An excellent challenge from GOLIATH this Friday.
FF: 9 DD: 9
A number of clues that I thought were top notch, so its hard to pick a favorite.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 4 | NOTARY PUBLIC |
Lawyer’s polite refusal to pick up a state (6,6)
|
| NO TA ( polite refusal, ~ no, thanks ) RY PUBLIC ( sounds like { pick up } REPUBLIC – state ) | ||
| 8 | IN EXILE |
Home team in wellies, regularly away from home (2,5)
|
| IN ( home ) [ XI ( team ) in ELE ( regular letters of wElLiEs ) | ||
| 9 | EDAMAME |
James content to chase cheese and beans (7)
|
| jAMEs ( content i.e. inner letters ) after EDAM ( cheese ) | ||
| 11 | MALINGERER |
Stay engrossed in paperback, being a slacker (10)
|
| LINGER ( stay ) in reverse ( back ) of REAM ( paper ) | ||
| 12 | AWRY |
Careful head demoted off course (4)
|
| WARY ( careful ) with W ( head i.e. first letter ) moving to the right ( ~demoted, would have been a better fit in a down clue ) | ||
| 13 | CREDO |
Firm about left-wing principles (5)
|
| CO ( firm, company ) around RED ( left-wing ) | ||
| 14 | WARLORDS |
Terms describing all recent Labour leaders as belligerent types (8)
|
| WORDS ( terms ) around ARL ( starting letters of “..All Recent Labour..” ) | ||
| 16 | PARMESAN |
Standard names for melting cheese (8)
|
| PAR ( standard ) [ NAMES ]* | ||
| 18 | GABLE |
Clark’s a bit off the wall (5)
|
| cryptic def; referring to clark gable | ||
| 20, 5 | DOWN UNDER |
Feathers and foreign articles from the other side of the world (4,5)
|
| DOWN ( feathers ) UN DER ( foreign articles ) | ||
| 21 |
See 25
|
|
| 23 | DON JUAN |
Libertine operating smartly dressed, initially up all night (3,4)
|
| [ ON ( operating ) in DJ ( dinner jacket ) – smartly dressed ] UAN ( “..Up All Night”, initially ) | ||
| 24 | FOWLERS |
Mean-sounding birds (7)
|
| cryptic def; did anybody have a different take on the solve/parse? | ||
| 25, 21 | SOCIAL DISTANCING |
Feature of the pandemic might get Corbyn on the floor if first promoted (6,10)
|
| SOCIAL ( corbyn, jeremy ) [ DANCING ( on the floor ) containing IST ( first ) ] – should ‘IST’ move from elsewhere to earlier in the word to justify ‘promoted’? | ||
| 26 | RESCUE |
Make secure? (6)
|
| &lit; [ SECURE ]* | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | NINJA |
How to say “one skilled in martial art from Japan” in Japanese (5)
|
| &lit; hidden in “..japaN IN JApanese” | ||
| 2 | TEXTILE |
Material benefit finally by being among the ascendant elite (7)
|
| T ( benefiT, finally ) [ X ( by, multiplication ) in reverse of ELITE ] | ||
| 3 | RELIGIONS |
Dropping a hint the original sin violated many such beliefs (9)
|
| [ thE ORiGInaL SIN ( without letters of ‘A HINT’ ) ]* | ||
| 5 |
See 20
|
|
| 6 | LUMBAGO |
Attempt to follow experimental album is a pain (7)
|
| GO ( attempt ) after [ ALBUM ]* | ||
| 7 | CAMBRIDGE |
Where one might study the end of tragic village in fiction (9)
|
| C ( tragiC, last letter ) AMBRIDGE ( village in fiction, the archers ) | ||
| 10 | CROWS NEST |
Shows off home in an elevated position with all-round views (5,4)
|
| CROWS ( shows off ) NEST ( home ) – position atop a ship’s mast used for lookouts | ||
| 13 | CLAMOROUS |
Noisy loving beneath chapel enclosure (9)
|
| CL ( ChapeL, enclosure ~ end letters ) AMOROUS ( loving ) | ||
| 15 | RIGMAROLE |
Mother trapped by machinery part in elaborate procedure (9)
|
| MA ( mother ) in [ RIG ( machinery ) ROLE ( part ) ] | ||
| 17 | MUNTJAC |
Beast in military coup starts rounding up members of junta (7)
|
| MC ( Military Coup, starting letters ) around [ JUNTA ]* | ||
| 19 | BUCOLIC |
Rural bum’s endless gripe (7)
|
| BUm ( endless, without last letter ) COLIC ( gripe ) | ||
| 21 | DRAMA |
Ex cathedra major play (5)
|
| hidden in “.. catheDRA MAjor..” | ||
| 22 | NURSE |
Old union asked regularly to provide tender (5)
|
| NUR ( old union, National Union of Railwaymen ) SE ( aSkEd, regularly ) |
I agree, Turbolegs, that it’s difficult to pick a favourite with this splendid grid from Goliath; It’s a toss-up between RIGMAROLE and EDAMAME.
For 24a, I had three possibles: FOWLERS, BOILERS and ROLLERS. The latter doesn’t sound mean, ‘fowl/foul’ are on the right track but are FOWLERS birds? Or is a ‘fowler’ a person as in a ‘tough-old bird’, which, in turn led me finally to BOILERS. I’m still undecided.
I took the ‘first’ (21/25) to come from SOCIALIST and tucked inside DANCING.
Many thanks to Goliath for providing such fun this morning and to Turbolegs for clearing up a few such as 1a and 11.
