Well, not much to say today. Chifonie at possibly his mildest.
I’ve one or two minor quibbles but this really is more like the standard you’d expect in a quiptic to be honest.
Across
1 Find commander among dead (6)
LOCATE
O(fficer in) C(ommand) inside LATE (dead)
4 A time to change course that’s fit (6)
ATTACK
Simple charade of A & T(ime) & TACK for a fit like an epileptic fit.
9 Girl takes part in requiem mass (4)
EMMA
Hidden in requiEM MAss
10 Statement of employment (10)
PROFESSION
Double definition
11 Union leader interrupts opening of royal house (6)
STUART
Leading letter of U(nion) in START (opening) with misleading attempt to make you put it in ROYAL*
12 Ultimate workstation (8)
TERMINAL
Another double def, is this actually Rufus in disguise?
13 “I led a riot” — revolutionary leader (9)
EDITORIAL
[I LED A RIOT]*
15 Fellow’s total defeat (4)
FALL
F(ellow) & ALL (total)
16 Coppers put on drama (4)
PLAY
P coppers & LAY put on, not entirely convinced here, 2p is two copper coins but surely the P is singular?
17 Command soldier, in a manner of speaking (9)
DIRECTION
R(oyal) E(ngineer) in DICTION
21 Latest society model in media reports (8)
NEWSCAST
Again the plurality seems awry, NEW (latest) & S(ociety) & CAST (model)
22 Report on deceased (6)
RELATE
RE on LATE deceased, late for dead again?
24 Pat wrote us about weather feature (10)
WATERSPOUT
[PAT WROTE US]*
25 Penny upset boyfriend (4)
DATE
D (old currency penny) & ATE (upset)
26 Present old watch (6)
EXTEND
As in present arms, EX old & WATCH tend
27 Inadequate lavatory in filthy place (6)
SCANTY
CAN for toilet in STY
Down
1 Bound to put small amount in hat (7)
LIMITED
MITE as in the widows mite inside LID for hat
2 Girl caught star batsman (5)
CLARA
C(aught) & (brian) LARA
3 Bartender appears a good man in the light (7)
TAPSTER
S(ain)T (good man) inside TAPER (light)
5 Right to adopt man’s hypothesis (6)
THEORY
HE (man) inside TORY (right)
6 Fool’s hurt? Six-footer is the attacker (9)
ASSAILANT
ASS (fool) & AIL (hurt) & ANT (six footer, an insect)
7 Hill claims wife’s a clever clogs (4-3)
KNOW-ALL
W(ife) & A inside KNOLL (hill)
8 Detective involved in throttling gives denial (13)
CONTRADICTION
D(etective) I(nspector) inside CONTRACTION (throttling)
14 Sent train out for a short time only (9)
TRANSIENT
[SENT TRAIN]*
16 Lords and ladies continually coming into leaf (7)
PEERAGE
E’ER (ever, continually) in PAGE (leaf)
18 Wayward boy captures vermin (7)
ERRATIC
ERIC capturing RAT
19 Remain longer than exhausted supporter (7)
OUTSTAY
OUT (exhausted) & STAY (supporter, prop)
20 Will infect (4,2)
PASS ON
Double def.
23 Left Middle East port weighed down (5)
LADEN
L(eft) & ADEN (a port in the Yemen)
*anagram
Thanks flashling and Chifonie
I didn’t enjoy this very much. It was a bit repetitive (P and D for example); the anagrams were blindingly obvious, and some of the definitions, as you say, were a bit iffy.
Compilers always seem to choose sportsmen of a certain age – “golfer” always seems to be ELS, “tennis player” is often ASHE, “footballer” is usually BEST, and, here, cricketer is LARA.
I was sure that 12a was going to be a “lift and separate”, with “station” as the definition, so I was a little disappointed that it was much more straightforward,
……..two “lates” for “dead” as well.
I can’t quite see how ATE = “upset” in 25a. Either the tense or the “transitiveness” (is that a word?) seems wrong.
