Nothing too much to frighten the horses here, though it helps if you are familar with the Bible, the wives of Henry VIII and legalese.
21:02
| Across | |
| 1 | Do for one bishop and cleric, looking back (4) |
| VERB – reversal of B REV | |
| 4 | Performer, one sensible about places like London, not half (10) |
| RECITALIST – CIT |
|
| 9 | Pub about to sway with English song (10) |
| BARCAROLLE – BAR CA ROLL E; normally spelt with just one l | |
| 10 | Veg, not quite enough for a feast (4) |
| BEAN – BEAN |
|
| 11 | Prisoner with fantastic chatter (6) |
| CONFAB – CON FAB | |
| 12 | Scottish town hospital attended by a poet (8) |
| HAMILTON – H A MILTON; best known for its football team, Hamilton Academical | |
| 14 | Royal survivor giving what is expected to an audience (4) |
| PARR – sound like PAR; Catherine Parr was Henry VIII’s last wife, surviving him by a year and a bit. Claims to fame: with four husbands, she is the most-married English queen; she was the first woman to publish an original work under her own name, in English, in England. | |
| 15 | Is part-time working offering a sense of togetherness? (4,6) |
| TEAM SPIRIT – anagram* of IS PART TIME | |
| 17 | Oliver’s college? (10) |
| GOLDSMITHS – The Goldsmiths’ College (commonly called Goldsmiths) is part of the University of London. Although playwrights and novelist Oliver Goldsmith (She Stoops to Conquer, The Vicar of Wakefield) was educated in Dublin and Edinburgh, in a whimsical universe, he might be considered to have something to do with this place. | |
| 20 | Member turning to entertain a Highlander? (4) |
| GAEL – A in LEG reversed | |
| 21 | Fool was unwell, being attacked (8) |
| ASSAILED – ASS AILED | |
| 23 | Strip joint vulgar, first to go (6) |
| DENUDE – DEN |
|
| 24 | Diary about daughter is something precious (4) |
| GOLD – LOG reversed D | |
| 25 | Excessively severe maidens possibly conned, we hear (10) |
| OVERSTRICT – OVERS (maiden overs in cricket are those in which no runs may be debited against the bowler – simple game, isn’t it?) sounds like ‘tricked’ | |
| 26 | Annoys sides playing with interrupting requests (10) |
| DISPLEASES – PLEAS in SIDES* | |
| 27 | Report of solitary advance (4) |
| LOAN – sounds like ‘lone’ | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Old evil upset speakers — they may go into further detail (11) |
| ELABORATORS – reversal of BALE (archaic word for ‘evil, woe, injury’) ORATORS (speakers) | |
| 3 | Support given to female, one Socialist, worked out badly (9) |
| BACKFIRED – BACK (support) F I RED | |
| 4 | Food that is eagerly sought by numismatist? (7) |
| RAREBIT – a coin-collector might be on the lookout for a rare bit, a bit being a small coin | |
| 5 | Lack of concern shown briefly by Vicky and Priscilla (15) |
| COLDHEARTEDNESS – C (the abbreviation for cold) is the medial letter of the two girls, who therefore show ‘coldheartedness’; I wanted this to be halfheartedness | |
| 6 | Jolly lot with very big drink container? (7) |
| THERMOS – THE RM (jolly lot, AKA the Royal Marines) OS (outsize) | |
| 7 | That is the day for assassination, foremost of tragedies (2,3) |
| ID EST – IDES (of March, when Caesar copped it) T |
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| 8 | Musical group turning up that may be in the groove (5) |
| TENON – reversal of NONET; a tenon a projection on the end of a piece of wood | |
| 13 | Legal opinions in old rambling diatribe enthralling court (6,5) |
| OBITER DICTA – CT (court) in O (old) DIATRIBE*; an observation by a judge on some point of law not directly in issue (often made with a faint smile masking a tremendous sense of inner satisfaction) | |
| 16 | Popular army officer usually (2,7) |
| IN GENERAL – IN GENERAL; not difficult | |
| 18 | Bloke holding drunk up is a sugary type (7) |
| MALTOSE – reversal of SOT (crossword drunken guy) in MALE; also called malt sugar | |
| 19 | Scorn during school tests — they inflict unnecessary pain (7) |
| SADISTS – DIS (scorn [verb]) in SATS; I know SATs as US tests (examinations taken by those wishing to enter a college or university: ‘Scholastic Aptitude Tests’), but I see they also have them for seven-year-olds in England and Wales to test ability (‘Standard Assessment Tasks’) | |
| 21 | Cold? It’s good to wear a hat (5) |
| ALGID – G (good) in A LID (slang for ‘hat’) | |
| 22 | Sarah is turning up as apostle’s companion (5) |
| SILAS – reversal of SAL (diminutive of Sarah) IS; Silas (who accompanied Paul on some of his journeys) pops up in the ‘Acts of the Apostles’ and a few other places in the New Testament. | |
10:38. I found this quite tricky, particularly the top half which was almost completely blank for some time.
