Phi is occupying his usual Friday slot today, bringing another series of mid-week puzzles to an end.
I found this to be very much at the hard end of the Phi spectrum and needed a couple of attempts to finish it. For one thing, the vocabulary was more challenging than normal, with the words at 8, 13, 16, 22A … hardly being standard fodder for daily cryptic puzzles, and some of the wordplay also took some teasing out. I do, however, think that I got there in the end, and I am satisfied with my parsing, except for “decline” at 4 and “ready” at 22A in the wordplay of their respective clues.
My favourite clues today were 11, 12, and 24, all for smoothness of surface reading; and 6, for its rather sobering topicality.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 05 | SATIRIC | Positioned one King, I see, like 21?
SAT (=positioned, placed) + I (=one) + R (=king, i.e. rex) + I + C (=see, in textspeak); satiric(al) is “like Swift (=entry at 21)” |
| 07 | WHOEVER | Unknown person nevertheless putting women first
HOWEVER (=nevertheless); “putting women (=W) first” means letter “w” moves to front of word |
| 10 | FIRST-FOOT | Come round after Hogmanay? Fellow in binge in US goes behind trees
FIRS (=trees) + [F (=fellow) in TOOT (= (drinking) binge, in US)]; to first-foot is to be the first person to visit a house after the beginning of the new year, hence “come round after Hogmanay” |
| 11 | DWARF | Daughter and husband leaving jetty in Mini
D (=daughter) + W<h>ARF (=jetty; “husband (=H) leaving” means letter “h” is dropped) |
| 12 | TWERP | Fool’s mostly quaint and formal way of speaking
TWE<e> (=quaint; “mostly” means last letter is dropped) + RP (=formal way of speaking, i.e. Received Proununciation) |
| 14 | PROFESSOR | Academic to encourage soldiers about old French
[O (=old, as in OT) + F (=French)] in [PRESS (=encourage, press) + OR (=soldiers, i.e. Other Ranks)] |
| 16 | TERMITARIUM | Irritate mum after dispersing collection of insects
*(IRRITATE MUM); “after dispersing” is anagram indicator; a termitarium is a nest or mound of termites |
| 19 | OWNERSHIP | Swipe horn, criminally in possession
*(SWIPE HORN); “criminally” is anagram indicator |
| 20 | EILAT | Resort recalled in story about capital of Italy
I (=Italy, in IVR) in TALE (=story); “recalled” is anagram indicator; Eilat is a resort town in southern Israel |
| 21 | SWIFT | Examination about Welsh or Irish writer
W (=Welsh) in SIFT (=examination, sifting); the reference is to Anglo-Irish writer and satirist Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) |
| 22 | CLOISONNE | Enamelware is ready to crack copy
[IS + ON (=ready, all set)] in CLONE (=copy, reproduction); cloisonné is work with enamel inlaid in compartments formed by small fillets of metal |
| 24 | RULE OUT | Bar brawl around Christmas not unknown
<y>ULE (=Christmas; “not unknown (=Y, in algebra)” means letter “y” is dropped) in ROUT (=brawl, riot) |
| 25 | ANAHEIM | Californian city intent on squashing vulgar refusal by Senate ultimately
[NAH (=vulgar refusal) + <senat>E (“ultimately” means last letter only)] in AIM (=intent); Anaheim is a city in Southern California outside Los Angeles |
| Down | ||
| 01 | GRIT | Corn for grinding needing no special stones
GRI<s>T (=corn for grinding; “needing no special (=S)” means letter “s” is dropped |
| 02 | ACCOMPLISH | Carry out claim with chops getting cooked
*(CLAIM + CHOPS); “getting cooked” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | SWOT | Study origin of wine consumed by heavy drinker
W<ine> (“origin of” means first letter only) in SOT (=heavy drinker); cf. He’s swotting for his exams |
| 04 | BOWDLERISE | Censor to decline to respond after line in edition twisted
BOW (=to decline, cause to bend downward) + [DLE (ELD= L(=line) in ED. (=edition); “twisted” indicates reversal) + RISE (=to respond, i.e. to provocation) |
| 05 | SAFETY | Catch speech while eating a lot of cheese
