Solving Time: Almost twenty minutes, but should have been a little quicker I think, this didn’t feel hard, especially after 1dn went straight in. No new words, but some very neat surfaces here, such as 5ac, 5dn, 20dn. Enjoyable.
cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, homophones are written in quotes, anagrams as (–)*
Across | |
---|---|
1 | hilltop – house = HO containing ILL + T = bad time, + P. This took me a minute to sort through as I was sure the prince would be Prince Hal.. isn’t it always? |
5 | Cowper – intimidate = COW + PER = a, as in per head. William Cowper provided the title for today’s blog.. I see he lived in Huntingdon, as did I, though not at the same time |
8 | isthmuses – I + MUSES containing South = STH. This one also took a little time since although I knew what the answer must be, it turns out I can neither pronounce nor spell it |
9 | adieu – A + DIE + U, die being as in dying to meet you |
11 | Sligo – Set Living In Great Opulence = somewhere foreign where it rains constantly |
12 |
playgroup – scope = PLAY + GRO( |
13 | leeboard – (EE + OLD BAR)* – when I wrote this in the word seemed perfectly familiar but in fact I had no idea what it actually referred to. Turns out it’s a misplaced centreboard |
15 | red-eye – omitted, no doubt we all got the picture |
17 | Titian – giant = TITAN containing I |
19 | massacre – sorry, don’t get this one.. Presumably “service area” = MASS + A, and the def. is butchery, but why CRE = “West Brazil” I cannot say.. Oh, hang on, yes I can! Actually it is MASS + ACRE, Acre being the well-known Brazilian state.. |
22 | irregular – ie not regular soldiers.. A dd. |
23 | fluke – another quasi-humourous dd. |
24 |
greet – GREE( |
25 | assailant – “while worker” = AS ANT containing canvas = SAIL |
26 | stanza – STAN Laurel + Z + A |
27 | egghead – such as= EG + GAD containing HE = ambassador. Gad being of course the tribe descended from Gad, son of Jacob & Zilpah. |
Down | |
1 | hair-splitting – a simple cd that should have got you off to a flying start.. |
2 | lattice – fine fabric = LACE containing TTI, a tit with its tail up. As it were. Well done setter for not making use of the horrid coffee substitute, latte |
3 | tempo – was satisfactory = MET rev., + PO the ubiquitous river. Does the unnecessary “for” help or hinder? Discuss.. |
4 | passport – PA + PORT = left, containing ship = SS |
5 |
casual – about = CA + ( |
6 | wranglers – yet another technically simple cd, (but see comments below) one of the dafter words in use in Cambridge |
7 | episode – help regularly = hElP + IS ODE, sounds like “is owed” |
10 | unprecedented – (PUNT NEEDED)* containing play area = REC. |
14 | orang-utan – striking = on strike = OUT, + RANG + AN, an article |
16 | Fair Isle – (IS REAL IF)* |
18 | torment – leftist = TROT(skyite) rev., containing soldiers = MEN. And not = OR, just for once.. |
20 | courage – can-opener = C + these days = OUR AGE. Nice.. |
21 | alpaca – “a film making centre” = A LA containing CAP rev. |
23 | fling – omitted, though actually one of my last in, I couldn’t believe it was so simple |
8ac reminded me of a festive season spent on a particluarly horrible neck of land: crappy isthmus.
And 12ac of being misled on my travels by PLAYGROUP signs. So many places in WA end in -UP.
Bad jokes apart, no idea about LEEBOARD and had to look it up to be sure it was a device and not a direction. Ditto the Brazilian region.
SLIGO is well known to my teenage daughter as the place from which the bulk of Westlife comes. Since they will be in Hong Kong next month as part of their farewell tour, I will withhold all comment lest I offend the Tuatha Dé Dannan and their promise turns out not to be true.
I found the ‘orang-utan’ clue amusing, with its image of an ape in Borneo phoning in his story. To which paper? Probably not The Times.
I disagree that 6dn is simple, and incidentally, Jerry, you have a typo here, as the answer is WRANGLERS. ‘Mathematicians at Cambridge’ may well have led one directly to the answer if one happened to know the somewhat arcane reference, but if, like me, one didn’t, then there was only ‘argumentative’ to go on, which cannot by itself clue ‘wranglers’. Also the first letter ‘W’ is checked by COWPER at 5ac, another somewhat obscure piece of ‘General Knowledge’ that many would not know. I happened to remember seeing his name when singing from Hymns A&M about 50 years ago but had no idea that he was a Georgian, so that additional piece information was of no help.
