I found this one quite tricky and needed a little over an hour to complete it.
As usual deletions are in curly brackets and indicators in square ones.
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | PROOF – PRO (master), OF |
4 | MACERATE – MACE (official staff), RATE (charge) |
8 | ELDER STATESMAN – ELDER (presbyter), STATES (announces), MAN (staff) |
10 | HARMONICA – Anagram [poor] of CHAIR{w}OMAN [cut With] |
11 | SKEIN – SKIN (hide) around {cops}E [back]. Def: flock on the move. This came up in Dean’s most recent ST puzzle and was discussed here only last week. |
12 | LOBATE – O{f} + B{arley} [primarily] inside LATE (behind time). Not sure I actually knew this word but it didn’t take much working out. |
14 | PERCEIVE – Anagram [playing] of PIECE + {e}VER{y} [heart of] |
17 | GROUNDED – {bein}G [close], ROUNDED (plump) |
18 | SEA DOG – SEA (main), DOG (trouble) |
20 | SHEAF – EH (what) inside FAS (notes) all reversed |
22 | RETICULAR – RE (engineers), {par}TICULAR (attentive to detail) [removing part]. I wondered if RET could be engineers which would have allowed us to remove all four letters of ‘part’ from the longer word, but I think it’s just the usual sappers and the T remains in place. |
24 | OVERCOMPENSATE – OVER (past), CO (company), then MPS (members) enclosing E{nglishma}N [case], ATE (worried) |
25 | INTERNEE – INTER (put under – bury), NEE{d} (obligation) [briefly] |
26 | SWEPT – {n}EWS (info) [dropping first] reversed [back], PT (part) |
Down |
|
1 | PSEPHOLOGIST – Anagram [dreadful] of GOSSIP TO HELP. I struggled with this one although it’s a word I have known all my adult life. I would have expected a reference to elections or voting patterns in the definition which appears to be ‘dedicated social scientist’. I suppose ‘dedicated’ suggests that we’re looking for a specific branch of social science but we’re given no indication as to what area that might be. |
2 | ORDER – Triple definition |
3 | FORGOTTEN – FOR{d} (ex-president) [briefly], GOTTEN (arrested in US) which also came up very recently and caused some discussion. I can’t quite square it with ‘arrested’ in any of the usual sources but perhaps one of our US correspondents would care to confirm the usage? |
4 | MATRIX – Sounds like ‘May’ (springtime), ‘tricks’ (is deceptive) |
5 | COTTAGER – CO (commander), REGATT{a} (meeting on river) [short]. ‘Rural labourer’ is the nearest I can find to ‘countryman’. I don’t think regattas are exclusively river events. |
6 | RASPS – S (society) inside SPAR (box) reversed [mounting] |
7 | TRADEWIND – TRADE (business), WIND (blow) |
9 | UNDERGARMENT – Anagram [out] of GERMAN TURNED |
13 | BROKE EVEN – B[L->R]OKE (chap) [changing sides – L/R], EVEN (still) |
15 | CRESCENTS – C{a}R{t}E{l} [every so often], SCENTS (picks up). I like the definition ‘bent ways’. |
16 | BEAR DOWN – BEARD (Vandyke, say), OWN (particular) |
19 | STAPLE – STA[B->P]LE (firm/basic). B (British) changes to P (pressure) |
21 | FURZE – Sounds like [we’re told] “furs” (unethical form of covering). But not unethical if worn by the original owners! |
23 | LEAVE – LEAVE{s} (pages) [most of] |
Anyone ever heard of FURZE outside Dylan Thomas?
4dn is an interesting word. I often wonder how the womb gave its name to a rectangular array. Something to do with development no doubt.
Still, a very satisfying puzzle to complete, given the deceptions along the way. COD probably to HARMONICA for “cut with” as a device.
Edited at 2016-02-23 01:33 am (UTC)
I agree with Mctext that Jack is being generous to the setter with the parsing of RETICULAR, but I may be missing something.
Also agree that HARMONICA gets the COD.
Thanks setter and Jack.
