Solving Time: 33 minutes.. I started off like a rocket, and was set for a quick time but got held up first in the SW corner and then worse, having stupidly put SCARPER for 2dn 14ac became impossible. Eventually I realized I hadn’t actually parsed 2dn and sorted it all out.. not my finest hour, or half-hour rather, but it is not the fault of the crossword which I thought excellent. One or two clues such as 17ac, 3dn are very fine.
Back home now from sunny Qatar to the wind and the rain, here in Kent. My strategy of buying a house half way up a hill is looking good at present, it gives me a good view of the flooded river Beult down at the bottom..
cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(–), homophones indicated in “”
ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | disavowal – *(VOIDS A LAW) this anagram telegraphs itself rather, making for an easy start |
6 | locum – officer = COL(onel), rev., + U + M |
9 |
chapati – academic post = CHAI( |
10 | figures – river = URE in fruit = FIGS. The Ure flows through one of my favourite places, Wensleydale. |
11 | tip – dd.. as in a felt tip, ha ha |
12 | indubitable – trendy = IN + style = DUB + I + board = TABLE. Dub is not a word I use much but I suppose if someone is dubbed something they can also be styled it.. |
14 |
hoopoe – HO( |
15 |
dormouse – ( |
17 |
maritime – tricky, tricky.. it’s chap briefly = MA( |
19 | eclair – city = EC + refuge = LAIR. First of two London references |
22 | speakership – *(SHEIK’S PAPER). Another London reference, in a way |
23 | tub – only = BUT, rev. |
25 | elegist – supporter = LEG + IS in everybody’s favourite alien, ET |
27 |
brusque – R( |
28 | dirty – DITTY, with the first T turned into an R |
29 | inclement – favoured = IN + (Pope) CLEMENT. What recent UK weather may be described as |
Down |
|
1 | ducat – A in DUCT |
2 | shampoo – get lost = *(MAP) in SHOO, used to treat hair = shock. Took me ages to sort out this not-too-hard clue |
3 | vladivostok – opposed to = V + boy = LAD + four = IV, + note up = SO rev., + TO K. Lovely clue. Glad I didn’t have to clue that, in the recent Turkey.. |
4 | weirdo – you & I = WE + R in current = I + party = DO. If the V in 3dn had been clued using volt, we would have had the whole of Ohm’s Law.. |
5 | lifebuoy – sentence = LIFE + U in BOY (ie YOB, rev.). Where would setters be, without snobbish Nancy Mitford? |
6 | log – dd, a record or a logarithm |
7 |
caribou – A RIB in COU( |
8 | musketeer – MET + E + ER crossing a Welsh river, the USK |
13 | time capsule – a cd, a type of clue apparently our latest object of scorn, after homophones and &lits.. |
14 | Hampstead – *(HATED) containing A MPS. MPS stands for lots of interesting things but none of them are anything to do with pharmacists that I can see. Chambers has only member of the philological society. The ODO (and OED) don’t have it. Collins does have it, but MRPS would seem more accurate.. oh well, at least it wasn’t members of parliament this time |
16 | amoretti – A MORE TT I .. amoretti being putti, little fat cupids, and not an Italian sweetie after all |
18 | roe deer – oriental = E in staff = ROD + ‘EER, = ever = permanent. |
20 | antique – A + N + “teak” |
21 |
phobic – tramp = HOB( |
24 | Brest – BREST, sounds like breast, to confront as in to breast a wave I suppose. A major French naval dockyard. |
26 | icy – bIsCaY |
For 5dn I had the U in YOB reversed (“lout over”).
On the whole, a good puzzle that lures one into a totally false sense of expertise. As noted, the cryptic def at 13dn is a bit sad. (Not sure I’d ever put even a half-good &lit in the same category as dubious homophones and pretty much all CDs.)
Typo in 17ac: “seafaring” for the def.