ACRE was my other unknown and I only thought of GAD after completing the grid, which I vaguely remembered from a previous puzzle, possibly written by this same setter.
Edited at 2012-02-22 05:22 am (UTC)
Edited at 2012-02-22 05:25 am (UTC)
And I am now walking away from this with egg on my face. See 4ac here:
http://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/668922.html?thread=10588922
Edited at 2012-02-22 05:48 am (UTC)
Several hold-ups: LEEBOARD, not obviously a device and with those pesky E-uropeans and an “old” that wasn’t O but anagrist;
ALPACA even with all the crossers (cloth?);
MASSACRE – not familiar enough with Brazil and wondered if West Brazil was just bra, or the “A” for acre was clued as being in that bit (?!);
COWPER (shame on me), though he was possibly one of the most depressed people ever to write a decent hymn;
WRANGLERS dimly remembered but thought they made beds or some such;
Last in and CoD COURAGE – too blitzed to unravel a neat but relatively straightforward clue.
Edited at 2012-02-22 08:26 am (UTC)
I put in HEMITOP for 1ac, which slowed me down a little at the end. It’s a near-perfect answer to the clue, marred only by non-existence.
Knew COWPER because as a teenager I accidently discovered that he spent most of his life living with another bloke’s wife and then widow and used this as part of a debate on religion and hypocrisy. Also knew about WRANGLERS and agree it’s not a very good clue – far too reliant upon one piece of arcane knowledge.
Slightly quicker solve today than yesterday and another all correct without aids. That’s two in a row! I think my longest streak is four. I can never get 1A at first look and today was no exception – in fact it was my LOI. Also struggled in the NW corner with Tempo, Leeboard and Lattice.
In my three years of daily solving I don’t recall ever seeing STH as an abbreviation for south. GAD was also a new word. Dredged up Wranglers from W?A…
Looking up COWPER on Wikipedia led to some interesting reading about Westminster School. Likewise FAIR ISLE which I didn’t know was midway between the Orkneys and Shetlands, nor that only 70 people live there, the children have to go to Lerwick on Mainland, Shetlands, for their secondary schooling and that in the past 60 years the range of temperatures the island has experienced (+20C to -6C) is the smallest temperature range in the British Isles.
Apart from 3 or 4 in the top right, I zipped through, despite not being able to parse TORMENT, MASSACRE or EGGHEAD. Some of these clues seemed terribly easy (eg 11ac, 4dn).
Glad you’re back on board, Daniel, as you seem to have similar success rates as me. Think 4 in a row is probably my best, too. I’ll start counting them now!
Yup, four in a row is my best (I checked my spreadsheet!), on 14-17 February 2011. I’ve also managed two three-day streaks: 29-31 August 2011 and 15-17 October 2011. My 2012 records are on a different computer but I think my best this year is two in a row.
I’m disappointed if I don’t solve > 80% of clues without aids – which I usually manage but sometimes after picking at the puzzle for days! It’s a very poor, and now rare, day indeed when I can’t solve more than half the puzzle without help.
I’ve found the puzzle of 25 January (1A Praetorian) the hardest recent one. I finally gave up on that last night after managing 2/3rd (+ a few more with http://www.onelook.com) and turned to TFTT and jerrywh’s excellent blog for the solution!
Isthmus joins asthma and naphtha as one of the words I always have trouble spelling. Didn’t parse Cowper until coming here. Just nicked past Kevin in the 15 minute range.
Apophthegm is a cracker too.
(I hope I’m not giving them ideas)
enigma
I also seem to remember a book in which an eminent mathematician (was it G. H. Hardy?) criticized the competitive Cambridge mathematics tripos for stifling mathematical creativity. Hardy was a fourth wrangler.
About 35 minutes.
I’m no mathematician but generally speaking aren’t the qualities required to shine in exams a little different from those required to become truly distinguished in any particular field? I was always quite good at exams…
Fortunately I’d never heard it so I was wary enough to try 2dn without the M which got me there.
Peter West, the cricket commentator, used to refer to people (scorers or statisticians, I can’t remember) as ‘senior wranglers’, so I had no problem with 6dn.