A curate’s egg from Redshank today.
My enjoyment of this crossword was tempered slightly by two or three minor issues.
The good stuff first – I loved some of these clues, and gave ticks to 14ac, 1dn, 9dn and 19dn, but most of the other clues were also of a high standard.
However, I would be interested to hear people’s opinions on the double duty of “terrier” in 15dn. I also could not get 8dn to work properly in my mind, which may be the issue (it’s my mind!) and I didn’t like the loose definition of GATEAU in 5ac.
Thanks, Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FOREMAST | Sails here to get European nuts etc (8) |
| FOR (“to get”) + E (European) +MAST (“nuts etc”) | ||
| 5 | GATEAU | Course engaged in filling a tea urn (6) |
| Hidden in [engaged in] “fillinG A TEA Urn” | ||
| 10 | CAUSTIC | Scathing about American jerk (7) |
| Ca. (circa, so “about”) + US (“American”) +TIC (“jerk”) | ||
| 11 | REAR-END | What careless drivers do behind curtains (4-3) |
| REAR (“behind”) + END (“curains”) | ||
| 12 | DELHI | Dutch priest touring hot city (5) |
| D (Dutch) + ELI (biblical “priest”) touring (ie. going round) H (hot) | ||
| 13 | ALMA MATER | Old school graduates block change (4,5) |
| MA MA (Master of Arts twice, so “graduates”) block ALTER (“change”) | ||
| 14 | CRASH BARRIER | Spooner’s audacious airline’s traffic controller (5,7) |
| If Spooner had tried to say BRASH CARRIER (“audacious airline”), he might have said CRASH BARRIER instead. | ||
| 18 | HOT CHOCOLATE | Nasty toothache limiting officer’s drink (3,9) |
| *(toothache) limiting COL. (colonel, so “officer”) | ||
| 21 | MAIL MERGE | It helps to advertise armour just to defend Gulf (4,5) |
| MAIL (“armour”) + MERE (“just”) to defend G (gulf) | ||
| 23 | IDIOM | Dialect is described in old manuscript originally (5) |
| I(s) D(escribed) I(n) O(ld) M(anuscript) [originally] | ||
| 24 | LAWSUIT | Petition city with clubs for one (7) |
| L.A. (“city”) + W (with) + SUIT (“clubs, for one”) | ||
| 25 | IN VITRO | Nearly summon troops back using lab equipment (2,5) |
| INVIT(e) (nearly “summon”) + <=OR (other ranks, so “troops” back) | ||
| 26 | SCYTHE | Wielding it could make you chesty (6) |
| *(chesty) and &lit. although I think wielding a scythe would actually make you fitter rather than chesty. | ||
| 27 | VAGRANCY | Very old woman in a city’s suburbs living rough (8) |
| V (very) + GRAN (“old woman”) living in A C(it)Y [suburbs] | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FACADE | Fine place to shop, avoiding river frontage (6) |
| F (fine) + A(r)CADE (“place to shop”, avoiding R (river)) | ||
| 2 | ROUBLE | Hassle, taking top off for money (6) |
| (t)ROUBLE (“hassle”, taking top off) | ||
| 3 | MATRIARCH | Tribal leader takes a short journey during month (9) |
| A TRI(p) (short “journey”) during MARCH (“month”) | ||
| 4 | SOCIAL SECURITY | Blend I use with acrylics to benefit (6,8) |
| *(i use acrylics to) | ||
| 6 | ALARM | What’s disturbing in the style of empty room (5) |
| A LA (“in the style of”) [empty] R(oo)M | ||
| 7 | ELECTRIC | It’s thrilling, driven by current (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 8 | UNDERARM | One way to deliver missile not fully weaponised? (8) |
| I think this is intended to be a double definition, but I can’t see how the second part works as “not fully weaponised” requires UNDERARMED, not UNDERARM. | ||
| 9 | PRIMA BALLERINA | Home in time after formal dance to devour a Pavlova? (5,9) |
| IN (“home”) in ERA (“time”) after PRIM (“formal”) BALL (“dance”) to devour A, so PRIM(A) BALL-ER(IN)A | ||
| 15 | RETRIEVER | Relation of terrier vet treated, wasting time (9) |
| *(errier vet) where ERRIER is (t)ERRIER wasting T (time) I don’t like this clue as “terrier” cannot be part of the anagram fodder and part of the definition. | ||
| 16 | SHAMBLES | Chaos caused by heartless mob fracking rocks (8) |
| [heartless] M(o)B fracking SHALES (“rocks”) | ||
| 17 | STAIRWAY | Guy hijacks Ireland– Washington flight (8) |
| STAY (“guy”) hijacks IR (Irleand) – Wa. (Washington) | ||
| 19 | KITTEN | Origin of mews? It’s in Kent, curiously (6) |
| *(in kent) For “mews”, think of the noise a kitten makes. | ||
| 20 | EMBODY | Incorporate large space group (6) |
| EM (“large space”) + BODY (“group”)
I suppose an “em space” is large when compared to an “en space”… |
||
| 22 | MOUTH | Cheek, or something close to it (5) |
| Double definition | ||
*anagram
Thanks, loonapick.
