A solid, but maybe fairly un-challenging, puzzle from Klingsor today – not sure it would have passed 1D as a Saturday Prize puzzle in days of yore…some nice presentation, in terms of surface readings, but not a lot of gristle to chew on.
With my ‘speed-solving’ head on – in preparation for the upcoming Times championships in London – I rushed through this in fairly quick time. But then it was nice to work through it again for the blog, and to appreciate some of the nuances.
There are some neat touches – Bruch ‘set out’ to become SCHUBERT at 9A. Piers Morgan NAME-DROPPING at 14A, like the fawning sycophant he is. The ARTIFICER at 21A ‘crafting’ intricately. 1D was clever – I didn’t note a LOI on my working copy, but this may have been it.
Best of the lot – 4D reads brilliantly, with EUROSCEPTICS including an anagram of (Brussels) sprouts!
Thanks to Klingsor for a puzzle that was enjoyable to solve (and to blog). I hope I haven’t missed any subtleties in terms of theme/Nina…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | MUSCADET | Trainee with problem knocked back wine (8) | wine / MUS (sum, problem, knocked back) + CADET (trainee) |
|
| 5A | BEDLAM | Perhaps border strike creates chaos (6) | chaos / BED (perhaps border – e.g. flowerbed) + LAM (strike, hit) |
|
| 9A | SCHUBERT | Bruch set out to be a composer (8) | a composer / anag, i.e. out, of BRUCH SET |
|
| 10A | HIATUS | Success by American boxing amateur offers a break (6) | a break / HI_T (success) around (boxing) A (amateur), plus (by) US (American) |
|
| 12A | EGRET | Bird nested in winter, generally going west (5) | bird / reversed, hidden word, i.e. ‘nested in’ and ‘going west’, in ‘winTER GEnerally’ |
|
| 13A | STONEWALL | Hold up progress, defending one wicket? (9) | Cryptic Definition? / ST_ALL (hold up progress) around (defending) ONE + W (wicket) |
|
| 14A | NAME-DROPPING | P. Morgan pined, desperately trying to appear well-connected (4-8) | trying to appear well-connected / anag, i.e. desperately, of P MORGAN PINED |
|
| 18A | PRESENTIMENT | Religious people bearing grudge with tense foreboding (12) | foreboding / P_I (religious) + MEN (people) around (bearing) RESENT (grudge), plus T (tense) |
|
| 21A | ARTIFICER | I craft, i.e. intricately? Right (9) | defn. by example? / ARTIFICE (anag, i.e. intricately, of I CRAFT IE) + R (right) |
|
| 23A | GRIPE | Beef is good and ready to eat (5) | beef (complaint) / G (good) + RIPE (ready to eat) |
|
| 24A | SHADOW | Commercial breaks present gloom (6) | gloom / SH_OW (present) around (broken by) AD (advertisement, commercial) |
|
| 25A | LIBRETTI | Texts of operas Britten mostly composed after 51 (8) | texts of operas / LI (51, Roman numerals) + BRETTI (anag, i.e. composed, of BRITTE( |
|
| 26A | DONORS | They give fellow sailor stocking filler finally (6) | they give / DON (fellow) + O_S (Ordinary Seaman, sailor) around (stocking) R (final letter of filleR) |
|
| 27A | CLOCK OFF | Strike gets half of department to stop work (5,3) | stop work / CLOCK (strike, hit) + OFF( |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | MUSTER | Tenfold increase for head of General Assembly (6) | assembly / MUSTER = |
|
| 2D | SPHERE | Parched, stopped by pub for a round (6) | a round (object) / S_ERE (dry, parched) around (stopped by) PH (public house) |
|
| 3D | ARBITRATE | Judge computing speed after a run (9) | judge / A + R (run) + BIT-RATE (computing speed) |
|
| 4D | EUROSCEPTICS | They don’t like Brussels sprouts – ice cream’s top hit around Spain (12) | they don’t like Brussels (!) / EUROSC_PTICS (anag, i.e. hit, of SPROUTS + ICE + C – first letter of Cream), around E (Espana, Spain) |
|
| 6D | ELITE | Cream cake at last that’s lowcalorie (5) | cream / E (last letter of cakE) + LITE (low calorie) |
|
| 7D | LOTHARIO | Seducer reluctant to have a port (8) | seducer / LOTH (reluctant) + A + RIO (port) |
|
| 8D | MISALIGN | Fail to put straight what forgetful actor may do? Sounds like it (8) | fail to put straight / homophonic phrase, i.e ‘sounds like it’ – MISALIGN sounds like MISS A LINE, whch is what a forgetful actor might do |
|
| 11D | COURT MARTIAL | Apprehended officer’s heard – by this? (5,7) | ‘this’ – CD – or another defn. by example? / another (double) homophone, i.e. ‘heard’ – COURT sounds like CAUGHT (apprehended) and MARTIAL sounds like MARSHALL (officer) – and an ‘apprehended officer’ might be tried (heard) by a COURT MARTIAL |
|
| 15D | PANEGYRIC | Praise God for one song not starting (9) | praise / PAN (Roman god) + EG (for example, for one) + ( |
|
| 16D | UPRAISED | Sounds like you cracked up, put in a higher position (8) | put in a higher position / U (homophone, sounds like you) + PRAISED (cracked up) |
|
| 17D | RESTRAIN | Support spot check (8) | check / REST (support) + RAIN (spot) |
|
| 19D | BISTRO | Writer goes around street to find restaurant (6) | restaurant / BI_RO (pen, writer) going around ST (street) |
|
| 20D | BELIEF | Fail to justify fellow’s trust (6) | trust / BELIE (fail to justify) + F (fellow) |
|
| 22D | FLOUR | Lecturer tucked into square meal (5) | meal / F_OUR (square number) around (tucked into by) L (lecturer) |
|
Mixed feelings on this. Funnily enough 1d was my foi, having guessed 1a began with MUS but muscatel didn’t fit the clue. Didn’t know MUSCADET but guessed it later. Held up for awhile entering MAYHEM (perhaps border) for 5a, but wondered how ‘strike’ fitted in.