COD … MARITIME
Jerry – you may have to build a big fence to keep the sodden plain dwellers out if things carry on. Are we going to see the emergence of an ‘up / down divide’?
Edited at 2014-01-08 11:21 am (UTC)
What mct said re 5dn.
Good puzzle.
I had never heard of the River Beult; if it comes up in the next few weeks, then we can safely say the setters do read this blog.
‘Breasting assaults’ is the type of thing you might find in nineteenth century novels. I like ‘dub’ and often use it in the sense given here. Vladivostok was a write-in once I had the K (even though I wanted to spell it with a -ck). Not mad about the CD at 13…
Edited at 2014-01-08 03:38 am (UTC)
Second excuse was that even though I wrote DUCIT, I swear I meant DUCAT. I mean, it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. So I’m claiming all correct in about 35 minutes.
Having said that, was delighted to find that BREST was a town, CLEMENT was a Pope, HOOPOE was a bird and AMORETTI was a thing. Good puzzle (except for 13dn which I think is the least cryptic clue I’ve ever seen in a cryptic crossword).
As others have said, a nice puzzle apart from 13dn. I’ve nothing against CDs but this was more of a D.
All correct in about 35 mins, so a good time for me today.
I too thought DUB referred to the music style, didn’t get the ORM bit of DORMOUSE, and didn’t stop to parse TIME CAPSULE.
Ended with AMORETTI, once I’d corrected the second M in MARITIME. I had ‘maritine’ thinking it was an alternate spelling, putting IT into the MARINE – r.
Edited at 2014-01-08 08:44 am (UTC)
“Don’t let’s dig it up again”
“You never liked me being an archaeologist.”
For the record, I like &lits, most homophones (the more wince-worthy the better) and proper, misleading CD’s unless I need help with the spelling.
VLADIVOSTOK was a particularly valiant effort with a setter’s nightmare (well done!), though for me it was more a case of how many longish cities do you know spelled V*K. My fave of the day was AMORETTI, for blatant sesquipedalianism.
HOOPOE was my LOI after HAMPSTEAD once I decided the latter wasn’t the misspelled and unparsed “Tamesmead” (see comment in first paragraph about stupidity).
I believe that the current appropriate ‘letters’ for a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society are MRPharmaS. MPS is the older version.
Has it been 40 days and 40 nights yet? Perhaps Jerry should build an ark with all that lumber
I agree that TIME CAPSULE was a bit feeble – a barely, if at all, cryptic def/&lit.
Caribou, of course, is a genuine Monty Python “woody word” and not at all “tinny” like elegist.
I raised half an eyebrow at “perhaps” as an anagrind in 2.
Edited at 2014-01-08 05:39 pm (UTC)
Thank you for the link to Alan Connor’s words, which are sufficiently philistine as to warrant inclusion in that rag. He can keep his book.
Not that I’m biased or anything.
FOI Disavowal LOI Brest. Didn’t mine Time Capsule. Until then the SE corner was blank and I was glad of the gimme!
Edited at 2014-01-08 05:24 pm (UTC)
Like some others, I had “scarper” for 2d for a while before the penny dropped. I also failed to parse CHAPATI – thrown by the initial CHAP, and left with an ATI.
HAMPSTEAD wasn’t so bad. I assumed that MPS was “Member of the Pharmaceutical Society” – which was (and as far as I know still is) a designation for a qualified druggist. Of course, whether any pharmacist can be considered “qualified” is hotly debated amongst we hewers of flesh, but that’s a different matter.
Didn’t enjoy “TIME CAPSULE” – spent a while trying to parse it in some cunning way, before realising there was nothing to parse.
I guess there’s no law against using historical abbreviations, but on the whole I agree that it wasn’t a great clue.
My Old Man considered long and hard about whether to sign up for a lifetime coverage from the Medical Defence Union. In the end, he did, for £29. What does it cost now?
Edited at 2014-01-08 07:30 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2014-01-08 11:03 pm (UTC)