I took 26 minutes to get within three letters of completing the grid but then fell at the final hurdle when my poor recollection of Roman statesmen let me down at 11ac. With X, Y and Z spotted early in the proceedings I was on the alert for a pangram but in the end it came nowehere near it with J, K, Q and V all absent on parade.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Female star shortened jumper (4) |
| FLEA – F (female), LEA{d} (star) [shortened]. I wondered if there might be a star in the heavens “LEA?” but couldn’t find one so decided on a more mundane explanation. | |
| 4 | Chairman’s doctored minutes exposing policy of exploitation (10) |
| RACHMANISM – Anagram [doctored] of CHAIRMAN’S, M (minutes). A tricky one for overseas solvers, perhaps, or for native youngsters. I’ve pinched this from Wikipedia to save time: Perec “Peter” Rachman was a landlord of Polish origin, who operated in Notting Hill, London in the 1950s and early 1960s. He became notorious for his exploitation of his tenants, with the word “Rachmanism” entering the Oxford English Dictionary as a synonym for the exploitation and intimidation of tenants. | |
| 9 | They once shot dog when crossing river (3,7) |
| BOX CAMERAS – BOXER (dog) containing (when crossing) CAM (river), AS (when). I had one of these as a child but I doubt any survive in general use today so the definition is apt. | |
| 10 | Almost track down North European (4) |
| FINN – FIN{d} (track down) [almost], N (North) | |
| 11 | Roman statesman and senator one recalled (6) |
| SENECA – SEN (senator), ACE (one) reversed [recalled]. I couldn’t think of this from the definition or work it out from the straightforward wordplay, so shame on me. I’m a little concerned that I may only recognise the name because it was that of a character played by Charles Hawtrey in “Carry On Cleo”. I don’t know whether that was supposed to be the Elder or the Younger or possibly neither of them, but hasty research this morning suggests that the statesman referred to in the clue was Seneca the younger. | |
| 12 | Open University right to get in tutor for community work (8) |
| OUTREACH – OU (Open University) + R (right) in TEACH (tutor). Another trip to Wikipedia was needed for this definition, although I knew of it vaguely: Outreach is an activity of providing services to any populations who might not otherwise have access to those services. | |
| 14 | Dairy product put on scales, some might say (4) |
| WHEY – Sounds like [some might say] “weigh” (put on scales). That’d be the some who don’t articulate the “h” in “wh” words. This is what Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet and ate with her curds. | |
| 15 | To unwind, one’s tucked into dip with Rioja, perhaps (10) |
| DISENTWINE – I’S (one’s) contained by [tucked into] DENT (dip), WINE (Rioja, perhaps) | |
| 17 | Nasty, mean prison affecting individuals (2,8) |
| IN PERSONAM – Anagram [nasty] of MEAN PRISON. Wikipedia to the rescue yet again: In personam is a Latin phrase meaning “directed toward a particular person”. In a lawsuit in which the case is against a specific individual, that person must be served with a summons and complaint to give the court jurisdiction to try the case, and the judgment applies to that person and is called an “in personam judgment”. It goes on to contrast it with in rem which applies to all the world and I think also comes up in puzzles occasionally. | |
| 20 | Cover and page missing from early edition (4) |
| ROOF – {p}ROOF (early edition) [page missing] | |
| 21 | Liking song writer at the outset (8) |
| PENCHANT – PEN (writer), CHANT (song). “At the outset” is a nifty misdirection that serves only to tell us how to place the components of the answer, and has nothing to do with using a first letter. | |
| 23 | In church, praise French saint (6) |
| CLAUDE – LAUD (praise) in CE (church – of England). Saint Claude de la Colombière (1641-1682). | |
| 24 | Fairy story’s ending with pictures (4) |
| PIXY – PIX (pictures), {stor}Y [ending]. Two unusual spellings here for me as “pixie” and “pics” are more familiar. | |
| 25 | Child’s undesirable habit / causing anxiety (4-6) |
| NAIL-BITING – Two meanings | |
| 26 | Before crossing sea to France, first go round English lake (10) |
| WINDERMERE – WIND (go round), ERE (before) containing [crossing] MER (sea to France) | |
| 27 | Was unhappy about drive round much of Europe, heading west (4) |
