Tees rounds off the week in the Indy…
…with an enjoyable but not too challenging (in your correspondent’s opinion) puzzle. (For which I was grateful, as this was my fourth blog in a week, with the various rotas that I am on all aligning, as they are wont to do occasionally.)
On finding NO TIME TO DIE as the ‘delayed’ film at 4A/18A, I did wonder if there might be some sort of Bond theme (which wouldn’t help me, as I am no aficionado), but it turned out to be just a relatively topical clue, as I believe the film was only released a few weeks ago.
I enjoyed the definition of a RELAY RACE as a ‘passing competition’ at 2D, but this was eclipsed by 11A with ‘decimalisation’ changing the D of odium to the P of OPIUM – very clever!
I was confused by the definition of PRIESTESS as a ‘pagan’ woman, but Chambers confirms this, with the definition as specifically ‘a female priest in non-Christian religions‘, which presumably can include paganism? I would have thought that Christian religions would allow female priests these days, but again, I am not an aficionado…
There were a lot of nice surface readings – ‘wealthy types’ becoming corrupt at 1D; the groom getting on a moving horse at 28A; and the maybe Cyclops-ean image at 17D of ‘open clothes’ revealing a boob…oo-errr!
For the ‘urban district’ containing a ‘barrier’ at 7D, I did check to see whether the Thames Barrier is in ERITH, but it seems to be a bit further upstream? And I wasn’t sure about 25A – ‘Hang from the gallows again’ – I thought that if you survived the gallows you got a pardon, so presumably you’d have to be re-convicted to hang from them again?!
To sum up – a pleasant diversion, for which ‘Thanks’ to Tees. No Nina or theme that I can discern. Hopefully all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1A | FORCES | See 19 (6) | see 19a / see 19a |
|
| 4A | NO TIME TO | & 18 Bad motion edit close to release delayed film (2,4,2,3) | delayed (by the pandemic, Bond) film / NO TIME TO DI (anag, i.e. bad, of MOTION EDIT + E (closing letter of releasE) |
|
| 10A | TELESCOPE | With which one sees stars become smaller (9) | double defn. / a TELESCOPE is something with which one sees stars; and to TELESCOPE can be to become compacted, or smaller |
|
| 11A | OPIUM | Number with hatred for decimalisation? (5) | number / O( |
|
| 12A | ANY | Albanian yeoman keeps whichever is chosen (3) | whichever is chosen / hidden word, i.e. kept, in ‘albaniAN Yeoman’ |
|
| 13A | NEWS FLASHES | Reports latest bands crossing fine line (4,7) | reports / NEW (latest) + S_ASHES (bands) around (crossing) F (fine) + L (line) |
|
| 14A | SCAMPER | Beetle, or small mobile home? (7) | beetle / S (small) + CAMPER (mobile home) |
|
| 16A | HEINOUS | Contemptible male American gets around in love (7) | contemptible / HE (male) + US (American), around IN + O (zero, love) |
|
| 18A | DIE | See 4 (3) | see 4A / see 4A |
|
| 19A | SPECIAL | & 1 Elite soldiers police volunteers without aggression (7,6) | elite soldiers / SPECIAL_S (police volunteers, special constables) around (without, or out with!) FORCE (aggression) |
|
| 20A | SINCERE | Following on is straightforward (7) | straightforward / SINCE (after, following) + RE (on, regarding) |
|
| 22A | TRANSPONDER | One leaving coaches to consider electrical device (11) | electrical device / TRA( |
|
| 25A | SAG | Hang from gallows again? (3) | hang / hidden word, i.e. from, in ‘gallowS AGain’ |
|
| 26A | LODGE | See BBC boss back to the Masonic premises (5) | masonic premises / LO (interjection, see!) + DG (Director General, BBC boss) + E (back letter of thE) |
|
| 27A | IVY LEAGUE | College group has three miles on climber (3,6) | (US) college group / IVY (plant, climber) + LEAGUE (three nautical miles) |
|
| 28A | DRESSAGE | Groom to get on as horse moves (8) | horse moves / DRESS (groom) + AGE (to get on) |
|
| 29A | BELTED | Hit with a band? (6) | double defn. / BELTED can mean having been hit; and is something has a band, or beld around it, it could be BELTED) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue | Definition (with occasional embellishments) / Logic/parsing |
|
| 1D | FAT CATS | Wealthy types act fast to become corrupt (3,4) | wealthy types / anag, i.e. become corrupt, of ACT FAST |
|
