I made a strong start to this one, but came very unstuck on the top half and had to resort to help on a few words and phrases that are new to me. This definitely felt tougher than usual for Phi and I’ve a few gaps in some wordplay. Great clueing as ever though.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BRAISE – 1 + S[-ugar] in BRIE | |
| 4/10 | CHARTRES CATHEDRAL – (CHARRED ALTAR + CHEST)* | |
| 11 | CUPPA – C[-ompany’s] + UP + P.A | |
| 12 | FLETTON – F(rance) + LET + TON (as in ‘a ton of bricks’) | |
| 13/14 | FESTINA LENTE – FEST IN A LENT E[-xcess] | |
| 15 | TURNCOAT – I think this has something to do with turning TA (thanks) and OC (Officer in Command), but not sure | |
| 18 | PENTACLE – PEN with C(ollege) in TALE | |
| 20/23 | APPLE STRUDEL – (ALTERED PULP’S)* | |
| 25 | TILLAGE – ILL in TAGE | |
| 26 | HELLO – HE’LL 0 | |
| 27/28 | ELECTORAL REGISTER – Cryptic def. | |
| 29 | ANNECY – N EC swamped by ANY | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | BACKFILL – BACK + F[-ail] on ILL | |
| 2 | ACTAEON – A EON after ACT | |
| 3 | SWEETMEAT – ET + ME in SWEAT | |
| 5 | HELL FOR LEATHER – Presume this is HE L for ‘he left’, but I’m not sure where the alphabet book comes in! | |
| 6 | ROCKS – [-f]ROCKS | |
| 7 | REPLICA – REP + C[-heap] in AIL rev. | |
| 8 | SEAWAY – No idea on this one – “Exiled, leaving Darwin area – marine route?” | |
| 9 | TRINITY COLLEGE – L in (ELECTING TORY I)* | |
| 16 | CHARLATAN – CHART AN taking LA | |
| 17 | BEVERLEY – EVER on LEY on B[-radford] | |
| 19 | EARPLUG – PL. in EA. RUG | |
| 21 | PRAIRIE – PR. + AIR[-dr.]RIE | |
| 22 | ESCHER – (CHEERS)* | |
| 24 | DROSS – DR. + [-l]OSS | |
5dn: HE + L + L FOR LEATHER “L for Leather” may be a page in an alphabet book where one page is devoted for each leter of the alphabet.
Thanks, Ali.
I can help with 8dn, but neither of your other queries. It’s SENT AWAY less NT for Northern Territories, where Darwin (in Australia) is found.
I enjoyed this, as usual with a puzzle from Phi. I was happy to get PENTACLE and FLETTON from the wordplay and then having to check the answers, but I had to resort to on-line aid to get FESTINA LENTE, which might just be a bit obscure for your average Joe Solver’s taste.
But some reasonably solver-friendly clues to get you into the main part of the crossword, so for me an enjoyable crossword after yesterday’s harder one from anax.
I think you are right about 15 ie TURN TA and OC. Found this easy enough but did not understand SEAWAY for a while and HELL FOR LEATHER until Rishi explained.
Rishi, that’s a good call for 5dn – and a clever clue now you’ve explained it.
15dn: RENEGADE is TURNCOAT.
Split it, it becomes “TURN COAT”.
If you obey this instruction you get TA OC – which is “thanks senior officer”!
I liked this. Turncoat was one of those unfortunate clues that is gettable from the definition and then requires working backwards.
Finished it from the wordplay but not being a great classicist, hey I’m a maths gradute who couldn’t do Latin at my local comp have never come across festina lente before or heard of actaeon so filled it with guesses. Nice to see my guesses were right though! dunno why everyone says Anax was difficult yesterday, horses for courses I suppose.
graduate even who can’t type.
Oar cant spel?
Thanks Ali,
Got off to a flying start but some of the longer answers slowed me down somewhat.
Thanks Rishi and Kathryn’s Dad for the parsing of 5 and 8 down.Hadn’t been able to work those out, although the solutions were gettable from the definitions and check letters.Had to look up festina lente but I enjoy learning new Latin phrases and ‘make haste slowly’ is a great concept.
Another very pleasing puzzle from Phi.
Lopakhin, no need for that /joke Still it was a fun fill as it were
“L for leather” is from the Cockney alphabet, which normally starts “A for ‘orses” “B for mutton” “C for yourself” …
It has many variants (easily googlable) but L is one of the most consistent. My favourite is “Y for runts”.
Um, how about a link thus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaeon
for those who didn’t have a classical education and might be wondering where the dogs came in. Nice picture too.
Might be a bit late to join in this thread. But good to see so many new names. flashling might be interested to know that I went to a Jesuit Grammar School where I was chucked out of the Latin class but top in French. It wasn’t until I was in my forties that I realised the reason for my lack of understanding of Latin, which we began in the first year, was that I had managed to pass the eleven plus with absolutely no understanding of English grammar and therefore completely mystified by essential grammatical terms like subjunctive and stuff. It was, incidentally, the surprise of my life when I got O level maths!
Latin A level got me 13/14.Put in some answers without many letters or similar phrase (hell for leather).I really enjoyed this.Good anagrams and nothing too obscure.Didnt know 22d but with all letters possible and an anagram of cheers thankfully it was easily solvable.12a across never heard of but not too difficult to guess! Very happy!