I expect I’m not the only person who found this far simpler than No. 3103 which I reported on here. However, since I didn’t know beforehand that it was going to be quite that straightforward, I started out at rather a plod, and in fact the only clues I solved at my first read-through (taking them in order) were 13A, 4D (helped by the T at the start of the second word) and 17D (a familiar quotation). After that the SE and NE corners came out pretty quickly, and were followed only slightly more slowly by the SW and NW corners, with 1D the last answer to go in.
Here are what I believe to be the answers.
Across
1 DEFILE 4 SIDE-BET 9 AS RICH AS CROESUS 10 INITIAL 11 NOMINEE 12 TANAGRA 13 TANIST 14 STAFFS 16 OUTLAST 20 HOTHEAD 21 GUIPURE 22 FROM HAND TO MOUTH 23 RESORTS 24 CHALET
Down
1 DIARIST 2 FOREIGN STATIONS 3 LACKING 4 SECOND THOUGHTS 5 DOORMAN 6 BUSINESS AS USUAL 7 TESTER 8 RAILWAY SIDINGS 15 FRESHER 17 TRIUMPH 18 TEESHOT 19 CHAFER
This time I’ve commented on only a few of the clues, and assumed that the rest are straightforward enough to need no explanation, even though several off them would be regarded as unacceptably loose by today’s standards. If there’s anything anyone doesn’t understand (or disagrees with), please let me know.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Soil the pass = DEFILE: two meanings (I must have met this clue, or a similar one, many times in the past, but I still missed it first time through) |
| 9 | The Lydian gold standard? = AS RICH AS CROESUS: Croesus was a king of Lydia |
| 11 | One is disturbed about mine = NOMINEE: MINE in ONE* (I wasn’t expecting the letters of MINE to appear in the answer, so I missed this first time too) |
| 12 | Brown city figure = TANAGRA: TAN (= brown) + AGRA (= city) = a terracotta figurine from Tanagra in ancient Boeotia (guessable from the wordplay even if you didn’t know the word itself) |
| 13 | Not a sunbather, but a Celtic chief = TANIST: more accurately = a Celtic chief’s heir elect (only Little Tommy would think that a TANIST was a sunbather 🙂 |
| 14 | They are at County H.Q., no doubt = STAFFS: Staffordshire (abbr.); military HQ |
| 21 | A sort of gimp = GUIPURE: straight definition (not guessable if you don’t know the word!?) |
| Â | |
| Down | |
| 2 | They can be heard at a distance = FOREIGN STATIONS (radio stations) |
| 3 | It is a lot of money to the monarch = LACKING: LAC (= 100,000 rupees) + KING; no definition |
| 7 | Place of trial for those who lie = TESTER: a very loose double hint (a device for testing; a canopy over a bed) |
| 17 | One of Kipling’s impostors = TRIUMPH: “If you can meet with triumph and disaster, / And treat those two impostors just the same …” from Kipling’s poem If (I suspect Edmund Akenhead liked this quote as it used to crop up regularly when he was crossword editor) |
I found No. 9282 from 2 February 1960 the toughest of the three, mainly because of the SE corner which accounted for nearly half my 14:31. I knew the Milton quote at 5D (though I wasn’t quite confident enough to put it in first time through), but the Shelley work at 4D (ALASTOR) rang only the faintest of bells. The answer to 24A would be easy to guess even for those who hadn’t heard of COLET.
And so to the SE corner. CELLINI seemed the obvious choice for 19D – here I was helped by my membership of the Musical Mafia, since I’ve long known of Berlioz’s opera Benvenuto Cellini, though I’ve only ever seen one production of it on stage. I was amused by 25A (think of all those (railway) sleepers :-), and eventually I had enough crossing letters to reckon it was worth taking a chance with LINACRE for 22A – this time my membership of the Oxford Mafia meant I was familiar with Linacre College, which was named after him. Finally I was left with what turned out to be yet another Meredith clue at 23D. There was a time when clues relating to his novels used to crop up regularly, but I’m afraid I’ve never read any of any of them so 23D might just as well have been “Girl’s name” as far as I was concerned. For the record, the work in question is The Egoist. (Is there anyone out there who has read anything by Meredith?)
