Tees brings us some spring time entertainment as the rain seems to continue to fall, incessantly.
A pleasing puzzle as I have come to expect. Some great use of numbers cross referenced clues and some innovative devices.
19ac was my favourite clue and 15dn the last one I parsed. The interaction between 26, 27 and 28 was neat and self-contained even if at first it might not appear so. Also several other clues of note 12ac, 21ac and 6dn
Thanks Tees a very fine puzzle
Across
9 Green film about working for financial specialist (9)
Eco (green) + mist (film) around on (working) = ECONOMIST
10 Tory Kemi ditching worthless Powell? (5)
Badenoch (Tory Kemi) – bad (worthless) = ENOCH
11 See 4 Down
12 Cold complication doctor 6 for it (9)
(best(6) + for it)* = FROSTBITE
13 Archangel good airy spirit shielding bishop(7)
g(good) + Ariel (airy spirit) around b (bishop) = GABRIEL
14 Alumnus to function as witness (7)
OB (alumnus) + serve(function) = OBSERVE
16 Arkwright almost reserving room for girl (5)
Noah (arkwright) – h (almost) around rm (room) = NORMA
18 Satisfied with London’s police force? (3)
DD MET
19 010 put about for element at 54? (5)
none(0) X(10) reversed = XENON
21 Wild notion to correspond with hawk-headed god (7)
chime (correspond) + Ra (hawk=headed God) = CHIMERA
22 Arrangement of sails aboard heavy eastern warship (7)
fat (heavy) + e (eastern) around rig (arrangement of sails) = FRIGATE
24/25 Sufficiently early repair saving economist here? (1,6,2,4)
Cryptic definition to the proverb starting A STITCH IN TIME (saves 9 as per economist)
26 Write off an amount (5)
DD TOTAL
27 King Charles in 26 28 pack involved here? (5)
CR(King Charles) in sum (Total-26) = SCRUM
28 Formidable 15 with 7 among them holding 50? (3,6)
all backs (seven among them – rugby team) around l (50) = ALL BLACKS
Down
1 Writer attending game: cricket side in shape (8)
pen (writer) + tag(game) + on (cricket side) = PENTAGON
2 We must probe company books for evidence of neglect (6)
we in Co (company) + bb (books) = COBWEB
3 Harmonise colours in riotous decoration (10)
(decoration)* = COORDINATE
4/11 Sight in Paris, one female detected hole in water jug (6,5)
if (one female) + felt (detected) in ewer (water jug) = EIFFEL TOWER
5 Robust, carrying two ducks, daughter was easy to spot (5,3)
stout (robust) around oo (two ducks ) and d (daughter) = STOOD OUT
6 Dribbler who drank stronger beer (4)
DD BEST
7 Tiny thing to put forward and not back (8)
posit (put forward) + Rev. nor (and not back) = POSITRON
8 Reportedly goes for jolly idea? (6)
Homonym of Whees = WHEEZE
15 VIP is to clean out loos for punk band? (3,7)
SEX(VI(Sex in Latin)) + P + is to + ls(clean out loos) = SEX PISTOLS
17 Romps and rolls embracing upright character (8)
rosters (rolls) around i (upright character) = ROISTERS
18 Produce variation on a theme Antonin Dvorak starts? Stupid (8)
(a theme)* + AD = MEATHEAD
20 Provocation on steamship is not desired (8)
Needle (provocation) + SS(Steamship) = NEEDLESS
21 Rows in church? That’s vulgar (6)
oars (rows) in ce (church) = COARSE
22 Answer line given in delicate last act (6)
al(answer line) in fine (delicate) = FINALE
23 Cheers up on course to get fit (6)
Rev. ta (cheers) + tack (course) = ATTACK
25 See 24 Across
Loved XENON, A STITCH IN TIME (I got it in time and may have saved me from failing on a few if not 9), ALL BLACKS (if 50 could be related to Rugby somehow…I don’t have much knowledge on the game), COBWEB (great surface, lovely def) and SEX PISTOLS.
WHEEZE
goes=WEES was my reading.
BEST
Referring to ‘BEST bitter’?
Thanks Tees and Twencelas!
COORDINATE
Is the ‘colours’ just there for the surface?
MEATHEAD
A small observation:
ATHEME* + AD.
I think the blog should clarify that “A stitch in time saves nine” where the answer to 9 is ECONOMIST.
