Dac appears in his regular Wednesday slot this week.
For the first time in a while I didn’t struggle with the parsing of any of the entries in this blog. They all seem to be fairly clear.
My favourite clue was the one at 13 down for GO TO PIECES with its many constituent parts.
There was a good mix of clue types and some good examples of misdirection. It took a while to realise that ‘shy’ was relating to throw [FLING] rather than coy at 12 across, and that ‘buttonhole’ was a synonym for CORNER in 14 across.
The most obscure word for me today was FRANKLIN at 12 across. MATCHUP at 1 across was new but the wordplay was very clear.
Three quarters of the puzzle fell fairly quickly but the NW corner held me up for a while.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
Striker on top in baseball game? (7)
|
MATCH (striker) + UP (on top)
|
MATCH-UP (a North American term for a contest or comparison between two people or things especially in sport; baseball is a popular sport in America)
|
|
5
|
Escorted woman’s wearing hand-me-down? (7)
|
HER (woman) contained in (wearing) USED (second hand; hand-me-down) US (HER) ED |
USHERED (escorted)
|
|
9
|
Damned board member given good grade maybe (9)
|
EXEC (executive; a senior executive in a business is often a board member) + RATED (valued; given a good grade)
|
EXECRATED (cursed; damned)
|
|
10
|
Invite European MP in time after time (5)
|
(E [European ] + MP) contained in (in) (T [time] + T [time]) T (E MP) T |
TEMPT (entice or invite)
|
|
11
|
Calm area away from US port (6)
|
SEATTLE (port on the West coast of America) excluding (away from) A (area)
|
SETTLE (calm)
|
|
12
|
Landowner mostly shy about status (8)
|
FLING (throw; shy) excluding the final letter (mostly) G containing (about) RANK (status) F (RANK) LIN |
FRANKLIN (historically, an English freeholder; landowner)
|
|
14
|
Bloomer made by rake going round wearing buttonhole (10)
|
WOLF (womaniser; rake) reversed (going round) contained in (wearing) CORNER (detain in talk; buttonhole) CORN (FLOW)< ER |
CORNFLOWER (beautiful blue-flowered cornfield weed of the Compositae; bloomer)
|
|
15
|
Bottle: guzzler emptied it (4)
|
GR (letters remaining GUZZLER when the central letters UZZLE are removed [emptied]) + IT
|
GRIT (determination; bottle)
|
|
17
|
Oddly deficient railways, sad to say (4)
|
ALAS (letters 2, 4, 6 and 8 [ignoring the odd letters; oddly deficient]) of RAILWAYS
|
ALAS (sad to say)
|
|
19
|
Businessman‘s firm acquires new vehicle (10)
|
CO (company; business) + N (new) + TRACTOR (vehicle)
|
CONTRACTOR ( person who engages to execute work or provide supplies at a stated rate; businessman)
|
|
22
|
By side of Cornish river, left winger collapsed (6,2)
|
FAL (river in Cornwall) + LENIN (reference Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias LENIN, a Russian Communist revolutionary, politician, and political theorist; left winger)
|
FALLEN IN (collapsed)
|
|
23
|
Vehicle taking unusual route alongside river (6)
|
Anagram of (unusual) ROUTE + R (river) TOURE* R |
TOURER (vehicle)
|
|
26
|
Fresher in Cambridge saw science tutor last of all (5)
|
NEWER (final letters [last of all] of each of IN CAMBRIDGE SAW SCIENCE TUTOR)
|
NEWER (fresher)
|
|
27
|
Most skilful leaders among climbers reaching their ultimate goal? (9)
|
CL (first two letters of [leaders among] CLIMBERS) + EVEREST (the ultimate goal of climbers)
|
CLEVEREST (most skilful)
|
|
28
|
Old American appearing on screen is ugly (7)
|
HIDE (cover; screen) + O (old) + US (American)
|
HIDEOUS (ugly)
|
|
29
|
Pet lady trained with great skill (7)
|
Anagram of (trained) PET LADY ADEPTLY* |
ADEPTLY (with great skill)
|
| Down | |||
| No. | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
|
1
|
We’re told more than one source of protein satisfies (5)
|
MEETS (sounds like [we’re told] MEATS [sources of protein])
|
MEETS (satisfies)
|
|
2
|
Rather cute, short word for loudspeaker (7)
|
TWEE (rather cute) + TERM (word) excluding the final letter (short) M
|
TWEETER (loudspeaker used in high-fidelity sound reproduction for the higher frequencies)
|
|
3
|
Trotskyists, perhaps, had disappeared with Republican getting in (4,4) |
(HAD + LEFT [disappeared]) containing (with … getting in) R (Republican) HA (R) D LEFT |
HARD LEFT (Trotskyists could be described as members of the political hard left)
|
|
4
|
Course physiotherapist’s introduced at hospital (4)
|
