Solving Time: 18 mins
Due to my odd sleeping patterns with my illness, I get to solve most of the daily puzzles, and I came to Virgilius after tackling The Guardian, Times and FT and I have to say I was feeling pretty deflated. I thought the Times was OK, but the other two were dull. My mood didn’t lift when I saw the grid. I hate grids with “double unches” (adjacent unchecked spaces) as it means it’s tougher to solve. This particular grid comprises 24 eight letter words (Eeach one with a double unch)and two fifteen-letter words, that’s all. However, when I saw it was a Virgilius I perked up. Good witty clues that are entertaining to solve.
ACROSS *= Anagram (CD) = Cryptic definition (r) = Reversal
1 CHOP CHOP Double definition
9 RELATIVE Double definition
10 ATROPINE A + PROTEIN*
11 SATANICAL Great clue which works on so many levels. nice & lit anag of AIN’T MASS
12 DAMOCLES Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damocles for the story if you haven’t heard of this chap.
13 CHILDREN DR inside CHILE +N
14 BROAD MINDEDNESS (CD) Tolerant travellers would exhibit B Road Mindedness.
20 ADELAIDE LAID inside A DEE
21 RECKONED Virgilius Loves to hide the most unlikely words, and this held me up for a couple of minutes looking how this worked!
22 SURPLICE SURE holding CLIP*
23 NOBLEMEN NO (Small number) + L inside B + EM + EN (Printing Measures)
24 ATLANTIC ATTIC with LAN (a lot of land) inside
25 ETERNITY Another clever clue ENTIRE* + T + Y
DOWN
2 HOT WATER (CD)
3 PROFORMA PROF + OR + MA
4 HEIRLOOM HE + I + L in ROOM
5 PRESS CONFERENCE Another nice clue. A conference is a type of Pear.
6 MANACLED A NaCl (Salt!) inside MED
7 FILIGREE GIRLIE* inside FE (Iron)
8 TERMINUS If you studied at Yale, you’d have spent a TERM IN (the) U.S. Pause for groan!!
14 BRASS HAT BRASS (Players as in orchestra) + HAT (Bowler)
16 DRAWLING DRAW + LING
17 EDUCABLE BAD CLUE +E*
18 NAPOLEON N+ A POLE + ON
19 SEVEREST S + EVEREST
Re 14 Across is there an allusion to the phrase – Travel broadens the mind?
14A: Yes. 11A is SATANISM – just a slip of Dave’s pen, as the analysis is right.
I’ll have to agree to differ with Dave about double unches – I like them for a change, as long as you still get good checking, and no double unches as the first two letters of a word. But they were actually only half of the 24 8-letter words, and the 15s had all but two letters checked, which must help.
Agreed, other PB. The checking in a double-lunch grid can be just as fair as in a normal one, and the opportunities for good-looking grid construction are legion.
15D
Presumably this is OVERRULE. But why? Apparently “without extras” has to give “rule”…
My best guess on 15D (which puzzles me too) is that some phrase like “to rule” or “by rule” = “without extras”, and the answer is “over to/by rule”. But this does seem opaque for Virgilius.
Actually 1 ac is not a double definition but a charade with two indications of CHOP plus a definition.
I agree with the two PBs that double unches are OK in a blocked puzzle so long as half the letters are checked.
Virgilius nearly always treats us top a theme or a Nina. I guess this time it was the unusual grid construction with all those 8-letter words.
I couldn’t understand the clue to OVERRULE either.
I missed this puzzle but it sounds as though Virgilius has used an old Times grid. Sounds familiar, anyway.
Virgilius wrote in notes accompanying this puzzle “no theme, just liked the grid”. Re; Over rule, this is just a reference to the fact that the rule is that an over is six deliveries unless there are no-balls, wides, etc.
Great clues, as ever from Virgilius.
I agree with all that has been said about the grid. Crosswords should be difficult to solve because of the ingenuity of the clues, not because the letters are awkwardly checked/unchecked.
Still don’t understand the clue to OVERRULE despite Eimi’s explanation. “Extras” includes byes and legbyes which don’t have the effect of lengthening the over.
It confirms my longheld view that cricket clues shouldn’t be written by compilers whose understanding of the complexities of cricket is apparently shaky.