A more meaty and esoteric puzzle than we’ve had on a Wednesday for a while, which I really enjoyed. I particularly liked the “short stay in French hotel” and the astronomical clue at 16d, which were my last two to be solved. 18a was an unknown to me but gettable from the wordplay.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | A time to abandon overdone religious ceremony (4) |
| RITE – TRITE (overdone) deletes a T. | |
| 3 | Boss one in recent times restricted in cramped lodging? (6,4) |
| STUDIO FLAT – STUD (boss) I (one) OF LAT[E] = in recent times losing the end / restricted. | |
| 10 | Posh mariner in hat avoiding lake and river (9) |
| TRIBUTARY – TRILBY = hat, delete the L, insert U TAR = posh mariner. | |
| 11 | Clown Launcelot covering two bachelors in slime (5) |
| GOBBO – GOO (slime) has B B (two bachelors) inserted. Launcelot Gobbo as in The Merchant of Venice, which I did for O Level in 1963. | |
| 12 | Crime related to stolen goods receiver (7) |
| OFFENCE – OF (related to) FENCE (stolen goods receiver). | |
| 13 | King murdered in dark and gloomy prison (6) |
| DUNCAN – DUN (dark and gloomy) CAN (slang for prison). As in The Scottish Play. | |
| 15 | 2 of 25 behind with credit given by wine people (15) |
| PROCRASTINATION – “procrastination is the thief of time” being a well known phrase, originally from the poem “Night-thoughts” by Edward Young in 1742; see answers to 2d and 25 below. PRO (behind, backing) CR (credit) ASTI (sort of wine) NATION (people). | |
| 18 | Company calls about poor lads maltreated in resort (8,7) |
| COLORADO SPRINGS – CO RINGS (company calls) with (POOR LADS)* inserted. I’d never heard of this particular city,so got it from the checkers and anagrist, although apparently it’s home to about half a million people; no doubt our transatlantic friends will be more familiar with it. | |
| 21 | Skate home? Notice daughter holding a book (6) |
| SEABED – SEE D = notice daughter, insert A B[ook]. | |
| 23 | Upheaval at Cape Canaveral? (7) |
| LIFTOFF – cryptic definition. | |
| 26 | Short stay in French hotel for White House resident? (5) |
| INUIT – “une nuit” would be a short, one-night stay in a French hotel, so I NUIT. Some inuits still live in igloos I presume. | |
| 27 | Ecstasy taken into pub by super star group (5,4) |
| GREAT BEAR – GREAT (super) BAR (pub) insert E. Not a great clue, though, IMO. | |
| 28 | Free issue includes image facing the wrong way (10) |
| EMANCIPATE – EMANATE (issue) has PIC reversed inserted. | |
| 29 | Network in muddle, as Connery would have had it? (4) |
| MESH – 007 star Sean Connery was often the subject of debate as to whether he had a lisp or just a distinctive Scottish way of pronouncing things. If he said MESS (muddle) it might have sounded like MESH. Many of Connery’s more profound utterances are on record, such as “I am a Scotsman! I was a Scotsman and I will always be one.” | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Review top secret revelation’s source after decoding (10) |
| RETROSPECT – (TOP SECRET R)*, the R being “revelation’s source”. | |
| 2 | Tea leaf from tea in Paris to impress one female (5) |
| THIEF – THÉ being French for tea, insert I and add F for female. Tea-leaf being CRS for thief. | |
| 4 | Went over point, reflecting, having introduced poetry (9) |
| TRAVERSED – DART = point, reverse it and insert VERSE for poetry. | |
| 5 | Nymph in wood unbalanced, lacking warmth for male (5) |
| DRYAD – MAD = unbalanced, swap M[ale] for DRY meaning lacking warmth. | |
| 6 | Last letter in newspaper a sheer fabrication? (7) |
| ORGANZA – ORGAN (newspaper) Z (last letter) A. | |
| 7 | One in Larkin’s position, 51, very naughty boy accepting God (9) |
| LIBRARIAN – LI (51) BRIAN (“he’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy” as in Monty Python’s Life of Brian) insert RA an Egyptian god. Philip Larkin was a librarian in Hull and a poet. | |
| 8 | Old city queen featured in play (4) |
| TROY – R for queen inside TOY (with) = play (with). | |
| 9 | Artist using lathe? (6) |
| TURNER – witty cryptic definition. | |
| 14 | An award taken by Scots river along with other things? (3,2,5) |
| AND SO FORTH – AN, DSO (military award) FORTH (Scots river). | |
| 16 | What’s observed in 27, flying low, unable to change course? (3,6) |
| OWL NEBULA – I’d vaguely heard of this although wouldn’t have been able to tell you in which constellation you’d find it. It does look a little like one of my favourite birds, though. It’s in the Great Bear, as this clue and 27a tells you. Parsed as (LOW)* then (UNABLE)*. https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/astrophotography/nebulae/owl-nebula/ |
|
| 17 | Broke in thus — lever initially opening (9) |
| INSOLVENT – IN, VENT (opening), insert SO (thus) L[ever]. | |
| 19 | Unthinking nonsense keeping old boy in charge (7) |
| ROBOTIC – ROT (nonsense) insert OB (old boy) add IC (in charge). | |
| 20 | Deny match official cup ties on a regular basis (6) |
| REFUTE – REF (match official) c U p T i E s. | |
| 22 | Find good university in Bath (3,2) |
| DIG UP – G U inside DIP = bath. | |
| 24 | Is it extra stout that’s inside to be selected? (5) |
| OBESE – hidden as above. | |
| 25 | Frenchman in relationship for an age? (4) |
| TIME – M (monsieur) inside TIE (relationship). Time as in “of our time / age”. | |
A crossword of average difficulty, I’d say. I didn’t quite finish as I was defeated by SEABED and INUIT, also I couldn’t really parse DRYAD and I’m still not all that convinced by the explanation but it couldn’t have been anything else . I’d long forgotten GOBBO, though I did do The Merchant of Venice at school. No problems with INUIT as an answer though, as I’d never even heard of ‘Inuk’ before reading these comments tbh. It’s odd that ‘emancipate’ appeared in both the Times and Guardian today. Thanks to the setter for an enjoyable puzzle!
Reached 9d TURNER before putting my FOI so I wasn’t expecting to do well but persevered and completed it over a couple of sessions. Last 2 were INUIT and OWL NEBULA like some others.
Some biffing as usual so thanks to all for the parsings.
So what’s a poor Nowty to do
When presented with 16 the clue?
Celebrate with good grace
A thing found in space
Or admit that the OWL made me blue?
17.08. Late to the party: busy day.
Dryad (5 down) very hard to parse. I spent ages thinking about it. An alternative to Piquet’s parsing could be: wry (unbalanced) – admittedly archaic but has the meaning contorted (of features); take off the ‘w’ (lacking warmth); add around (‘for’) dad (male).
Really enjoyed this and thought I was in for a good time, but for some reason failed to see INUIT, which is now my COD, along with SEA BED ( skate home!). Did not know that Larkin was a librarian, and didn’t clock the reference for Brian ( though I know the movie well). All that to my shame, as I felt uplifted by the clever clueing and sneaky definitions (spent ages looking for a BUSH or an IKE in 26 across). NHO OWL NEBULA, but easily parsed due to cross-referencing , but had forgotten the name of the king in the Scottish play …d’oh!