Another excellent puzzle from the fertile brain of Orpheus, the scales tilting towards the tougher side of medium by the inclusion of a trio of what to me were relative obscurities (one sporting, one naval, one botanical). Lots to enjoy here for me and I hope the same for you. All done in 09:25.
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Laterally swing big stone (4) |
| ROCK – a fairly straightforward double definition to get us under way. | |
| 3 | Compelling type in French army, perhaps? Right (8) |
| ENFORCER – this was a bit trickier. EN = “in French” + FORCE = “army, perhaps” (“perhaps” because a force could also be a navy or an air force) + R = “right”. You could say that someone who compels/enforces compliance with rules is a “compelling type”. The context in which I’ve always encountered ENFORCER is as the tough member of a sports team who can be relied upon to put in a crunching tackle/pile into any fight/get sent off needlessly (see also Roy Keane). Collins says that this is US usage and doesn’t give any British English entry, and Chambers online doesn’t have the word at all! | |
| 8 | Pole on board involving prime minister in salutation (7) |
| TOPMAST – I read “pole on board” and confidently thought “Ah-ha, this is going to be S + table”. How wrong I was; this is another type of pole and another type of board. The P checker eventually led me to the answer – PM for “prime minister” included inside (“in”) TOAST for “salutation”. My trusty Shorter Oxford says for TOPMAST “the second section of a mast above the deck, which was formerly the uppermost mast, but is now surmounted by the top-gallant mast”, but the Patrick O’Brian fans already knew that. | |
| 10 | A small number study a school of Buddhism (5) |
| DOZEN – is a DOZEN really a “small” number? Isn’t it all relative? I mean, it’s a small number of peas on your plate but it’s a large number of glasses of claret. I suppose if you were looking at the numbers from 0 to infinity, it would definitely be a small number. Anyway, that’s the answer. The wordplay is DO for “study” (as in “We’re doing Tacitus this term”) + ZEN. | |
| 11 | Feathery seeds, primarily tiny, scattered in the Wolds (11) |
| THISTLEDOWN – what a lovely surface , bravo. It’s an anagram, indicated by “scattered”, of T (“primarily tiny”, ie the first letter of tiny) + “in the Wolds”. Super clue and my COD. | |
| 13 | Observation about evangelist (6) |
| REMARK – “about” = RE, “evangelist” + MARK (St Mark being traditionally regarded as the author of the Gospel of that name). | |
| 15 | Invitation to compete with setter, finding part of plant? (6) |
| RACEME – “Race me, race me” shouted Orpheus. “No” replied Templar grumpily, “I’m busy trying to solve your puzzle”. That’s the “invitation to compete with setter”, very clever. A RACEME is basically a plant’s stem with flowers coming off it (awaits brickbats from passing botanists). Another super clue. Maybe that should have been my COD. Oh well, it’s too late now. | |
| 17 | Gloomy Aussie soldier, one working in the churchyard (11) |
| GRAVEDIGGER – GRAVE for “gloomy” + DIGGER for “Aussie soldier”. I thought that “digger” could be used for Aussies generally, not just soldiers, and both Collins and Chambers agree with me. | |
| 20 | Boredom? Rotten nuisance? Not entirely (5) |
| ENNUI – a craftily hidden word (indicated by “not entirely”) inside “RottEN NUIsance”. It’s from the Old French. Of course it is, it’s a word that’s so French it might as well be smoking a Gauloise and shrugging its shoulders in existential despair. | |
| 21 | Gymnast, say, permitted to appear in articles (7) |
| ATHLETE – LET = “permitted”, inside (“to appear in”) the two articles A and THE. The word “say” shows that this is a definition by example – other types of athlete are available. | |
| 22 | Liberal making money studying (8) |
| LEARNING – L for “Liberal” + EARNING for “making money”. | |
| 23 | River meals referred to in speech (4) |
| TEES – the River TEES sounds like “teas”, which are a sort of “meals”, the homophone being indicated by “referred to in speech”. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Rubbish a politician presents going the rounds (8) |
| ROTATORY – ROT for “rubbish” + A + TORY for “politician”. | |
| 2 | Better east coast US state or European island (5) |
| CAPRI – I struggled with this for a bit, Geography being one of my GK blind spots, and wanted it to be Crete. It wasn’t; it was CAP for “better” (as in the verb – “she capped his story with one of her own”) + RI for Rhode Island, which I knew only as a source of chickens but turns out to be a state in its own right. The smallest by area, apparently. | |
| 4 | Crazy type, one gathering fruit from trees? (6) |
| NUTTER – double definition, the obscurity/looseness of the second definition being indicated by the question-mark. Nuts are fruit, and according to the SOD one who gathers nuts is a NUTTER (dating from 1483), so it’s technically a straight double definition. | |
| 5 | Fussy one-time desire to tour Arab country (3-8) |
| OLD-WOMANISH -OLD = “one-time”; WISH = “desire”; and that goes around (“touring”) OMAN for “Arab country”. Some people may have views on the inclusion of this phrase; I’m moving swiftly onto the next clue. | |
| 6 | Church woman embracing unknown artist (7) |
| CEZANNE – CE = “church”; ANNE is our “woman”; they “embrace” Z as the “unknown” (algebra – makes a change from X or Y). Paul Cezanne was a post-impressionist painter, bridging the gap between Monet and Van Gogh. | |
| 7 | Republican leader with South African money (4) |
| RAND – R = “Republican leader” (as in the leading letter of Republican) + AND for “with”. “And = with” is sneaky, because “with” is so innocuous that it’s very easy to slide past it unseeing. Fortunately the definition was kind. | |
| 9 | Change before race, taking turn by turn (11) |
| ALTERNATION – ALTER = “change”, and it comes “before” NATION = “race”. | |
| 12 | Unrivalled noblewoman, about fifty (8) |
| PEERLESS – PEERESS = “noblewoman”, and she goes around (“about”) L, which is “fifty” in Roman numerals. Smatterings of Roman numbering and the Greek alphabet are essential elements of your survival kit in these parts. | |
| 14 | Colour of new nametag (7) |
| MAGENTA – an anagram (indicated by “new”) of “nametag”. | |
| 16 | Keep control, engaging volunteers once (6) |
| RETAIN – REIN = “control”, which goes round (“engaging”) TA (“volunteers once” – TA for Territorial Army, which is now called the Army Reserve and so is indicated in the past tense). | |
| 18 | Going up in plane, see giant web-footed birds (5) |
| GEESE – a reverse hidden, inside “planE SEE Giant”. It says “going up in” because this is a down clue, so you are reading upwards. | |
| 19 | Lost footing in upland moor (4) |
| FELL – we end as we began, with a fairly straightforward double-definition. | |
Thanks Penny. I appreciate your advice.
Yes, I’ve perhaps got things out of proportion. I should have stopped much sooner yesterday.
Gary
PS On the bright side, I did solve the Quintagram in a reasonable time, so there is one positive to build upon.
Stone is nature’s timeless masterpiece, adding elegance and durability to any space.norstoneinc