Despite my misgivings over the spelling of the answer to 24ac (yes I know. Language does move on and we can’t just go along with what people said some while ago. But a pity that this moving on is dictated by someone in television making a mistake) this is a very pleasant crossword, accessible, with good clues — the one that I don’t understand will I trust be explained by someone.
Definitions underlined.
Whether or not there is a Nina I can’t say. I certainly can’t see anything, but that means nothing.
| Across | ||
| 8 | BANNISTER | Joking about crime that’s overcome security feature (9) |
| banter round (sin)rev. — the spelling bannister/banister is evidently optional, although banister seems to be the main one according to my Chambers; Google is useless probably because of the prevalence of Bannister as a surname (Roger, Jack, …) | ||
| 9 | BAKER | Madeleine might be seen at this retailer (5) |
| CD with a play on Madeleine’s being both a girl’s name and a type of sponge cake | ||
| 10 | KILDARE | Butcher shortened venture somewhere in Ireland (7) |
| kil{l} dare — County Kildare | ||
| 11 | NUREYEV | Dancer to watch Classical figure after career possibly over (7) |
| eye V after (run)rev. — the classical figure is V = five | ||
| 12 | NEARLY MAN | Northern aristocrat many suspect to be an underachiever? (6,3) |
| N earl (many)*, the anagram indicated by ‘suspect’ | ||
| 14 | SPOCK | The ultimate of companies acquired by Mark. Enterprise propels him (5) |
| {companie}s pock [pock mark] — ref. Mr Spock of SS Enterprise | ||
| 15 | LIVINGSTONE | Explorer‘s daily bread added to weight (11) |
| living [= daily bread] stone | ||
| 19 | GRACE | Good people showing kindness (5) |
| g race | ||
| 20 | MACCHIATO | Tea sustains one on computer before getting to another beverage (9) |
| Mac ch(1)a to | ||
| 22 | ROUGHER | Lady’s applying much make-up with greater severity (7) |
| roug{e} her | ||
| 24 | ALRIGHT | A pair of hands uninjured (7) |
| a L right — an old pedant like me has always winced at this spelling, which was quite clearly ‘all right’ until that television programme came along; someone in television making a false analogy with ‘already’. Yet perhaps what seems to me to be wrong is perfectly justifiable on historical evidence. I can’t establish from the SOD just what is the history of ‘alright’. It directs you from ‘alright’ to ‘all right’, where it, as dictionaries always seem to do, simply gives them as alternatives. But it does say ‘The spelling alright is often considered erroneous, but cf analogous already, although, etc’; which is very non-judgemental. Kingsley Amis in ‘The King’s English’ wrote ‘I can testify personally that in my schooldays before the Second War alright was indeed often seen — and nearly as often derided’, and later ‘I still feel that to inscribe alright is gross, crass, coarse and to be avoided.’ | ||
| 26 | DITTO | Likewise, advisor regularly devours Times (5) |
| {a}d{v}i{s}o{r} round (t t) | ||
| 27 | ICE SKATER | Dean, say, organised rite including church music (3,6) |
| (CE skat) in (rite)* — ref Dean of Torvill & Dean | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ANGLIA | Churchman around North missing old car (6) |
| Sorry, I’m completely bewildered here. I haven’t a clue what is happening. Please, somebody … | ||
| 2 | LIRA | Money once bottled by Marilyn in recession (4) |
| Hidden reversed in MARILyn — the old currency of Italy | ||
| 3 | STEELMAN | Street worker hiding something fishy? He might be a forger (8) |
| (st man) round eel | ||
| 4 | IRON-ON | Sort of transfer that’s concerning inside club (4-2) |
| ir(on)on — the golf club | ||
| 5 | T-BAR | Scotsman heading for Tyrol picked up skiing guide? (1-3) |
| (Rab T{yrol})rev. — is this a nod to Burns night, which was yesterday? | ||
| 6 | OKEY-DOKE | 24 caught leaving cocaine around central party (4-4) |
| 24 being ALRIGHT that’s the definition — {c}o(key do)ke | ||
| 7 | PROVOKE | Anger’s reasonable during test (7) |
| prov(OK)e | ||
| 8 | BIKING | Minimal clothing, good for one’s sporting activity (6) |
