A solid offering from SOLOMON this Friday.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | HARD |
Coming round, I see Romeo dead and unfeeling (4)
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[ reverse of AH ( i see ) ] R ( romeo ) D ( dead ) |
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| 3 | FALSE START |
Sadly, a timid soldier initially falters, making mistake before a shot’s fired (5,5)
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[ A TS ( '..Timid Soldier..", initially ) FALTERS ]* |
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| 10 | GYMNASIUM |
My amusing plays in which men go on horses (9)
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[ MY AMUSING ]* |
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| 11 | GROAT |
Coin with King George’s cypher and old date discovered (5)
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GR ( king george cypher ) O ( old ) AT ( dATe, discovered ) |
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| 12 | LADDERS |
Young man reversing red Sierra delivers window-cleaning equipment (7)
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LAD ( young man ) [ reverse of RED ] S ( Sierra ) |
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| 13 | VERTIGO |
Film tiger rampaging through the centre of Hove, heading west (7)
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[ TIGER ]* in reverse of OV ( hOVe, central letters ) |
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| 14 | SENSE |
Appreciate and understand absorbing points (5)
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SEE ( understand ) containing NS ( points, North South ) |
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| 15 | BOWLER HAT |
Laurel headdress? (6,3)
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cryptic def? refers to laurel and hardy's iconic headwear |
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| 17 | FIRE DRILL |
Make a hole in sack before practice (4,5)
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FIRE ( sack ) DRILL ( make a hole ) |
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| 19 | LIMIT |
Solomon’s trolleyed across borderline (5)
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I'M ( solomon's ) in LIT ( trolleyed ) |
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| 21 | GENERAL |
Universal Soldier (7)
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double def |
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| 23 | DEPOSIT |
Bank voided defective postal orders with computers (7)
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DE ( DefectivE, without inner letters ) POS ( postal orders ) IT ( computers ) |
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| 25 | APERY |
Imitation of a… a… I don’t know what this is (5)
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A ( first 'a' ) PER ( second 'a') Y ( i dont know what this is, algebraic variable ) |
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| 26 | ACADEMISM |
A rascal heading to Eton is taken in by masters providing formal teaching (9)
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A CAD ( rascal ) [ { E ( Eton, first letter ) IS } in MM ( masters ) ] |
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| 27 | DOUBLE TAKE |
Two looks from central Greece, including caps from Thessaloniki and Katerini (6,4)
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DOUBLE E ( grEEce, centre of ) containing TAK ( starting letters of "..Thessaloniki And Katerini.." ) |
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| 28 | AGES |
Two pieces of magnesium stuck together for a long time (4)
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2 pairs of "..mAGnESium.." |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HEGEL |
What’s up with setter? He used to be really clever (5)
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[ reverse of EH ( what ) ] GEL ( setter ) |
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| 2 | RAMADAN |
Fast time managed over a mile by Bill (7)
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RAN ( managed ) containing [ A M ( mile ) AD ( bill ) ] |
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| 4 | AMISS |
Possessed by daydream? Is something wrong? (5)
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hidden in "..daydreAM IS Something.." |
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| 5 | SEMIVOWEL |
Cryptic I solve includes E, M, W and Y, among others (9)
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[ I SOLVE E M W ]* |
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| 6 | SUGAR |
Pet name of newspaper (FT?) brought up (5)
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reverse of [ RAG ( newspaper ) US ( FT ) ] |
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| 7 | ABOLISH |
A bad smell is beginning to hover around the top of lamb chop (7)
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A BO ( bad smell ) [ { IS H ( Hover, first letter ) } after L ( Lamb, first letter ) ] |
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| 8 | TIT FOR TAT |
Fool abandoning Welsh castle leads to Arthur’s triumphant retaliation (3,3,3)
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TwIT ( fool, without W – welsh ) FORT ( castle ) AT ( starting letters of "..Arthur's Triumphant.." ) |
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| 9 | TAKE HEED |
Be careful, messing this up may result in death. Eek! (4,4)
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[ DEATH EEK ]* |
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| 14 | SAFEGUARD |
Protection of 6 deaf bats (9)
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[ SUGAR ( 6d ) DEAF ]* |
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| 15 | BRILLIANT |
Iridescent fish floundering in a boat’s bottom (9)
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BRILL ( fish ) [ IN A ]* T ( boaT, last letter ) |
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| 16 | ELLIPSES |
Contents of upturned vase spilled… ... (8)
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hidden reversed in "..vaSE SPILLEd.." |
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| 18 | RONDEAU |
…over Ogden’s foot during the rendition of a rude poem (7)
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[ O ( over ) N ( ogdeN, last letter ) ] in [ A RUDE ]* |
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| 20 | MISSING |
Lost schoolgirl in the middle of Elgin (7)
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MISS ( school girl ) IN G ( elGin, central letter ) |
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| 22 | ROYAL |
King beheaded devoted queen? (5)
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R ( king ) lOYAL ( devoted, without first letter ) |
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| 23 | DRANK |
Had, say, wine that’s fourth-rate? (5)
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cryptic def; fourth grade would be D RANK |
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| 24 | TIMES |
Top spy dressed smartly on special occasions (5)
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M ( top spy ) in TIES ( dressed smartly ) |
I found this a middling challenge, and enjoyed it due to its variety and abundance of well-constructed clues with great surfaces. My ticks went to RAMADAN, LADDERS, GENERAL, TIT FOR TAT, DRANK, DEPOSIT, and BRILLIANT.