Here are what I believe to be the answers to Puzzle 9282.
Across
1 COACH AND FOUR 9 FIELDFARE 10 INDIA 11 OVEREAT 12 SKIFFLE 13 THUNDER 15 SHEARER 16 NOBBLED 19 CEMENTS 21 DREDGED 22 LINACRE 24 COLET 25 RAILROADS 26 SWEET WILLIAM
Down
2 OBESE 3 CUDWEED 4 ALASTOR 5 DRESSES 6 ORIFICE 7 ROD OF IRON 8 GATE-CRASHES 9 FLOATING DOCK 14 UMBRELLAS 17 LEGATEE 18 DIDEROT 19 CELLINI 20 MONGREL 23 CLARA
I found No. 15440 the easiest of the three, but (as my 10:52 shows) not all that much easier than No. 3104. I made a sluggish start, taking a couple of seconds to think of the Kipling quote at 1A (“The Liner she’s a lady”) but then missing the next few clues. However, I soon picked up speed, and proceeded reasonably briskly until I was left with 17D, where I was worried about whether the spelling I had was legitimate, and (finally) 13A, where I hoped my membership of the Early Dance Circle might give me an advantage, but wasn’t expecting the “old dance” to be quite that new.
Here are what I believe to be the answers to Puzzle 15440.
Across
1 LADYSHIP 5 SPLEEN 10 CONTEMPT OF COURT 11 ENGRAFT 12 ELASTIC 13 CAKEWALK 15 ETHOS 18 ELECT 20 TINGLING 23 RIBSTON 25 TRANSIT 26 QUEEN’S MESSENGER 27 ENTICE 28 CORSETRY
Down
1 LACKEY 2 DENIGRATE 3 SEEPAGE 4 INPUT 6 PICKAXE 7 EXULT 8 NOTECASE 9 POTEMKIN 14 ANTINOMY 16 HINDSIGHT 17 PERRUQUE 19 TITANIC 21 LOAFERS 22 STARRY 24 BRENT 25 TASSO
In conclusion I enjoyed all these puzzles in their different ways. What was noticeable was how simply their clues were constructed, in contrast to modern clues which can at times seem over-engineered.
Re 3104, I had little trouble with the E side, especially having got “second thoughts” early. Gimp is easy because the Chambers entry helpfully includes “see guipure!” I found the W side harder because it seemed so loose and because I had trouble believing the clue for 8dn could be so bad as it is. Attempts like “gadfly” and (for 20ac) “biscuit” (!) had to be rethought..
Re 9282 and 15440 I have little to add except that I have never read any Meredith and indeed most of the other literary references had to be looked up. Colet for example just looked right.
Overall, I have found the exercise most interesting. The 1940s puzzles, quite shocking to me at first because of their rather shambolic nature, did start to grow on me and I think I could easily get used to them. They have a charm of their own and the need to “assemble” the grid sometimes rather than do one clue at a time was interesting. Amazing, how my limited literary coverage is not so much of a handicap as I thought it would be. Some clues like 4dn “Lacking” are still shocking and it is hard to get used to the idea that sometimes there is just no way to be sure whether an answer is right or wrong..
Thanks for the blog Tony!
I agree with you about the W side of No. 3104, and was worried for a short while that it was going to give me a hard time. However, once I’d got the long down answers in place (and convinced myself that 8D (Sidelines) really had to be RAILWAY SIDINGS), the rest came out reasonably quickly.
What I find gives an interesting frisson to the exercise is that when I start a 1940s (or even a 1960s) puzzle, I simply can’t be sure that I’m going to complete it within the half-hour (or indeed at all!), whereas with the daily Times cryptics of today I can be almost certain that I will – though I still manage to make 5-10 unforced errors in an average year!
sidey
Not thick necessarily, but there are at least six references to the article in previous days entries..
sidey