Silvanus is not a setter I have blogged very often. It’s always good to try new challenges.
There were a couple of motor racing references with LEWIS HAMILTON as an entry at 7 down and FORMULA 1 as part of the wordplay at 24 across, but I don’t think two instances constitute a theme. There were also a couple of Prime Minister references, but again not enough for a theme.
My last one in was 1 across PALINDROMES which created a Doh! moment when the penny dropped.
I liked many of the surfaces but I note that I have not used many colours in the blog perhaps indicating the wordplay was not too complex.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 1 | Level with another in top spot perhaps (11) |
PALINDROMES (both LEVEL and TOP SPOT are examples of words or phrases that spell the same backwards and forwards) PALINDROMES |
PALINDROMES (as defined in the wordplay) cryptic definition
|
| 10 | Record centrally every months registrations for college (5) |
ENROL (middle letters of [centrally] each of EVERY, MONTH, REGISTRATIONS, FOR and COLLEGE) ENROL |
ENROL (record registrations for college, for example)
|
| 11 | Display of animalistic behaviour puts choir off (9) |
Anagram of (off) PUTS CHOIR COURTSHIP* |
COURTSHIP (the act or process of wooing a woman in order to persuade her to become one’s wife, something that may well be very elaborate and showy in the animal and bird world, as well as the human world) |
| 12 | In speech Pope’s displaying naivety (9) |
INNOCENCE (sounds like [in speech] INNOCENTS. There were thirteen Popes named INNOCENT as well as one Antipope) INNOCENCE |
INNOCENCE (simplicity; naivety) |
| 13 | Moles, extremely active and very visible in Northern Ireland (5) |
(AE [first and last letters of {extremely} ACTIVE] + V [very]) contained in (in) NI (Northern Ireland) N (AE V) I |
NAEVI (pigmented spots or an overgrowth of small blood vessels in the skin; moles) |
| 14 | Goddess who enchants occasionally by movie’s finale (6) |
HECAT (letters 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 [occasionally] of WHO ENCHANTS) + E (last letter of [finale] MOVIE) HECAT E |
HECATE (Greek Goddess of witchcraft, magic and ghosts)
|
| 16 | Discard popular overture of Grieg in playing the violin (8) |
SCRAP (discard) + IN (popular) + G (first letter of [overture of] GRIEG) SCRAP IN G |
SCRAPING (playing the violin) I thought that this would be defined as a unkind way of playing the violin but it appears to be a well used term) |
| 18 | Expressing sorrow as second vessel is almost at capacity (8) |
MO (moment; second) + URN (vessel) + FULL (at capacity) excluding the final letter (almost) L MO URN FUL |
MOURNFUL (expressing sorrow)
|
| 20 | Onset of laryngitis interrupts Prime Minister’s toast (6) |
L (first letter of [onset of] LARYNGITIS) contained in (interrupts) HEATH (reference Edward HEATH [1916 – 2005], former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) HEA (L) TH |
HEALTH (toast – good HEALTH!) |
| 23 | Pause in output elsewhere viewed as regressive (3-2) |
LET UP (hidden word reversed [viewed as regressive] in [in] OUTPUT ELSEWHERE) LET-UP< |
LET-UP (pause) |
| 24 | Sport heading for crisis? That’s not original (9) |
FORMULA 1 (motor-racing; sport) + C (first letter of [heading for] CRISIS) FORMULA 1 C |
FORMULAIC (following a prescribed form’ not original) |
| 26 | Actor ever disposed to respond too emotionally (9) |
Anagram of (disposed to) ACTOR EVER OVERREACT* |
OVERREACT (respond too emotionally) |
| 27 | Overindulge English composer (5) |
BINGE (overindulge) BINGE |
BINGE (reference Ronald Binge [1910 – 1979] ,English composer and arranger) double definition
|
| 28 | Refined lady’s humane, in an open manner (11) |
Anagram of (refined) LADY’S HUMANE UNASHAMEDLY* |
UNASHAMEDLY (in an open manner)
|
|
Down |
|||
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 2 | In favour of blocking both sides of Afghanistan border (5) |
PRO (in favour of) contained in (blocking) AN (first and last letters of [border] AFGHANISTAN) A (PRO) N |
APRON (periphery; border) |
| 3 | Criminal‘s time being dominated by unfortunate past company (7) |
ILL (unfortunate) + ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries, once a major British company) + T (time) ‘being dominated by’ indicates that in this down entry the letters ILL and ICI are on top of the T ILL ICI T |
ILLICIT (criminal) |
| 4 | Showbiz pair given unusual order to move elsewhere (6) |
ANT & DEC (Anthony McPartland & Declan Donnelly) are a well know showbiz pair, always written in the from ANT before DEC. Further, they always stood on the same side of each other on stage with ANT on the left as you viewed the screen. For the wordplay we reverse the order to give DEC ANT DEC ANT |
DECANT (move people to another area) |
|
5
|
Wealth of foreign couple, it keeps being oddly ignored (8)
|
Anagram of (foreign) COUPLE containing (it keeps) EN (letters 2 and 4, i.e. ignoring the odd letters BIG of BEING) OPUL (EN) CE* |
OPULENCE (conspicuous wealth)
|
