A sting in the tail?
I started this one with confidence, rattling in answers at record pace, and then hit a brick wall near the end.
Up until the last three solutions, this was comparatively straightforward, although it required some general knowledge, for example at 21ac and 27ac.
Eventually, I was left with 28ac, 25dn and 23dn, all of whose answers seemed obvious from crossing letters.
With the help of an online dictionary, I worked out 28ac, I think, and repeated Google searches eventually gave me some kind of explanation for 25dn.
23dn, though, has me beaten. If anyone can help, please comment. (Steven at comment #1 has provided the parsing)
Thanks, Neo (I think!)
| Across | ||
| 1 | IMPOSTER | An identity thief, Neo’s following the monarch (8) |
| I’M (“Neo’s”) + POST (“following”) + E.R. (“the monarch”) | ||
| 6 | See 3 | |
| 9 | ASCENT | Start on alpine trail for this! (6) |
| A(lpine) + SCENT (“trail”) | ||
| 10 | SERENADE | Still holding an old penny piece (8) |
| SERENE (“still”) + A D (“old penny”) | ||
| 11 | ORCA | Roman Catholic in boat’s Middle Ocean killer (4) |
| R.C. in (b)OA(t) | ||
| 12 | RURITANIAN | Someone from Zenda or Turin an IRA suspect? (10) |
| *(turin an ira)
Ruritania was a mythical European country in Anthony Hope’s 1894 novel, The Prisoner of Zenda. |
||
| 14 | AIRSPACE | Songs at speed in controlled atmosphere? (8) |
| AIRS (“songs”) + PACE (“speed”) | ||
| 16 | ROTE | Books in scripture studies for mechanical routine (4) |
| O.T. (“books”) “in” R.E. (“scripture studies”) | ||
| 18 | DAVE | Democrat welcome for Cameron (4) |
| D(emocrat) + AVE (“welcome” in Latin)
Refers of course to “Dave” Cameron, ex-PM. |
||
| 19 | TEACHERS | School workers crying about Guevara (8) |
| TEARS (“crying”) “about” CHE (Guevara) | ||
| 21 | MONTESSORI | Perhaps most senior educationalist (10) |
| *(most senior)
Refers to Maria Montessori |
||
| 22 | See 3 | |
| 24 | CHERUBIM | Winged beings caught by current in swirling Humber (8) |
| C + I (“current”) in *(humber) | ||
| 26 | IN TOTO | Completely hot dog Dorothy had (2,4) |
| IN (current, fashionable, so “hot”) + TOTO (Dorothy’s dog in The Wizard of Oz) | ||
| 27 | ORWELL | Gold pleasing Blair (6) |
| OR (“gold”) + WELL (“pleasing”)
George Orwell’s real name was Eric Blair. |
||
| 28 | NOMINALS | Lion Man’s reinvented harmonics (8) |
| *(lion mans)
This isn’t even general knowledge in my book. It took me a long time to find an example of nominals and harmonics being synonymous in bell-ringing, where a nominal is defined as “the harmonic an octave above the strike tone of a bell”. |
||
| Down | ||
| 2 | MISER | Scrooge is in sea abroad (5) |
| IS in MER (the French for “sea”, therefore, “sea abroad”) | ||
| 3, 15, 22, 6 across | ONE MAN’S MEAT IS ANOTHER MAN’S POISON | Why his beef is not with me? (3,4,4,2,7,4,6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 4 | TUTORIAL | Test cases sorted out in class (8) |
| TRIAL (“test”) “cases” *(out) | ||
| 5 | RESURRECTION MEN | Body-snatchers, not unknown in cemetery, beaten with iron urns (12,3) |
| *(cemeter(y) iron urns) | ||
| 6 | PIRATE | Rodent in baked dish for buccaneer (6) |
| RAT in PIE | ||
| 7 | ION | One ahead something charged? (3) |
| 1 + ON | ||
| 8 | OLD MASTER | Mature mother holding son in work of art (3,6) |
| OLD (“mature”) + MATER (“mother”) “holding” S(on) | ||
| 13 | NORTHAMPTON | Town knight and soldiers that catch MP by leg (11) |
| N (“knight”, in chess notation) + O.R. (“soldiers”) + THAT “catching” MP + ON (“leg” side in cricket) | ||
| 15 | See 3 | |
| 17 | PACIFISM | If I stop uprising, sergeant major finds non-violent way (8) |
| <=IF I CAP + SM (“sergeant major”) | ||
| 20 | ISABEL | Girl first victim under Islamic State (6) |
| ABEL (“first victim”) “under” IS | ||
| 23 | NATAL | Name deadly female hidden in old province (5) |
| I’m struggling to parse this – I can see N for name, and wonder if the ATAL has something to do with “femme fATALe”? | ||
| 25 | RYE | Gentleman, hungry, eats sandwiches (3) |
| Hidden in “hungRY Eats” | ||
*anagram
Hi Loonapick. Re 23d you were so nearly there. This is fatal = ‘deadly’, with the initial ‘f’ removed – ‘female hidden’.
Indeed, quite a lot of GK here, mostly known and definitely gettable once some checkers were in place.
Thanks, Steven – so obvious when it’s pointed out!!
Thank you, Loonapick , you’ve expressed my feelings exactly! As to 23d, it took ages for me to work out, but think that the “atal” is simply “fatal” with its head hiding.
Thank you Neo.
Sorry, we crossed Steven@1. I’m a slow typist!
RYE at 25d is in Chambers – “a gypsy word for gentleman [Romany rei, rai lord]”.
Early this month Nimrod had the following clue for RYE:
This gypsy gentleman’s conveying irony in broadcast (3)
I didn’t have Chambers to hand, and it’s not in the online version.
Many thanks to all.
Neo.
Thanks to both for the clues and the solution. I had to sleep on this one to get close to finishing it. Some great clues and learnt about the word Rye.
Thanks Neo and loonapick
Similarly went to bed on the day without having this one completed – it was basically the long one that kept me at bay and wasn’t until I wrote out the letters that I had in a long string that the answer flushed out. This left TUTORIAL as the final clue to write in.
Tougher than normal for this setter and more enjoyable for that I think. Knew most of the GK stuff except for that definition of NOMINALS, the gypsy RYE and the RESURRECTION MEN being called as such.