Jason steps up to the plate this morning.
This was a standard Jason puzzle. The bottome half took longer to complete than the fairly straightforward top half and it took a while for me to see the parsing of CANTILEVER and SENTENCE but I got there in the end.
Thanks Jason
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SPLICE |
Unite share round what gets party going (6)
|
| SLICE (“share”) around [what gets] P(arty) [going] | ||
| 4 | SWITCH ON |
Set off lad about hag (6,2)
|
| SON (“lad”) about WITCH (“hag”) | ||
| 10 | REGALIA |
Algeria’s lost trappings of ceremony? (7)
|
| *(algeria) [anag:lost] | ||
| 11 | STEAMER |
What healthy chef uses an old packet? (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | MASK |
Millions question cover (4)
|
| M (millions) + ASK (“question”) | ||
| 13 | DELECTABLE |
Delightful Democrat is likely candidate (10)
|
| D (Democrat) + ELECTABLE (“is likely candidate”) | ||
| 16 | LEADEN |
Depressing retreat behind pasture (6)
|
| DEN (“retreat”) behind LEA (“pasture”) | ||
| 17 | DIVIDED |
Kicked off about short film being split (7)
|
| DID (“kicked off”) about [short] VIDE(o) (“film”) | ||
| 20 | VISITOR |
It fills Peak traveller? (7)
|
| IT fills VISOR (“peak”) | ||
| 21 | RANKER |
Comparatively gross officer who was once a squaddie? (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | CANTILEVER |
Against getting into smart support from one side (10)
|
| ANTI (“against”) getting into CLEVER (“smart”) | ||
| 25 | WHIT |
Involved with the smallest thing (4)
|
| *(with) [anag:involved] | ||
| 27 | RECEIPT |
What you give for bread? Husband ignored the price oddly (7)
|
| *(te price) [anag:oddly] where TE is T(h)E with H (husband) ignored | ||
| 29 | SUBLIME |
It’s majestic being under a tree (7)
|
| SUB– (“under”) + LIME (“a tree”) | ||
| 30 | SENTENCE |
Judge’s dispatched, thus start of hearing is cancelled (8)
|
| SENT (“dispatched”) + (h)ENCE (“thus” with [start of] H(earing) cancelled)
I wasn’t sure about “judge” and “sentence” being synonymous, but Chambers has “to passs sentence” so I suppose it’s OK. |
||
| 31 | PLIERS |
Nippers in peril running about close to cars (6)
|
| *(peril) [anag:running about] + [close to] (car)S | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCRAMBLE |
Render unintelligible — to wit, rabbit on (8)
|
| sc. (namely, so “to wit”) + RAMBLE (“rabbit on”) | ||
| 2 | LEGISLATION |
Support is nothing in Roman law as a whole (11)
|
| LEG (“support”) + IS + O (nothing) in LATIN (“Roman”) | ||
| 3 | COLT |
Junior team player left in bed (4)
|
| L (left) in COT (“bed”) | ||
| 5 | WASTEBIN |
Web isn’t a free place to put junk (8)
|
| *(web isnt a) [anag:free] | ||
| 6 | THEATRICAL |
Luvvie’s wild recital that must be cut short (10)
|
| *(recital tha) [anag:wild] where THA is THA(t) cut short | ||
| 7 | HAM |
Actor who overdoes it let off from the bard’s play (3)
|
| LET off HAM(let) (“bard’s play”) | ||
| 8 | NARKED |
Annoyed by chest in study being overturned (6)
|
| ARK (“chest”) in <=DEN (“study”, being overturned) | ||
| 9 | BAGEL |
Get slices of egg and lettuce for this roll (5)
|
| BAG (“get”) + [slices of] E(gg) and L(ettuce) | ||
| 14 | BREAK THE ICE |
Set at ease tame techie that struggles (5,3,3)
|
| BREAK (“tame”) + *(techie) [anag:that struggles] | ||
| 15 | DEFINITIVE |
Final edit in five changes (10)
|
| *(edit in five) [anag:changes] | ||
| 18 | DOMESTIC |
Items doc ordered for char (8)
|
| *(items doc) [anag:ordered] | ||
| 19 | TROTTERS |
Scoundrels after time trained horses (8)
|
| ROTTERS (“scoundrels”) after T (time) | ||
| 22 | ICARUS |
High-flying son first to insure… vehicle with you and me (6)
|
| [first to] I(nsure) + CAR (“vehicle”) with US (“you and me”) | ||
| 23 | LEASE |
With no positive delight for contract (5)
|
| (p)LEASE (“delight”) with no P (positive) | ||
| 26 | ABEL |
Murder victim’s description lacking first line (4)
|
| (l)ABEL (“description”, missing [first] L (line)) | ||
| 28 | CAN |
Endless staff for prison (3)
|
| [endless] CAN(e) (“staff”) |
A good challenge but failed to see BAGEL so a DNF.
