Quite a tough week, I thought, but perhaps that’s because I was under time pressure to finish before going away this week. I’ve not done a great job of explaining things either, with 12 across, 1 down and 7 down all in need of further elucidation. As always, it’s a good job you lot are here.
I’ll be somewhere north of Aberdeen by the time you read this. Hopefully electricity has made it up there by now, but I can’t be certain of access to a computer, so you’ll have to accept my thanks for any help in advance, and I’ll try to attend to any queries and corrections when I return.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Hover to expand abbreviations.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | HODMANDOD – HODMAN + DOD. A type of snail, hence “slow mover”. |
| 7 | DOIT – DO IT. |
| 10 | ELECTRIC PIANO – (NOTICE REPLICA)*. |
| 11 | L-DOPA – LD + OP + A. |
| 12 | LATEWAKE – I think the definition is “funereal behavious mistaken”, as it’s a mistaken form of “lykewake”, but I can’t tease out the wordplay. Clue was Past toil, one engaged in Northern holiday (funereal behaviou mistaken)”. |
| 14 | EDDY – [n]EDDY. |
| 16 | MARATHI – Jean-Paul MARAT + HI. |
| 17 | OLEO – LE in (O + O). |
| 19 | AMTMAN – M in [b]ATMAN. |
| 20 | TOWARD – WAR in TOD. |
| 24 | DAMP – (P + MAD)<. |
| 25 | ANTACID – (NT + AC) in AID. |
| 26 | SEMI – [the]SE MI[ssed]. |
| 27 | LIGNEOUS – L + IGNEOUS. |
| 28 | NATAL – N + AT AL[l]. |
| 29 | PONTIUS PILATE – (NOTE IS A PULPIT)*. |
| 30 | ANDY – [h]ANDY. |
| 31 | ESTRANGED – E + (EG< in STRAND). |
| Down | |
| 1 | HELENA – Woman, one bearing Latin Emperor, primarily. |
| 2 | OLD DOMINION – O + LD + DO + MINION. Apparently another name for Virginia. |
| 3 | DEODATE – DOE< in DATE. |
| 4 | AT A GLANCE – TAG in A LANCE. |
| 5 | DIAMOND-DUST – AID< + M + ON + (US in DDT). I had fun typing that out. |
| 6 | OCTANTAL – O + (two Ts in CANAL). |
| 7 | DIWAN – Row enveloping Australian state prime minister. |
| 8 | INKHORN-MATE – 0 in (MAN THINKER)*. |
| 9 | TOE-IN – (ONE + IT)*. |
| 13 | ERGOMANIA – (MORE + AGAIN)*. |
| 15 | TENUIOUS – TENU[e] + [p]IOUS. |
| 18 | NAME TAG – (A + MET) in NAG. |
| 21 | DOILED – D + OILED. |
| 22 | KALPA – ALP in KA. |
| 23 | JANTY – (N + T[rendy]) in JAY. |
&d:
Row – DIN
enveloping – (inserticator)
Australian state – WA for Western Australia
prime minister – (def)
The entry for the word in the book Hanklyn-Janklin by Nigel B. Hankin is interesting. To quote partly:u
In India this word meant chief minister in a princely state: sometimes, and more correctly, finance minister.
To quote partly:
In the original Arabic, a collection of papers, a register, particularly when relating to state revenues. From there to the revenue itself and to the revenue officials. (The French douane, the customs, is the same word.
Sorry for hasty typing in early morning before my first cup of coffee. Please ignore the unnecessary tag at the end of the first line above.
As for HELENA, that too you would have worked out if you had had more time.
L E inserted in in HEN A
Woman, – HEN (only in crosswords will this term be tolerated)
one – 1 – A (I am not too keen on this transition)
bearing – inserticator
Latin – L
Emperor, primarily – E
It is an all-in-one clue, I think.
It seems that even when the child was in the mother’s womb he had been declared ’emperor’. (How did they know the gender?) If ‘bearing’ is in the sense of just ‘carrying’ the ‘hen’ must have been quite strong. Unless it was a child emperor.
Come to think of it, how silly can our clues be sometimes!
Please excuse me if there is any misinterpretation.
Hi Simon
12ac works as TEW (obsolete word for toil) + A in LAKE (lake[4] being Northern dialect for holiday).
Thanks PB. I found out ‘tew’ is obs. for ‘toil’ but could not proceed further.
I confess to something of a car crash on this one -no fewer than 6 incomplete answers. so praise be for blogs and bloggers. (Praise for setters goes without saying, naturally.)
Maybe if I stopped smoking that stuff… 🙂