Re ‘terrier’: I’m never quite sure whether ‘double-duty’ is a term of abuse or approbation. An ‘&lit’, for example (which is just the extreme form of double-duty) is by convention admired. I think ‘terrier’ is OK although a question mark might have acknowledged the playfulness.
‘I think I’ll have the gateau’ works for me.
I agree about ‘underarm’ although it didn’t detain me long, which I think is one test of fairness.
FOREMAST did hold me up until I thought of ‘Mix red and yellow for/to get the colour orange’ so no complaints in the end.
Enjoyed it. Thanks again to both. Sorry if this longish post crosses with anyone.
I thought 8d was ok, in that I presume to ‘underarm’ is to have insufficient weaponry and therefore not to be fully weaponised. In fact, I quite liked it.
By contrast I am not at all sure about 5ac. I do not think ‘gateau’ is a course. Surely it is, perhaps, an option within the dessert course, in the same way as ‘plaice’ might be in the fish course.
Thanks to both. I enjoyed the crossword and the blog.
loonapick, I agree with your Comments on both 8d and 15d.
I am recording this at your invitation.
Overall, I liked the puzzle. Thanks.
I now wish to add that my thoughts on 5a were exactly the same as those written above by diagacht. I could not have put it better.
To diagacht:
Not quite. It’s a parts-of-speech thing, verb versus adjective. A chap or army can be ‘under-armed’ (adj.) but a chap or army can’t be ‘under-arm’ (vb.) To ‘under-arm’ (vb.) is thus not ‘to have insufficient weaponry’ (adj.) but ‘to cause to have insufficient weaponry’. QED.
So I agree with loonapick.
Perhaps we both need to get out a bit more.
And to both Rishi & diagcht:
I think that by now – for better or worse – ‘course’ is conventionally established as almost any kind of food in Xwords. I’ve seen it used for ‘cheese’, ‘lasagne’, ‘soup’, ‘meat’, ‘pie’ &c, &c.
For me, it just becomes one of those ‘trigger’ words that has one casting around for possible foodstuffs.
Thanks, loonapick.
It’s unusual to see so many quibbles about a puzzle by Redshank / Crucible / Radian – his cluing is usually so meticulous. I agree largely with Grant and diagacht [how lovely to see you 😉 ] – with Grant more than diagacht re GATEAU: as with UNDERARM, there was no ambiguity as to the answer.
I really liked ‘to get’ = ‘for’: quite innovative, I thought – I haven’t seen it before, anyway. [‘I’m just nipping out for a pint of milk’.]
Many thanks to Redshank, as ever, for an enjoyable puzzle.
Like others, I found this to be curate’s egg.
Also had misgivings about UNDERARM. My reading was “One way to deliver” as the definition. I then guess you could take ARM as missile (as a weapon) and “under” as a prefix to mean it is not fully weaponised. The question mark meaning some liberty needed with the parsing. Not convinced this is any better.
Thanks to Redshank and loonapick.
…but you’re right, Grant @5, about the grammar of UNDERARM.
…Redshank on vibes….NICE!
I agree that KITTEN is correct for 19D, but the clue is defective. KITTEN is not an anagram of “in Kent” – close, but not quite. (Kudos to my colleague Harry for catching this.)
Thanks to loonapick and Redshank
Yes, a bit bitty but some nice stuff.
26a I saw as quite a neat &lit with CHESTY meaning large chested ( from all that upper body exercise)
8d Was easily solvable so I wouldn’t call it unfair but perhaps a little inelegant. I saw it as an attempt to cast UNDERARM as INFERIOR ARM, i.e an inferior missile might not be fully weaponised, with, as Hovis says, the definition being ONE WAY TO DELIVER
15d Here I think there is no way round it, TERRIER is doubling up. I’ve not been solving Redshank for long enough to know if he occasionally does this sort of thing, but if he does he’s not entirely alone.
19d Slight typo – IT in (KENT)*
Carl @ 11
19D is not defective. The anagram is ‘IT’ ‘in’ ‘KENT’ with curiously indicating that only KENT is anagrammed.
Loved 15 down, nothing wrong with double duty in my book. All round a great solve with witty surfaces and nice precision.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
A crossword that didn’t take as long as usual for this setter and agree that some of the clues may not have been as technically correct as they normally are from him – still they didn’t hold up the solve.
Only found the definition of FOR’ used in 1a after coming here and then trawling through the dictionary to get it’s context.
Finished in the NW corner with FOREMAST after which FACADE, CAUSTIC and ROUBLE quickly finished off the puzzle.