A funny sort of week, at least in my experience.
I don’t ever time solving, but I do sometimes take the paper to the pub where I find the imperial pint to be an interesting measure of relative crossword difficulty.
And this looked to be a hard one, as after a whole pint I had just two entries written in, being 13 and 28 across. So at least I was symmetrical. However, once a couple of the longer entries fell in, progress was remarkably rapid.
Last one in was 15 down, which took a bit of rummaging in Chambers. I think the slightly ungenerous checking may not have helped.
A couple of little question marks that didn’t really cause problems: at 6 down I’ve either parsed it incorrectly, or my Chambers-rummaging skills have let me down, and I can’t explain 26 down very well at all.
Anyway, plenty to enjoy here, and thanks once again to Beelzebub for a pleasant Sunday evening solve.
*=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Hover to expand abbreviations.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | NIPPERKIN – NIPPER + KIN . |
| 8 | USER – [ma]USER. |
| 12 | UNINQUISITIVE – (I + N) in (UNIQUE VISIT)*. |
| 13 | WINY – WIN + [rall]Y. |
| 14 | UNTANGLED – [h]UNT + ANGLED. |
| 17 | OCREAE – 0 + CREA[t]E. |
| 18 | INANE – IN AN E. |
| 19 | ATONAL – [r]AT[i]ONAL. |
| 20 | AT ALL EVENTS – two definitions: where real fans are/anyway. |
| 21 | TRIFLE – T[ragedy] + RIFLE. |
| 23 | ERNES – (N in SERE)<. |
| 25 | SYSTEM – S[a]Y + STEM. |
| 27 | BEEFEATER – FEE< in BEATER. A “beater” is a game fellow in that he’s the one that scares the birds into taking off so they’re easier for the big brave men with guns to shoot. |
| 28 | AGAR – A + GAR. |
| 29 | ANCIENT LIGHTS – (LICENSING THAT)*. |
| 30 | GETA – GET A[way]. It took me a while to see this, but it was a nice penny-dropping moment. |
| 31 | NIELLATED – LINE* + DETA[i]L<. |
| Down | |
| 2 | INION – [p]INION. |
| 3 | PINNATISECT – (INSTANCE + TIP)*. |
| 4 | PNYX – P[u]NY + X. Great word for a round of hangman. It’s an Athenian meeting place, apparently. |
| 5 | RUN-ON – Damon RUN[y]ON. This fell in easily since at school in Lytham I had an English teacher whose idea of teaching was to either rant about Grimsby Town for 40 minutes, or read us Damon Runyon stories. He’s a cab driver now. |
| 6 | KITCHENETTE – (ETC THEN)* in KITE?. I can’t seem to find proof that “kite” and “crate” can be synonyms, so I may have missed something. Clue was Cooking facility etc then broken up and put in crate. |
| 7 | NINETEEN – N + I NET + E’EN. |
| 9 | SILENT NIGHT – (I LENT + N) in SIGHT. |
| 10 | EVEN AS – (SANE + VE)<. |
| 11 | REDELESS – R + ED[g]ELESS. |
| 15 | DITTY BAG – DITTY + BAG. “Bag” is “interest” as in “that’s not my bag, man” which I’m led to believe people said in the sixties or so. |
| 16 | WELL-SEEN – WELLS + E[v]EN. |
| 20 | ARLENE – ((LE + N) in ERA)<. I once sat opposite Arlene Phillips on the train. She did not put her phone down once between Newcastle and London and wound the entire carriage right up. |
| 22 | SMELL – M in SELL. |
| 24 | ELATE – [pr]ELATE. |
| 26 | GAGA – One supports one displaying senility. |
6dn, Chambers defines “crate” as an old aeroplane, and a “kite” is an aircraft too.
No, I can’t see 26dn either.
I can’t remember how long this took me, or if I found it difficult. I couldn’t parse 15dn, although I was around in the sixties. I kept on thinking of Rambling Sid Rumpo’s gander bag. Thanks for the explanation.
Thanks Simon
26dn is A (one) under (supports) GAG (one {a joke}).