Thanks Chifonie and flashling
In the example for 2p, that’s two pence, plural, so I think it’s OK, if a tad stretched.
muffin @ 2
I wondered about that too, but saw it as “that ate at him” = “that upset him”, both past tense.
Simon @4
That’s what I meant by “transitiveness” – “ate at” is in the opposite direction to “ate”, isn’t it?
muffin @ 5
I don’t think so: you could equally say “that ate him up” as a synonym for “that upset him”, couldn’t you?
Better example, Simon – I think I can agree with that.
I didn’t make my previous quibble quite clear – “that ate at him” and “he ate that” are the opposites I was thinking of.
Simon @6
On second thoughts, the solution isn’t DATEUP, is it?
Oh well, let’s move on.
Thanks flashing and Chifonie
A bit disappointingly easy and repetitive.
Re ‘ate’, the question ‘What’s eating him?’ seems to fit the bill.
Thanks Chifonie for a straightforward one.
Thanks flashling – I think muffin @2 meant too late. 😉 Actually, four late as latest and RELATE appear also. Maybe Chifonie meant that there might be several media reports in a NEWSCAST?
Took a little longer than yesterday, but not much. I agree, in general, with the preceding comments.
Thanks Chifonie and flashing
My favourites were 19d, 12a, 6d.
New words/people for me were WATERSPOUT and Brian Lara.
I needed help to parse 17a, 25a.
RE is Royal Engineers, so 17 should have ‘soldiers’.
@Rhotician, I did wonder about that one as I wrote it up and forgot to check.
Nice to have a gentle one from time to time. I was mildly put out by “Fellow’s” instead of “Fellow” in 15a though. Does anyone have an opinion on whether the spare ‘s’ is allowable by convention?
Well I suppose it wasn’t quite as straightforward as yesterday’s Rufus, but we’ve come to expect Chifonie to be at the easier end of the Guardian spectrum. Last in was NEWSCAST.
Thanks to flashling and Chifonie.
Actually I found this rather easier than the Rufus.Indeed I thought it a tad halfhearted-the two “lates” as someone has already pointed out.
I’m assuming we’re being lulled into a false sense of security before the stinker too come!
Cyborg @ 15
The ‘s should be seen as an abbreviation for ‘has’ rather than ‘of’ (cf ‘the fellow’s gone’ vs ‘the fellow’s dog’), so is a form of misdirection.
Thanks flashling,and Chifonie for an easy solve – that’s two days in a row. I agree with most of the quibbles, but rhotician @13: a soldier may place the initials RE after his name e.g. “The Royal Albert Hall was designed by Captain Francis Fowke RE”.
Cyborg @ 15
The usual justification for a ‘s in a case like this is that it stands for “has” indicating a charade. This meaning of ‘s is rather limited, and I am not always happy with it.
Simon @18 and PeterO @19, thanks for the explanations. I quite often see it as an abbreviation for “is” to indicate formation, but I’d never thought of “has”.
PeterO @19 – RE still stands for Royal Engineers. Consider Captain James Cook RN.
Rather late today as am in Scotland trying to sell a farm!
Favourites here were 17ac and best of all 6d.
Thx
rhotician @21
That is beside the point. The clue uses ‘soldier’ to define RE, and Captain Francis Fowke was A soldier, not a regiment (his regiment also built the RAH, incidentally). To expand, you might say that the RE after his name (or the name of any of his colleagues) indicates “a soldier of the Royal Engineers”
PeterO @23
To be pedantic, designed by two Royal Engineers; built by Lucas Brothers – see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Engineers#Royal_Albert_Hall
I mostly agree with rhotician. Chifonie could certainly have forestalled the discussion by using “soldiers”.
My gripe was in 3d, where ‘a good man’ often indicates AST … ie the indefinite article is there for a reason. I spent too long trying to insert said three letters until the penny dropped.
I made a note also to moan about the two LATE entrances but it seems the world got there before me.
PeterO – Chambers, Collins and others with entries for RE give only Royal Engineers. After a name it does not indicate ‘A soldier of the RE’, it indicates ‘of the RE’. ‘sailor’ wouldn’t do for RN. It’s just a little careless, a nit to be picked.
