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A super fun puzzle from the giant this Friday. Thanks Goliath!!
FF: 10 DD : 9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 7 | BACHELOR OF ARTS | A degree of role reversal by composer: nothing should precede wind section intro (8,2,4) |
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BACH ( composer ) ELOR ( ROLE, reversed) O ( nothing ) FART ( wind ) S ( Section, intro ) |
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| 9, 4 | YOUR LADYSHIP | Breaking up: dishy royal and baroness (4,8) |
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[ UP DISHY ROYAL ]* |
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| 10 | DISPENSARY | Drug dealer first to supply writers in journal (10) |
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[ S ( first to Supply ) PENS ] in DIARY ( journal ) |
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| 11 | CHINOS | O for a big country’s American pants! (6) |
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O replacing A in CHINA'S ( big country's ) |
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| 12 | ILLINOIS | Sick home movies, oddly out of state (8) |
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ILL ( sick ) IN ( home ) mOvIeS ( oddly out i.e. only even letters ) |
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| 13, 15 | FREUDIAN SLIP | Parapraxis for a fun ride? (8,4) |
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reverse clue for " A FUN RIDE " , with SLIP being the anagrind |
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| 17 | MESH | Network chaos for Sean Connery? (4) |
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cryptic def; how sean connery would pronounce MESS ( chaos ) |
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| 19 | OCCASION | Time when half of 12 backed one with a parsimonious rule mostly (8) |
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OCCAm ( parsimonious rule mostly, occam's razor ) SION ( reverse of illiNOIS, half of 12a ) |
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| 22 | ROLL CALL | Finding out who’s there for learners after end of year local trouble (4,4) |
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R (end of yeaR) [ LOCAL ]* LL ( learners ) |
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| 23 | PALATE | Dined by friend showing taste (6) |
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PAL ( friend ) ATE ( dined ) |
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| 25 | THERMOSTAT | Temperature master with hot reset (10) |
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semi &lit; [ T ( temperature ) MASTER HOT ]* |
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| 26 | See 2 | |
| 27, 28 | BLOW THE WHISTLE | Spill the beans and end the game (4,3,7) |
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double def |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2, 26 | ANOTHER TIME | Later item? (7,4) |
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reverse clue; ANOTHER TIME = [ TIME ]* = ITEM |
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| 3 | HERON | Bird in feather once (5) |
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hidden in "..featHER ONce" |
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| 4 | See 9 | |
| 5 | RUSSIAN ROULETTE | US literature’s on playing a dangerous game (7,8) |
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[ US LITERATURE'S ON ]* |
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| 6 | FEEBLE | Complain about love when heartless and impotent (6) |
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FEEB ( complaint = BEEF , reversed ) LovE ( heartless, without inner characters ) |
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| 7 | ARSONISTS | Clergyman abandons worship finally and sits uncomfortably with criminals (9) |
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pARSON ( clergyman, without 'P' – worshiP finally ) [ SITS ]* |
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| 8 | TERMINI | As the Edgware Road begins, a short skirt ends (7) |
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TER ( starting characters of "..The Edgware Road.." ) MINI ( short skirt ) |
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| 14 | UNHOLY ROW | Most unpleasant argument from a French line of saints? (6,3) |
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UN ( a , french ) HOLY ROW ( line of saints ) |
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| 16 | ICY PATCH | Pacy movement through long road hazard (3,5) |
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[ PACY ]* in ITCH ( long ) |
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| 18 | EPOCHAL | Manage to come up with a sci-fi computer that’s momentous (7) |
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EPOC ( manage = COPE , reversed ) HAL ( sci-fi computer ) |
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| 20 | OPTIMAL | Choose mail programme that’s just right (7) |
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OPT ( choose ) [ MAIL ]* |
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| 21 | CAVORT | Romp makes ham actor take 5 (6) |
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[ ACTOR ]* containing V ( 5 ) |
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| 24 | LOTUS | Flower in position (5) |
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double def |
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When I started this, 1,7 made me think “probably some classical reference I’ve never heard of” then 9,4 “probably some baroness I’ve never heard of” so I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one. Glad to be proved wrong. Thanks to Goliath and Turbolegs.
