Solving time 17:30
I thought I was heading for a fairly quick time for this one, until I got down to three left in the SE corner (25A, 22D, 23D). That’s when I ground to a complete halt and what might have been a 10-minute solve ended up at over 17. I’m still not sure of 22D, but I can’t check it as they haven’t put the solution up yet.
Update – I started doing this blog at 9am Saturday morning, but I’m just posting it now at 1am Sunday as some unexpected guests arrived (who only left an hour ago!).
Across |
1 |
CHIN-CHIN – enjoyed this one, but my crossword brain instantly thought boxer=dog, so it took a while to get it! |
5 |
ACACIA – AC twice, plus IA (short for Iowa) |
9 |
RELATIVE – TALE rev inside RIVE. That was a bit obscure – Chambers says RIVE is a poetic or archaic word meaning to tear, rend, split etc. Interesting definition too! |
10 |
COSMIC – S in COMIC. Is this great as in large or great as in Rodney Trotter’s favourite expression? |
12 |
BY A SHORT HEAD – (a boy thrashed)*, definition is “Just” |
15 |
RASTA – RA (Egyptian sun god) + STA(r)
|
16 |
BOSTONIAN – TO inside BOSNIAN |
18 |
THICKHEAD – I thought this was a bit rude, but just in case I looked up THICKHEAD in Chambers and found that it’s “any bird of an Australian family (Pachycephalidae) related to flycatchers and shrikes.” |
19 |
FLORA – LO inside FRA(nce) |
20 |
SKIPPING ROPE – KIPPING inside prose*. Liked the definition once I’d figured it out. |
24 |
ASTRAY – AS + TRAY |
25 |
OBSIDIAN – ID,IS reversed inside OBAN. Struggled with this, and couldn’t even think of a word to fit ?B?I???? that made any sense. It came to me as soon as I had the N though. |
26 |
TRAVEL – T + RAVEL, and travel broadens the mind, which according to ODQ is an early 20th century proverb. |
27 |
HEDGE-HOP – HEDGE + HOP. I wasn’t 100% sure this was right, but the wordplay fit and nothing better sprang to mind. |
Down |
1 |
CORK – Nice double def. |
2 |
IDLE – another double def. |
3 |
CUTTY SARK – T(in)Y in CUTS + ARK for lifeboat. CUTS = veers? Hmm. Not one of the dozens of definitions for cut in Chambers… |
4 |
INVISIBLE INK – not sure that works as a cryptic definition. A pen is often a “writer” in crosswords, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen ink so described. |
6 |
CLOUT – yet another double def. |
7 |
COMPETITOR – P in COME + TIT,OR. |
8 |
ACCIDENTAL – a double def. again, and a very good one. In music, an accidental is a sharp or flat on a single note. |
11 |
CONSIDERABLE – (bin cleared so)*. Definition is tidy, as in e.g. a tidy sum. |
13 |
PROTESTANT – PRO + TEST + ANT. Martin Luther was called the Father of Protestantism. |
14 |
ASPIDISTRA – (Iris adapts)* |
17 |
OFFSPRING – I wasn’t keen on this. Why “enjoying”? Why “their holiday season?” Surely that’s summer. Am I missing something? |
21 |
PLANE – the downs are full of double defs, but this one I’ve seen before several times. |
22 |
FISH – couldn’t think of anything else that fit ?I?H meaning “Search”, but it was the last one to go in and I’d spent far too long on 23 and 25 by then. I was perfectly willing to consider other suggestions for this, but the Times now has the answers online and it’s right. |
23 |
SNIP – PINS reversed. Should have got this a lot quicker, but couldn’t think how PINS = flags. Golf, of course. Oh, and SNIP = steal as in bargain. Somebody pass the self-kicking boots! |
On 22dn, rockfish, or rock for short, is, or used to be, very popular in fish and chip shops. It also used to be called rock salmon but I suspect the trading regulations put paid to that.
correct Italian spelling is CIN-CIN.
It can also mean hello or goodbye, although I’m pretty sure the only time I’ve heard it said is by posh people in black-and-white films, followed by the clink of glasses!
3D is presumably “cut in” = veer in front of someone when driving, but a bit iffy.
9A was easy enough – “rive” is quite frequent I think and not obscure (“the sky, is riven with angels singing..”)
Pity that, since a stuff up some months ago, the Oz version has got out of date sync with the (London) Times.
Now we have to do Saturday puzzles on a Tuesday!
Had some trouble with 18ac, despite being an Austraian twitcher and one of my real faves is the Golden Whistler (Pachycephala pectoralis).
Now we know who’s the thickhead!
Ragaman
I did not much like the use of “writer” to describe ink in 4d either but I suppose it is equally acceptable as pen. Writer = pen is something we appear to accept regularly?
Nice to see a volcanic glass at 25a from a geological point of view.
The Thickhead at 18a was a new bird for me. I have heard of (but never seen) a Thick-knee which is an African variant of the Stone Curlew – a wader that does not wade.