Solving time: 14.14
I thought this was a good puzzle, with some very neat and clever clueing. I was slow to see the two long across answers at 10 and 25, which probably added a few minutes to my time, and found the left half of the grid easier than the right. Some good surface readings, and I thought the treatment at 17A was pretty deft, though I didn’t see how it worked until after solving.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
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1
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DUMB DOWN – “Mum” in the clue is an adjective meaning “silent”, while “fell” and “down” are both kinds of upland tracts of land. | |
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5
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FATHOM – the definition, “Sound”, is in the sense of measuring the depths of something, while “fine, in short”, is F – also the abbreviation for FATHOM. (Actually, as pointed out in the comments below, “in short” is AT HOM(e). Sorry about that.) | |
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10
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PUBLIC RELATIONS – “the limits of power” are the letters p and r, which become, in capitals, PR – the abbreviation for “public relations”. So for two clues in succession the wordplay involved an abbreviation of the answer. | |
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13
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PILE, a double meaning. | |
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15
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SEND OFF | |
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17
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OUR LADY – “Thy Son” is “Your lad”, and “first behind” is an instruction to move the first letter of this to the end, giving the answer. Clever stuff. | |
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18
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SHE(BE)EN – “half of bitter” being BE(er). Solvers familiar with the word SHEBEEN, an illicit liquor shop, probably got this quite easily from the helpful wording. | |
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19
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ATE(LIE)R – “after” is LATER, and therefore “after failing to open” is ATER. Another one I got more or less at once, this time from the useful “studio”, which doesn’t have all that many synonyms that i know of. | |
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21
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A,RUM – a plant of the cuckoo pint genus, so again an easy clue for anyone who knew the word. | |
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22
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GO,OSEBUMPS – a very neat piece of disguise, for the definition is “what may come with the cold”, fare=GO, and OSEBUMPS is an anagram of SOME PUBS, indicated by “supply” – which is not the noun supPLY, but the adjective SUPply. | |
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25
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GET THE RUNAROUND – I took an age to see this, though I think i just about knew that a RUNAROUND (or runabout) is a term for a small light car. | |
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27
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EAR,WIG – I wasn’t sure at first about EAR=notice, but Chambers gives “attention” as a definition for EAR, so that’s OK. And as for WIG=carpet, my initial assumption that carpet, like rug, was a term used for a hairpiece seems to have been wrong – “Wig” and “carpet” in fact both mean “to scold”. | |
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28
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BEST,RIDE – BEST=top, and RIDE=spin in the sense of a short trip. I had the idea of how this clue would work well before actually figuring out two elements that worked – wasted some time toying with HEAD for “top”.. | |
| Down | ||
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1
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DAPHNIS – (hand is p) * i.e. an anagram of “hand is” plus p (“quietly”). Daphnis was a nymph in Greek mythology. I couldn’t have told you that he was a shepherd, but I had heard of Daphnis and Chloe, and so was reasonably confident of the answer. | |
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3
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DAILY D(OZ)EN – DAILY=paper, DEN is (as so often) study, and the lightweight is OZ (ounce). “Daily dozen” is an old-fashioned term for exercises done regularly, probably more likely nowadays to be called a workout, or some far more cool and cutting-edge term that someone as lazy as me might not have come across. | |
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4
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WURST – a large German sausage. Sounds like “worst” which, confusingly, means the same as “best” in the sense of “to win against, defeat”. | |
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6
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(t)ARTY | |
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7
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HOOLIGANISM – (him in gaol so)*. A fairly easy anagram to spot, together with a precise definition, making this a likely way of opening up the NE corner (which I found tricky). | |
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8
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M(ASTER)Y – “cutting” is a containment indicator, and MY=of mine. | |
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9
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PLETHORA – (in Pearl H)* with “embarrassment” here having the meaning of an overabundance, as in “an embarrassment of riches”. | |
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12
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N(ON SEQUIT)UR, being (question)* inside NUR (RUN going upwards, and therefore “work raised”). | |
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14
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GREEN BE(R)ET – GREEN=common (as in a village green), BEET is the plant, and R=resistance. A green beret is worn by several different military forces. | |
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16
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FUN,BOARD – FUN=sport, and BOARD sounds like “bored”. A funboard is a special board that allows greater speed in windsurfing. I wasn’t entirely convinced by this – a finboard sounds like it would go much faster, while a fanboard would surely have a specially aerodynamically (hydrodynamically?) tapered fantail and fly like the wind. However, no amount of mental twisting could turn “sport” into FAN or FIN, so eventually I was obliged to go with the right answer. | |
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18
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SP,ANGLE – SP= “extremely sharp”. | |
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20
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RESID(U)E | |
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24
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THAI, sounds like “tie”. | |
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26
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UZI, hidden, reversed, in seIZUres. | |
On the other hand, I suggest a closer look at 5 across. The phrase ‘in short’ seems to me to indicate AT HOM[E].
