There was only one entry in today’s puzzle that was a word I didn’t recognise.
I don’t think I’ve come across DARKLING (7 down) before. but the wordplay was fairly clear.
I worked my way through this fairly steadily without any long periods of inactivity. The cluing was precise which made the parsing reasonably easy although there were a few I couldn’t quite parse as I solved the puzzle. MULLIGATAWNY (17 across) was one that I didn’t parse properly till I came to write the blog.
The surfaces were good in many cases.
I finished in the North East corner with ISSUED (4 across) and DARKLING (7 down)
My favourite clues today was the one for PRESENT TENSE (13 across) where the surface reading probably led most of us to pronounce LIVE in a different way from the word central to the answer. I also like the clue for EUCHARIST (23 across) with its reference to bread and wine, and the clue for CLEAR CUT with the misdirection of the word NOT.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Resolve shown by hero plunging into river (6)
|
CID (reference El CID, the heroic Castilian knight Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar) contained in (plunging into) DEE (name of a river of which there a number in Great Britain) DE (CID) E |
DECIDE (resolve)
|
|
4
|
Has to appear in court? Gets discharged (6)
|
IS SUED (if someone IS SUED presumably they have to appear in court to defend their actions)
|
ISSUED (discharged)
|
|
8
|
Go away and yell with no small energy (5)
|
SCREAM (yell) excluding (with no) E (abbreviation for [small] energy)
|
SCRAM (go away!)
|
|
9
|
Red flower out in lots of countries — but it’s not red! (4,5)
|
Anagram of (out) RED FLOWER FREE WORLD* |
FREE WORLD (the collective name used of themselves by capitalist democratic countries esp during the Soviet era to differentiate themselves from communist states; not red [Communist] countries) |
|
11
|
Not joining in work can lead to swelling complaint (6,3)
|
OP (opus; work) + TIN (can) + GOUT (a disease in which excess of uric acid in the blood is deposited as urates in the joints, etc, with swelling esp of the big toe)
|
OPTING OUT (not joining in)
|
|
12
|
One of those not pulling their weight that could get you riled (5)
|
Anagram of (could get you) RILED IDLER* |
IDLER (a person who wastes time or is reluctant to work; one of those not pulling their weight)
|
|
13
|
What may be exemplified by lives now under strain (7,5)
|
PRESENT (now) + TENSE (under strain)
|
PRESENT TENSE (‘lives’ is the PRESENT TENSE of the verb ‘to live’)
|
|
17
|
With serviceman about to come in warm a yellowish-brown soup (12) |
MULL (warm, spice and sweeten) + (GI [American serviceman] reversed [about]) + A + TAWNY (yellowish-brown) MULL IG< A TAWNY |
MULLIGATAWNY (curry-soup originating in India)
|
|
20
|
Irish troublemaker makes one very cross (5)
|
IR (Irish) + ATE (Greek goddess of mischief and of all rash actions and their results; troublemaker)
|
IRATE (very cross)
|
|
21
|
Reptile horrible gorilla ate,apart from the tail (9)
|
Anagram of (horrible) GORILLA ATE excluding (apart from) the final letter (tail) E ALLIGATOR* |
ALLIGATOR (reptile)
|
|
23
|
A crust he and I chewed in church event with wine (9)
|
Anagram of (chewed) A CRUST HE and I EUCHARIST* |
EUCHARIST (the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper; the elements of the sacrament, bread and wine)
|
|
24
|
This writer’s restricted by literary boundary (5)
|
(I’M (I [this writer] ‘M [am; is]) contained in (restricted by) LIT (literary) L (IM) IT |
LIMIT (boundary)
|
|
25
|
Chuckle coming from you conveying energy and eccentricity (3-3)
|
THEE (you) containing (E [energy] + E [eccentricity; mathematical and / or scientific term]) T (E E) HEE |
TEE-HEE (chuckle)
|
|
26
|
Wild animals, bears with inner hunger (6)
|
HAS (bears) containing (with inner) YEN (desire; hunger) H (YEN) AS |
HYENAS (wild animals)
|
| Down | |||
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
The underworld about to have very big social events (6)
|
DIS (a name for Pluto, hence, the infernal world; underworld) + C (circa; about) + OS (outsize; very big)
|
DISCOS (social events)
|
|
2
|
Minister in old banger outside university (6)
|
CRATE (decrepit car; old banger) containing (outside) U (university) C (U) RATE |
CURATE (clergyman; minister)
|
|
3
|
Doctor in study becoming a Mr Hyde type? (5)
|
