Fairly easy start to the week although I’d never heard of 18A before.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | (WE TRAIN)* |
| 11 | BOO,T(otall)Y – nice surface reading here. |
| 12 | SPEED<,PACE |
| 13 | (TESS IN PR)* – I’ve always thought SPINSTER such an unfortunate word, especially when compared with the male equivalent. I remember the 30 year old soon-to-be Mrs Dubya being horrified at being described as one. |
| 15 | PO’S,SET – having a three month old baby I’m very familiar with POSSET as a verb as I’ve had to wipe up the aftermath of enough of them but I didn’t know it could also be a noun. |
| 18 | R in (RAIDS)* = the last one to go in and a new word to me. Lucky guess really as SARDIR didn’t look right. |
| 22 | (ROTA’S)*,”nought” |
| 24 | ALL,O,A |
| 25 | PORT,(k)ENT |
| 27 | THE FAERIE QUEENE – “Queen Mab” is a fairy in English folklore. |
| Down | |
| 1 | (US ABOUT)* |
| 2 | (DOING ROLE)* – reference to The Gondoliers. |
| 4 | AB,ER,NEED< – another nice surface reading. |
| 5 | V,O(n)CE in AT |
| 8 | TAN,GENT |
| 16 | (FELL)* in SHIRE |
| 17 | I,CH in PASTE |
| 20 | I(d)A in (SEEMS)* |
| 23 | hidden in “sisTERS Eyeshadow” |
| 24 | ADIE,U |
Re. 18ac. Don’t understand why “launches” is an anag. indicator. If a ship, for instance, is launched, it still retains its same form…
Al
Yes, SIRDAR was the last I got for the same reason – I never considered “launches” as an anagram indicator until I finally tracked down the solution and worked back from it. However the main definition in Chambers is “throw” and “thrown” might be OK as as indicator. Borderline perhaps.
“Launch” means “throw” in the sense of “throw a cricket ball”, for instance. The ball retains its form…
Yew, Al, I think you’re right about that.
Ah yes, but a cricket ball is not the same as a group of letters. If they were hypothetically thrown across a river, due to their different aerodynamic properties, I doubt if they would remain in the same order 😉
Come on! Despite the fact that Eimi’s answer is flagged as a joke, surely this kind of criticism deserves a more cogent response than that…
The point about anagram indicators, it seems to me, is that they should give a plausible explanation of why the letters of a word should end up in a different order, but still in a straight line.
“Destroyed”- fine, the order of the letters has been destroyed
“Reordered”- fine, for obvious reason.
“Confused”- fine, the order of the letters has been mixed up.
Etc…
What’s the chance of a group of letters being “thrown across a river” (why a river?) and ending up in a straight line?!
Al