The puzzle can be found here.
I may be about to lose my blogging rights for committing cruciverbalist heresy, but I have to say this was not up to the Don’s usual standards. Among the usual excellent clues, including 1ac, 2dn, 15dn and (my favourite) 26dn, there were a few disappointments.
I didn’t like 9dn becasue SET is in the clue and answer, 16ac I’ve seen several times and “invading” appeared in two clues (21dn and 22ac). These are, of course, minor niggles, but they do detract from the perfection one has come to expect from the great man.
Thanks, Bradman.
| Across | ||
| 1 | A SHROPSHIRE LAD | Old AEH sharp, sir? Possibly in his major work! (1,10,3) |
| *(old aeh sharp sir) “A Shropshire Lad” was a collection of 63 poems by Alfred Edward Housman (AEH) | ||
| 10 | AIMED | Trained ace, this writer’s one who manages the paper? (5) |
| A(ce) + I’M (“this writer’s”) + ED(itor) (“one who manages the paper”) | ||
| 11 | REMISSION | Let-up in respect of assigned task (9) |
| RE (“in respect of”) + MISSION (“assigned task”) | ||
| 12 | TERRIER | English bishop gets into row, the dog! (7) |
| E(nglish) + R.R. (Right Reverend, so “bishop”) gets into TIER (“row”) | ||
| 13 | SILK HAT | Loony has kilt as formal item of attire (4,3) |
| *(has kilt)
|
||
| 14 | SIT UP | Have a meal, imbibing drink – and don’t slouch! (3,2) |
| SUP (“have a meal”) imbibing IT (“drink”) | ||
| 16 | DECREASED | Went down and ironed? (9) |
| Double definition, the second a cryptic chestnut. | ||
| 19 | SONNETEER | Boy never poetic embracing French and becoming a poet (9) |
| SON (“boy”) + NE’ER (“never poetic”) embracing ET (“French and”) | ||
| 20 | TRUST | Belief supported in speech (5) |
| Homophone of TRUSSED (“supported”) | ||
| 22 | ARRAIGN | Bring action against revolutionary soldier invading Scottish isle (7) |
| <=G.I. (revolutionary “soldier”) invading ARRAN (“Scottish island”) | ||
| 25 | SUMATRA | Island having problem, a journey finishing halfway through (7) |
| SUM (“problem”) + A TRA(vel) (“journey” finishing halfway through) | ||
| 27 | DISSENTER | Protester putting rubbish on register (9) |
| DISS (“rubbish”) on ENTER (“register”) | ||
| 28 | GARDA | Police officer with a boring job going about (5) |
| <= A DRAG (“boring job” going about) | ||
| 29 | MUDDY THE WATERS | Thursday: we’d met clueing to cause bewilderment with extra complication (5,3,6) |
| *(thursday wed met) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | SAMARITAN | Being helpful type can be awful strain, a mum admitted (9) |
| *(strain) with A MA (“a mum”) admitted | ||
| 3 | RADII | More than one spoke (5) |
| Mildly cryptic definition | ||
| 4 | PARTRIDGE | Bird in region going over top of hill? (9) |
| PART (“region”) going over RIDGE (“top of hill”) | ||
| 5 | HUMUS | Organic stuff brings nasty smell to you and me (5) |
| HUM (“nasty smell”) to US (“you and me”) | ||
| 6 | RESILIENT | Bouncy son, one to be found stuck in opening (9) |
| S(on) + I (“one”) + LIE (“be found”) stuck in RENT (“opening”) | ||
| 7 | LEIGH | Actress delivering short line, then short number (5) |
| L(ine), then EIGH(t) (short “number”)
This could refer to Vivien Leigh, Janet Leigh or Jennifer Jason Leigh. |
||
| 8 | DONATED | Presented article penned by two men (7) |
| A (“article”) penned by DON + TED (“two men”) | ||
| 9 | NANTES | Grandma has place set up in French city (6) |
| NAN (“Grandma”) + <=SET (“place”, set up)
Don’t like this at all – set in the clue and answer? Could have been “Grandma put up in French city”. |
||
| 15 | PRECISELY | Sum up place with a cathedral to a T (9) |
| PRECIS (“sum up”) + ELY (“place with a cathedral”) | ||
| 17 | CORKSCREW | Twister – such may set sail from Irish port (9) |
| CORK’S CREW may set sail from Cork (the Irish port) | ||
| 18 | SAUNTERER | Easter run organised? I’m not hurrying! (9) |
| *(easter run) | ||
| 19 | STARDOM | Elevated status of smart drunk seen outside party (7) |
| *(smart) seen outside DO (“party”) | ||
| 21 | TRAJAN | Emperor or Indian ruler invading borders of terrain (6) |
| RAJA (“Inidan ruler”) invading T(errai)N | ||
| 23 | RASED | Unfortunate dears brought low (5) |
| *(dears) | ||
| 24 | NOTCH | Hundred up, a hundred – Hampshire’s opener getting score! (5) |
| <=TON (“hundred” up) + C (“hundred”) + H(ampshire) | ||
| 26 | MIGHT | Power of the ideal man taking out Rolls-Royce (5) |
| M(r r)IGHT (“the perfect man” with R(olls) R(oyce) taken out) | ||
*anagram
To be honest, I wasn’t going to post a comment on this since I felt quite negative about it. Since your intro showed a similar disappointment, I thought I would add to it. To me, this effort seems to be a rushed one with many nonsensical surfaces. DECREASED is a bit of a chestnut, as you say, and I’ve seen the clue for CORKSCREW a few times in the past. I vaguely remember seeing RASED spelt with an S, rather than the usual Z, and TRAJAN was new to me, so something was learned.
I did wonder about the inclusion of ‘set’ in the wordplay for NANTES. I didn’t like it and also thought ‘put up’ would be better but maybe it isn’t so bad?
Sorry to be a bit negative today. Thanks to all.
Thanks to Bradman and loonapick. Maybe not the best from this setter (yes, DECREASED is familiar) but still for me enjoyable. I did not parse MIGHT-Mr. Right (though I was looking for a way to factor in the RR) but otherwise had fewer problems than usual.
I enjoyed this, and for me the only clue that was below the high standard we expect from the Don was 29 across. To me this looks like a draft as I suspect that the setter intended to replace “clueing” with a suitable anagram indicator but forgot, and somehow this slipped through to the final version.
Thanks Bradman and loonapick
Must be easy to please as I found this quite an enjoyable solve early on a Sunday morning. See that 9d could have just as easily worked without the ‘place’ which would have made it even more of a write-in than it was. Had seen Mr Right similarly used recently, but because I’m doing puzzles from different time periods, it could have been from ages ago.
A SHROPSHIRE LAD was my last in and was the only clue that I needed help to find, being unaware of the work, but thought that it was very clever with the reference to the author by his initials in the anagram fodder.