I did OK on this one, completing in 22.32, but I should own up straight away to looking up the Trojan priest. I’ll be quite surprised if it turns out I’m the only one. Otherwise it’s pretty standard fare, with a lot of “first letter” activity and a low anagram count. I’ve included a query for climatologists and geographers concerning what looks like a solecism: I promise I won’t mind if it’s me (and Wiki) that’s mistaken.
Definitions in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Relating to several terms in case about reversing on motorway (9) |
| TRINOMIAL – That’ll be x+y-z for example. I did wonder if several was a bit too many for three, but let’s not quibble. Case is TRIAL and it’s about ON reversing to give NO and M(otorway). Lost time working with “in case”, and terms to suggest word endings. [tilbee correctly points out that we need a second I in the wordplay, so it’s not just a Motorway but the M1.] | |
| 6 | Indian state importing high-class, primarily Dutch, cheese (5) |
GOUDA – The Indian state is GOA, high class is U according to Nancy Mitford*, and D is the first (primarily) of Dutch. Nice that Gouda is actually Dutch cheese.
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| 9 | Birds of prey inhabiting remoter nests (5) |
| ERNES – Another word for (usually fish-) EAGLES, and today’s hidden in remotER NESts | |
| 10 | Look around initially observing very large duck (9) |
| GOOSANDER – Look gives you the GANDER in Arthur Daley speak, insert the first (initially this time) of Observing and OS for very large, a standard abbreviation for outsize. That a goosander is a large duck is congenial. | |
| 11 | Opposed to what in France is a period piece (7) |
| ANTIQUE – Opposed ANTI and “what” in France is QUE | |
| 12 | Get too big for blooming argument about key (7) |
| OUTGROW – Flowers that are blooming are OUT, argument is ROW, and the two are surrounding G, a random key. Stick to music for that: fewer choices than on your keyboard. | |
| 13 | Person of wide culture avoiding con in survey by crew (11,3) |
| RENAISSANCE MAN – Biffed from definitions, but it’s survey giving RECONNAISSANCE minus the CON, and the verbal crew for MAN | |
| 17 | Arab maybe introducing play finally enters a turbulent area (5,9) |
| HORSE LATITUDES – Wiki unhelpfully but probably accurately says “these are are the latitudes about 30 degrees north and south of the Equator. They are characterized by sunny skies, calm winds, and very little precipitation. They are also known as subtropical ridges or highs. It is a high-pressure area at the divergence of trade winds and the westerlies.” Perhaps more knowledgeable geographers than I can justify the “turbulent” tag. Anyway the Arab is an example of a HORSE, play is LATITUDE, and add the S from the end of (finally) enterS | |
| 21 | Sibling allowed to go on excursion (7) |
| TRIPLET – Allowed LET tagged onto excursion TRIP. They don’t come much easier. | |
| 23 | Conventional way to keep home (7) |
| ROUTINE – Way is ROUTE, insert IN for home | |
| 25 | Short-lived English friend crossing border with hesitation (9) |
| EPHEMERAL – E(nglish) friend: PAL crosses (includes) HEM for border and ER for hesitation. | |
| 26 | Excuse boxer breeder intended to begin with (5) |
| ALIBI – The boxer is the immortal ALI, and then take the first letters (to begin with now) of Breeder Intended. | |
| 27 | A second set of books required on Charlie’s course (5) |
| ASCOT – A first letter-fest: A Second O(ld) T(estament) set of books and C(harlie) via Cocaine. | |
| 28 | Modern man welcoming daughter after coffee (6-3) |
| LATTER-DAY – The man is the random RAY with D(aughter) included, after LATTE ( it’s really just) coffee. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Word books somehow suit her admirably at first (8) |
| THESAURI – An anagram, the first of the day, of SUIT HER plus the first letter (another one) of Admirably. | |
| 2 | It’s supporting the Dog and Duck perhaps, is that not so? (5) |
| INNIT – Get with the yoof. The Dog and Duck we’re meant to see as a quintessential pub or INN, supported by IT in plain sight. | |
| 3 | Old boy with shiny accessories having come finally for November’s funeral rites (9) |
| OBSEQUIES – So a substitution clue: O(ld) B(oy) plus shiny SEQUINS with the N(ovember) replaced with the last letter of comE | |
| 4 | French painter’s right of access (7) |
| INGRESS – The painter is Jean-Auguste-Dominique INGRES perhaps best known (by me at least) for his Odalisque, a lady with an improbably long back in – um – plain sight. Add the S that comes after the ‘. | |
| 5 | Large stripy creature losing head, biting old Trojan priest (7) |
