Time: Nudging the hour mark with an incorrect letter.
The third of the Championship puzzles, hailed as a John Henderson beast and plunging me into the Friday world of Jeremy and William. I (other recollections might vary) thought it was a superb creation, with some lovely wordplay, though it is fair to say that some of the intricacies didn’t always jump out at first reading.
I struggled a bit not knowing when I was looking for something less common (AMORETTI and MESQUITE) or something more run of the mill (I was convinced I needed some trendy sort of hipster salad leaf). But for those in the Champions’ League, the fez really must be doffed to the couple of dozen competitors who completed this (together with the other two puzzles) in the permitted time.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | In fiction, Fez is represented as great for models? (4-4) |
| LIFE-SIZE – (FEZ + IS*) in LIE.
Great as opposed to small. |
|
| 5 | Big bust controlled by ex-PM turned villain (6) |
| ODDJOB – DD in a reversal of BOJO.
This was an early entry and kept a smile on my face during the subsequent belabouring. Superb. |
|
| 10 | For training perhaps, I see small children time and time again? (6,9) |
| SPEECH THERAPIST – (PERHAPS + I + SEE + CH + T + T)*. SMALL here doesn’t seem to be strictly necessary as CH is a valid abbreviation for “children”, so presumably it is either to assist with the w/p or help the surface, or both.
Either way a great “All-in-one” clue. |
|
| 11 | Popular party or parties finally occupying the House (7) |
| INDOORS – IN + DO + OR + S. | |
| 12 | Part of town square out of bounds — it’s here, too (7) |
| QUARTER – (S)QUAR(E) + (I)T(‘S) + (H)ER(E). | |
| 13 | Italian lovers doing what lovers do: one delayed necking again (8) |
| AMORETTI – AT IT [what lovers do] which converts to ATTI by delaying the I. You then include [necking] MORE [again].
I didn’t know this word but punted it as a possibility and then squinted very hard at the w/p. I’m not 100% convinced by the surface as, arguably, if you are AT IT, you are not delaying anything let alone necking (kissing) but let’s not go there! |
|
| 15 | Very rich man is taking a fall (5) |
| DIVES – Double definition. | |
| 18 | Narrow passageway runs from rear of waste-processing unit (5) |
| RENAL – LANE + R all reversed.
My LOI. I really struggled with this, both the definition and the w/p thinking I was looking for a dialect word for a narrow passage. |
|
| 20 | Encourage to release article backing chief of police force (8) |
| PRESSURE – RE(A)SSURE after [backing] P [chief of police]. | |
| 23 | Porridge server going outside to wipe floor with piece of toast (7) |
| CROUTON – CON outside ROUT. | |
| 25 | Are changes accepted by you, no longer a social critic? (7) |
| THOREAU – (ARE)* inside THOU [you, no longer].
I was enormously helped here by (a) generous w/p and (b) getting mixed up with the rather more alive Louis Theroux. Of course, the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) was whom I should have been thinking of, but I have to confess to not really/at all knowing anything about him. The Wiki entry suggests he is worthy of further exploration. |
|
| 26 | Offended Lord Chancellor declines novel (3,3,4,5) |
| PUT OUT MORE FLAGS – PUT OUT + MORE [Lord Chancellor] + FLAGS [declines].
Possibly the first time an answer has appeared in such quick succession in the daily cryptics, but as Ulaca mentioned yesterday a reasonably regular visitor, with its convenient 15 letters. |
|
| 27 | Visitor coming from far away on flash travel pass? (6) |
| TICKET – TICK + ET. I liked this one. | |
| 28 | Drug contained in pop had a striking effect on down-and-out (8) |
| DEADBEAT – DAD around E + BEAT. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Group of composers – 9? (3,3) |
| LES SIX – Everyone loves a piece of punctuation forming part of the w/p and here we have a minus sign hidden in plain sight resulting in LESS IX.
The six were Auric; Duress; Honegger; Milhaud; Poulenc and Tailleferre, French composers from post-WW1 reacting against Wagner and impressionist music of earlier decades. |
|
| 2 | Films need high points? (9) |
| FIELDSMEN – (FILMS NEED)*. HIGH is the anagrind; POINT (for anyone not up with their cricketing terminology) is a fielding position.
Great surface. |
|
| 3 | Comfort one draws from dictator (7) |
| SUCCOUR – homophone of SUCKER [one who draws]. | |
| 4 | These letters get edited in the production of gazettes (5) |
| ZETAS – I think the way the w/p works is that you need to add the answer ZETAS to GET which is then anagrammed [edited] to produce GAZETTES.
ZETA a slightly rarer visitor from the Greek alphabet than some of its colleagues. |
|
| 6 | Help picking up D:Ream’s notes audibly diminishing (4,3) |
| DEAF AID – D + the notes from REAM i.e. E and A, which “FAID” as a homophone of FADE [are DIMINISHING].
Biffed from checkers. Another name for a hearing aid. |
|
| 7 | Spliff being shared with others (5) |
| JOINT – Double definition. | |
| 8 | Just lock pier (8) |
| BUTTRESS – BUT + TRESS. | |
| 9 | Writer left to probe case of sycamore tree (8) |
| MESQUITE – ME [writer] + QUIT [left] in SE.
Even though I had the Q from QUARTER, QUIT for LEFT didn’t jump out, but rather unhelpfully QUILL for writer did. Tricky. |
|
| 14 | Horse taking place of head of maths in private Oxford/Cambridge study? (8) |
| TOPONYMY – A substitution clue where PONY replaces one of the Ms in TOMMY [private].
Unlike some of the other masterly surfaces, this one reads rather oddly (to say the least). My error came here, bunging in a very careless TOPONYMS. |
|
| 16 | Marble entrance opened by five contracted stars (9) |
| VARIEGATE – GATE preceded [opened] by V + ARIE(S). | |
| 17 | Bonkers shot upset spinner (8) |
| CRACKPOT – CRACK + a reversal of TOP. | |
| 19 | Leaves to switch off TV programmes about cycling (7) |
| LETTUCE – CUT TELE [TV programmes] which you then have to reverse [about] and “cycle” moving what becomes the first E following the reversal to the end. Easier to biff than explain. | |
| 21 | Was a parody spoilt with name dropping? (7) |
| SPOOFED – SPOO(N) FED.
Brilliant. |
|
| 22 | Energy-saving routine plugged by Steve Jobs after vacating Apple (6) |
| RUSSET – E in RUT which goes around [plugged] by the first and last letters of STEVE JOBS.
I hesitated as to whether the “vacation” could work on a combo of two words rather than the normal one. It seems so. |
|
| 24 | Subject promoting work associated with faculty (5) |
| OPTIC – TOPIC with the OP bit moved [promoted] to the front. | |
| 25 | Theatre doesn’t have to worry, beginning to entertain a crowd? (5) |
| THREE – THEATRE minus EAT + E | |
Way way out of my league, unfortunately. Though I did ‘get’ half of the clues correct ( but that was after a bit of revealing some). Once I’d put in the answers, there’s no way I could parse a lot of them, especially ODDJOB (NHO BOJO), the novel -despite it being in yesterday’s puzzle, THOREAU ( didn’t know he was a social critic), and so on. Mr Henderson 1, Solver 0.