[FET<a> (=cheese; “a lot of” means last letter is dropped) in SAY (=(a)speech, remark); according to Chambers, a safety is a device designed to prevent injury, especially a safety catch |
| 06 | TERCENTENNIAL | Clean internet up after three hundred years
*(CLEAN INTERNET); “up” is anagram indicator; a tercentennial anniversary is celebrated after 300 years |
| 08 | VRAISEMBLANCE | Perfect representation of a serviceman, wobbling, astride barrel
BL (=barrel) in *(A SERVICEMAN); “wobbling” is anagram indicator |
| 09 | REFORM | Soldiers supporting sourcing of military change
RE (=soldiers, Royal Engineers) + FOR (=supporting, in favour of) + M<ilitary> (“sourcing of” means first letter only) |
| 13 | PERORATION | Holes allowing foot to slip out? It’s the last thing you want to hear
PER<f>ORATION (=holes, i.e. series of, in e.g. paper; “allowing foot (=F) to slip out” means letter “f” is dropped); the peroration is the concluding part of a formal speech, hence “the last thing you want to hear” |
| 15 | ON APPROVAL | Down with professional in cricket ground, awaiting confirmation
[NAP (=down, on surface of cloth) + PRO (=professional)] in OVAL (=cricket ground) |
| 17 | TOWSER | Big dog pulls ahead of old monarch
TOWS (=pulls, drags) + ER (=old monarch, i.e. Elizabeth Regina); towser is a common name for a big dog |
| 18 | STREAM | Source of water power straddling river
R (=river) in STEAM (=power) |
| 22 | CITY | Indefinable something withing confines of cheery town
IT (=indefinable something, as in She’s got it) in C<heer>Y (“confines” of means first and last letters only) |
| 23 | SHAD | Son tucked into fish
S (=son) + HAD (=tucked into, i.e. had to eat); a shad is a fish related to the herring |
Thanks both. I have to say I did not get along with this particularly for reasons you have cited, RR, and I would add BOWDLERISE to the list of challenging/inaccessible answers although I’ll admit I’ve seen it before. If there is a theme, sadly I have long since lost the will….
Was once asked by a Scot to bang on their door after the 12th stroke, bringing whisky, and I think saying some particular words in a deep voice, but can’t remember if this was called being First Foot. And yes agree, RR, pretty tough, with ?s for bow = decline (oblique) and vraisemblance (obscure). Not helped by bunging in 6d with tri- instead of ter- ; lesson: check the grist! Speaking of which, I assume the stones that = grit mean balls, ie courage. Enjoyed the workout, thanks Phi and RR.
So few comments! Was it VRAISEMBLANCE that’s put everyone off? I did have to think “it’ll be in Chambers”, to reconcile myself to that one, but otherwise very testing and well worth the effort. I hoped 4d would be BOWDLERISE, and so it was, once I’d parsed it. Thanks to Phi, and even more thanks to Ratkojariku, because some of the parsing was beyond me
grantinfreo@2: I did enter TRICENTENNIAL and then couldn’t read my own handwriting when entering 10ac’
I needed to a wordsearch to get VRAISEMBLANCE.
Odd, BOWDLERISE is a normal part of my vocabulary.
Jayjay, I think we’re all desperately searching for the theme. TERCENTENNIAL, SWIFT and a weird word like VRAISEMBLANCE shoe horned in. There must be sonething going on.
Nho TOWSER. If it’s a common name for a big dog I guess I just ain’t common enough to know it.
Still, thanks to both. At least I got a lot further than I did with today’s Paul in the G.
Once I had the V, it had to be verisimilitude, but it didn’t fit the fodder. I was another for whom BOWDLERISE was my first guess at censor, though it took some time to parse.. Tricky but very enjoyable.
Having searched in vain for tercentenaries, I can only conclude that the theme is (copyright Roz) Swift’s Gullible Travels.
No theme today – just using up some interesting words in my list of interesting words. I have always loved VRAISEMBLANCE though I cannot remember where I first encountered it. It deserves a reboot in these days of virtual reality, surely?