[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
A pleasant Tuesday morning excercise.
One or two head-scratching moments and some general knowledge needed, though Hardy, Shakespeare and Tchaikovsky are hardly obscure.
Thanks to the Falcon once more.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DORSET | County affair run by exclusive group (6) |
| DO (‘affair’) + R[un] + SET (‘exclusive group’). | ||
| 5 | FALSTAFF | Man on river, a Boar’s Head regular (8) |
| (River) FAL + STAFF (to ‘man’). Shakespeare’s Sir John Falstaff, heavy-drinking pal of Prince Hal. | ||
| 9 | VERONICA | Woman, one with clubs in Italian city (8) |
| 1 + C[lubs] in VERON.A | ||
| 10 | ANGORA | A northern artist capturing shot rabbit (6) |
| A + N[orthern] + RA around GO (a turn, a ‘shot’). | ||
| 11 | RENTAL | Some aren’t always for hire (6) |
| Hidden in ‘aRENT ALways’. | ||
| 12 | IN ACTION | Working with popular group, leader having left (2,6) |
| IN (‘popular’) + fACTION (‘group’ without 1st letter). | ||
| 14 | CASTERBRIDGE | Great scribe wrong about date in Hardy’s Dorchester (12) |
| Anagram (‘wrong’) of GREAT SCRIBE around D[ate]. Ficionalised county town of T.H.’s Wessex. | ||
| 18 | SHORT COMMONS | Meagre rations: not long before general confronts head of supplies (5,7) |
| SHORT (‘not long’) + COMMON (‘general’) + 1st of ‘Supplies’. | ||
| 22 | BULLETIN | At home, after round, gets news update (8) |
| IN (‘at home’) after BULLET (’round’ of ammunition). | ||
| 25 | DODGEM | Trick male in bumper car (6) |
| DODGE + M[ale]. | ||
| 26 | ODETTE | Character in ballet and poem, teetotal European (6) |
| ODE (‘poem’) + TT + E. Odette is a young woman by night and a swan by day in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. It doesn’t end well. | ||
| 27 | FLAPJACK | Female friend flipped sailor’s pancake (8) |
| F[emale] + PAL, reversed + JACK (‘sailor’). | ||
| 28 | PROPOSAL | Offer of support also sent out (8) |
| PROP (‘support’) + anagram (‘sent out’) of ALSO. | ||
| 29 | TABLET | Pill taken primarily on board (6) |
| 1st letter of ‘Taken’ after TABLE (‘board’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | OPENER | Key cricketer, first to bat (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 3 | SPORTS CAR | Contest evidence of accident in fast vehicle (6,3) |
| SPORT (‘contest’) + SCAR (‘eveidence of accident’). | ||
| 4 | TRIPLE SEC | Liqueur got from the French city after tour (6,3) |
| TRIP (‘tour’) followed by LES (Fr. plural ‘the’) + EC (postcode of the City of London). | ||
| 5 | FRAGILE | Record includes piece of jazz music, light (7) |
| F.ILE (‘record’) includes RAG. | ||
| 6 | LLAMA | Monk astride large beast of burden (5) |
| L.AMA (Tibetan monk) surrounds L[arge]. | ||
| 7 | TIGHT | Close firm (5) |
| Neat double definition. Looks a little close, but the meanings are distinct. | ||
| 8 | FURLOUGH | Leave hard-water deposit on Irish lake (8) |
| FUR (as in kettles) + LOUGH (‘Irish lake’). | ||
| 13 | COR | My county, not Kerry originally (3) |
| County CORk without 1st of ‘Kerry’. | ||
| 15 | BROADCAST | Transmit from spacious shed (9) |
| BROAD (‘spacious’) + CAST (to ‘shed’). | ||
| 16 | INSIDE JOB | Crime committed with collusion of jailed piece of work (6,3) |
| INSIDE (‘jailed’) + JOB (‘piece of work’). | ||
| 17 | SHOULDER | Bear ought to, I hesitate to say (8) |
| SHOULD (‘ought to’) + ER (hesitation). | ||
| 19 | TIE | Something to wear for sleeper (3) |
| Double definition, ‘tie’ being American for railway ‘sleeper’. | ||
| 20 | MINDFUL | Aware of object, almost packed (7) |
| MIND (to ‘object’) + FUL{l} (‘packed’), shortened. | ||
| 21 | RESCUE | Secure unstable salvage (6) |
| Anagram of SECURE. | ||
| 23 | LET UP | Stop grant at college (3,2) |
| LET (‘grant’) + UP (attending college or uni). | ||
| 24 | TRESS | Strain, failing to open lock (5) |
| sTRESS without 1st. | ||
*anagram
Would have preferred woman in Proust for Odette but thats just me.
thanks falcon and Grant! very neat puzzle in that everything fitted in place. I had to look up Dorchester to confirm it’s Dorset’s county town (which I guess was signaled by 1a)
Pleasant solve; I liked the two DORSET references in particular. The only thing I know about ballet is that “Swan Lake” is called “Duck Pond” by some ballet lovers and dancers, so ODETTE had to go in from the wordplay. Couldn’t work out FUR for ‘hard-water’ deposit’ – obvious when it’s explained.
I look forward to seeing ‘Beast of burden astride large nightwear?’ (4,6) one day.
Thanks to Falcon and Grant
Thanks Falcon and Grant
A typically crisply clued offering from Falcon which took a little longer than normal to complete. Some new terms in FUR (for the deposit in kettles), TIE (the US abbreviation of cross-tie – for sleeper) and SHORT COMMONS. The latter was my third to last in, followed by MINDFUL and the tricky TIE.
Enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to Falcon and Grant. Enjoyable. I’m another who had trouble with SHORT COMMONS, FUR, and TIE but was also slow in getting FRAGILE and TIGHT.
Thanks to both. I have just finished this over my morning coffee. A nice little exercise even if, I too, did not know SHORT COMMONS. I had to check that bit.