Don’t like STONEWALL. It lacks a definition so must be meant as an &lit but doesn’t work for me. ARTIFICER is a bit better but not great imo. I don’t understand how ‘rain’ means ‘spot’ in 17d. Ok, you can have a spot of rain but that doesn’t work. Didn’t know PANEGYRIC but worked it out.
Thanks to S&B.
Fast, but I liked it.
Favourites NAME-DROPPING, COURT MARTIAL, FLOUR. No problem with STONEWALL as an &lit, though I don’t think ARTIFICER is one to remember.
Thanks Klingsor, mc_rapper
Held up on our last two, COURT MARTIAL followed by STONEWALL having wrongly entered KNOCK OFF at 27ac; also spent some time trying to parse 1ac as MUSCATEL instead of MUSCADET. Took a while to get the wordplay in 1dn having met a ‘tenfold’ or similar device with roman numerals before, we shall probably remember it in future.
We thought COURT MARTIAL was a bit &lit-ish, but we totally agree with Hovis’s opinion of STONEWALL – it just doesn’t work.
Thanks, though, Klingsor and mc_rapper67
Stonewall in Chambers is given as ‘hold up progress …. (in cricket) by batting extremely defensively’
My first puzzle back after a break of many years. Managed 3/4, which wasn’t terrible. Loved eurosceptics, which I got straight away, and libretti, which took some thinking. 19D FOI. No LOI 🙂
Thanks James@4, yet another cricket term I was unaware of. I rescind my objection to 13a in light of this.
I still don’t see spot for rain – spit maybe but not spot. Anybody have an explanation?
Looking back at my post@1, it does read a bit negatively. I should add that I did like many clue, particularly those for NAME-DROPPING, PRESENTIMENT, ARBITRATE, COURT MARTIAL and MISALIGN.
@Hovis
to spot= to rain slightly (Chambers)
Thanks Klingsor
Got myself into a mess by bunging in CLOCK OUT, which didn’t work perfectly, and stopped me getting BELIEF which is an excellent clue.
Didn’t know bruch was a composer so my appreciation of that clue went up when I found out.
I really liked DONORS and FLOUR and HIATUS, and more of course.
I liked BRUSSELS SPROUTS, but the end of the clue didn’t do it justice
Failed to parse MUSTER, so many thanks mc rapper.
&lits are hard – you recognise them through lack of definition, so I was quite delighted to look up STONEWALL and find it has a cricket meaning. ARTIFICIER works, but for some reason is less satisfying. I think COURT MARTIAL is a wonderful semi&lit.
Thanks again to setter and blogger
Thanks Baerchen @7. I did look in my Chambers app but didn’t find it there.
Thanks for the various comments/feedback – I have been incommunicado all day, but it looks like most of the queries – STONEWALL’s cricketing nuance; ‘spot’ for RAIN; and the various &lits – have been responded to in the intervening comments – much appreciated!
Perhaps I was just lucky not to fall into any of the MUSCATEL/MUSCADET, KNOCK OFF/CLOCK OUT/CLOCK OFF and MAYHEM/BEDLAM cul-de-sacs which seem to have diverted some respondents.
SNS at #5 – always good to hear of someone coming back to crossword-ing – hope you are back in the LOI groove soon enough…(;+>)
Thanks for the blog, mc_rapper67.
I’m just back from a day out in London and took the puzzle with me to do on the train. It filled the bill perfectly – I could complete it without needing any aids but there were so many lovely clues to savour, notably the ones you highlighted in your preamble. [I have no interest at all in speed-solving but all the best for the competition!]
First in was the brilliant 9ac. Dutch @8 try this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK3_K1C2lYc – I’ve been prompted to listen to it as I type this – I think you may find that the second movement is familiar.
Many thanks for a real treat, Klingsor – a lovely prelude to a birthday lunch with my grandson at the Ivy Soho Brasserie – recommended!
Thanks, Eileen – and a happy birthday to you, whenever it is.
I was also in London today – taking my kids to see ‘School of Rock’, which is their school Christmas performance. A world away from the classical strains of Bruch and Schubert, but a London musical is a bit of culture, nonetheless!
We had a nostalgic (for me) stroll around Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Chinatown etc. beforehand – so we could have passed, like ships in the night, if you were wandering around the Soho area around lunch time…or around Waterloo Station early evening!
‘so we could have passed, like ships in the night, if you were wandering around the Soho area around lunch time…
Indeed, c’est la vie. Glad you had a good day too. 😉