| 6 | Land that’s part of Shanghai, not separate on reflection (7) |
ESTONIA (hidden word reversed [on reflection] in [that’s part of] SHANGHAI NOT SEPARATE) ESTONIA< |
ESTONIA (one of the Baltic States; country; land) |
| 7 | He’s committed to track husband leaving hotel in South London? (5,8) |
LEWISHAM (South London Borough) + HILTON (reference a chain of hotels) excluding H (husband) LEWIS HAM ILTON
|
LEWIS HAMILTON (British Formula 1 racing driver born 1985; he’s committed to the racetrack)
|
| 8 | Flyer that details cost of repairs to Oxford? (8) |
SHOE (an Oxford is a type of shoe) + BILL (details of the cost of an item or service, possibly related to SHOE repairs) SHOE BILL |
SHOEBILL (large African wading bird; flyer)
|
| 9 | Crack scared lively young individual (6,7) |
SPRING ([of a mast] to crack) + CHICKEN (scared) SPRING CHICKEN |
SPRING CHICKEN (young, lively, sometimes naive, person)
|
| 15 | States has no right to expose divisions within the UK (8) |
COUNTRIES (States) excluding (has no) R (right) COUNTIES |
COUNTIES (administrative divisions within the United Kingdom) |
| 17 | Fellows ousting twin sons of banned Olympians, they’re bullies (8) |
RUSSIANS (banned Olympians) with two Fs (Fellows) replacing the middle two [twin] Ss [sons]) RUFFIANS |
RUFFIANS (bullies) |
| 19 | Admitting hospital resistance, open fancy new Kidney Unit (7) |
(Anagram of [fancy] OPEN containing [admitting] (H [hospital] + R [resistance]) + N (new) NEP (H R) O* N |
NEPHRON (one of over a million functional units in the vertebrate kidney)
|
| 21 | Even-tempered just after losing case of impeachment (7) |
EQUITABLE (fair; just) excluding (losing) IT (first and last [outside] letters of [case of] IMPEACHMENT) EQUABLE |
EQUABLE (even-tempered) |
| 22 | Decay found in vegetable plant (6) |
ROT (decay) contained in (found in) PEA (vegetable) P (ROT) EA |
PROTEA ( plant of the large S African genus Protea of shrubs or small trees,
|
| 25 | Cancel book after second advance is withheld (5) |
ANNUAL (book) excluding (is withheld) the second occurence of A (advance) ANNUL |
ANNUL (cancel)
|
PALINDROMES was my last one in too.
Not too difficult but enjoyable, thank you to both Silvanus and Duncan
Found this pretty tricky in places and needed to confirm a couple of things existed. It’s likely I’m having a(nother) slow day though, as I had the same reaction to many clues: “now why didn’t I get that sooner?” Didn’t know the composer, so was looking in vain for wordplay there.
I think the difficulty of PALINDROMES is that it’s really a definition by a couple of examples which, while something that does happen, is not really a clue type one expects. So you have to take a step back and look at it a bit differently.
My last in was actually DECANT; that big d’oh! moment (just when I was on the verge of giving up) makes it my favourite.
Thanks Silvanus and Duncan.
Like others PALINDROMES was my LOI. Dammit I’m mad! 🙂
Thanks to Silvanus and Duncan.
I entirely missed PALINDROMES, it becoming my LOI, too. [Or should that be LOL?] Many thanks to Silvanus, and to Duncan.
How nice to see another puzzle from this setter, definitely one of my favourites for his smooth surface reads.
Like Kitty, I had to check on a few things – the moles, goddess and ending for 19d in my case plus the composer, whose name I’d heard of but couldn’t have put to a particular piece of music.
My ticks went to 1&24a plus 7&8d.
Many thanks for the fun, Silvanus and thanks to Duncan for the blog.
Re 27a: Ronald Binge’s “Elizabethan Serenade” used to be heard fairly regularly on the radio when a was a kid, though it’s probably not heard much these days. However, his composition “Sailing By” is still used to introduce the late-night Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4.
Many thanks to everyone for their comments and to Duncan for his review.
One of the reasons for including 27a is because I feel he is deserving of wider recognition, it’s always surprised me that he’s not better known. As well as the two compositions mentioned by Tom_I, for those that are interested I’d also recommend “The Watermill”, a very evocative and nostalgic piece that some may remember as a TV theme tune.
We agree with Silvanus that Ronald Binge should be better known – but we’re probably biased because where we lived at one time our garden backed on to that of a house Binge used to live in – long before our time, though.
We got PALINDROMES on our second pass – crossing letters suggested it and then we saw it. LEWIS HAMILTON was our LOI after googling for well-known Hamiltons. D’oh! Lewisham Hilton? Never heard of it!
Some lovely clues, though. As well as BINGE we liked UNASHAMEDLY and OPULENCE.
Thanks, Silvanus and Duncan
Maybe I’m having a slow day too, as this took me a while.
Took me ages to get 7dn and I used to live in Lewisham (and was born there). Don’t recall a Hilton there, though.
Even though I’d heard of BINGE it was still my LOI. (I must know too many composers. When I just had the middle letter, I thought Finzi. When I got the final E, I thought Henze.)