MO (Medical Officer; doctor) contained in (in) DEN (study) DE (MO) N |
DEMON (reference Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Mr Hyde is the demonic personification of Dr Jekyll)
|
|
5
|
The lamp stolen naughtily from small rural town (7,6)
|
Anagram of (naughtily) THE LAMP STOLEN SHEPTON MALLET* |
SHEPTON MALLET (small rural town in Somerset)
|
|
6
|
Time in a French winter mysteriously absent from diary? (9)
|
UN (French for ‘a’) + (T [time] contained in [in] an anagram of [mysteriously] WINTER) UN WRI (T) TEN |
UNWRITTEN (absent from record; absent from diary)
|
|
7
|
King left, dashing outside at night? (8)
|
DARING (dashing) containing (outside) (R [Rex; king] + L [left]) DAR (K L) ING |
DARKLING (in the dark, possibly at night)
|
|
9
|
A soldier’s a fop conjuring up unrealistic state of happiness (5,8)
|
Anagram of (conjuring up) A SOLDIER’S A FOP FOOLS PARADISE* |
FOOLS PARADISE (a state of happiness based on fictitious hopes or expectations)
|
|
10
|
Given treatment with a needle and blooming (6)
|
DARNED (mended by interwoven stitches; given treatment with a needle)
|
DARNED (blooming as a mild oath) double definition
|
|
14
|
Repeat last bit of manoeuvre in ceremony with judge (9)
|
(E [last letter of {last bit of} MANOEUVRE] contained in [in] RITE [ceremony]) + RATE (judge) R (E) ITE RATE |
REITERATE (repeat)
|
|
15
|
Extensive domain of politician in Ireland once (6)
|
MP (Member of Parliament; politician) contained in (in) EIRE (an earlier name for the [Republic of] Ireland) E (MP) IRE |
EMPIRE (dominion or group of states; extensive domain)
|
|
16
|
Cruel act not normally easy to understand (5-3)
|
Anagram of (not normally) CRUEL ACT CLEAR CUT* |
CLEAR CUT (easy to understand)
|
|
18
|
Good person having the last word – something ‘flowery’ (6)
|
ST (saint; good person) + AMEN (the last word)
|
STAMEN (the pollen-producing part of a flower)
|
|
19
|
Conspirator in routine job apparently using public transport (6)
|
RUT (routine job) contained in (using in the sense of being aboard) BUS (public transport) B (RUT) US |
BRUTUS conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar)
|
|
22
|
Bird with a hint of yellow in deep ditch (5)
|
GULL (example of a bird) + Y (first letter of [hint of] YELLOW)
|
GULLY (deep ditch)
|
Interesting day- a rather tough (for me), Paul, an unusually benign Monk(I’ve still a couple left to complete) with the word “soft” lurking in the undergrowth and then a very straightforward Don with only one slightly weird word. I’ll give the pangram my vote of the day.
Duncan, there is a poem by Thomas Hardy called ‘The Darkling Thrush’, which is probably where most people will have met it.
Solid, substantial offering from The Don.
A very quick solve, almost too much so.
8A is a rather clumsy construction, with “no small” rather standing out as a contrivance. If, as claimed in the blog, the “small” means abbreviated, then why is that device not used for an identical abbreviation for energy in 25A? The answer perhaps is that, certainly in crosswordland, it is not necessary.
13A in the sense that “lives” is used in the wordplay, it is an example of, rather than definitively being, the present tense of the verb “to live”. It is the third person singular form of that verb, just as “live” is the form for all other singular, and all plural forms in the present tense.
Thanks to Quixote and duncanshiell.
‘Darkling’ is in Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’. Tsk.
For me it’s most familiar from Matthew Arnold’s beautiful poem ‘Dover Beach’: And we are here as on a darkling plain etc.
Guessed darkling but a mostly satisfying solve. Although misspelling the soup didn’t help. Did wonder for a while how cod equals hero thinking decode means resolve too.77777777
I’d heard of darkling wood from somewhere (possibly some fantasy novel, although it does crop in a late HG Wells’ story, the Babes of Darkling Wood). The dangers of leaping to conclusions too early were aptly demonstrated with 5 down when I made life harder for myself than need be by deciding early on that the second word must be hamlet and was trying to decided between Pleston Hamlet and Slepton Hamlet.
Put me down as another who knew DARKLING from Dover Beach:
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
(And I suppose it says something that I have that poem bookmarked on my computer.)