Today brings a fine puzzle from Buccaneer, with some remarkable surfaces.
My lack of UK sports GK prevents my elucidating further on 4D. See comments on this.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | ONCE-OVER |
Brief examination finished on 1 divided by 100 (4-4)
|
| ONE (1) around (divided by) C (100) + OVER (finished) | ||
| 8 | REWARD |
Honour artist perhaps from the east (6)
|
| DRAWER (artist perhaps) read from right to left (from the east) | ||
| 11 | CAMEO |
Jewellery was delivered – a ring (5)
|
| CAME (was delivered) + O (a ring) | ||
| 12 | TAHITIANS |
Subjects for Gauguin painter’s capturing I see (9)
|
| TITIAN’S (painter’s) around (capturing) AH (I see) | ||
| 13 | NAIROBI |
Aristocrat, one soaking up atmosphere in the capital (7)
|
| NOB (aristocrat) + I (one) around (soaking up) AIR (atmosphere) | ||
| 14 | OUTDOOR |
Better men exposed to the elements (7)
|
| OUTDO (better) + OR (men) | ||
| 15 | THREE-LEGGED RACE |
Run or stagger, urged to enter old Balkan land (5-6,4)
|
| REEL (stagger) + EGGED (urged) inside (to enter) THRACE (old Balkan land) | ||
| 18 | INHABIT |
People dressed for horse-riding (7)
|
| Charade of IN HABIT (dressed for horse-riding), i.e., with “people” as a verb | ||
| 20 | TREFOIL |
Graft maintains official in clover perhaps (7)
|
| TOIL (graft) around (maintains) REF (official) | ||
| 22 | TRATTORIA |
Excellent tripe pie sent back in eatery (9)
|
| AI (“A1,” excellent) + ROT (tripe) + TART (pie) reversed (sent back) | ||
| 23 | SATIN |
Demonstrated what bridal wear could be made of (5)
|
| Charade of SAT IN (demonstrated) | ||
| 24 | RUSTLE |
Officer retreats in stratagem appropriate for horses? (6)
|
| LT (officer) reversed (retreats) inside (in) RUSE (stratagem), i.e., “appropriate” pronounced with a second long “a.” Nice misdirection. | ||
| 25 | ENDGAMES |
Male among a lot of geese and bats in mating times (8)
|
| Anagram of (bats) M (male) + GEES[E] (“a lot of” geese) + AND, i.e., cryptic reference to checkmates in chess | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BOA CONSTRICTOR |
A cold-blooded sort, criminal stole firm gold cases (3,11)
|
| BOA (stole) + STRICT (firm) + OR (gold) around (cases) CON (criminal) | ||
| 2 | SCAMPI |
Cheat detective tails in a restaurant (6)
|
| SCAM (cheat) + PI (detective), with “tails in a restaurant” a somewhat cryptic definition | ||
| 3 | MONOTONE |
Masculine character keeps running round flat pitch (8)
|
| M (masculine) + TONE (character) around (keeps) [ON (running) + O (round)] | ||
| 4 | WEST SIDE STORY |
Show player, team’s right-winger (4,4,5)
|
| WEST (player) + SIDE’S (team’s) + TORY (right-winger). I am not sure which “West” Buccaneer meant, but from the overall context presumably some famous soccer player. “Mae West” might serve as well for a clue as indeterminate as “player.” See comments beginning with TonyW@3. |
||
| 5 | BEAT IT |
Clear out base, getting disheartened on the job (4,2)
|
| B[AS]E (outside letters of base “getting disheartened”) + AT IT (on the job), i.e., as an exclamation | ||
| 6 | CASANOVA |
Italian player about to get clothing for Sampdoria star (8)
|
| CA (about) + S[AMPDORI]A (outside letters of or “clothing” for Sampdoria) + NOVA (star), i.e., “player” in this sense, a promiscuous man | ||
| 9 | DISORDERLINESS |
Policemen decree punishment, son being unruly (14)
|
| DIS (policemen) + ORDER (decree) + LINES (punishment) + S (son) | ||
| 10 | THROUGH TRAINS |
On which passengers can go all the way by coaches (7,6)
|
| (semi?)&lit and THROUGH |
||
| 16 | REHEARSE |
Run through outskirts of Rome on slow vehicle (8)
|
| R[OM]E (outer letters or “outskirts” of Rome) + HEARSE (slow vehicle) | ||
| 17 | DRESSAGE |
Kit, say, with a climbing activity on mount (8)
|
| DRESS (kit) + [EG (say) + A] inverted (climbing), i.e., cryptic reference to horseback riding | ||
| 19 | BATTLE |
PM briefly supporting bachelor’s engagement (6)
|
| B (bachelor) + ATTLE[E] (PM, “briefly”) | ||
| 21 | ON TIME |
Name dropping, mention jockeys when expected (2,4)
|
| Anagram of (jockeys) MENTIO[N], minus “N” (name “dropping”) |
I loved this apart from messing up putting OUTWEAR instead of OUTDOOR
CASANOVA had crossed my mind-must have been the heat! And no check button]\Great surfaces throughout
and above all entertaining.