CANTILEVER: Liked it.
SENTENCE: liked it but isn’t there a transitive-intransitive mismatch between the def and the solution?
Thanks Jason and loonapick!
Thanks for the blog , good puzzle with lots of neat clues .
KVa@1 Chambers 93 is the judge here.
JUDGE vt – to sentence .
The setter is not guilty.
Thanks Roz. My mistake. Apologies to the setter.
29a SUBLIME was in last Thursday’s Indy by Filbert ‘1d Wonderful location of sticky car? (7)’. The word always reminds me of Unter den Linden, in Berlin.
L2i 9d BAGEL and 23d LEASE – both had unhelpful crossers
Thanks J&L
My good run with Jasons continues. I do recall feeling somewhat fearful on seeing this setter’s name but, as before, initial intimidation – and concern when the first few clues don’t resolve – is then replaced by pleasure as things start to fall into place. SUBLIME took me a while to see; RANKER was last but one as the military term needed to be dragged from memory and I was thinking fatter/larger until BREAK THE ICE gave me the vital K; and LEASE was LOI – as FrankieG says, the lack of crossers made that tricky and I don’t recall encountering positive = P before.
Funnily enough, there appears to be an alternative parse for DIVIDED: where loonapick has DID around VIDE(o), I had DIED (one of the definitions of kick off in Chambers is ‘to die’) around VID. Faves today inc SPLICE, STEAMER, WHIT, PLIERS, WASTEBIN, NARKED and DEFINITIVE.
Thanks Jason and loonapick
PM@6 – your parsing for DIVIDED works better than mine as I struggled to reconcile DID with “kicked off”.
Thanks, loonapick, for your explanation of 1A. Although I solved it from the cross letters, I parsed it as “Spice” = “what gets the party going” from an expression “spice up the party”. But I didn’t really know where the “L” came from so maybe I failed…
P = positive is from semi-conductor theory , we have positive “holes” P-type.
I liked how the setter got the P in SPLICE.
RANKER confused me , it IS a squaddie but also an officer risen from the ranks.
DIVIDED I had as in the blog but I think the alternative is better. Sadly people do say VID.
I also couldn’t parse Bagel for 9D
Unfortunately, I did have a bagel for a few others too.
Jason and I are on totally different wavelengths. It is probably deliberate on the setter’s part, but in several clues I struggled to equate the answer with the definition. For example, I still do not understand LEGISLATION. It is the law, but how is it “law as a whole” (meaning the entire law, perhaps)?
Thanks Jason and loonapick
Thanks Jason and loonapick
Martyn@11: SOED 2007 gives the second definition of legislation as “The enactments of a legislator or legislature collectively; the whole body of enacted laws.” Illustrative quotation “The framework for the system … is enshrined in legislation.” (The ellipsis is the SOED’s, not mine.)
Thanks PB@12. Always appreciated. LEGISLATION was only an example, but now you have raised it, your answer feeds my suspicion that that the setter combed the dictionary/dictionaries for the most remote definitions, but it does not really solve the LEGISLATION problem for me. There are several classes of law beyond legislation and I struggle to equate the entire set of the legislator’s enactments and laws as a whole. It seems to me like saying “mammals” is the answer to “animals as a whole”. I could well be missing something obvious.
I enjoyed this one which was completed fairly speedily by my standards.
Judge doesn’t feel synonymous with Sentence to me but I accept it’s in the dictionary.
I would not use the two synonymously.
Thanks for explaining Divided.
[typo “FinaNcial Times 17,791 by JASON”]