Solving time: 8.00.
Hope you’ve all had a merry Christmas. I was relieved to be able to finish this off fairly quickly since conditions here are rather more chaotic than usual. It’s somewhat tragic to be sober and alert enough to solve the Times and write a reasonably coherent blog at 1am on Boxing Day, but there you are. Sorry that I’ve had to keep it briefer than usual; normal service will be resumed next time.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
|
1
|
HYP(HEN)ED | |
|
6
|
RACKET – double meaning | |
|
9
|
C,ROW | |
|
11
|
O,S(T)ENSIBLE | |
|
13
|
OVER – triple meaning | |
|
14
|
DIA,TRIBE – DIA=AID backwards | |
|
16
|
I,RRUP,T – RRUP=PURR backwards (sound happy, about) | |
|
20
|
IN,HE,RENT | |
|
22
|
DISC(over) | |
|
24
|
FLY-BY-NIGHT | |
|
26
|
CINDERELLA (recalled in)* | |
|
28
|
AVID – diva reversed | |
|
29
|
HARRIS, being “harries” (badgers) with the E removed | |
|
30
|
DISHEVEL, and not, as I thought at a casual glance, DEVILISH. | |
| Down | ||
|
1
|
YARDS,TICK | |
|
3
|
HOWBEIT – (I we both)* | |
|
4
|
NEGUS – formerly the king of Ethiopia, also a hot spiced alcoholic drink | |
|
5
|
DOT, short for Dorothy and therefore “little girl”, can also mean a dowry | |
|
6
|
REP,LEN,IS,H | |
|
7
|
CAN,DOUR | |
|
12
|
B(REV,IT)Y – | |
|
15
|
IN SO FAR AS (for Asians)* | |
|
17
|
PUNCH,LINE | |
|
21
|
REIGATE, sounds like WRY GAIT | |
|
23
|
I,BIZ,A -IA is the abbreviation for Iowa | |
|
25
|
YE,A,TS = YE=”the old”, A=”are” (metric measure), TS = “the way up” (ST reversed) | |
|
27
|
LAD, which with a Y added (the head of “Youth”) makes LADY. | |
Happy Hangover everybody.
I filled in most of it in 15 minutes, and had only 3 left after 25. However, my total time was 90 minutes. Normally, I would just put the puzzle aside and fill in the missing 3 almost immediately the next morning.
The ones that stumped me were ‘disc’, ‘Ibiza’ and ‘Harris’. I was most annoyed by ‘Harris’, because I had thought of that island during the first 15 minutes but was unable to justify it, trying to make it fit ‘harass’ rather than ‘harries’. I recognized the mechanism of ‘Ibiza’, but didn’t have ‘IA’ in my initial list of state codes ending in ‘a’. ‘Disc’ was hard because I had parsed the clue wrongly….I was leaning towards ‘zinc’ for a while, but then the I saw it.
If I had gone to bed, my brain would have reset itself and I would have seen it all immediately. It is discarding wrong ideas that is the most difficult part of solving for me.
Would anyone care to explain ‘crow’? Somehow I don’t think ‘and’ = ‘row’.
At the time of writing these can be found in the Archive in the Bank Holiday categories!
Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.
Carole H., Fermo, Italy
I needed the dictionary to confirm that HOWBEIT exists and that DOT = a dowry, both of which are listed in the COED at archaisms. I was pleased that I managed to remember Are = A this time as I usually manage to forget it
The 6A-9A device is unusual these days (common years ago) with 9A really making reference to the previous clue. Whilst solving I thought that “using” in 6A is the sort of padding that has become so familiar recently but on reflection I think “racket” is also a verb so perhaps “use” would have been better than “using”.
Some nice surface wordings, as in 17D for example.
Anyway – slightly belated – a very merry Christmas to all, a joyous New Year, thanks once again to Pete for all your your work in keeping this blog going in less than perfect circumstances, and to all of you who have taken the time to contribute.
There are 4 “easies” not in the blog:
10a Zip outfit together with repair (3-2-3-2)
GET UP AND GO. GO = Repair as in let us repair to the pub.
18a Giraffe-like creatures overlook apish involvement (6)
OKAPIS. Hidden in words 4 & 5.
8d Hunting dog has lost black bird (5)
(B) EAGLE
19d Radio PC lost to fighter with lance (7)
PICADOR. Anagram of (radio PC). Some bloke on a horse who prods bulls with a long pointed stick. Not a great fan of bull “fighting” personally – but then you might guess that?