Thanks all!
After half an hour, I’d only solved three, and one was wrong. Not my day.
Maybe West for player in 4D refers to one of the participants in a game of bridge
That was my reading of West, TonyW.
You did well, Geoff@2 – you got three more than me! Well above my pay grade but interesting to read the blog. Thank you, Cineraria.
Buccaneer in fine form again. Tricky but very satisfying to solve. I agree with other commenters thoughts in WEST
Thanks very much to Buccaneer and Cineraria
Thank you, Kevin @ 5. You’ve made me feel better.
Very satisfying to have finished this. There were some tricky defs, eg ‘People’ as a verb at 18a, ‘tails in a restaurant’ at 2d and the innocuous looking ‘Show’ at 4d. The parsing of others like DISORDERLINESS looks logical now but wasn’t obvious before the answer went in.
I liked the ‘Italian player’ who played the field, not on a field as suggested by the surface and the semi-(I think)&lit THROUGH TRAINS.
Thanks to Buccaneer and Cineraria
Isn’t it ‘by’ for THROUGH, with the def being ‘on which passengers can go all the way’?
I liked the Titian/Gauguin link.
Thanks both
Thanks Buccaneer and Cineraria
I agree with many others on WEST in 4dn, and also with James@9 for the parsing of 10dn.
Thanks for the comments. These suggested parsings fit Buccaneer’s parsimonious cluing style better than my initial take. For “player” in 4D, I do find this a little frustrating for some reason that I cannot quite put my finger on. I know that it is fine to use almost completely indeterminate words such as “book” or “poet” or “film” in a clue, most often as the definition. Use of such words in the wordplay, while allowable, strikes me as perhaps too imprecise, since just about the only way to make a definitive determination of the intended connection between clue and solution is to derive (i.e., guess) the complete solution first, then work backward. Even limited to the context of bridge, “player” could reasonably be “north,” “east,” “south,” “west,” or even “hand” or “dummy,” for example. That said, if I happen to have “guessed right” right out of the gate, I am just as likely to credit myself for intuiting the ingenuity of the wordplay. An absurd clue such as “Word word word–word?” should technically be acceptable, and I can think of some brilliant clues that approach this level of abstraction. And if a flash of insight brings me to the intended solution, I am liable to think “How fun!” instead of droning on with curmudgeonly pre-breakfast comments. I don’t know.
I had “Maradona” in 6d, though he was not Italian and starred not for but against Sampdoria. “Player” is no kind of clue for Casanova. “Fantasist”, “rapist” and “admirable writer in French” would each better describe him.
Another cracking puzzle from one of my favourite compilers. Always a challenge, but the answers tend to unfold gradually and very satisfactorily. I got precisely no across solutions on my first pass, but ‘boa constrictor’ at 1d was fairly obvious and opened up the rest of the puzzle. Many thanks to setter and blogger.
James @9, is that you @12?
James @14, no, must be a different James
This beat me hollow
Not a write-in by any means, but we got and parsed everything unaided, so we must have been on Buccaneer’s wavelength today. We’ve encountereds the ATTLE[e] device in 19dn a few times recently – maybe because it’s a handy way of cluing that letter sequence. In 7ac we wondered briefly if ‘1 divided by 100’ referred to 1dn but it soon became clear thet it didn’t. Dificult to pick a favourite but we liked TAHITIANS, INHABIT, BOA CONSTRICTOR and DRESSAGE.
Thanks, Buccaneer and Cineraria.
How does OR mean “men” in 14 across?
Newbie@18: OR is a military abbreviation for “Other Ranks,” generally, not commissioned officers.
Ordinary Ranks I believe.
Other Ranks.
Struggled had half a dozen after three passes. Then seemed to twig three legged race and started to fall into place so glad I stuck with it.
Never finished done by Casanova and reward which I should have got, also seven question marks for educated guesses that turned out to be right but didn’t parse.
Thanks Buccaneer. I raced through most of this without much trouble but OUTDOOR, CASANOVA and 9d beat me in the end. Favourite was SCAMPI. Thanks Cinearia for the blog.
An absolutely superb puzzle. James at his best.
Enjoyed RUSTLE. Fantastic piece of misdirection.
Thanks for the blog, really good set of clues , great to see THRACE in 15Ac , home of Democritus. Also the clever “mating times ”
It has a bit of a naughty patch, AT IT and ON THE JOB are both euphemisms, we then have CASANOVA and GO ALL THE WAY , and later ACTIVITY ON THE MOUNT . Shades of Paul.