Thanks for the blog, I think CORBYN is SOCIALIST and then the IST is moved, possibly should be DEMOTED , moved backwards.
FOWLERS I am not happy with , they hunt birds rather than are birds themselves. I think mean-sounding refers to FOULERS .
I’m pretty sure 24a is POULTRY, a homophone for “paltry” = ‘mean’.
Yes, v. good puzzle. Missed how DJ meant ‘smartly dressed’ at 23a and spent some time on my last in MUNTJAC.
Loved the idea of the SOCIALIST DANCING, ‘first promoted’ of course, at 25/21.
Thanks to loonapick and Goliath
Woops, thanks to Turbolegs. Sorry!
You type faster DIane ha ha.
I must add I really enjoyed this, too many clues to mention , so much imagination in the word play.
For AWRY I am happy with demoted, W goes to second from first.
I did wonder if SOCIALIST DANCING it meant the first of dancing D is promoted ?
This is a potentially brilliant clue, not quite sure if it works.
POULTRY of course WordPlodder , well done.
I agree, Roz. It must be Wordplodder’s POULTRY. Chapeau! And it also took me quite a while to nut out DINNER JACKET for the well-dressed seducer @ 23a.
I thought POULTRY but… though not normally over-picky about homophones, I couldn’t in conscience rhyme ‘POLE-TREE’ with ‘PALL-TREE’ They are pretty obviously different. (Scot loonapick would have a view on this).
Ah, well.
Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
24ac: Chambers 2014 gives two pronunciations for each of paltry and poultry. For each of them, the first pronunciation given has a short O vowel in the first syllable – a pronunciation that I do not use for either word. I think a more precise setter would insist on a homophone indicator of the “some might say” type.
25ac/21ac: I think this works if you take “Corbyn” = SOCIALIST, “on the floor” = DANCING and “if first promoted” applying to the DANCING and indicating that the D is moved earlier in the answer.
I read 25,21 along the lines of Roz @2, in that SOCIAL DISTANCING would become “socialist dancing” if IST (first) was moved towards the front. I think “promoted” would have worked better in a down clue, as it would mean “moved up”.
Tom_I@10 re 25/21ac: I like that explanation. It accounts for the “might get” in the clue.
Thanks for blog and comments esp re POULTRY which defeated(plucked) me. I thought that was rather a tricky section-a Tattenham Corner .
I interpreted 25/21 the same way Roz@5 did. And I also prefer “poultry” as an answer to 24 rather than “fowlers”, even though I didn’t see it before reading the blog.
Surely 24 is Poultry (sound like paltry), not the best homophone.
Pelham Barton@9: surely “sounding” is an adequate homophone indicator, even if, like me, you don’t think these are homophones (my weak excuse for failing this one).
Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
I’m firmly in the POULTRY corner, because I think not of homophones but puns, so as long as they’re vaguely in the right area they work for me.
I was also OK with ‘promoted’ in 25/21, as for me it’s pretty much synonymous with advance in some circumstances. Especially as no one seems to have complained about ‘demoted’ in 12.
Thanks Goliath, that was an excellent way to end the week. My favourites were EDAMAME, MALINGERER, WARLORDS (amusing surface), DOWN UNDER, and RIGMAROLE (great word). I bunged in boilers instead of POULTRY (the homophone’s fine but I didn’t immediately associate mean with paltry), needed a look-up for MUNTJAC, and could not parse the very clever SOCIAL DISTANCING, NOTARY PUBLIC, or RESCUE. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
[ Simon S @16: I had no problem with the word “demoted” in 12a because I saw the “w” from wary going from 1st to 2nd place.]
Perplexus@15 re 24ac: I was not so concerned about the move from “sounding” to “might say”. My real concern was that the homophone indicator should account for the fact that the two words only sound the same to people who use the first pronunciation (as given in Chambers) for both words.
Simon S@16 re 25/21ac: I agree that “promoted” works to mean “moving towards first place”, hence “moving towards the beginning”. The question is whether the “first” means D (as the first letter of DANCING) or IST. Do you promote D in SOCIALIST DANCING to get the answer, or do you form an answer in which IST can be promoted to give SOCIALIST DANCING? After reading Tom_I@10, I have come round to the view that only the second of these accounts for the words “might be” in the clue.
Isn’t it funny to see “Make secure?” (26ac) for RESCUE?
It was also, not even 3 weeks ago, in Matilda’s Guardian crossword (28,556 – 23ac), complete with question mark.
Perhaps these two setters know each other …. 🙂
Good fun and I am another POULTRY.
Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs.
Thanks turbolegs though I am convinced Wordplodder (new name required) has it right with Poultry, I had plumped for Rollers as roll= mug which is pretty mean behaviour but that does not involve a homophone. Sil thanks for reminding me where I had seen that anagram before! And thanks Goliath fora great crossword from which DON JUAN gets my top vote.
Thanks Goliath and Turbolegs
One from the backlog that I was able to get to today – and what a pleasure it was to do it on the day after the second vaccination made for a quieter day than normal. I nearly fell off my chair when I didn’t see POULTRY in the grid, but happy to see that it was the correct answer and that it was picked up by many of the entries above. Took a while to unravel the operation on SOCIALIST DANCING to get the right answer for 25a, 21a.
Naturally was able to immediately spot DOWN UNDER to get me started and finished just under the hour later in the NW corner with MALINGERER, NINJA (craftily hidden) and NOTARY PUBLIC (new term and nice homophone) to finish it off.