Solving time: 12 minutes.
Solving a Chifonie puzzle often seems to me like a labour of love. Nice when you finish, but you don’t get the feeling of accomplishment that you do with other setters. I’m not sure why. I regularly solve and enjoy Times puzzles which never have a theme to them, but this just seems a bit bland.
ACROSS (*) = ANAGRAM (CD) = CRYPTIC DEFINITION (R) = REVERSAL
1 TRAP DOOR ROOD PART (R)
5 COMBAT COMB + A + T
9 GANYMEDE MANY EDGE*
10 GALLOP GALL + OP
12 TIARA Hidden answer
13 ATHLETICS HIS CATTLE*
14 HOUSE PAINTER HOUSE (Take In) + PAINTER ( A rope used to tie up a boat – standard crossword definition No 48)
18 INTERMEDIATE INTER + TE (Lawrence of Arabia’s initials) with MEDIA inside
21 CARTHORSE At least we were spared an anagram of ORCHESTRA! THOR’S inside CARE
23 NICHE H inside NICE
24 AT EASE A + TEASE
25 EQUIPAGE E (Earl) + QUIP (Sally) + AGE (Get on)
26 DANGER D + ANGER
27 REVEREND EVER in REND
DOWN
1 TIGHTS TIGHT (near) + S (opening of sewer)
2 ANNEAL ANNE + A + L
3 DEMEANOUR E+ MEAN inside DOUR
4 OLD MAN’S BEARD The alternative word for the plant Traveller’s Joy. DAMN BAD LOSER*
6 OSAGE – Brave, as in native American Indian (see Chambers) O (OLD) + SAGE
7 BALLISTA LIST inside BALA
8 TAPESTRY TAPES + TRY
11 CHAPLINESQUE A QUINCE HELPS*
15 INTENSIVE This clue doesn’t make sense. IN TENS = “Like the decimal system” – fine works OK. I’VE = “setter’s becoming” ? Rigorous = INTENSIVE. but why would a setter become rigorous like the decimal system?
17 PILCHARD LIP (R) + CHARD
19 SURGEON (Theatre worker – good misleading def) with T inside.
19 OCTANE Is Octane a gas? It’s a consistutent of petrol (gas in the US). AT ONCE *
20 LEGEND GEN inside LED
22 HASTE S inside HATE
15D – Is it the indication for I’VE that you are unsure about or is it the surface reading you don’t like?
I think “setter’s” = I’VE is justifiable (kind of). If the setter’s written a good clue he would say – I’ve written a good clue. “becoming” would then just be a link word.
I agree I’VE is just about justifiable, but the clue itself reads badly.
Setter’s = setter has = I have = I’ve: seems okay to me.
I’ve seen the IN TENS route taken a few times before though, all the way back to some Enigmatist puzzle in the dim and distant. I think i/am/setting* went for:
Strained decimal point (7)
Love E-QUIP-AGE
Really love PIL-CHARD
Also not too keep on IN-TENS-IVE
Agree with Stan – some good clues here.
15D: I agree that ‘setter’s’ = IVE (I have). I’m not too upset by this device, which is used from time to time, but not always in a strictly grammatically accurate way. It just about works here because ‘I have becoming’ makes no sense and therefore ‘becoming’ can only be interpreted as a link word.
19D: Must pull Chifonie up here. Answer is definitely OCTANE but octane has a boiling point of 125C or so, and is therefore not a gas by any definition. And ‘gas’ = US petrol won’t do either, because this fuel does not consist of octane (‘octane’ number of a fuel is its behaviour relative to pure ISO-octane)
15D I’m of the opinion that clues have to make grammatical sense ONLY in the cryptic reading: surfaces in clues deploying any kind of SI (so, not CDs for example) are always entirely arbitrary, only ever ‘appearing’ to make sense (wherein lies the setter’s art), and Chifonie’s clue is entirely correct in this regard. ‘Becoming’ relates to the elements adding up to the answer, and the whole lot has nothing whatever to do with a setter as rigorous as a numerical system – it’s an illusion.
On the other hand, where in theory any number of illusory meanings could have been created for this answer, DT is completely at liberty to dislike the one we ended up with.