P (first letter of [introduced] PHYSIOTHERAPIST) + AT + H
|
PATH (course)
|
|
5
|
Lays out insufficient money, disregarding trendy items of clothing (10)
|
UNDER INVESTS (lays out insufficient money) excluding (disregarding) IN (trendy)
|
UNDERVESTS (items of clothing)
|
|
6
|
Not enjoying a night out (6)
|
Anagram of (out) A NIGHT HATING* |
HATING (not enjoying)
|
|
7
|
Run … walk … run … I’m not expressing myself clearly (7)
|
R (run) + AMBLE (walk) + R (run)
|
RAMBLER (one who wanders in talk and consequently does not express her / himself clearly)
|
|
8
|
With duty list written up, one sets off (9)
|
(ROTA [duty list] + NOTED [written]) reversed (up;down clue) (DETON ATOR)< |
DETONATOR (substance or contrivance whose explosion initiates [sets off] that of another explosive)
|
|
13
|
Get upset, having acquired work that is oddly cheesy (2,2,6)
|
GOT (acquired) + OP (opus; work) + I.E. (id est; that is) + CES (letters 1, 3 and 5 [oddly] of CHEESY)
|
GO TO PIECES (get upset)
|
|
14
|
Church on island visited by a very loud bird (9)
|
(CH [church] + INCH [island]) containing (visited by) (A + FF [fortissimo; very loud]) CH (A FF) INCH |
CHAFFINCH (bird)
|
|
16
|
Africans chatter about drugs audibly (8)
|
GAB (chatter) + ON (about) + ESE (sounds like [audibly) Es [ecstasy tablets; drugs])
|
GABONESE (people of GABON, a country on the West coast of Africa)
|
|
18
|
Admitted no-one was debt-free (7)
|
ALL (everyone) + OWED (had debts) implying no-one was debt-free
|
ALLOWED (conceded; admitted)
|
|
20
|
Wrong to keep people suffering (7)
|
TORT (wrong, injury) containing (to keep) MEN (people) TOR (MEN) T |
TORMENT (suffering)
|
|
21
|
Oddball worried unduly after losing heart (6)
|
Anagram of (unduly) WORRIED excluding (losing) the middle letter (heart) R WIERDO* |
WEIRDO (oddball)
|
|
24
|
Irascible tyrant going wild, eliminating unspecified number (5)
|
Anagram of (going wild) TYRANT excluding (eliminating) N (letter frequently used to signify an unspecified number in mathematics) RATTY* |
RATTY (irascible)
|
|
25
|
Greek character worried over following Britain’s lead (4)
|
B (first letter of [lead] BRITAIN) + (ATE [worried] reversed [over]) B ETA< |
BETA (character of the Greek alphabet)
|
I think I spent more time on FRANKLIN than on all of the rest of the clues combined. I’d never heard of the word in anything other than its use as a surname, so it was v. interesting to see it has another meaning. More brownie points for the less common use of ‘shy’ as well, so this was definitely my favourite as well as LOI. MATCHUP was also good. I’ve mainly heard it used in the sense described in your entry of opponents playing on one another (eg an attacker v defender) in a team sport rather than referring to the contest between the two teams.
Reasonably benign for 31/32 clues, but with a sting in the tail.
Thanks to Dac and Duncan.
Practically a coffee-time puzzle after yesterday’s infuriations & none the less welcome for that. I happened to know FRANKLIN so I troubled Chambers only for MATCHUP, which was obvs anyway.
NEWER was my favourite for a surface as smooth as the Backs in summer.
Thanks to Dac & Duncan for a stress-free morning.
Thanks, Duncan.
A Sea of Tranquility in what has been an Ocean of Storms in the last week or so for the Indy daily puzzles. To quote Virgilius/Brendan (when asked what made for a good puzzle): ‘one that the solver can finish.’ And I finished this one, with only a couple of less common words holding me up. FRANKLIN? Okay, learned something; couldn’t be anything else. MATCHUP ditto (in the online version it’s shown as (7) rather than hyphenated).
Dac is as cool as the other side of the pillow on a hot night. I love him in a special way.
Re 12a, flinch (for shy) also led to the correct answer. The Franklin’s Tale (Chaucer) was my source for the word. Thanks to both for a fine and entertaining puzzle and explanations.
Re 12a, flinch (shy) also led to the correct answer. The Franklin’s Tale (Chaucer) was my source for the word. Thanks to both for a fine and entertaining puzzle and explanations.
Knowledge of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales assisted with FRANKLIN, an excellently framed clue, the pick of a good bunch. Also liked GO TO PIECES.
Thanks to Dac and duncanshiell.
Two minutes late.
My last Dac in a paper I can fold after all these years. Nothing extraordinary, nothing tedious, just perfect Dacness. Thanks.