A gentle enough offering from Orpheus today, if my time of seven-and-a-half minutes is anything to go by. One wrong, of course, but I’d say the “Unlucky!” sign was quite accurate on this occasion (as opposed to simply being “Wrong!”): 18ac is an island with the potential for two trendy churches on it, and I entered the wrong one. A bit of a 50-50, unless you’re one of the 209 people living in the village of Ince, in which case you’d be much more likely to go for the wrong answer, as it derives its name from inis, the Primitive Welsh word for island. I consider myself fully vindicated by this. As for the rest of the puzzle, it all flowed very nicely, helping clear a slightly groggy head, so for this breezy fun I give my thanks to Orpheus.
Many thanks also to Mohn2, whose blog template I finally got round to using: wow, it works like magic!
| Across | |
| 1 | Gourmet’s dog tucking into last of nice pastry dish (7) |
| EPICURE – CUR (dog) tucking into E (last of nice) PIE (pastry dish). It would be very difficult to dislike the philosophy of Epicurus. | |
| 5 | Put up with verbal abuse (5) |
| STICK – double definition. | |
| 8 | Abstemious type stocktaking in golfing store? (11) |
| TEETOTALLER – cryptic definition. If you could count tees for a living and remain abstemious, you’re more grounded than me. | |
| 10 | Vehicle initially transporting a football team, perhaps (4) |
| TAXI – T (initially transporting) A (a) XI (football team, perhaps: as in the eleven of a sports team) | |
| 11 | Problem about hot space for edible fungus (8) |
| MUSHROOM – MUS (sum = problem; about = reverse) H(ot) ROOM (space) | |
| 12 | Ways to get round old feeling of pity (6) |
| PATHOS – PATHS (ways) to go round O(ld). Alternatively: PATHS to get/receive O (round), giving an old/ancient feeling of pity. | |
| 14 | Figure of old boy standing by pine? (6) |
| OBLONG – O.B. (old boy) standing by LONG (pine: as in the verb) | |
| 16 | Sadly his dream is incorrectly taken in (8) |
| MISHEARD – anagram (sadly) of HIS DREAM | |
| 18 | Island’s trendy church (4) |
| INCH – IN (trendy) CH(urch): from a Gaelic word for a small island: innis. The OED has a nice second meaning that follows from this: an area of raised ground in a plain – this is also why the village of Ince is so named, being built on a low ridge amid some marshlands. | |
| 20 | Musket son brought into passenger vehicle by mistake (11) |
| BLUNDERBUSS – BLUNDER (mistake) by/alongside S(on) brought into BUS (passenger vehicle). “Bus” is an old Dutch word for a gun, and the blunder bit relates to either its haphazard firing or its extremely loud bang that would render those in the vicinity dazed and confused, if not dead. A thing to avoid. | |
| 22 | Like Lloyd George, say, mostly fit and quiet (5) |
| WELSH – WELL = fit, mostly = dock the last letter, Sh! = quiet. | |
| 23 | Son given small number to soften up (7) |
| SWEETEN – S(on) given WEE (small) TEN (number) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Slightly leavened bread: it feeds a social group at school (5) |
| PITTA – IT feeds/enters PTA (a social group at school). Slightly leavened? Now I know. | |
| 3 | To some extent, teacher is hard to hold dear (7) |
| CHERISH – Hidden, “to some extent”, in teaCHER IS Hard. | |
| 4 | Aussie native king banished from castle? (3) |
| ROO – K(ing) banished from ROOK (castle) | |
| 6 | Roofing contractor depositing pounds in bank? (5) |
| TILER – L (pounds, as in the sign for sterling) deposited in TIER (bank) | |
| 7 | Drawing of box with ring in it (7) |
| CARTOON – CARTON (box) with O (ring) inside | |
| 9 | Sailors, swindled, so to speak, do a runner (7) |
| ABSCOND – ABs (sailors) COND (conned/swindled, when spoken) | |
| 11 | Reportedly collected condiment (7) |
| MUSTARD – another soundalike, this time collected = mustered. | |
| 13 | American — one with capacity to be good-natured (7) |
| AMIABLE – AM(erican) I (one) ABLE (with capacity) | |
| 15 | Recreation is taken in the French river (7) |
| LEISURE – IS taken into LE (“the” French) URE (river) | |
| 17 | Times? Sounds like yours and mine (5) |
| HOURS – another soundalike: OURS (yours and mine) | |
| 19 | Actors taking English class (5) |
| CASTE – CAST (actors) E(nglish). “Taking” as a linkword here simply means “has”, but it could equally mean eating/going around, and I see no reason why it couldn’t also mean removing E. | |
| 21 | Take to river, provoking argument? (3) |
| ROW – double definition. | |
COD 10ac TAXI!
7.40 mins
Edited at 2017-07-06 07:25 am (UTC)
Like our blogger, I pondered long and hard on this one. Couldn’t come up with any sensible solution as to why it should be one or the other and, luckily, plonked for inch only on the basis that it was a word I knew and just hoped there might be (perhaps a small) island somewhere in the world called INCH.
Luck of the draw today!
COD 20a. Didn’t know if this was a musket but as soon as the initial B went in decided it must be.And then parsed it after.
Thanks to Orpheus and Roly
Having got the O at the end of 4dn I looked at the clue and started to get in a politically correct froth about how inappropriate it was to have “abo” in the Times … then I realised. Forgive me, Orpheus.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Templar
All fairly straightforward today apart from 18a (LOI) where I guessed correctly. COD 20a, completed in 12 minutes.
Plett11
On edit: Having said I had no problems, it took me 3 attempts to post this comment, with first my login cookie going awol, and then after signing back in, being chucked out again. Computers!!
Edited at 2017-07-06 11:03 am (UTC)
Liked 22a. David
Having got the O at the end of 4dn I looked at the clue and started to get in a politically correct froth about how inappropriate it was to have “abo” in the Times … then I realised. Forgive me, Orpheus.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Templar
Crispian.