As always a smooth operation from Dac. He has the ability to find the most straightforward parsing of a word, as witness the number of answers that are blogged here without comment. Which is not to say that he is always easy: it’s hard to compare solving online (as I did here) with solving the paper version, but it seemed that this was a bit tricky to get started on and then everything flowed very easily. Dac’s clues are never too devious.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BRIEFCASES — which are file holders and also what reluctant (in the lazy sense) judges want |
| 7 | B OWL |
| 9 | GAR CON{y} |
| 10 | RELEASED — RE a in (Leeds)* |
| 11 | AID A — the opera Aida |
| 12 | EVEN TU ALLY |
| 13 | TERMINUS — which is an end and a ‘term in US’ can be called a trimester |
| 14 | SOLEMN — (moles)* {garde}n |
| 16 | ASCEND — “a send” |
| 18 | F LAT(MA)TE |
| 20 | SORE THROAT — (tot hoarser)*, &lit. |
| 23 | NuNEATon |
| 24 | H(1 JACK)E’D |
| 25 | C(IT)RON{y} — you could say that all trees produce fruit, but a citron produces lemons, an example of what we normally mean by fruit |
| 26 | CL(0){tes}T — cl = class |
| 27 | M(IN)ISERIES — is a miniseries a TV programme? I should have thought that it was a number of TV programmes |
| Down | |
| 2 | READ INES S |
| 3 | EX (C{a}L{l}) AIM — aim in the sense take aim, train the gun on the target |
| 4 | CON DE(M{a}N)ED |
| 5 | STREETS OF LONDON — l in (Stones noted for)* — nice misdirection here — this 1969 song is by Ralph McTell — I can’t quite see why Dac uses the word ‘folksy’ |
| 6 | SPLIT — 2 defs |
| 7 | BR(AD)AWL |
| 8 | W HEEL |
| 14 | S PART A(C)US — Chambers tells us that it is in dentistry that the abbreviation c for canine is used — I’ve never heard it used in daily language — again nice misdirection here |
| 15 | MET HAD ONE |
| 17 | (m}E(LEG)ANT |
| 19 | MO(NI)TOR — the province is Northern Ireland |
| 21 | {T}ORIE{s} L — the Oxford college |
| 22 | H(OK)UM |
A pleasant solve, with my favourites being 7a, 20a, 15d, 22d, 4d.
Thanks for the blog, John. I needed your help to parse 21d, 12a, 13a (the IN US part).
Re 5d, I don’t know why the song is described as “folksy” but perhaps compared to the Rolling Stones it does sound a bit “folksy” to me. I thought it was great misdirection beacuse for a while I was trying to think of folk songs the Stones had recorded. Was Ralph McTell thought of as the British answer to Bob Dylan? (In any case, I’d have to say, I prefer Bob Dylan).
I’d have thought 5d is described as “folksy” because it’s about the folks on the streets of London.
I found this a bit difficult today especially the NE corner for some reason, thanks John & Dac
If you wiki Folk songs you end up at a page that cites Ralph McTell which then directs you to The Streets of London being an example. I’ve got a cloth ear myself but I do remember that anyone learning acoustic guitar would inevitably start playing it early in their career, so I always assumed the chords and rhythm were easy to learn. In fact if anyone turned up at a party clutching an acoustic, you could earn folding money betting that they would soon be belting it out with a spotted bandanna round their neck, a fag pressed into the fret keys and a pint of bitter at their elbow – which sums up ‘folksy’ for me.
The usual smooth cluing from Dac. Thanks for the blog.
Like John and Flashling, I too took a while to get started on this one. Thanks to Dac and John too.
aztobesed@3
I loved your comment and had my biggest laugh of the day while reading it! I guess that the other song that appealed to folks like those was “House of the Rising Sun”?
Thanks Dac for an enjoyable puzzle and John for the blog.
27ac: Collins 2000 gives “programme 2 a performance or series of performances, often presented at a scheduled time, esp. on radio or television”. That seems to cover MINISERIES well enough.
Yes, I was v surprised to see [miniseries = TV programme] queried.
Thank you, John.
Dac isn’t devious, but he can sometimes be more difficult than usual, and I thought today was one of those days. Took a while to pin this one down.
C for canine I have seen before, and ORIEL seems to be the setters’ favourite Oxford college – it’s always cropping up.
Folksy is definitely the wrong word in the STREETS OF LONDON clue. You might describe McTell as in the folk tradition, but I’ve never heard ‘folksy’ used to describe folk music. It means something completely different. The song was originally inspired by the homeless of Paris, btw, where McTell was busking at the time.
Indeed k’s d it’s not that the song is a folk song but about people ie folk. At least it wasn’t morris dancing then I might really lose it. Did I say I have a problem with scum morris dancers who think it’s fine to fertilise any wife they can? Ohh rant over sorry.
A bit on the tough side for me, although I did finish it with only a couple of e-searches. Not helped that I entered “ascent” in 16ac, which delayed getting 4dn. I can’t believe I didn’t see 6dn without a search!
We found this a bit tougher than the average Dac but no complaints. It wasn’t helped by inserting WINCH for 8d but “eventually” on solving 12ac we saw the error of our ways.
We don’t have a problem with ‘folksy’ for 8d. It took us a while to unravel, although again it wasn’t helped by having TERMINAL for 13ac. We couldn’t actually parse it, but it is late!
Got there in the end so thanks Dac and John.