This seemed unusually difficult for Phi and one clue completely defeated me. There are a few I’m not sure about, which will I’m sure be rapidly explained here.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | M(US(1)CO LOG)Y |
| 6 | KNOB — (bonk)rev. |
| 9 | RIDING CROP — the second word is indicated by ‘to yield grain’, so no danger of a definition by example here |
| 10 | TW{il}IT |
| 12 | HARE MS |
| 13 | PRO SOD {fanc}Y — despite what one might think when hearing the word, prosody is amongst other things, according to Chambers, the study of versification, so a very nice definition |
| 15 | ALL OVER THE P(L)ACE |
| 18 | DEPART MENT(ST)OR {exclusiv}E |
| 19 | QU(ART){i}ET — but a chamber group with piano is only an example of a quartet: there are lots of other possible quartet combinations, so this looks to me like the dreaded definition by example. Or am I failing to understand something about music? Is it always a string quartet, or a wind quartet, or whatever, if there isn’t a piano? |
| 20 | DE JA V U{nusual} |
| 23 | {l}ARCH |
| 24 | URBI ET ORBI — ({yo}u toe rib rib)* — not being a good Catholic, I’d never heard of this |
| 25 | F {j}URY |
| 26 | CYBERSPACE — (Percy’s beac{h})* |
| Down | |
| 1 | MARS H(L)AND — not totally happy with the wordplay here, which seems to me to lead to MARSLHLAND |
| 2 | SE(D)ER |
| 3 | CINEMA VERITÉ — (mere inactive)* |
| 4 | LOCK — I think, but am not entirely sure, that the idea here is that a lock is a rugby forward, and a lock on a door etc prevents you from going forward |
| 5 | G(R)O UP THIN K — I suppose I should have worked this out and the word is at least in Chambers, but I didn’t |
| 7 | NEW POTATO — ((we)rev. pot) in NATO |
| 8 | BAT T{otall}Y |
| 11 | COMPOS MENTIS — MP in (economists)* |
| 14 | DRAMATURGY — (guard my art)* |
| 16 | L(APD)ANCER — apparently APD stands for avalanche photodiode. Wouldn’t have guessed that. |
| 17 | EXE{s} CUT I’VE — although I can find nothing to suggest that exes is short for expenses |
| 19 | QU AFF{ect} |
| 21 | A TRIA{l} |
| 22 | S{e}IZE |
Thanks John,
1d. I thought was HAND secures it (ie. Lake)
16d. I think it’s more likely to be PDA
Also, this was pangrammatic.
…and looking again at 19ac. I don’t think Piano is part of the definition, but the wordplay.
Definitely tough in places, though there was some great clueing in there.
One thing I don’t quite follow is how “paste” equates to “size”? Maybe I’m missing something there.
Size can be a form of paste, you mix it with paint when painting on fabric
I may have been lucky but I found this quite easy, my main difficulty being with 22 down with ?I?E, before I got SIZE.
While it may be a matter of taste, I’ll admit I’m entirely happy with definition by example as long of course as the wordplay will also lead to it as normal. Exes as expenses I’ve definitely seen used – it is in Chambers. Trickiest clue, QUARTET, I got the answer long before seeing the wordplay.
Thanks Ian yes of course it’s PDA. And how silly of me to get mixed up over the definition in 19ac: obviously just Chamber group.
urbi et orbi: Ancient Roman blessing, literally ‘to the city and to the world’
quartet: piano (quiet minus i= quet) around art for skill