I took me ages to work out HEGEL, APERY and ELLIPSES, but I did get them and managed to parse everything. It was nice to learn yet another British word for drunk in trolleyed (LIMIT) – there must be far more words for drunk in UK English than for snow in Inuit.
A few quibbles. I did not think FALSE START worked. In ROYAL, I do not think loyal = beloved (although someone will no doubt quote Chambers at me). And ACADEMISM is such an ugly and obscure word – Solomon had clearly painted himself into a corner at that stage in the setting. These are all minor and in no way detracted from my enjoyment, so all that is left to say is (16d)
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs
Liked FALSE START, TIT FOR TAT, TAKE HEED and ELLIPSES.
Some minor points:
FIRE DRILL
Make a hole in=DRILL (otherwise the ‘in’ remains unutilised).
DRANK
Def: Had, say, wine
TIMES
Looks like
M in TIE +S (special)
Def: occasions
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs
Dnk that y is called a semivowel, and apery feels a bit made up, but otherwise nothing disturbing. Groat I remember from primary school singing Gossip Joan (along with heaps of standard Brit traditionals — definitely a Colony!). A pleasant potter, thanks both.
ROYAL
Martyn! The clue says ‘devoted’, not beloved
Well, that resolved that complaint quickly and easily. No need for Chambers after all. (I wonder how I could have misread it so badly?)
Very enjoyable, thanks both. Another one which I found just right in terms of level. Liked Gymnasium, bowler hat, ellipses, drank.
Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs. When solving, I took 24dn TIMES the same way as the blog, but I think KVa@2 has a better parsing.
While I am in, I have a pedantic point on 7dn, which I think needs to be L in [A + BO + IS + H] to fit with the word “around” in the clue.
25ac: SOED 2007 p 96 gives apery as “Apelike behaviour; pretentious or silly mimicry. Also, an instance of this.” dated from early 17th century and still current.
Not relevant to 22dn of course, but, for what it is worth, Chambers 2016 p 906 has “true as a lover” for loyal, and SOED 2007 p 1650 has “True or faithful to the obligations of duty, love, friendship, etc”. Are these near enough to “beloved”? Near enough that I would not complain, but far enough away that I would hope a setter would look for an alternative.
Very enjoyable Friday morning fare. FALSE START, GROAT, LADDERS, RAMADAN, ELLIPSES and ROYAL my faves today.
Thanks both
Thanks Solomon for a challenging but ultimately solvable crossword. My favourites were GYMNASIUM, LADDERS, AGES (liked the wordplay), & ROYAL. Thanks Turbolegs for filling in my parsing gaps.
[Marytn @ 1: I once commented on a blog about the ‘ocean of words’ in UK English for ‘stupid people’ and ‘drunk’; I got a response (from a Brit) that stated ‘there’s a good reason for that! ]
Another vote for 6D, very nice. Although I’m ex FT, so like this sort of mention.
I enjoyed this, despite not quite finishing; my answers were correct, but mostly impossible to parse, so thank you for the explanations. I was a bit surprised at “ties” for “dressed smartly”. In the far off days when I might receive an invitation to a formal event, it might have “Black Tie” printed on it. Do invitations to smart but not so formal events have “Ties” written on them?
Babbler@11, see KVa@2. “M dressed smartly” has to be read as “M in a TIE”, with the S coming from special.
Thought 24D and 14A were weak, and agree that ACADEMISM was not great, but indeed there wasn’t much to quibble about.
Learned in a recent financial times that the top spot is actually C? M surely fine of course from historical fact and from the movies… Just a note on that. Thank you all