A gentle offering today from MUDD, which was easy going for most part except for a couple of words that seemed like an anamoly in an otherwise straightforward grid. Some clues bordered on being just a tad contrived but easily offset by the crispness of several others.
20d raised a chuckle and reminded me of a funny one-liner that goes “There are three kinds of people in this world – those who can count and those who can’t!”.
Thanks Mudd for a good romp. This is one puzzle that beginners and improving solvers would like cutting their teeth on (to quote Geoff!).
FF:8 DD:7
| Across | ||
| 1 | SEASCAPE |
Visualise frames as better for painting (8)
SEE (visualise) framing [ AS CAP (better) ] |
| 5 | STADIA |
Arenas a charity rejected, by the way (6)
[A DIA (charity = aid, reversed)] by ST |
| 10 | ISRAELI |
PM losing head, like Netanyahu? (7)
dISRAELI (PM, losing head) |
| 11 | THOUGHT |
Still time for consideration (7)
THOUGH (still) T (time) |
| 12 | MENEM |
Argentinian president me, with soldiers on the retreat (however you look at it!) (5)
ME with NEM (soldiers = men, reversed) , a palindrome – Carlos Menem is the statesman referred to here. |
| 13 | ANTIPASTO |
Rival has completed the second on golf course (9)
ANTI (rival) PAST (completed) O (second letter of gOlf) |
| 14 | BODYBOARDING |
Briny with good and bad waves for watersport (12)
Anagram of BRINY GOOD BAD |
| 18 | UNREASONABLE |
Silly, dear? (12)
Double def, dear being used in the context of expensive. |
| 21 | POLISH OFF |
Finish with language on holiday (6,3)
POLISH (language) OFF (holiday) |
| 23 | MOOSE |
Sounding sweet, deer? (5)
Sounds like MOUSSE (sweet) |
| 24 | DRIFTER |
Bum in the snow? (7)
Cryptic clue |
| 25 | INDULGE |
Humour eluding vagrant (7)
Anagram of ELUDING |
| 26 | RANDOM |
Chance dashed, one unlikely to be rocking back (6)
RAN (dashed) DOM (one unlikely to be rocking would be MOD, reversed) |
| 27 | PSALTERY |
Old stringed instrument in unfortunate spat with lyre (8)
Anagram of SPAT LYRE |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHIMMY |
Dance I’m beginning to master, in fling (6)
[IM M (beginning to Master)] in SHY (fling) |
| 2 | AIRING |
Perfect arena for broadcasting (6)
AI (~ A 1, perfect) RING (arena) |
| 3 | CREAM SODA |
Drink a large amount during musical finale (5,4)
REAMS (a large amount) in CODA (musical finale) |
| 4 | PRIMARY COLOURS |
Fresh air compulsory touring Romanian capital for those elements of a Romanian standard? (7,7)
Anagram of AIR COMPULSORY around R (Romanian capital) – take a look at the national flag of Romania for the definition. |
| 6 | TROOP |
March wretched, end of August uplifting (5)
POOR (wretched) T (end of augusT) , all reversed |
| 7 | DIGESTIF |
Various diets laced with gin, primarily, providing drink after food (8)
[ DIEST (anagram of DIETS) around G (Gin, primarily)] IF (providing) |
| 8 | ALTHOUGH |
Even if singer suppresses cough finally, I’m disgusted! (8)
[ALTO (singer) suppresses H (cougH finally)] UGH (~I’m disgusted) |
| 9 | STATE OF AFFAIRS |
Situation in an adulterous nation? (5,2,7)
Cryptic clue |
| 15 | ROLE MODEL |
Vault when flipping over base of horse during spin, perfect example (4,5)
[ EMOD ( vault = dome, reversed) E (base of horsE) ] in ROLL (spin) – cluing, a bit too contrived perhaps? |
| 16 | CUSPIDOR |
Convict initially is proud after swilling spit in this (8)
Anagram of C (Convict initially) IS PROUD – I didnt know this but workable from the clue. |
| 17 | TRILLION |
Quaver is one note for starters – very many more! (8)
TRILL (quaver) ION (starting characters of Is One Note) |
| 19 | GOALIE |
Game-keeper has shot a whopper (6)
GO (shot) A LIE (whopper) / [Thanks Rishi@1] |
| 20 | MERELY |
Only two-thirds of men count (6)
MEn (two-thirds of men) RELY (count) |
| 22 | SET TO |
Fight most passionate with borders down, then up (3-2)
hOTTESt (most passionate, without end characters, reversed) |
19d is GOALIE
Def is ‘gamekeeper’.
GO (shot) A (a) LIE
Thanks Rishi@1. Worthy of a smack to the forehead. The issue was that I had hastily filled in MOUSE for 23ac (thinking of the mouse deer, and forgetting that it didnt quite sounds like mousse) and thus was thwarted in my attempt to do 19d.
Cheers
TL
Regarding 20d and the introduction, my father once told me that there are two very important lessons in life. The first one is not to tell people everything you know.
Ian@4 – 🙂
On the topic, “There are 10 kinds of people in this world – those who understand binary and those who don’t!!”
I do realise that the def ‘game-keeper’ in 19d is cryptic. It is perhaps given to add a little bit of mystification and to delay the unravelling, though the wordplay is by no means difficult. It might give the successful solver a sense of elation and certainly injects some fun in the proceedings.
Having said that, may I raise a question of acceptability of the definition?
We know that a gamekeeper (remembering Oliver Mellors of Lady Chatterley’s Lover) is “a person employed to take care of game and wildlife, as on an estate”. That is ‘keeper of game’. Just as a gatekeeper is a keeper of gate.
Of course, the setter has hyphenated ‘game-keeper’ for his purpose. He has tried to help the solver to think of the keeper in the football game.
Yet, is it legit if we go by rules of word formation?
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
Hmm … whilst I agree that many of the clues would be good teeth-cutting material, I still think that there were a half dozen here that a newbie might choke on – 27a (obscure word), 16d (uncommon word), 4d (knowledge of the flag and the step to consider the colours for what they are – perhaps offset by the easy anagram fodder), 7d (I struggled with this – initially writing in DIGESTIN as an anagram of ‘diets’ and ‘gin’) , 15d (quite easy definition – quite complex derivation) and 19d (which required a lateral view of a game-keeper).
Still lots to like here and finished up in the SW corner with TRILLION, RANDOM and SET TO the last few in.