What does the setter have against food? (see a couple of the “across” clues)
Typical Armonie fare here, with clues which are in the main technically proficient, but which are sometimes let down by poor surface reading.
I liked some of the clues (SAMPAN, NASSAU etc), but there were others which were let down by the surface – not enough for me to hate them, but enough to leave me feeling a bit dissatiisfied on occasion).
| Across | ||
| 1 | SIT TIGHT |
Keep one’s place – international race in view (3,5)
S(I TT)IGHT TT = Time Trial |
| 5 | SCORCH |
Burn most of the grain found in school (6)
COR(n) in SCH. Why would there be grain in a school?
|
| 10 | MERIT |
Mark’s weary on return! Goodness! (5)
M <=TIRE |
| 11 | LOHENGRIN |
See woman smile in opera (9)
LO-HEN-GRIN Lohengrin is a Richard Wagner opera. |
| 12 | ALICE BAND |
Accessory upset Celia’s orchestra (5,4)
*(Alice) BAND I don’t like this one, as the anagrind only applies to Alice, not to Alice‘s. |
| 13 | RULER |
Yardstick for one in command (5)
Double definition |
| 14 | DENIAL |
Falsify and lie leading to dismissal (6)
*(and lie) |
| 15 | WAVERED |
Hesitated with, say, a journalist (7)
W-AVER-ED |
| 18 | PUSHKIN |
Writer’s offensive relations (7)
PUSH-KIN Alexander Pushkin, whose most famous work was Eugene Onegin. |
| 20 | TURNIP |
Vegetable in pot found in rubbish dump (6)
T(URN)IP |
| 22 | THIEF |
Plagiarist is model husband? That is fine! (5)
(Model) T H i.e. F
|
| 24 | SENTIMENT |
Living without Mike? That’s a thought! (9)
SENTI(M)ENT – Mike being M in the phonetic alphabet. |
| 25 | ENCHILADA |
Food left in hacienda demolished (9)
*(hacienda l) |
| 26 | LIEGE |
A feudal lord in Belgium (5)
Double definition, although “in Belgium” isn’t much of a definition? |
| 27 | SORTED |
Old Bob or Edward put right (6)
S-OR-TED S = shilling = old bob |
| 28 | RECYCLED |
Embarrassed about a series of poems being used again (8)
RE(CYCLE)D |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SAMPAN |
Missile to track boat (6)
SAM (Surface to air missile) PAN. Having just returned from a three-week break in China, this one was topical to me! |
| 2 | TARDINESS |
Unpunctuality of sailors holding banquets (9)
TAR(DINES)S |
| 3 | IN THE NICK OF TIME |
Imprisoned owing to sentence made at the last minute (2,3,4,2,4)
IN THE NICK OF (owing to) TIME |
| 4 | HOLDALL |
Veteran in the lobby produces bag (7)
H(OLD)ALL |
| 6 | CONTROVERSIALLY |
Cover trials only perhaps in a questionable way (15)
*(cover trials only) |
| 7 | RURAL |
Railway goes over river in the country (5)
R-URAL |
| 8 | HUNDREDS |
Lots of old invaders keeping Danish leader angry (8)
HUN(D-RED)S |
| 9 | SHADOW |
Dog had to be eaten by pig (6)
S(HAD)OW |
| 16 | RAISE HELL |
Her allies arranged to cause trouble (5,4)
*(her allies) |
| 17 | SPOTLESS |
Notice the French head of state is immaculate (8)
SPOT-LES-S(“head of state”) |
| 19 | NASSAU |
Point dimwit to the French capital (6)
N-ASS-AU |
| 20 | TONNAGE |
Weight carried by horse in match (7)
TON(NAG)E – I think, if TONE = “match”, although I don’t think it does? |
| 21 | ATTEND |
Look after Athenian leaders first – be there! (6)
AT (“Athenian leaders”) TEND |
| 23 | INCUR |
Expose oneself to some maudlin curiosity (5)
Hidden in “maudlIN CURiosity” |
Sorry, just noticed I forgot to highlight the definition in some of these. They should be obvious, though!
Thanks, loonapick.
I must say I really enjoyed this. And (unlike you) I thought there were some great surface readings. In fact, I’d say good surface readings were an Armonie characteristic.
I think TT is usually taken as an abbreviation of Tourist Trophy (the Isle of Man bike race).
‘Tone’ (as a verb) and ‘match’ are given as synonyms in Oxford and Collins online thesauruses.
I rather like ‘in Belgium’ as the definition for Liege.
Not sure where railway = R comes from, though. Don’t think I’ve come across that before.
Thanks, newmarketsausage
Some of the surface readings are very good, but I find Armonie inconsistent. 18ac, 25 ac, 8dn for example, are very good, but 5ac, 20ac, 27 ac and 6dn are weak, in my opinion.
Yes, you’re absolutely right on TT.
Tone and match – I only looked in Chambers, so my bad.
I don’t think I’ve seen R = Railway before either, come to think of it.
For 17D I had an alternative parsing of ‘less’ ie
le (French for the)
s (head of State)
s (as a shortened form of ‘is’).
Thanks to Loonapick and Armonie
Spent a while on rural I think it’s duff sorry setter. R for railway? BR? Maybe but not on its own. Thanks loonapick, quite an easy one again for you, maybe you will get monk soon. I chatted with gozo recently and he’d like to meet PD as he is the only blogger he ever gets.
Thanks Armonie and loonapick
A very quick solve with no real holdups. Started off down in the bottom half with THIEF and finished with SIT TIGHT at 1a.