| 2D | RELAY RACE | Rarely in trouble, expert passing competition (5,4) | passing competition! / RELAY R (anag, i.e. in trouble, of RARELY) + ACE (expert) |
|
| 3D | ESSEN | Odd characters from East Sheen in German city (5) | German city / alternate, odd, letters from ‘EaSt ShEeN’ |
|
| 5D | ONE OF THESE DAYS | Sooner or later does he say? Often that’s nonsense (3,2,5,4) | sooner or later / anag, i.e. that’s nonsense, of DOES HE SAY OFTEN |
|
| 6D | ISOLATION | One remedy having answer for universal solitude (9) | solitude / I (one) + SOL( |
|
| 7D | ERITH | Urban district contained within barrier it has (5) | urban district / hidden word, i.e. contained within, ‘barriER IT Has’ |
|
| 8D | OSMOSIS | One trapped in large marsh for slow absorption (7) | slow absorption / OS (outsize, large) + MOS_S (marsh?) around (trapping) I (one) |
|
| 9D | FORWARD-LOOKING | Progressive splitting outside in-patient lavatory? (7-7) | progressive / FOR_KING (splitting) around (outside) WARD (in-patient, type of hospital ward) + LOO (lavatory) |
|
| 15D | PRIESTESS | Pagan woman that is seen on street in crowd (9) | pagan woman / PR_ESS (crowd) around IE (id est, that is) + ST (street) |
|
| 17D | OVERSIGHT | Complain open clothes will show boob (9) | boob (error, omission) / OVER_T (open, not concealed) around (clothing) SIGH (complain) |
|
| 19D | SETTLED | Resolved to live permanently with duke (7) | resolved / SETTLE (to live permanently) + D (duke) |
|
| 21D | EGGHEAD | Knife cut drawn up over ambassador’s brain (7) | brain(y person) / ( |
|
| 23D | ADDLE | Two daughters introduced to beer become confused (5) | become confused / A_LE (beer) around DD (D – daughter, twice) |
|
| 24D | REEVE | Old beak in female bird (5) | double defn. / a REEVE is a historic term for a magistrate, hence ‘old’ beak; and a REEVE can also be the female of the ruff, so a ‘female bird’ |
|
This was not too tricky and good fun with the very clever OPIUM my favourite.
Like our reviewer I was surprised by the definition for PRIESTESS, perhaps a case of dictionaries not being able to keep up with the pace of change of language.
Many thanks to Tees and to mc_rapper67.
mc – I was astounded to see your name at the top of the blog – having contributed to the Guardian Prize blog earlier. You are one busy boy today. Thanks for your hard work. At leat you’ve had the pleasure of two splendid puzzles.
I felt hoist by my own petard when I saw Tees was today’s setter. The other day I moaned about posters on the G thread who don’t bother to read previous comments before posting their own. Given Tees’ penchant for clueing words suggested or requested by posters, I found myself desperately trying to recollect any recent suggestions to prepare to find them in the grid!
I think you’ve highlighted my favourites: the definition of RELAY RACE and the OPIUM device as well as my raised eyebrow regarding pagan PRIESTESSes. I also enjoyed the swap device in ISOLATION and the misdirection of beetle for SCAMPER. It’s interesting that TELESCOPE as a verb means compress; it could just as easily mean extend – but doesn’t!
Thanks Tees and mc (again)
I think female priests in most religions are called priests, and priestess does have a more specific meaning.
I liked the clue for OPIUM – always good to see something original.
Thanks to Tees and (the recently very busy) mc_rapper67
I agree with DuncT about ‘priestess’ having a more specific meaning
Another great crossword from Tees – many thanks to him and our busy blogger
An enjoyable solve with no real problems. Our first guess for 11ac was ‘odium’ which we couldn’t understand since it would mean the definition was in the middle of the clue – then the penny (old or new?) dropped! SINCERE was our LOI; we thought it had to be that, but it took us a while to see the parsing. As for PRIESTESS we too are with DuncT and CS; to the best of our knowledge in the Anglican and most nonconformist Churches the various titles for members of the clergy are all non-gender-specific.
Favourites were OPIUM, OSMOSIS and EGGHEAD.
Thanks, Tees and mc_rapper67.
PS: There’s a typo in the blog for 5dn – it should be ‘one of these days’ – but no doubt with all the blogging you’ve had to do you may feel it’s one of those days.