| LAOCOON – This is where I ran out of GK, and I was not much helped by the wordplay. I mean apart from that comedy burglar’s mask and its tail is a RACOON (from which you detach the head) a stripy creature? A zebra, sure, and a tiger, and at a push a wasp. If you know this particular detail of the Troy story, you can surmise that the L comes from L(arge) and the inserted O from O(ld). Hm. Must watch the film again, but I’ll bet he’s not there. | |
| 6 | Hard work loading flyers into posh car (5) |
| GRAFT – Your posh car is a GT, throw in the magnificent men in their flying machines from the RAF | |
| 7 | Sly subsidiary worker (9) |
| UNDERHAND – a straightforward charade: subsidiary: UNDER, worker: HAND | |
| 8 | Like pointers in a line entering track (6) |
| ARROWY – A bit of a heffalump trap? That Y on the end comes from R(ailwa)Y track. A is in plain sight, and line gives you ROW. | |
| 14 | Like some ancient stone tools transported into Chile (9) |
| NEOLITHIC – Our second anagram (transported) of INTO CHILE | |
| 15 | Persuade clubs to make way for first of these followers (9) |
| ENTOURAGE – Another substitute clue. Persuade leads you to ENCOURAGE: change the C(lubs) to the first of (again) These | |
| 16 | Bitterness of a pro abandoning riches (8) |
| ASPERITY – A once again in plain sight. Riches is (are?) PROSPERITY, take away the PRO. | |
| 18 | Genuine / error made by printer (7) |
| LITERAL – And add a third definition indicated by a pink square. | |
| 19 | Small pastry cooked later during races (7) |
| TARTLET – An anagram (cooked) of LATER inside TT for races | |
| 20 | Articles about the goddess of wisdom (6) |
| ATHENA – AN and A circling THE in plain sight. Apparently Athena’s wisdom led her to blind and the throttle LAOCOON. It’s possible you heard it here first. | |
| 22 | Restriction of note in written material (5) |
| LIMIT – The note MI (a nami I call myself) within (eg Eng) LIT | |
| 24 | Greek poem newspapers served up, ignoring French art (5) |
| ILIAD – IN which LAOCOON has his somewhat unfortunate role. Here it’s newspapers DAILIES backward (served up) minus the second person singular of the verb to be in French, which is ES. | |
18:17 (with one typo, asperiyy for asperity)
Only three minutes longer than it took to do the QC, so normalised by number of clues, I agree that it was easier than today’s QC).
Correctly got the NHO LAOCOON (although I doubted it enough to then google it to confirm yes it was a Trojan priest). Biffed Renaissance Man – needed the blog to understand the parsing.
OMG it’s all correct INNIT? If I could have sent this with fireworks I would have. Stared at the last 3 and was within a whisker of giving up but persevered and voila! Couldn’t believe it when Laocoon and Horse latitudes were correct. It’s so satisfying to trust the word play even when the GK is lacking and come up with the correct word.
Thanks Z
It’s been a long time since I encountered LAOCOON, but he used to appear quite frequently back in the 1970’s as I recall. Definitely the oddball answer in an otherwise simple enough puzzle.
FOI GOUDA
LOI LAOCOON
COD ASPERITY
TIME 5:18
The odds of one bird are quite low
So why are there two in a row?
I’d say we’ve reached our LIMIT
It’s a liberty, INNIT
This childish obsession – OUTGROW!!
Gave up after my standard 1hr with 4 wrong (badly spelled RENnaiSANCE-MAN / OBSEQUIES plus NATURAL instead of LITERAL and GOllANDER) plus unable to get ASPERITY / HORSE-LATITUDES / LAOCOON. Apart from the spelling error, I don’t feel like I was getting any of those.
On the very positive side, I was pretty much down to those in 25-mins. Had to take a BIF at TRINOMIAL and a guess at INGRESS (another NHO).
Defeated by the Trojan priest. I left the tab on my browser open and forgot all about it until a few days later, when I looked again and gave up and Googled it. Round here, at least, you would not describe raccoons (or racoons) as striped. Their tails are striped, so I had no chance of getting the answer from wordplay. I ran through my list of striped creatures (zebra, tiger) and then I thought of insects, since the clue carefully says creature. There are lots of stripy snakes too.
I’m with Hydrchoos on this puzzle’s “lack of sparkle”: got the impression the setter was trying too hard to display classical knowledge at the expense of the solver. Had heard of the LAOCOON statue, but forgot he was a priest, so was unfortunately looking for an animal cross like a tigon or a liger, as I failed to ‘lift and separate’ the “large” from the “stripy” ( as raccoons are not that large). Other NHOs were TRINOMIAL (?) and the very-unlikely sounding HORSE LATITUDES, where even the clue was apparently misguided. So, although the rest fell quite easily ( apart from ASPERITY, for which I’d always thought of as succinctness! and where I tried to enter ACRIDITY. So, not my best effort, and not all that enjoyable to boot.