With Klingsor back again on a Saturday things can’t be too bad.
Solving was a pleasure. Half the grid was filled on first pass – precisely: 14 out of the 28 clues entered. Then most of the rest in a similar time. The last two (1D and 11A) took some time – I suspect I was not the only one stuck on 1D.
There were a couple of clues I had trouble parsing when solving, but they became clear when writing the blog – and, whaddayaknow – a couple of them turned out to be &Lits – it seems I have a particular insensitivity to &Lits – I guess I cannot understand how anyone can come up with such clues.
For favourite clue I ‘m going to nominate the Shortcake the Sheik caught at 14D. It made made chuckle when I got that Spoonerism.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | TWENTY-TWENTY | Time passed in front of telly finally doubled? It’s normal for viewers (6-6) T[ime] WENT (passed) [tell]Y All doubled. First read and first answered, mainly from the clear definition and answer enumeration |
| 9 | INTER | Season not having won for football team (5) (w)INTER W (won) removed from Winter (season). Inter is the usual short form for F C Internazionale Milano |
| 10 | MERGANSER | Duck flipping scold in river briefly and run (9) NAG< (scold, reversed) inside MERSE[y] (river, briefly) then R[un] tricky |
| 11 | LOAN WORD | Put right individual back in charge for putsch, maybe (6) Putsch is an example of a Load Word, in this case coming to English unchanged from the German (R[ight] OWN ) < inside LOAD (charge). Last One In. When I had W_R_ I got stuck thinking the answer was something WARS |
| 12 | ASHORE | A hero’s washed up on the beach (8) (A HERO’S)* AInd: washed up |
| 13 | ODYSSEUS | Headless corpse’s seen regularly by American hero (6) [b]ODY’S (corpse’s, headless) S[e]E[n] (seen, regularly), US (american) |
| 15 | HOMILY | I’m about to feature in religious sermon (6) I’M< inside HOLY |
| 17 | CANTON | Hypocritical talk about administrative division (6) CANT (Hypocritical talk) ON (about) |
| 18 | FULL STOP | Holy man captivated by pull of Byzantine period (4,4) ST (holy man, saint, st.) inside (captivated by) (PULL OF)* AInd: Byzantine. |
| 20 | OF LATE | Old Latin occupies Moira recently (2,4) O[ld] L[atin] inside FATE (Moira) the Moirai are better known as the Fates (Moirai Wiki) |
| 21 | SHEPHERD | The woman had to keep quiet, accompanying her pastor (8) P (quiet) and HER inside SHE’D (the woman had) |
| 24 | DISPARAGE | To knock 50% off gear by Prada is fantastic (9) (GE[ar] PRADA IS)* AInd: fantastic |
| 25 | LIANA | Climber wants a spike returned (5) A NAIL (a spike) all reversed (returned) |
| 26 | TENNIS RACKET | Regular holds pub backed criminal activity? It’s taken to court (6,6) INN (pub) inside SET (regular) all reversed (backed) , then RACKET (criminal activity) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | TWIGLOO | Rug’s left in extremely makeshift shelter (7) WIG (rug) L[eft] inside TOO (extremely). I thought of the wig connotation for rug early on but dismissed it, then had to eventually tease this one out from that very wordplay. Of course I had to google the word to believe it was real. A Twigloo is a “bender” built up in the trees – especially when occupying trees to e.g. stop road expansion such as the Newbury Bypass (see picture half-way down this Wiki page). No doubt we will see them in Sheffield soon the way things are going. Penultimate clue answered. |
| 2 | ESTUARY ENGLISH | Possibly they are slugs, in a manner of speaking (7,7) (THEY ARE SLUGS IN)* AInd: Possibily. Second answer solved after seeing ENGLISH in the fodder quite quickly |
| 3 | THROW | Cast of Hamlet gutted about falling-out (5) H[amle]T< (Hamlet, gutted) and reversed (about), then ROW (falling-out) |
| 4 | TIMOROUS | Fearful of legal action over nursing room that’s untidy (8) ROOM* AInd: untidy, inside SUIT< (legal action, over). An adjective more usual found preceding Beastie and following Wee |
| 5 | EBRO | River in Spain outside of Bilbao (4) This is an &Lit of R[iver] inside E (Spain) concatenated with B[ilba]O. Zaragoza is on the Ebro, not Bilbao |
| 6 | TOADSTOOL | Something poisonous daughter put in drink to upset John (9) D[aughter] inside TOAST (drink), then LOO< (John) reversed (upset). Not all toadstools are poisonous, but while most poisonous ones are obvious, some are not, so I steer clear of them all. |
| 7 | A SHOT IN THE DARK | Wild guesswork ultimately that is mostly random, eh? (1,4,2,3,4) ([guesswor]K THAT IS RANDO[M] EH)* AInd: Wild. Another &Lit ! At first I thought it was just “wild guesswork” doing double duty |
| 8 | GREEDY | Piggish German’s tall and thin (9) G[erman] REEDY (tall and thin) |
| 14 | SHORTCAKE | Biscuit attracted Arab leader, according to Reverend William (9) The Rev. William Spooner might offer you a piece of “Caught Sheik” at teatime |
| 16 | RUTHLESS | Babe perhaps given comparatively little? That’s cruel (8) RUTH (Babe, ref. to Babe Ruth) LESS (comparatively little) |
| 17 | CLOUDY | Not clear about flash photography at the end (6) C (about) LOUD (flash) [photograph]Y |
| 19 | PODCAST | After school, class listened to online transmission (7) POD (school, as in fish whales etc.) then Homophone “Caste” (class) HInd: listened. I am a massive fan of Podcasts and subscribe to far too many. |
| 22 | POLKA | Former president leads America a dance (5) POLK (Former president Wiki) A |
| 23 | DARN | Mend broken radiators around house (4) Hidden Reversed in brokeN RADiators |
I think 1a featured recently in an Elgar TT-also the first across clue.I liked 4d and 14d
Yes, in the Elgar it represented a double twenty at the top of the grid (dartboard) which together with a double ten and a treble nineteen (suitably positioned in the grid) gave a score of 117, for his 117th telegraph toughie – only Elgar!
I enjoyed this puzzle, took a while to see loan word and I didn’t recognise darn as a hidden! Not used to hidden folder being plural.
A great and fun challenge with lots of nice touches, many thanks Klingsor and beermagnet
Great stuff from this setter as usual. Most of the solve went in smoothly and regularly until I was finally beaten by 1d & 11a (new words to remember for next time). Too many nice clues for me to choose a favourite from so I’ll just say thanks to Klingsor for the puzzle and to BM for the blog.
Super puzzle with very neat clueing throughout. I particularly liked CLOUDY, PODCAST and the beautifully simple DARN.
Thanks beermagmet and Klingsor
TWIGLOO was new to me but is in Chambers (1998)
Thanks, Klingsor – and beermagnet.