| bikini with g instead of the last i | ||
| 13 | LEVEE | Quay providing shelter around mid-section of Severn (5) |
| lee round {Se}ve{rn} | ||
| 14 | SLOTH | Idle creature getting mum to carry large amount (5) |
| s(lot)h — sh = be quiet = be mum = mum | ||
| 15 | LEAD UP TO | Gradually approach field exercises wearing brace (4,2,2) |
| lea du(PT)o | ||
| 16 | SOCRATES | Ancient Greek boxes well at first (8) |
| crates [= boxes] with so [= well] at the front | ||
| 17 | AGGRADE | One’s learned in time to raise the surface level (7) |
| ag(grad)e — I didn’t know this word and cheated here, although perhaps you could say I ought to have got it from the wordplay and then looked it up to confirm | ||
| 18 | FOSTER | Rest ordered, following backing of nurse (6) |
| (rest)* after (of)rev. | ||
| 20 | MARTIN | Tweeter hurt by something in circulation (6) |
| mar [= hurt] tin [= money, something that circulates] | ||
| 21 | ANGSTY | Some eating pith, not one being apprehensive (6) |
| any round g{i)st — not a word one uses every day, but all gettable from the wordplay | ||
| 23 | HOOK | Legendary captain‘s stroke at Lord’s? (4) |
| 2 defs, one of them referring to Captain Hook | ||
| 25 | RAKE | Tool starts to rust (always kept externally) (4) |
| r{ust} (a{lways} k{ept} e{xternally}) | ||
*anagram
1 down – ANGLICAN excluding C (circa; around) and N (north)
Some quite hard clues with tricky parsing and a few roadblocks along the way before all eventually fell into place. I liked ANGLIA, ALRIGHT and OKEY DOKE especially. AGGRADE was new to me too and hence my LOI. I thought ANGSTY was a bit iffy(!).
Theme: six of the answers (and ? a few more) are names of people who do not usually go under the appellation of Mr., Mrs., Ms. or Miss.
Thank you to John and Scorpion
Duncan got in before me with the parsing of 1dn.
20ac and 24ac held me up a while. Chambers (1998) doesn’t have MACCHIATO, nor does Chambers Word Wizard; in the end I found it in Collins (2006) after cheating for some of the letters. ALRIGHT was alright by me, but it took me ages to work out what the clue meant.
I wondered if there was more to 9ac than a simple CD. Probably not, as googling ‘Madeleine Baker’ only comes up with a few people of that name, none of them to my knowledge very well known.
But I think there’s a theme here. BANNISTER, KILDARE, SPOCK, LIVINGSTONE, GRACE and FOSTER are/were Doctors, real or fictional.
Thanks, Scorpion and John
Who cares what Kingsely Amis thought. Yea we all like Lucky Jim but as someone said “one swallow doesnt make a booze-up”
Thought 1d was fair and reminded me of the second Harry Potter film which was a good joke as it was difficult enough to get one of those cars started on land.
Thanks for blog- am warming to Scorpion.
@2WordPlodder: You got in before me; the theme only dawned on me while I was composing my comment.
And Doctor Hook.
And Doctor Hook and Doc Martin.
Nice puzzle but hard for me in places. I agree re 24a, but I thought it was American English creeping in! Thanks to both.
Alright is clearly, from the way it’s used both in writing and conversation, not the same as all right.
‘Did you like the film?’
‘It was alright.’
Annoyingly I couldn’t get on the wavelength for this puzzle as it’s a good one and so only completed 2/3rds. I’ve never thought of a t-bar as a skiing guide though; I’ve only ever sat on one to be pulled up a ski slope.
Thanks both. Too difficult for me I’m afraid.
Dr Grace (W G) can be added to the list.
Sorry. I see that allan-c has already mentioned Dr Grace.
27A Perhaps a typo. (CE ska) in rite*.
Denis Norden used to say ‘If it’s good enough for the Almighty, it’s good enough for me.’ I don’t think I agree with Sidey that there’s a difference – ‘How was the film?’ ‘All right’ sounds the same to me as his example.
Anne (occasional commenter but usually a lurker).
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” – “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding”
Socrates was also the name of Brazil’s captain in the World Cup of ?1982. He was also a doctor and was affectionately nicknamed as such.