I’m in a bit of rush tonight, so I wanted a quick solve. That didn’t quite work out, as I solved rapidly for a while and then got thoroughly stuck. It didn’t help that I somehow managed to write in tachination instead of machination, but I found the whole NW a bit tough. I finally discovered that 2 down was not an anagram of not cutting, by the simple method of guessing the answer. This helped quite a lot.
Time: 23:25
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Young woman on crack finally quitting: it takes spirit (4,5) |
| SHOT GLASS – SHOT + [quittin]G + LASS. | |
| 6 | Starts to stimulate idle mate with exercise (3-2) |
| SIT-UP – S[timulate] I[dle] + TUP. Othello comes to mind. | |
| 9 | Garment from Mauritius tactfully returned (7) |
| CATSUIT – Backwards hidden in [Mauri]TIUS TAC[tfully]. Is this a thing? Must be. | |
| 10 | Almost entirely crazy, disregarding current calendar (7) |
| ALMANAC – AL[l] + MAN[i]AC. | |
| 11 | English explorer is close to his dog (5) |
| SPEKE – [hi]S + PEKE. Never heard of him. | |
| 12 | Doubt about record probed by University College trustee (9) |
| FIDUCIARY – IF backwards + D(U.C.)IARY. | |
| 13 | Tearful Chinese communist’s second to be purged (5) |
| MOIST – M[a]OIST. | |
| 14 | Anyone can fake pain (9) |
| ANNOYANCE – Anagram of ANYONE CAN. | |
| 17 | Smoke from hot garlic oil (9) |
| CIGARILLO – Anagram of GARLIC OIL. | |
| 18 | Tea in mug before noon (5) |
| ASSAM – ASS + A.M. A good tea for a cold and damp day, of which we have had plenty. | |
| 19 | Retired American thanks Gypsy lover (9) |
| INAMORATA – A + TA + ROMANI, all backwards. Romani is almost certain to be a variant spelling of Romany in Chambers, so I didn’t even look. | |
| 22 | Fleet gunners drop back (5) |
| RAPID – R.A. + DIP backwards. | |
| 24 | Clothing of adolescent offspring under discussion (2,5) |
| AT ISSUE – A[dolescen]T + ISSUE. | |
| 25 | Routine supply not yet delivered (2,5) |
| IN UTERO – Anagram of ROUTINE. Surprisingly, not a chestnut. | |
| 26 | Prospective part of keynote lecture (5) |
| ELECT – Hidden in [keynot]E LECT[ure]. Elect as in president-elect. | |
| 27 | Tenor consumed by endless fondness for female attire (4,5) |
| TENT DRESS – TEN(T)DRESS[e]. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Rifles and axes (5) |
| SACKS – Double definition. | |
| 2 | Sadly not cutting flying (2,3,4) |
| ON THE WING – Anagram of NOT + HEWING. | |
| 3 | Resistance, following Asterix perhaps, regularly belittles petty tyrant (9) |
| GAULEITER – GAUL + [b]E[l]I[t]T[l]E[s] + R. A biff for me. | |
| 4 | Statute’s fatal importance misrepresented (3,2,10) |
| ACT OF PARLIAMENT – Anagram of FATAL IMPORTANCE. | |
| 5 | Enthusiastic reception of proxy governor replacing head of state (8,7) |
| STANDING OVATION – STAND-IN + (-n,+GOV)ation. A very complex substitution clue that nearly everyone will biff. | |
| 6 | Money on account for spice (5) |
| SUMAC – SUM + A/C. | |
| 7 | Secret society in China and a Pacific archipelago (5) |
| TONGA – TONG + A. | |
| 8 | Big beast, in pain, died in Barnet (9) |
| PACHYDERM – P(ACHY,D)ERM. | |
| 13 | Chum framing another for plot (9) |
| MACHINATE – MA(CHINA)TE. | |
| 15 | Shortened long canon in The Four Seasons (4-5) |
| YEAR-ROUND – YEAR[n] + ROUND, a musical canon. | |
| 16 | Reportedly understands element of chess or bridge (9) |
| NOSEPIECE – Sounds like KNOWS + PIECE. | |
| 20 | Fancies cycling away (5) |
| ASIDE – IDEAS cycling. | |
| 21 | Attack cognoscenti at intervals (5) |
| ONSET – [c]O[g]N[o]Sc]E[n]T[i]. | |
| 23 | Doctor’s surgery cuts medication (5) |
| DROPS – DR(OP)S. | |
Cigarillo was at the top of my mind because two friends were chatting about one this afternoon.
Several words I know, but “know” meaning I understand them when I see them but have a hard time dredging up; and one or two I had to squint at. I’m looking at you, “prospective”.
GAULEITER was a surprise on a Monday. I’d never heard of SPEKE, that I can recall. Same hesitation as Paul about “Prospective,” as I’ve always taken “elect” to mean something settled, not merely anticipated. However, anything can happen between a vote and a swearing-in…
42 minutes. I thought I was heading for an easy on-target (sub-30) solve but with the LH completed I turned my attention to the empty RH and found myself completely stuck for far too long. Eventually I gained a foothold and then progressed slowly to the conclusion.
NHO FIDCUCIARY or SPEKE.
My first thought at 1dn been FIRES which I’m not convinced would have been a wrong answer if the checkers hadn’t made it impossible.
I was unable to parse TENT DRESS as I couldn’t get it to work with ‘tenderest’ and I wouldn’t have thought of the French word in the absence of some sort of indicator. Collins has its usage in English as obsolete.
24:54
Biff City: ACT OF P, STANDING O, TENT DRESS (DNK), AT ISSUE, FIDUCIARY, …INAMORATA from ROM and because it’s always ‘inamorata/o’. I’m surprised at all the NHOs for SPEKE, who identified Lake Victoria as the source of the Nile. (John Cleese mentions him in his lecture on word association: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X9Axez-mAw )
Quick today and no nho’s, must be Monday .. I knew Speke, though not much beyond the name.
I wouldn’t personally see tendresse as obsolete, which both Collins and the OED do, but I would definitely see it as a pretentious alternative to tenderness.
From —- GLASS to TENT DRESS in 21:11. GAULEITER, CATSUIT and SACKS came before SHOT. The RHS was bare, with just a few in the NE, for a while until PACHYDERM came to the rescue. FIDUCIARY followed and led to a STANDING OVATION ( biffed as predicted). Thanks setter ans Vinyl.
A nice Monday puzzle for which I found myself, fortunately, on the wavelength with a completed and parsed grid in 12 and a half minutes. Some very enjoyable surfaces in here, helped by splendid choices of indicators. TENT DRESS was the only nho and, at first, it sounded rather an insulting garment but I convinced myself it was the sort of garment some folk wear to music festivals! Wrong, but a nice idea!
SHOT GLASS, ALMANAC, MOIST, ANNOYANCE, AT ISSUE, GAULEITER and PACHYDERM all earned ticks from me today. Thanks to setter and blogger.