40 minutes on the nose, with one error. Today (Thursday in the US still) is the 44th anniversary of my birth. So not even my silly error can get me down!
I quite enjoyed this, but I think it was not quite the puzzle for a solver with limited UK-specific knowledge.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Portrait of interest to police stolen from among mine (8) |
| PHOTOFIT – HOT (stolen from) in (among) PIT (mine)
Did not know this registered trademark. Apparently it is an alternative to “identikit”, which I also do not know! |
|
| 6 | Recognized perch from the rear flap (6) |
| TISWAS – SAW (recognized) SIT (perch) reversed (from the rear)
Did not know this — or perhaps it vaguely rang a bell once I got it from the wordplay. It means a tizzy, flap, state of excitement, commotion (Chambers). |
|
| 9 | Dutch brought back through Jaguar factory (4) |
| FRAU – hidden reversed in (brought back through) JAGUAR FACTORY
Synonym for a wife. |
|
| 10 | Dirty half of yard in which five play (5,5) |
| UNCLE VANYA – UNCLEAN (dirty) YA{rd} (half of) around (in which) V (five) | |
| 11 | Terms of Endearment remade, so new The Sting? (5,8) |
| SWEET NOTHINGS – anagram of (remade) SO NEW THE STING | |
| 13 | Clear skin that’s surprising close to your ears (6) |
| CORNEA – COR (that’s surprising) + homophone of (to your ears) NEAR (close)
I was surprised to learn that CORNEA is defined by Chambers as the transparent horny membrane that forms the front covering of the eye. |
|
| 14 | Thrash unknown, entertaining mum with great show (8) |
| FLASHILY – FLAIL (thrash) Y (unknown) around (entertaining) SH (mum[!])
I rejected this line of reasoning for many minutes, specifically because I did not think that ‘mum’ could be used as an interjection to bring quiet, à la SH and ST. |
|
| 16 | Ten asses’ worth of silver rani’s due after trading (8) |
| DENARIUS – RANI’S DUE anagrammed (after trading)
And to think, now it’s just a blinking penny. |
|
| 19 | Polish brought west to fight make dugouts? (6) |
| BURROW – RUB (polish) reversed (brought west) + (to) ROW (fight) | |
| 21 | I see complications involving trigonometry — [that’s] normal in maths (2,5,6) |
| AT RIGHT ANGLES – AH (I see) TANGLES (complications) around (involving) TRIG (trigonometry)
‘Normal’ is a mathematical term meaning AT RIGHT ANGLES. ‘Perpendicular’ is also seen, though it has a more specific meaning. |
|
| 22 | Language unit struggling with Danish (10) |
| HINDUSTANI – anagram of (struggling) UNIT + (with) DANISH | |
| 24 | Belt to put in loops and tighten around (4) |
| TONK – KNOT (to put in loops and tighten) reversed (around)
Really nice clue. |
|
| 25 | One of those cases that blow up enormously (2,4) |
| AS HELL – A SHELL (one of those cases that blow up)
I’d feel worse if this clue was unfair, but in fact it is simple and brilliant, so I can only tip my cap to the setter. (I suppose I’d also feel worse if I weren’t among the vast majority of solvers who also made the same mistake!) |
|
| 26 | Trouble getting into costume and performing dance (8) |
| RIGADOON – ADO (trouble) in (getting into) RIG (costume) + (and) ON (performing) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | PC in house moved to higher level predictive text (9) |
| HOROSCOPE – COP (PC) in HO (house) ROSE (moved to higher level)
Parsing this clue for the blog took me ages! |
|
| 3 | May baby possibly start to appreciate nature rambling? (7) |
| TAUREAN – first letter of (start to) APPRECIATE + NATURE anagrammed (rambling) | |
| 4 | Dashing sailor with loud orange coat on (11) |
| FRUSTRATING – RATING (sailor) under (with … on) F (loud) RUST (orange coat)
Tricky definition for RUST! |
|
| 5 | Carpet / which parasite victim might want to get? (4,3) |
| TICK OFF – double definition
A parasite victim might want to get a tick off! |
|
| 6 | Ballerina’s support, on point (3) |
| TOE – TO (on) E (point)
TO = ‘on’ is not very strong for me. I’m sure they’re substitutable. But I was able to get the answer from the quite clear (to me!) surface. |
|
| 7 | Has Cnut ordered halt mid-flow? (7) |
| STAUNCH – HAS CNUT anagrammed (ordered) | |
| 8 | Gulf [of] America next to southern edge of States (5) |
| ABYSS – A (America) BY (next to) last letter (southern edge) of STATES | |
| 12 | Spooner’s hammock rocking violently (11) |
| HEADBANGING – switch first letters of (Spooner’s) BED HANGING (hammock)
Also brilliant. |
|
| 15 | Beauty fascinated by sounds (5,4) |
| LOOKS INTO – LOOKS (beauty) INTO (fascinated by)
Quite tricky, and not a common definition of ‘sound’. Such as in ‘sound the depths’, etc. |
|
| 17 | British papers in time put into reduced format (7) |
| ABRIDGE – BR (British) ID (papers) in AGE (time) | |
| 18 | Promising some tennis, not cricket? On the contrary (3,4) |
| SET FAIR – SET (some tennis) + the opposite of (on the contrary) UNFAIR (not cricket?)
Quite the combination of Britishisms, both SET FAIR for ‘promising’ and ‘not cricket’ for UNFAIR. I’d heard of the latter, but not the former. |
|
| 20 | Final part manufacturer has sent from the same stock (7) |
| RELATED – last letter of (final part) MANUFACTURER + (has) ELATED (sent)
I feel like I need a preposition after ‘final part’. |
|
| 21 | What replaced Clay, for instance? (5) |
| ALIAS – ALI (what replaced Clay) AS (for instance?)
AS = ‘for instance’ is attested in Chambers. Obviously ‘such as’ is more common. |
|
| 23 | Capital of Peru really Lima (3) |
| SOL – SO (really) L (Lima)
The currency. |
|
WOE – same as Jeremy. Oh, well or perhaps I mean Oh, hell!
Can’t complain -a v. good puzzle but beaten on the day.
Thanks and happy 44th to Jeremy and thanks to setter
I considered both “oh well” and “oh hell” as titles for the blog, but I was overruled. 🙂
Have you said what your error was at 25ac? I’ve read more than once and can’t see that you have.
This was going very well indeed for a Friday, but as I moved down the grid I found myself with 3 or 4 answers that went in with fingers crossed as I was not entirely sure of the parsing. My confidence started to wane and I lost a lot of time.
That was how I came to enter AS WELL at 25ac with a shrug as my LOI, based only on that it fitted the checkers and ‘blow up’ might have been cluing SWELL. As things turned out, all my other semi-gambles paid off but that one didn’t. Nevertheless I actually enjoyed my Friday solve for the first time in several weeks.
50 minutes. One letter wrong.
Well, on the other hand, it was a puzzle for someone with special mathematical knowledge, and on your birthday! I took “normal” on faith (what do I know about “normal”?).
I’m afraid I only did AS WELL as many others. But this was good fun.
I think it’s “final part [that] manufacturer has” for the R in RELATED 🙂
Happy birthday!