A quickie from Grney in today’s FT
This whole process from solving to blogging has only taken 30 minutes this mornng, which may be some kind of record for me, so I suppose this tells me that I found the puzzle easy (in fact, had I not taken a couple of minutes to work out the parsing of HIGH ROLLER I would have been even quicker).
That said, the puzzle was cleverly put together with a range of devices and some excellent surfaces, with maybe only the clue to THIRTYSOMETHING being a bit weak.
Thanks, Gurney.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TACHOMETER | Teacher Tom confused instrument that records speed (10) |
| *(teacher tom) | ||
| 7 | EARL | Nobleman before time? Not entirely (4) |
| EARL(y) (“before time”, not entirely) | ||
| 9 | DRUM | Daughter with strange container (4) |
| D (daughter) with RUM (“strange”) | ||
| 10 | SAINTLIEST | Most exemplary – is not commonly associated with porkies in street (10) |
| AIN’T (“is not” commonly) associated with LIES (“porkies”) in St. (street) | ||
| 11 | DAWDLE | Extremely wayward in valley, waste time (6) |
| [extremely] W(astefu)L in DALE (“valley”) | ||
| 12 | TOOLED UP | Having weapon also, was first before judge (6,2) |
| TOO (“also”) + LED (“was first”) + UP (in court, so “before judge”) | ||
| 13 | HERCULES | Strong guy – he’s pinching money on way back (8) |
| HE’S pinching <=LUCRE (“money” on the way back) | ||
| 15 | TIDY | Container – it’s brought back by daily after vacation (4) |
| <=IT [brought back] by D(ail)Y [after vacation, i.e. emptied] | ||
| 17 | NOUN | Never a French grammatical term (4) |
| NO (“never”) + UN (“a” in “French”) | ||
| 19 | MARBELLA | Mother with right call at outset about resort (8) |
| MA (“mother”) with R (right) BELL (“call”) + [at outset] A(bout) | ||
| 22 | REGIMENT | Referring to good island soldiers ahead of time – these? (8) |
| RE (“referring to”) + G (good) + I (island) + MEN (“soldiers”) ahead of T (time) | ||
| 23 | DEPICT | Give description of press man from east, chosen we hear (6) |
| <=ED (editor, so “press man” from east (ie from right to left)) + homophone [we hear] of PICKED (“chosen”) | ||
| 25 | RECIDIVIST | Is verdict I unfortunately returned to crime? (10) |
| *(is verdict i) | ||
| 26 | TERM | School time in Outer Mongolia (4) |
| Hidden in “ouTER Mongolia” | ||
| 27 | ET AL | Seen entering beta, lambda and others (2,2) |
| Hidden in [seen entering] “bETA Lambda” | ||
| 28 | HIGH ROLLER | Call about returning soldier having reputation primarily as reckless gambler (4,6) |
| HOLLER (“call”) about <=GI (returning “soldier”) + H(aving) R(eputation) [primarly], so H(IG-HR)OLLER | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | AIR RAGE | Aggression up? (3,4) |
| Cryptic definition – air rahge being a form of “aggression” while “up” in the air. | ||
| 3 | HUMID | At first hot, unusually mild, is dreadfully muggy (5) |
| [at first] H(ot) U(nusually) M(ild) I(s) D(readfully) | ||
| 4 | MASTERLY | Skilful, like teacher? (8) |
| Double definiton | ||
| 5 | THIRTYSOMETHING | Not quite double score (15) |
| (Not very) cryptic definition | ||
| 6 | RATION | Country has new leader, making allowance (6) |
| (n>R)ATION (“country” has new leader) | ||
| 7 | EPICENTRE | Story early course is cut short leads to quaking heart? (9) |
| EPIC (“story”) + ENTRE(e) (“early course” cut short) | ||
| 8 | RESCUED | Looking embarrassed about ultimately useless signal delivered (7) |
| RED (“looking embarrassed”) about [ultimately] (useles)S CUE (“signal”) | ||
| 14 | CONVIVIAL | Sociable Conservative with bottle after six (9) |
| CON (Conservative) with VIAL (“bottle”) after VI (“six”) | ||
| 16 | CREDITOR | Director worked out he’s owed money (8) |
| *(director) | ||
| 18 | OVEREAT | Gorge on other side of heath husband repeatedly missed (7) |
| OVER (“on other side of”) + (h)EAT(h) (H(usband) repeatedly missed) | ||
| 20 | LE CARRE | Writer, 50, with unusual career (2,5) |
| L (“50”) with *(career) | ||
| 21 | FETISH | Peculiar interest, this, strangely requiring iron initially (6) |
| *(this) requiring Fe (“iron”) initially | ||
| 24 | PETAL | Part of flower preferred by a learner (5) |
| PET (“preferred”) by A L (learner) | ||
*anagram
Yup, pretty much a PB for me too. In fact, I got all the acrossers on 1st pass apart, ironically, from 1a which I misread as ‘records speech’. Eye-test time.
Thanks to Gurney & loonapick. Now for the Indy.
I found this reasonably straightforward but there were a couple of interesting points. I have always taken TACHOMETER to specifically mean an instrument measuring RPM, as opposed to a speedometer (‘speedo’) which measures the speed at which an eg car is travelling. I see though that Chambers includes two meanings, for both an instrument measuring (1) speed of rotation or (2) ‘the velocity of machines…’. The other one was EPICENTRE which I have always assumed means the very centre of any activity, event or place, but Chambers gives the specific meaning related to an earthquake (hence ‘quaking heart’), though adds ‘also figurative’.
I wasn’t too keen on the consecutive hiddens at 26 and 27a, but otherwise a pleasant solve and a good way to build up confidence after bombing out on the Guardian Nutmeg today.
I liked the idea of the SAINTLIEST RECIDIVIST.
Thank you to Gurney and to loonapick.
Whilst this was definitely much easier than Nutmeg it wasn’t a write in with EARL TIDY and EPICENTRE holding me up in the NE. Like loonapick said in the intro it was a well put together puzzle with a range of devices – nice in my view. Thanks to Gurney and loonapick.
Thanks to loonapick and Gurney
Not quite as easy for me either but very pleasant.
Thanks Gurney and loonapick
Found this one pretty straightforward also but still taking around 25 min to complete (about half the average solving time) to complete. Spent a good deal of that trying to settle on AIR RAGE at 2d as my last one in – took a dictionary trawl to finally winkle it out.
MARBELLA was the only new term for me … and that was second to last in.
Thanks for the excellent blog, loonapick, and many thanks also to all who commented.