This was a very tough puzzle for me, my time was well over 90 minutes. I did have to take breaks to shake up my brain. The only long-lived mistake was to put ‘mint’ in 13 across, which seemed to work for a long time.
I hope Jim doesn’t object to ‘Our Lady’; it was a such a wittily constructed clue, so elegant and yet so deceptive.
As for recent complaints about obscure vocabulary and allusions, ‘arum’, ‘Daphnis’, and ‘atelier’ might be pressing it, although none of these were unknown to me.
Maybe this needs a brief edit too, then? Great blog but!
Yep: I had F + AT HOM(E) too at 5ac.
COD to OUR LADY though, as vinyl1 notes, Jimbo won’t like it. And I’m already shuddering to think what he’ll say about 4dn!
Other than that I found the top half straightforward but I became bogged down in the lower part, especially in the SW corner where the three letters to go with the anagram fodder at 12dn eluded me for far too long.
I have never heard of FUNBOARD, nor have Chambers and Collins, but COED has it.
Problems included: thinking of Mum=DAM at 1A, POLISHING as a candidate for the second word in 10, OVER,TURN as possible wordplay elements at 28 (though not strong enough on the def to write in), followed by top=HEAD, PARTY as possible second word of a “raiding unit” at 14. Elsewhere, various clues just took ages to see, with 14, 22, 28 the last few to go in. And I too went for the fathom = F = fine interpretation at 5.
Can’t see the problem with “Our Lady” at 17 – it’s in both COED and Collins, and should be guessable from “Notre Dame”.
Wasn’t terribly happy with “wurst”=worst, but both dictionaries support the Anglicised pronunciation as well as the German “voorst”.
As anticipated I’m also not keen on the treatment of WURST because its a German word and shouldn’t be pronounced to sound like “worst”. I don’t particularly object to OUR LADY (a clever clue) on its own. There is one setter who litters his/her offerings with the trappings of the Christian faith and that I don’t particularly like.
I also had F=fine=fathom and missed “at home(e)”. The old rule about not entering 4 letter words without checking letters applies to “mint” for PILE. I don’t like the definition by example at 18A. It should be “bitter perhaps” and I’m still looking for the function of the word “best” in 25A GET…ROUND.
Most of this puzzle I thought entertaining without being particularly difficult – funny how it goes!!
Hell of a good time, by the way.
Given another decade or so I might have got GOOSEBUMPS, FATHOM & GREEN BERET.
The homophone indicator for THAI was one for me to store away but I thought there might be some debate about the BOARD/BORED thing.
Well done Sabine. Thought this was brutal.
First in DUMB DOWN, last FATHOM (which nearly defeated me).
17a took me back to Naples and a local saying: Every Neapolitan mother thinks her son is Jesus Christ, and every Neapolitan boy knows his mother is the Virgin Mary.
And 1a put me in mind of a favourite after-dinner story. As it’s Friday…
His Lordship went off to take the waters in Baden Baden, leaving the young Carruthers in charge of the country pile. A few days into his stay, his Lordship received a telegram. “SIR STOP YOUR CAT DIED”.
On arriving home, his Lordship took Carruthers aside and explained: “Now listen here, tact is a butler’s most vital skill. If I’m away and there is bad news, you must break it gently. So, first send a telegram saying “Kitty’s on the roof and won’t come down.” Wait a day, then send another saying “Kitty fell from roof. Condition serious.”. Then send a final telegram saying “Regretfully, Kitty no longer with us.” Alright?
A few months later, his Lordship was fishing on the Spey when a telegram arrived from his trusty servant: “SIR STOP YOUR MOTHER’S ON THE ROOF AND WON’T COME DOWN”.
Anyway, glad I made the time for this one – a very enjoyable outing with some lovely touches. WURST rang a few alarm bells for me too, but I suppose the reasoning is based on how we Brits would typically pronounce it. Oddly enough, an occasional business contact of mine (at the place I used to work) was a UK-based rep for a company called Wurth – correctly pronounced with a V, he and everyone else I knew used the W version/wersion.
Big ticks for OUR LADY, GOOSEBUMPS, EARWIG and PLETHORA, and a solving time of about 20 minutes.
Q-0 E-8 D-7 COD 9d PLETHORA – intricate, but smooth and clever.
Interestingly, LJ sent me an email inviting me to send me birthday greetings. I was tempted, but it would have spoiled the surprise (although I suppose I could have signed in anonymously first).
COD fathom, which I got and understood early on with just the A to help but thought very clever.
Despite Peter’s no doubt valid explantion I still think the runaround justifying best is stretching things somewhat and according to Wikipedia (so it must be right) a funboard combines the speed of a long board with the manoevrability (sp?) of a short board so I’m not sure the definition is fair.
Hence Q-2, E-7, D-9.
Thanks for the joke Sotira – an oldy but goody.
This was a relatively thorny one.