Solving time: 9.24, which felt as if it should have been faster. I didn’t think this was a very interesting puzzle; quite a few of the clues just seemed to lack inspiration and to be the most obvious treatment unlightened by very much in the way of subtlety, surprise or humour. Hope people don’t think this too harsh a thing to say.
Â
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Across | ||
---|---|---|
1
|
 | TRIP,OLI. So maybe the people who put this instead of NAIROBI yesterday were just thinking ahead. |
8
|
 | MISTLETOE (motel site)*. |
9
|
 | CO(R)PS |
11
|
 | A,WAR,D |
12
|
 | RICEPAPER. Archie Rice is the central character in John Osborne’s play “The Entertainer”, and “rag” can mean a newspaper. I thought the Scott Joplin surface was quite neat. Isn’t rice paper usually two words, though? |
13
|
 | TIT,ICACA, a high lake on the borders of Bolivia and Peru, with ICACA being a reversal of ACACI. “Wattle” is a kind of Australian acacia, and ACACI is therefore “short wattle, perhaps, over”. Thought at first the high lake would be wordplay and the answer a bird, something like TITHATCH. |
15
|
 | A,B,LAZE |
17
|
 | RIB,BON(e) |
19
|
 | RAVEN,OUS, with OUS being the middle of mouse and therefore a skinned rodent. |
23
|
 | W,EDGE – a wedge is a golf club. |
24
|
 | EVAD,E (E DAVE all reversed). |
25
|
 | OVER,SLEEP (PEELS reversed) |
26
|
 | G, ENTRY |
27
|
 | TWEE,TER, with TER being alternate letters of “they’re”, as (regularly) indicated by “regularly”. A tweeter is a kind of loudspeaker for high-frequency sounds, the low-frequency counterpart being a woofer. |
 | ||
Down | ||
1
|
 | TIME AFTER TIME – Time is said to be the great healer, and “late” = AFTER TIME. |
2
|
 | INS(TAN)T |
3
|
 | O(GL)ED – OED being the Oxford English Dictionary. |
4
|
 | IN,T(E)RACT |
5
|
 | T(R)ENCH. |
6
|
 | INCAPABLE – AB = “tar” (sailor) inside pelican*. |
7
|
 | AGRIPPA – and not CLUTCHA, SQUEEZA or GRASPA, who were my first thoughts. Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa was a Roman statesman and general. |
10
|
 | STREET SWEEPER. This took me a while to get as I was assuming the “see” element of the clue would be more meaningful. |
14
|
 | CROWS NE,ST (crews on)* |
16
|
 | FA(R THE)ST |
18
|
 | B(US L)ANE |
20
|
 | ODD, MENT – sounds like “meant”, therefore “intended, for the speaker”. |
21
|
 | ME(n), M OR Y. – “either section of my” being “m or y”, I had this solved in my head almost at once without really understanding how it worked – clearly the M and Y of “my” were involved, but which M was it? If “men” can be OR (other ranks), then can chaps? And where did the “come to” bit fit in? (Nowhere, really.) |
23
|
 | WASTE – “A STEW” with the W moved right up. |
I was one of the augurs of Tripoli yesterday, so an easy start and nothing to scare the horses thereafter.
No champagne moments, but half a glass of Blue Nun for the BUS LANE.
Q-0, E-4, D-3
Surely “memory” works as ‘chaps mostly’ = ME and then ‘either section of my’ has “or” (just the word meaning an alternative, not the other ranks stuff) in “my”.
I had no idea who “rice” was but it couldn’t be anything else.
The OED has only RICE-PAPER.
7D: or SEIZER perhaps?
Wattle (which as sabine says is the Australian name for an acacia with bright yellow flowers) is the Australian national flower. I believe the plant was so-called as the early settlers used its branches as wattle for building “wattle and daub”. (That’s my antipodean contribution for the day.)
37 minutes for me, but I’m never a speed-merchant. I raced through the NW but lost time in the SW having hastily written INTENSIVE at 22 and had to rethink the answer when I spotted CROWS NEST at 14.
And 10 would not be solved until I had all the checking letters so that lost more time.
COD was 12. Q=0 E=7 D=7
I’m reminded of the tale of Trigger’s broom…
This setter overlooked many entertaining possibilities.
{Insert standard text about mundane/easy puzzles and less experienced solvers here} – 12, 2 and 6 presented some interesting images, at least.
Edited at 2008-10-17 10:21 am (UTC)
Did someone mention the wattle? Definitely one for George as an antipodean pythonofile:
Bruce
Q-0, E-7, D-2.5, COD, no real highlights but I’ll pick 22 as I play tennis
Yours etc.
Michael Baldwin
Oh, and there was a crossword. I thought it was pretty easy, and that’s a relief since I’ve had one of my worst weeks ever, Times-wise. No guessing or unfamiliar words, I’d say a very good puzzle for beginners, and if you are feeling unfulfilled crossword-wise for today, there’s a new Listener I’ve just printed off that I’m going to sneak a peek at.
For Penfold… that’s going to cause a bit of confusion, mind if I call you Bruce?
There are 2 “easies” left out – not many for a puzzle rated to be “super-easy”:
5a Test game’s keeping British socially divided (6)
TRI B AL
22a Playing tennis – it’s very demanding (9)
INSISTENT. Mentioned quite a bit above – anagram of (tennis – it’s).