The puzzle can be found here.
My first blog of 2018 is for a Hamilton puzzle that was a it of a curate’s egg in my opinion. The long down clues were very good in general and gave an “in” to some of the harder to solve across clues.
9dn was my favourite clue, but I also ticked 13ac and 10dn.
However, I didn’t like the clumsy 22ac (I may have parsed it wrong, but can BE = IS?), and 12ac and 14ac aren’t cryptic enough for my liking.
Thanks Hamilton.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to wish all setters, bloggers, commenters and lurkers a very happy 2018.
| Across | ||
| 7 | ANCESTOR | Ma isn’t in Sacramento, but weirdly great-grandma is (8) |
| *(sacrento) (“Sacramento” without MA) | ||
| 8 | REGRET | Sadness as chap brought back tailless bird (6) |
| REG (“chap”) + <=TER(n) (tailless “bird”, brought back) | ||
| 11 | REEVE | Official found in Job Centre every day (5) |
| Found in “centRE EVEry” | ||
| 12 | NON-RUNNER | No French participant is out of contention (3-6) |
| NON (“No” in French) + RUNNER (“participant”) | ||
| 13 | ORATION | Address refurbishment, having no time off (7) |
| (rest)ORATION (“refurbishment”). “Having no time off” indicates “no rest” | ||
| 14 | WHERE TO | Towards what end does cab driver need such knowledge? (5,2) |
| (Not terribly) cryptic definition | ||
| 15 | IT TAKES ALL SORTS | It’s about bag of sweets, not that everyone would agree (2,5,3,5) |
| Cryptic definition? (Liquorice) ALLSORTS are a bag of sweets. | ||
| 18 | DRUMMER | Date with stranger musician (7) |
| D(ate) with RUMMER (“stranger”) | ||
| 20 | NO-HOPER | Japanese drama works without ending but is a total failure (2-5) |
| NOH (“Japanese drama”) + OPER(a) (“works” without ending) | ||
| 22 | IN-BETWEEN | Halfway house is pretty within (2-7) |
| INN (public “house”) with BE (“is”?) + TWEE (“pretty”) within | ||
| 23 | RELIC | Reconcile Roger to having kept back a little souvenir (5) |
| Hidden backwards in “ReconCILE Roger” | ||
| 24 | GAUGES | Judges fruit, so we’re told (6) |
| Homophone of GAGES (“fruit”) | ||
| 25 | ESTIMATE | Determine new teatimes (8) |
| *(teatimes) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FAIR TO MIDDLING | Admit idling for a change; that’s pretty average (4,2,8) |
| *(admit idling for) | ||
| 2 | ECZEMA | Complaint by phone company, maintaining Czech Republic to a degree (6) |
| EE (mobile “phone company), maintaining CZ (“Czech Republic”) to MA (“a degree”), so E(CZ)E-MA | ||
| 3 | ASTERISK | Star flower is found on end of sidewalk (8) |
| ASTER (“flower”) IS + (sidewal)K | ||
| 4 | DOWNING STREET | Get two dinners delivered in London SW1 (7,6) |
| *(get two dinners) | ||
| 5 | RESUME | Continue with summary (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | GRANDEUR | Glory that would be Greece with no end of cash (8) |
| GR (“Greece”) + AND (“with”) + EUR(o) (“cash” with no end)) | ||
| 9 | TERROR-STRICKEN | Fearful blunders deceive a number outside (6-8) |
| ERRORS (“blunders”) TRICK (“deceive”) with TEN (“a number”) outside | ||
| 10 | SNOW-BLINDNESS | Swiss blend non-toxic but causes problems with vision (4-9) |
| *(swiss blend non) | ||
| 16 | THUMBS-UP | Box containing British Standard gets universal sign of approval (6,2) |
| THUMP (“box”) containing B(ritish) S(tandard) + U(niversal) | ||
| 17 | SPHEROID | Shifty pros hide ball that’s not completely round (8) |
| *(pros hide) | ||
| 19 | MITTEN | Enid starts to follow, hand in glove (6) |
| EN(id) to follow MITT (“hand”) | ||
| 21 | PILLAR | Support community stalwart (6) |
| Double definition | ||
*anagram
I always seem to find this setter a bit of a mixed bag. I’m also not keen on BE = IS, although I have heard people say ‘it be true’ for example. I agree that 12a and 14a are also clued weakly. For 15a, I also parsed the initial IT TAKES as IT’S around TAKE (bag as a verb). Thanks for parsing 13a. I got stuck on DECORATION or REDECORATION, neither of which worked.
I meant to add that I’ve always taken ‘Determine’ and ‘Estimate’ as having very different meanings. Maybe others disagree. My Chambers thesaurus doesn’t list either one under the entry for the other.
Thanks Hamilton & loonapick.
Your assessment of the puzzle seems to be 1 down, though that solution is missing from the blog.
That’s weird – I remember typing it. Will edit ASAP.
In the entry for BE in Chambers, it gives “archaic and dialect present indicative be“, which in the third person singular would equate it with IS, but I think it’s pushing it a bit, and I’m not very keen on it.
The equivalence of BE to IS or ARE may be justified by the phrase “Here be dragons” perhaps. Not a modern usage but one widely believed (erroneously) to have been used on ancient maps.
Despite all the pluses and minuses mentioned in the blog and in the posts above, I quite liked this puzzle when I solved it this morning at the breakfast table.
While, in particular, a couple of the long ones were rather nice, there were a few things that, to say the least, had me thinking.
In 7ac, the deletion clearly precedes the anagram and therefore one would expect an extra anagram indicator (for ‘Ma’ which, true, seems to be a bit silly). Many solvers (and some setters, too) do not see the need for two anagram indicators, so perhaps it’s just a matter of taste. In 6d, I really had to think hard to convince my myself that ‘no end of cash’ may equal ‘eur’. Just about, I think.
For me, 1d and 19d were more problematic. In the former, the fodder is ‘Admit idling for’, leaving us with ‘a change’. However, ‘a’ is very odd here as part of the anagram indicator. As some visitors of this site may know from similar things in the pas, I am not happy with ‘Enid starts’ for EN. To me, a word has only one start and therefore I would go for E (with ‘starts’ being a verb). And if one accepts that the setter means more than one letter at the start, it still feels a bit underwhelming because E and N make up half of the fodder! Ah well, to each his own.
Thanks Loonapick for your blog, and a thank you to Hamilton for a crossword that had a lot more pluses than minuses.
Thanks Hamilton and loonapick
Found this a quicker solve than normal from this setter across a couple of short sessions.
Didn’t have the [REST]ORATION logic at 13a, having settled for [DEC]ORATION which on reflection is not anywhere near a word for ‘refurbishment’.
The dictionary that I looked in had IS: “Third person singular present indicative of be”. Is that not a close enough definition for a use in a crossword ? I’m a self-confessed grammar dunce – but it worked for me.
GRANDEUR was the last one in.