Made me think of the Bonzos and Viv saying “the importance of F in Art”
Great fun and blog
Thanks
Pleasant and not too taxing, though I missed the ‘parsimonious rule mostly’ bit of the wordplay for OCCASION which had to go in from the def.
Favourites were BACHELOR OF ARTS and the two “reverse anagram” clues, especially the ‘parsimonious’ ‘Another item?’; it’s the first time I remember seeing two of these clues in one puzzle.
Thanks to Goliath and Turbolegs
Great fun from the very first clue!
Other ticks for FREUDIAN SLIP, ARSONISTS (lovely picture!) and OCCASION (I think OCCA{M} is ‘one with a parsimonious rule mostly’].
17ac was the second Sean Connery pronunciation we’ve had this week.
It makes no difference but, in 11ac, I read the replaced ‘a’ as being ‘American’: we have chinos in the UK, too (but I see Chambers – not Collins – says they’re originally American).
Most enjoyable – many thanks to Goliath for the fun and Turbolegs for the blog.
There was a lot to like here — BACHELOR OF ARTS, ANOTHER TIME for its reversed anagram, CHINOS, ILLINOIS, FEEBLE, and UNHOLY ROW among others. I did not like MESH because I generally dislike clues that rely on a supposed pronunciation of a word. I also failed at ROLL CALL because I wrote in “call roll” since “finding out who’s there” seemed more verb than noun to me. That, of course, messed up my SW corner. Still I found this to be one of the better crosswords of the week. Thanks to both.
As others said, this was a very good crossword.
What else can you expect from this setter?
Having this special device we call ‘reverse anagram’ (in ANOTHER TIME and FREUDIAN SLIP) even twice was perhaps a bit too much but, of course, I can have it.
I also wondered about ‘As’ in 8dn which is there for no particular reason, in my opinion.
And (in 20ac) shouldn’t it be ‘mail program’ (without ‘me’)?
But yes, very enjoyable, from my FOI (CHINOS) to my LOI (OCCASION).
19ac had to be OCCASION, and while I am with Eileen on that one, I still cannot fully explain how it works. Anyone out there to help me out?
Many thanks to Turbolegs (agree with you about FF, not DD) & Goliath.
Many thanks for the sunny afternoon entertainment Goliath.
I looked at the anagram fodder in 9,4 and confidently entered LADY then tried to come up with a name from the rest. It was some time later I realised it was wrong but I did get it sorted eventually.
Like Sil@6 I looked sideways the spelling of “programme” as that indicates the media event, rather than the change things round in the world of computing.
I did find a lot to smile about in this and thanks Torbolegs, for the explanations.
About eight hours ago, I asked a question about the clue at 19ac.
I asked for someone to explain to me how that clue works.
[because as far as I can see, it doesn’t]
So far, no-one in sight, I’m afraid.
Sil, my problem with OCCASION is that BACKED appears to be doing double duty, acting as a reversal of NOIS and as an instruction to add to OCCA. I imagine this is what you allude to and I agree.
Apart from that, a great solving experience. Thanks to S & B.
Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
A typically excellent puzzle from this setter that was able to be completed in a couple of shortish sessions. Plenty of clues to like and the top long clue brought a wry grin when the word play was resolved.
Didn’t have too much of a problem with 19a – Occam’s razor (rule) is also known as the ‘law of parsimony’ – so most of the ‘parsimonious rule’ would be OCCA [M] with the reversal of NOIS (half of [ILLI]NOIS). The question is whether ‘with’ has to indicate in what order that they are put together – there is obviously only one way that would work. It was my last one in and needed all of the crossers to even attempt unravelling the word play for it.
Thanks, jmac, for sharing your thoughts on 19ac.
Indeed, to make it work, ‘backed’ has to do some sort of double duty.
Unfortunately, I don’t buy it – also, Goliath may, at times, be crossing borders but I don’t associate him with ‘double duty’.
Bruce @10, ‘with’ is, in my opinion (see also Eileen’s comment @4), part of the description of OCCA.
Moreover, if OCCA = ‘a parsimonious rule’ – like you say and our blogger, too – then ‘one’ is floating in the air.
So, for me, a clue that is not fully right in an otherwise excellent crossword.
In 19ac, I think “backed” does double duty. It makes half of 12 backwards, which backs (follows) OCCAm, one with a parsimonious rule, mostly.
Sil@11 – Yep, see your issue with the clue now