I had a few problems with this one, including ages spent staring at my LOI (8dn) which for some reason eluded me. I got there eventually in 46 minutes. There seem to be a lot of references to booze and thirst in the Across clues.
In passing I would mention that if any members of the TftT community were adversely affected by Ulaca’s announcement and comments in yesterday’s blog they may care to revisit it and cast an eye over some of the later contributions confirming it had the smell of fish about it.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | How long one might be? (8) |
| LIFESPAN – That is the cryptic question | |
| 5 | Carefree bachelor having much flexibility (6) |
| BLITHE – B (bachelor), LITHE (having much flexibility) | |
| 10 | Why is the good and bad bittersweet? (5,10) |
| WOODY NIGHTSHADE – Anagram [bad] of WHY IS THE GOOD AND. I knew NIGHSHADE from the ‘deadly’ variety and having extracted that from the anagrist, WOODY was what remained. ‘Bittersweet’ is its alternative name, apparently. | |
| 11 | Boundless audacity beginning to irritate old academics (7) |
| EMERITI – {t}EMERIT{y} (audacity) [boundless], I {rritate} [beginning]. I knew ’emeritus’ as an adjective so just assumed it could be used as a noun and then pluralised. | |
| 12 | An agent from the West spoken of (7) |
| OXIDANT – sounds like [spoken of] “occident” (West) | |
| 13 | Beer in the evening for this bird? (8) |
| NIGHTJAR – NIGHT (evening), JAR (beer). ‘Going for a jar’, just like ‘going for a pint’, assumes that beer will be consumed. Not to be confused with ‘jam-jar’ which is CRS for ‘car’ | |
| 15 | No particular interest shown around republic (5) |
| GABON – NO + BAG (particular interest) reversed [shown around] | |
| 18 | Showing great dignity knocking the beer back (5) |
| REGAL – LAGER (beer) reversed [knocking…back]. More beer! | |
| 20 | One supplies accommodation where the Loire flows (8) |
| HOTELIER – Anagram [flows] of THE LOIRE | |
| 23 | Either one leaving medicine out in local (7) |
| ENDEMIC – Anagram [out] of either MED{i}CINE or MEDIC{i}NE [either one leaving] | |
| 25 | Parched Napoleon wants doctor brought in (4-3) |
| BONE-DRY – BONEY (Napoleon) contains DR [brought in] | |
| 26 | Irish writer and musical craftsman (6,9) |
| OLIVER GOLDSMITH – OLIVER! (musical), GOLDSMITH (craftsman) | |
| 27 | Discredit wife leaving prison (6) |
| NEGATE – NE{w}GATE (prison) [wife leaving] | |
| 28 | Article on group having rehearsed play (3,5) |
| SET PIECE – SET (group), PIECE (article) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Barrister needing week to stuff chicken? (6) |
| LAWYER – W (week) contained by [to stuff] LAY-ER (chicken?) | |
| 2 | Person in red in Scottish dance coming out (9) |
| FLOWERING – OWER (person in red) contained by [in] FLING (Scottish dance) | |
| 3 | Heavens above, such costs are very steep (3-4) |
| SKY-HIGH – SKY (heavens), HIGH (above) | |
| 4 | Making excuse, do cut off a sexual urge (5) |
| ALIBI – A, LIBI{do} (sexual urge) [do, cut off] | |
| 6 | Batting number eleven good, there for long while (7) |
| LASTING – LAST IN (batting number eleven), G (good) | |
| 7 | Headdress so long one wears (5) |
| TIARA – I (one) contained by [wears) TA-RA (so long, in Liverpool at least) | |
| 8 | Time to expand later period in sport (8) |
| EVENTING – T (time) is contained by [to expand] EVENING (later period) | |
| 9 | Hector incensed at priest-in-charge (8) |
| THEOCRAT – Anagram [incensed] of HECTOR, AT | |
| 14 | Composer using silence can shut up (4,4) |
| JOHN CAGE – JOHN (can), CAGE (shut up). A reference to Cage’s 4’33. If you want to see this 25dn performed you can do so here. | |
| 16 | People in need as British interpret policy (9) |
| BREADLINE – B (British), READ (interpret), LINE (policy) | |
| 17 | Demon not the first to have capital (8) |
| FREETOWN – {a}FREET (demon) [not the first], OWN (have) | |
| 19 | Keen to receive book shedding some light (7) |
| LAMBENT – LAMENT (keen) contains [to receive] B (book) | |
| 21 | Queues to go inside and drink (5,2) |
| LINES UP – LINE (go inside – as in lining a jacket), SUP (drink) | |
| 22 | Fruit, halved, originally seen in French school (6) |
| LYCHEE – H{alved} [originally] contained by [seen in] LYCEE (French school) | |
| 24 | Execution, murder and Girondist’s head (5) |
| DOING – DO IN (murder), G{irondist} [head] | |
| 25 | Drivel for instance Paddy Ashdown put about? (5) |
| BILGE – EG (for instance) + LIB (Paddy Ashdown) reversed [put about]. I don’t know how well-known the former Liberal leader, Jeremy “Paddy” Ashdown, was outside the UK but he’s only become eligible for mention in The Times crossword since last December. | |
But as always if you don’t know a particular meaning of a particular word, i don’t think you have grounds for complaint if the wordplay is clear.
I also had problems with 17d. I half-remembered coming across “afrit”, but wasn’t sure it could be spelled with a double-e. Nor was I familiar with the capital city. I did wonder if the demon might be a good old-fashioned varlet, but Arletown rang even fewer bells than FREETOWN. Relieved to have plumped for the right option, and I have since learned that “afreet” can be spelled with almost any permutation of vowels and/or consonants. I shall add it to my list of fluidly-spelled words, along with popadum, doner and Chanukah.
Edited at 2019-04-02 06:51 pm (UTC)
Many thanks setter and Jack.
44 mins
FOI 18a regal
LOI 19d lambent
COD 12a oxidant
Agree that this was a fine puzzle with its tight, economical clues and the couple of gems that have been pointed out in the thread.
Surprised to see how many people struggled with EVENTING – it has come up in numerous puzzles that I’ve done and didn’t think that it was an obscure sport by any means.
Finished with THEOCRAT, OXIDANT and that FREETOWN (got the place easily enough but eventually had to resort to a word finder to get the demon from -FREET in order to properly parse it).