Edited at 2016-02-23 01:28 am (UTC)
Edited at 2016-02-23 07:21 am (UTC)
On the other hand, ‘psephologist’ was my FOI, and I bunged in ‘macerate’, ‘elder statesman’, ‘trade wind’, and ‘reticular’ with great speed. I did waste a lot of time on an anagram of ‘ver’ + ‘iec’ + ‘he’.
Another delightful co-incidence
Thank you, jackkt and the setter
Last in SWEPT – some very good and tricky stuff, but I’m another in the “RETICULAR doesn’t really work camp”. A bit surprised this one slipped past the editor.
Thank you to setter and blogger.
Of course America’s Nate Silver is the gold standard these days.
Especially liked PROOF, MACERATE, HARMONICA and SKEIN (lovely word, nice clue). Thanks, S&B.
I have visited furze, gorse and the like, unintentionally, on many golf courses.
Some good clues here, wittier than recent challenges, my CoD is a toss up between MAY TRICKS and 21d. Or 15d for the def. once I had sorted out it was one word.
Very enjoyable puzzle, with an original feel to it.
Liked the deliberate (if it was) unremembered ex-president for poor old Gerald. Am I right in recalling that he’s America’s only President who made it to the White House without being elected?
MATRIX made me smile.
Edited at 2016-02-23 12:20 pm (UTC)
I’m sure that pain could soon enough be trumped.
Edited at 2016-02-23 12:21 pm (UTC)
Gerald was Trick Dicky’s nomination after the improbable Spiro Agnew was forced out of the VP. Forgave TD all his (alleged) crimes after taking over. “We are not a crook”!
In the 2nd Beverley Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy’s colleague was passed off as “former President Ford” and nobody batted an eyelid. Now that’s “unremembered”!
Edited at 2016-02-23 02:11 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2016-02-23 07:50 pm (UTC)
23:47, with a long time at the end stuck on 26ac and 5dn. With the former I thought the whole thing was going to be a reversal of a word meaning ‘info’ with the first letter removed. With the latter I made exactly the same mistake as others, taking the river to be part of the wordplay. I agonised over it for ages, and eventually bunged it in unparsed for want of anything better having also bunged in SWEPT for 26 for want of anything better.
As the man says, a very enjoyable puzzle, with an original feel to it.
For the record, I don’t know any psephologists.
Didn’t we have the got/gotten debate a few weeks ago? If it wasn’t here it may have been somewhere else. Or maybe I’m just cracking up.
I got there, but clearly my brain needs its automatic transmission fluid topped up, as it took me the best part of an hour. PSEPHOLOGIST was only gettable thanks to all the checkers and the inevitability of “ologist”. Next time there’s a panic on, I shall shout “We’re losing him! Get the on-call psephologist down here stat!” and see what happens.
I was also held up by an unwanted harmonium at 10ac, though it did remind me of the late lamented Ivor Cutler before I corrected it to HARMONICA. COTTAGER also took a while, probably because I associate it with a far more sordid meaning than “countryman”.
I agree with joekobi that 22ac looks like a bludner by the setter. “[R]emoving part” looks very much like an instruction to remove “part” from “particular”. If the intention was simply to remove _a_ part, then (a) it’s an unusual manoeuvre to remove an unspecified number of letters from an unspecified end of a word and (b) the use of the word “part” to remove a part of “particular” would be inelegant and confusing.
But, I did enjoy this one.
Apart from the dubious 22ac – which looks like a straightforward blunder on the “part” of the setter (and the editor, though I’ve a feeling they might be one and the same) – I rate this a most interesting and enjoyable puzzle (including 26ac, despite my brainstorm).
But what really fascinates me is: if you Brits never say GOTTEN (and I was aware that you didn’t), then why do you say FORGOTTEN? (One of a spate of similar questions, such as: why does the Royal Mail deliver the post but the U.S. Postal Service deliver the mail? And one could go on and on…)
As to the postal service, this transcontinental mismatch of “mail” and “post” might explain why both services are so dismal.
The bottom line, of course, is that British English is always correct.