Not timed, but after a slow start it all trickled in nicely. Coldheartedness went in with a smile once I saw it. In my neck of the woods a confab is called a conflab, but I see from the dictionaries that they mean the same thing.
I breezed through most of of this but got held up at the end by a mis-biffed SALSA which held up DISPLEASES until ALGID arrived and I rethought the A and came up with SILAS as the penny dropped. That left me with -A-R at 14a and a full 5 minutes elapsed before multiple alphabet trawls got to R as the third letter. Another huge clang as the penny dropped! 27:24. Thanks setter and U.
41 minutes or so, held up by DISPLEASED and PARR. The latter resisting an alphabet trawl but instantly emerging after a Netflix break.
Pleased to finish in a reasonable (for me) time of 38.24, with a steady solve through to completion. Like others I hesitated long over my LOI DISPLEASES, trying to convince myself that DISTRESSES must be right before the truth dawned. The legal phrase was unknown to me, but I managed to get it by arranging the letters to form something that looked as if was a legal term.
32’38”
Found the going a little testing, stayed on doggedly.
Silas was a little speculative, but it sounded biblical and so seemed fairly likely to have been chummy with an apostle. He must have been a patient man; wasn’t it Paul who brought back to life a young man who’d defenestrated himself from a window seat? It was the least he could do, given that his sermon had been so riveting that the lad had fallen asleep.
Parr came to mind quite quickly; possibly because I’m trying to come up with a hypothetical but feasible scorecard that yields four different results in a round pitting my 28 handicap against my local’s landlord (scratch but rusty) using strokeplay, Stableford, matchplay and bisques.
An enjoyable tussle; thank you setter and Ulaca.
My FOI was 11ac Powwow, which fits nicely until the rest of the crossword intervenes.
I’m afraid I entered Hair – never thought of Parr – oh dear. Apart from that, 40 minutes.
The thing I understand least about this puzzle is why everyone is saying it was easy, since I found it nearly impossible. But after an hour and a half, I had filled in everything more or less correctly. Unfortunately, I was so exhausted I didn’t do my usual proofreading before submission, so I left unchanged OBIRET DICTA, which I was planning to change (but perhaps to another wrong answer). That was my only mistake, so I did actually get a large number of unknowns right (BARCAROLLE, CONFAB [and not POWWOW], PARR just vaguely remembered, GOLDSMITHS, ALGID). On 3dn, I was held up by being certain the support given to female would be a BRA, but that conviction ceded to reason in the end. Nice puzzle, if somewhat of a torture.
Well, towards the end of this I was hanging onto my mount for dear life. Having successfully remembered Barcarol(l)e from goodness knows where, and feeling similarly smug that Parr and Coldheartedness were write-ins, I crashed out with nho Algid as a no-show, and also had to check that Bale was valid for evil. My last pair, the Recitalist Rarebit, took forever, since I was starting from Capitals/London and looking for a food sounding coin 🙄. However, I did really enjoy 6d, Thermos. Invariant
This was going swimmingly until the North East did for me. At this point after 40 minutes I usually give up and turn to the blog, but alto-ego nudged me into being more tenacious. So here I am with my night cap completing the puzzle. Despite the extended play I was pleased to finish despite all the obscurities others have mentioned, and feeling rather smug to have bunged Parr straight in this morning.
Thank you Ulaca
My horse was scared by NHO BARCAROLLE, on which I gave up. Guessed the Latin and ALGID. Pleased to work out COD PARR though.
21.21
Expected the blog to reveal I had made up NHO ALGID, but pleasantly surprised. Thought it a good challenge; thanks all.