but should have done better: NHO PIGSTICKER, was looking for an exotic duck in 11a (!), and left the DIRK indrawn. Didn’t spot the hidden at 21a, to my shame, and left 28a blank (didn’t think of that meaning of tax).
But started of with a triumphant SCHOOL OF THOUGHT – great surface as were most of the others .