Sometimes it is a little disheartening to see the regulars here disparaging a puzzle on the occasions I can complete it.
Though I would have to agree that if I can solve it then it can’t have been too difficult.
I couldn’t completely justify a number of the answers – 4a, 16d and 25a but was glad to see them explained here,
21a stumped me for a while at the end as I was thinking about a Model T
Thanks flashling for the solution and all for the debates
I have followed the arguments above but still don’t see how ate = upset.
@mikeinmacc the comments today are mostly nitpicks over technical faults that actually make solving harder.
Don’t despair, they get easier after say thirty years practice 🙂
There were a couple of head scratching moments even for an old git like me today.
@JohnM The expression “What’s eating you” means what’s upset you. It’s not too much of a stretch from there. Eat=worry=care etc has been a compiler’s stock in trade for a while and just another tool for solvers to remember.
Thanks all
Last in was ‘extend’, I was too obsessed by watch= timer.
Very little else worth comment.
Your constant niggling eats me.
flashling @30
There’s that tense thing again. “What ate you” doesn’t make as much sense. (“What did upset you” just about, I suppose.)
Sorry – I said I was going to let it drop.
….by that I meant that I can imagine saying “What’s eating you?”, but “What ate you?” seems rather improbable.
Hi muffin true but poetic licence surely has to apply at times. The phrase “Not quite ximinean but for heaven’s sake you know what I’m getting at” doesn’t quite trip off the tongue alas 🙂
Not worth further discussion, I think, flashling. Thanks for your patience and understanding!
btw I’m surprised that no-one picked up on my comment about the vintage of crossword sportsmen. I remember George Best; do most other crossworders? It would be a little worrying (for the future) if that were true!
Maybe it was just the mood I was in, but this probably took me twice as long as yesterday’s Rufus. As others have already said, a fairly typical Chifonie puzzle. I don’t have a problem with ate=upset when upset is being used in the past tense and I can’t believe the number of comments it generated. TERMINAL was my LOI after the PROFESSION/CONTRADICTION crossers.
…..of course, to counterbalance, there was that wonderful clue a few weeks ago (that I DIDN’T understand), involving EDEN HAZARD.
muffin@36 – I was almost tempted to say something earlier. Your examples @1 seem to indicate that “a certain age” varies from sport to sport, but ELS in particular is a nice set of letters. I was thinking of more contemporary batsmen before going back to Brian Lara. It would have been a quiet day without the nitpicking over RE (which I didn’t even notice.
Thanks for your response, beery hiker.
Out of interest, did you see George Best live? (I only saw him on TV, of course, but it was live.)
I was actually alive if not terribly sentient but present when George Best headed the the ball in against Northampton… Git
muffin, no, I don’t remember seeing George Best live (or on live TV) since my memories of football before 1976 are limited to a couple of cup finals, and I wasn’t brought up in a football watching household.
From the scientific point of view: a hypothesis is NOT the same as a theory, but that’a crossword sloppiness for you.
Vic @43
I’m pleased you said that – I had an impulse to say it too, but I didn’t want to further (even further) my reputation for scientific pedantry.
(P.S. you are entirely correct!)
Thanks Chifonie and flashling
Agree that it was a straightforward crossword with a couple of minor niggles – the doubling up of LATE in 1a and 22a that was unusual from him.
Must have been off his wavelength as it did seem to take longer to complete today. Last couple in were PROFESSION and NEWSCAST.
Nothing much to say about this except that it was disappointing.
Fairly easy and equally sloppy.
We must be in for three crackers this week now as up to now has been awful. (Or perhaps Hugh is on holiday! 😉 )
Thanks to Flashling and Chifonie
Vic and Muffin –
I’m a mathematician, not a scientist (MA not MSc) and, to me, theory and hypothesis are synonymous. It is a theorem that is not hypothetical.
I agree with B(nto) – disappointed to have two Mondays in a row.
Thanks to S & B
I read coppers as police, so the P was acceptable to me. Am I in the minority here?