The penny, old or new as allan_c @5 notes, didn’t drop for me unfortunately, so I missed the parsing of OPIUM. Still, working out SINCERE was some consolation and like PM @2, I enjoyed the less common sense of ‘Beetle’ for SCAMPER.
Off to look up where on earth ERITH is.
Thanks to Tees and mc_rapper67
I did have to check on the location of the urban district but everything else unravelled quite nicely.
SCAMPER & RELAY RACE took the honours here.
Thanks to Tees and to mc rapper for the review.
Thanks for the comments and feedback – and for the concern for my workload! (I hope it isn’t too much of a spoiler to reveal that we Indy bloggers get advance sight of the puzzles, so I haven’t had to do the whole thing hot off the press, so to speak…)
Looks like most enjoyed the ODIUM -> OPIUM clue, among others.
I take the point about female priests being just priests (apologies for my pale-male-stale assumption that they would be priestesses!).
Thanks for pointing out the typo, allan_c – duly corrected.
I’m off for a lie down!
Thanks both. Jane@7 – like you I checked, however it confirmed my strong suspicion the area would be in the South East, as such tendsto be considered fairer game in Crosswordland, to the ‘amusement’ of those of us in the grim North
Oh who cares where Erith is — I’ll be in trouble for that with someone — or if it should have a barrier placed around it. A lot of London districts should IMO, and that’s from someone who until recently lived thereabouts. Perhaps they’ll put one round to keep me out.
Thanks busy busy MCR and all who posted.
Nothing new under the sun it seems – I remember cluing ‘opium’ exactly the same way back in 2016 and am pretty sure the decimalization indicator was not new to me back then. Either or anyways, good to know my esteemed colleague Tees’ mind works the same way mine does 🙂
https://times-xwd-times.livejournal.com/1546337.html
No-one’s mind works like yours. I’ve met you, remember.
Yes, definitely on the easier end of the Saturday spectrum. BELTED was my LOI.
Couldn’t remember the name of the new Bond film – the only Bond film I’ve seen was Thunderball when I was an uni in the early seventies – and I couldn’t be bothered to look it up. Fortunately there was little else it could be from the anagram fodder.
Ha – I lived in Erith for a few years. Quite a dump frankly. The late Linda Smith who had lived there described it as being in a suicide pact with Dagenham. An impermeable barrier world be a good thing.
Bus drivers prayer “In Erith as it is in Hendon”
(:lead us not into Thames Ditton”
Very enjoyable and easier than usual for a Tees crossword. Lots to like especially SINCERE, TRANSPONDER, RELAY RACE, ISOLATION, and ADDLE, the latter for its surface. Thanks mc_rappermc for the detailed blog.
Thank you for unravelling the parsing I couldn’t see mc_r. At one point I was sure BELTED was BUSTED then had to try to make up an ‘old judge/female bird’. Aha! It must be SHEMU, surely. So disappointed it wasn’t.
Thanks for the on-going comments and feedback – looks like most enjoyed this one – except maybe those who didn’t know where Erith is… Given the crossing letters, I suspect the only alternative would have been EDITH…I don’t think there is anywhere up North that would have fitted…
Thanks for popping in, Tees at #10.
Hoskins at #11 = yes, that is a remarkable coincidence – I’ll leave you and Tees to discuss that one between yourselves!
Tony Santucci at #16 and Salad at #17 – nice to see a couple of new (to me) names here – thanks for commenting…
Copmus at #15…
‘…for thine is the Kingsway, the Pinner and the Grove Park,
For Esher and Esher,
Crouch End.’
Catching up with the Indy late this week, but didn’t want to miss a Tees. Defeated by ERITH and didn’t parse OPIUM, but otherwise all straightforward for me.
I was a little surprised at the lack of GK regarding priestess and telescope, but as PeeDee frequently reminds us GK is very subjective, and having an ordained sister (admittedly as a minister rather than a priest), and being familiar with telescopic rams, lifts and props probably helped.
PM@2 it’s very rare that I get a chance to correct you so please forgive the inordinate amount of pleasure I’ll take in doing so, but in engineering anything telescopic is capable of both extension and retraction, even if Chambers only lists the retraction under the verb.
Very entertaining to see setters banter, and loved the perhaps sacrilegious tour of London.
Many thanks Tees and the indefatigable MC.