*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone
A fairly straightforward puzzle with just one I didn’t entirely follow (17 down) and one I thought seemed a bit weak (19 across).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Caterpillar: Cater + pillar + ref. to the Emperor moth (my initial thought was penguin, but that didn’t get me very far). |
| 7 | Opt: Op + t. |
| 9 | Noisome: Noise around OM. |
| 10 | Cocaine: Coin E (ecstacy) around ca. |
| 11 | Rasher: (r share)*. |
| 12 | Plumbago: Plum + Bag + O[liver]. |
| 14 | Ode: OD + [laureat]e. |
| 15 | Reaganomics: Cryptic reference to former US President Ronald Reagan. |
| 16 | Green Wellie: Green + well + [pat]ie[nts]. |
| 18 | Ami: M in AI. |
| 19 | Averages: I think this is just a double definition, although averages for sporting achievements seems a bit weak. I suppose a good average in cricket can be considered a sporting achievement. |
| 20 | Mastic: (I’m cast)*. |
| 23 | Inflect: (c left in)*. I’m not entirely sure if the definition is “change the ending” or just change. Since C is the first letter of chapter and not the last, I suppose it must be the former. Looking at the possible definitions of “inflect”, I think it must refer to the grammatical meaning where the end part of a verb is varied. |
| 24 | Iron age: cryptic def. |
| 25 | Yet: Hidden. |
| 26 | Lord’s Prayer: Lord’s player (Middlesex play some of their home matches at Lord’s) with l left out and replaced by r. |
| Down | |
| 1 | Centre of gravity: Cryptic def. I think the “vee” just refers to the fact that v is the middle letter of gravity. |
| 2 | Trieste: Tries on t[errac]e. |
| 3 | Rhone: R + hone. As well as meaning “to sharpen”, hone can also be a type of rock used for such a purpose. |
| 4 | Item: Met< on 4th letter of April. |
| 5 | Local Calls: Cryptic def. |
| 6 | Recompose: Com. in repose. |
| 7 | Origami: cryptic def. |
| 8 | The Coast is Clear: (Heretical acts so)*. |
| 13 | Pacesetter: P + ace setter. |
| 15 | Ring a bell: double definition. |
| 17 | En effet: Clue is “A point is this, in point of fact”. |
| 18 | Actuary: Actually with ll replaced by r. If you were being a bit pedantic, you could argue the actuary doesn’t take the risk personally – he just works out what it is. |
| 21 | Amour: Am (first person conjugation of “to be”) + OU (Oxford University) + R (rector). |
| 22 | Pits: Double definition. One of those that was fairly obvious, but required a dictionary to confirm. A pit can refer to the stone of certain types of fruit. |
You don’t see them so much today perhaps but the batting and bowling averages in cricket would be achievements all right, I’d say. I agree with you re INFLECT – like you, I do not understand EN EFFET apart from the definition.
Enjoyable puzzle.
I’ve been confined to the paper edition for the past couple of weeks and so this is the first online puzzle I’ve seen for a while. Could I take this opportunity to thank Eimi for sneaking the setter and puzzle number into the online puzzle. My only worry is what happens when there is a setter with a long name? How about ‘1234…Across’ and ‘Setter…Down’?
I read 24a as IRON+AGE (press+maturity) with ‘period’ as the definition.
And, could 17 be somehow hinting at NE (point) in EFFET ?
The addition of a question mark on 24a pushed me towards thinking it was intended more to be cryptic. If it had just said “A period of press maturity”, I would agree with the straight “Iron + Age” intepretation, but the question mark implies it’s meant to be interpreted cryptically.
I’m relieved to see the setters’ names appearing – not least because someone who’s only solved the Indy online up to now might be somewhat confused by 13 down!
Surely the question mark is simply there to qualify one of the definitions? In this case ‘A period’ would seem to be a weak definition of IRON AGE. I really can’t see how this clue can be read as a ‘definition + charade’ without the question mark, but with the question mark the wordplay somehow disappears.