Small typo in 4/11. Water jug is “ewer” not “were”.
CHIMERA is a good clue. Thanks for the parsing twencelas. I thought it was a DD. Now I think it’s a definition by example. Don’t get ‘saving economist’ in 24/25. Enjoyed SCRUM and ALL BLACKS although less formidable now. 3rd behind SA and the Irish. SEX PISTOLS was good and tops is WHEEZE because of the definition rather than the wordplay. I agree with KVa@1 on that. Thanks twencelas and Tees.
Oh, I see. Thanks Hovis@3. Clever. Top clue, now.
There were a few masterful misdirections in there too. 7d had me putting in ELECTRON which then tripped me over for 28a, which I was trying to link to the Sex Pistols…. You get the picture!
I’m confused over the hawk-headed god at 21A. Surely that’s Horus, whereas Ra is the sun god. Loved Noah = arkwright; there’s a leading baseball player across the pond called Noah Arkwright – I wonder if he realises. Great puzzle, so thanks Tees and Twencelas.
Really enjoyed this after a bit of a struggle with the G earlier. The ALL BLACKS construction with 15 and 7 is clever – I’d agree the ‘holding 50’ is a tad forced – it felt like it could refer to caps but the rest was neat and misleading as I wrestled with a combo of SEX PISTOLS and POSITRON for a while. I also liked the reference to ECONOMIST in A STITCH IN TIME. NOAH is neat, as is the reference (though poignant) to George BEST.
Tatrasman @8: from good old Wiki – In one of his many forms, Ra, god of the Sun, has the head of a falcon and the sun-disk inside the Uraeus resting on his head. Ra was portrayed as a falcon and shared characteristics with the sky-god Horus
Thanks Tees and Twencelas
Thanks Hovis and KVa – have corrected where appropriate and added clarity (hopefully anyway to the proverb reference)
For 3d COORDINATE I took the def as “Harmonise colours” – ‘…3. (transitive, intransitive) To match (objects, especially clothes).’ – avoiding colours that Clash.
Thanks T+T (=TEEs)
Thanks both. This was very entertaining, if on occasions too clever for me in the parsing e.g. the excellent A STITCH IN TIME. Re CHIMERA I had thought Ra had a falcon’s head, but perhaps it’s a type of hawk?….BEST I took as a triple definition, separating stronger and beer. Thanks also to Tatrasman@8 for fact-of-the-day regarding otherwise uninteresting US sport – I half hope his middle initial is S.
Egyptian deities had among them quite a few different bird-headed examples. Thoth is an ibis, which I think is really naff, but there you go. Reading through the various web pages on the subject, there seems to be some confusion as to who’s a falcon and who’s a hawk, but Ra as falcon-headed is seen more often, as far as I can be bothered to check, than Ra as hawk-headed. One source even says that they don’t have hawks, only falcons in Egypt. This means I now have to change all my Egyptian deity clues, which could be a long job for a compiler like me. Apparently Ra got the falcon-or-hawk head because such birds were thought to fly near the sun, so you can see the connection they were making.
Think you’ve done them all now, apart from BEST, which DD splits after ‘drank’. GB was a ‘dribbler who drank’ according to heartless me, and ‘stronger beer’ is beer that’s stronger than ordinary (bitter). By today’s craft beer standards best isn’t particularly strong of course, but various brewer’s pages support the ‘stronger’ aspect.
But I don’t care now because Blackburn have just beaten Leeds! Happy days for the chasing pack, currently led by mighty hawk-headed Southampton.
Many thanks Twence and all who commented.
Thanks Tees. I liked many of the clues including FRIGATE, COBWEB, MEATHEAD, and COARSE. I failed with ENOCH (nho Kemi or Powell so had zero chance), CHIMERA, and COORDINATE. I also had a few parsing gaps so thanks twencelas for explaining things.
Beaten for parsing in a few places, but mustn’t grumble. No idea who Noah Arkwright or Kemi Badenoch might be when they’re at home. Sadly Mr Powell has stuck in memory. Still slightly baffled by the egg chasing New Zealanders. I saw L in BACKS, but not sure why ALL from the clueing.
Thanks Tees and Twencelas.
Pete, ‘Arkwright’ is a joke: Noah was an ark-wright.
Tees. That’s a brilliant bit of misdirection. For me anyway. I spent ages trying to think of TV sitcom characters to no avail.
Thanks for the extra bit of explanation.
Pete.