| RUED – DR (drive) containing [round] EU (much of Europe) all reversed [heading west] | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Coppers are suspended for chasing secretary in Cornish town (5,6) |
| LOOSE CHANGE – SEC (secretary) + HANG (are suspended) in LOOE (Cornish town). | |
| 3 | Model young pupils initially enthralled by fantastic teacher (9) |
| ARCHETYPE – Y{oung} + P{upils} [initially] contained [enthralled] by anagram [fantastic] of TEACHER | |
| 4 | Held up detective with weapons, one sawn-off, perhaps, in robbery (3,4) |
| RAM RAID – DI (detective) + ARM (weapon #1) + AR{m} (weapon #2) [sawn-off] all reversed [held up] | |
| 5 | After revolution, Iran coordinates buffer states (6,9) |
| CORDON SANITAIRE – Anagram [revolution] of IRAN COORDINATES | |
| 6 | It’s small, lifted and held by soldiers? (4,3) |
| MESS TIN – IT’S + S (small) reversed [lifted] contained [held] by MEN (soldiers) | |
| 7 | Island that’s part of Fiji, bizarrely (5) |
| IBIZA – Hidden in [part of] {fij}I BIZA{rrely} | |
| 8 | Champ, from German city one knocked out (5) |
| MUNCH – MUN{i}CH (German city) [one knocked out] | |
| 13 | Politician taking steps to secure my agreement (11) |
| CONCORDANCE – CON (politician) + DANCE (steps) contain [secure] COR (my!) | |
| 16 | I’ll guarantee one’s a loud bellicose type? (9) |
| WARRANTER – a WAR RANTER might be a loud bellicose type | |
| 18 | University staff room admitting female reader (7) |
| SCANNER – SCR (university staff room – Senior Common Room) containing [admitting] ANNE (female) | |
| 19 | Ghastly murder oddly around area north of Hackney? (7) |
| MACABRE – M{u}R{d}E{r} [oddly] containing [around] A (area) + CAB (hackney). “North” places A above CAB in a Down answer. | |
| 21 | Fruit pop followed by whisky (5) |
| PAPAW – PAPA (pop), W (whisky- NATO alphabet) | |
| 22 | Reportedly prison’s acceptable for disgraced leader (5) |
| NIXON – Sounds like [reportedly] “nick’s” (prison’s), ON (acceptable). And many thought he was bad! | |
Thanks to setter and blogger
I had most trouble with 5dn CORDON SANITAIRE even though the anagram was blindingly obvious. Probably PKs FOI.
My FOI was 10ac FINN and LOI 6dn MESS TIN.
Just over an hour of hard work once I’d finally nailed 15ac DISENTWINE.
I dithered over WARRANTER/WARRANTOR.
COD BOX CAMERAS
Excellent blog – shame about SENECA who once noted – ‘If you wished to be loved, love.’
OK with you POTUS REX!?
A quality puzzle.
An early and memorable theatrical experience for me was seeing Antony Sher in Peter Flannery’s Singer In Stratford. The main character is modelled on Peter Rachman so he and his ism have been familiar to me ever since.
Edited at 2017-02-07 07:18 am (UTC)
Impressively intricate wordplay, though if they were all like this I’d have to up the caffeine intake. COD to MESS TIN, a model of its devilish type.
FOI and COD 4a, for although he was operating before my time, he was mentioned in Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine’s 1989 song “Sheriff Fatman”, about a similar slum landlord (YouTube):
I’ll admit SENECA went in on a bit of a prayer, and I knew neither IN PERSONAM nor the French saint, but apart from those it all went in fully parsed and understood. Enjoyed 19d, and my LOI, MESS TIN. WOD PIXY.
Edited at 2017-02-07 08:55 am (UTC)
An overall sense with this one was of a collection of words that have had their day in the sun, and would not survive outside crosswords.
Until then I’d been pleased with coming up with CORDON SANITAIRE and RACHMANISM though I’d wrongly guessed the latter was the exploitation of pianos.
Thanks setter and Jack.
Edited at 2017-02-07 10:30 am (UTC)
Well blogged Jack – some tricky stuff here
Alan
Alan
I wonder what it will be tomorrow.
Edited at 2017-02-07 09:04 pm (UTC)
No problem with RACHMANISM, but I don’t recall coming across IN PERSONAM before, and I was worried that 16dn was going to turn out to be WARRANTOR rather than the unknown WARRANTER that the wordplay seemed to lead to. (I actually bunged in WARRANTEE until I finally cracked 27ac.)
And I had a brainstorm at 25ac and bunged in the interesting (but in this case irrelevant) word CRIB-BITING because it fitted!
Irritated to see OUTREACH at 12ac. I can remember when people and organisations actually did the things they were meant to be doing, rather than outreaching to innocent members of the public who would probably rather be left unreached.
RACHMANISM went in solely on wordplay and checkers, and SENECA was only half-remembered but clearly clued.
diane