Not too tricky this week and a nice note for what was hopefully the last bit of winter.
An awful lot of Scots, too (though, as per usual, nothing that any real Scottish people actually say with any frequency) – perhaps something to do with Burns’ day?
One of the first parts of the message that appeared as I was solving was …P___R ROBIN and, as a result, I spent a little time thinking this was going to have something to do with Christopher Robin and trying to recall some non-existent rhyme about him. Happily, though, I was soon shaken out of this foolishness and found that the lines in fact form part of the following:
The north wind doth blow
And we shall have snow
And what will poor Robin do then, poor thing?
He’ll sit in a barn
And keep himself warm
And hide his head under his wing, poor thing.
Unclued 12dn was WEATHERCOCK and, appropriately, we have N E S & W in the places that you might reasonably expect them.
The extra letter was an R, giving ‘ROBIN’ in ‘BARN’ and ‘R’ (his head) under HIS WING.
My sole, tiny quibble is that, in 40dn, ‘moderations’ is given where, I think, ‘moderation’ is intended.
XXXX* = anagram
< = reversal
xxx = unused letter(s)
WIN = letters additional letters insubsidiary indication
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W |
2 | CORDINER | Old snob breaks record, with win? (8) | old snob: [RECORD + WIN]* |
| E | 9 | SRI | ‘Sire’ could be a title of great respect (3) | title of great respect: SIRE* |
| S | 11 | AULA | Man who’s asked for a hall (4) | hall: SAUL [meaning ‘asked’ or ‘desired’] + A |
| H | 13 | HOES |
Who hesitates to hide weeds (4) | weeds: wHOHESitates |
| A | 15 | PREDECEASE | Go earlier, cut edge of declaration and make less difficult (10) | go earlier: PARE (cut) + DEC (edge of declaration) + EASE (make less difficult) |
| L | 16 | DEARTH | Daughter’s in Scotland to teach the local scarcity (6) | scarcity: D (daughter) + LEAR (in Scotland to teach) + TH (the local) |
| L | 19 | INERT | Passive? Fisherman’s tense! (5) | passive: LINER (fisherman) + T (tense) |
| H | 20 | OSSA |
Bones ones in hip shrank regularly (4) | bones: OneSinHipShrAnk |
| A | 22 | TITULAR | Scots pinch university lecturer, Arabian holy personage, naming church (7) | holy personage, naming church: TAIT (Scots pinch) + U (university) + L (lecturer) + AR (Arabian) |
| V | 23 | TONISHLY |
Fashionably lavish with one missing upset in theatrical award (8) | fashionably: ins. of LAViSH* in TONY (theatrical award) |
| E |
24 | BEER | Live before porter (4) | porter: BE (live) + ERE (before) |
| S | 25 | WINDOW | Mines in Scotland can foil strips used to protect Wellingtons (6) | foil strips used to protect Wellingtons [bombers]: WINS (mines in Scotland) + DOW (can) |
| N | 27 | ESSIVE | Closed, hand holding spades succeeded in case (6) | case: ins. of SS (spades) in NEIVE (closed hand) |
| O | 29 | INIA |
Med sea lacks northern protuberances (4) | protuberances: IONIAn (med sea lacks northern) |
| W | 30 | BIRDCAGE | Having big card, we disrupted paddock (8) | paddock: BIGCARDWE* |
| A | 33 | CHANCER |
Opportunist’s vehicle crossing curved rise (7) | opportunist: ins. of HANCE (curved rise) in CAR (vehicle) |
| N | 34 | INGO |
Tyneside meadow’s no doorway for Ian (4) | doorway for Ian: ING (Tyneside meadow) + NO |
| D |
36 | DEBAR | Dread getting upset about book to exclude (5) | ins. of B (book) in DREAD* |
| W |
37 | BINNED | Penny once in bed, is rejected (6) | ins. of WINN (penny once) in BED |
| H |
39 | EGG CUSTARD | Having rugged chats, prepared creme dish (10, 2 words) | creme dish: RUGGEDCHATS* |
| A |
41 | PEON | Monkey’s beside Indian messenger (4) | Indian messenger: APE (monkey) + ON (beside) |
| T |
42 | SMEE | Duck! Old bears are returning (4) | duck: <TEEMS (old bears) |
| W |
43 | ARM | Enthusiastic power (3) | power: WARM (enthusiastic) |
| I |
44 | ENSNARES | Catches nurse with tin ram (8) | catches: EN (nurse) + SN (tin) + ARIES (ram) |
| Down | ||||
| L | 1 | LAPDOG | Devoted dependent person (or heraldic mate) returns (6) | devoted dependent person: <[GOLD (heraldic) + PAL (mate)] |
| L | 2 | CURES | Fixes up, imprisoning right odd people (5) | odd people: ins. of R (right) in CLUES (fixes up) |
| P | 3 | OLEA |
Post with American jasmine perhaps (4) | jasmine perhaps: POLE (post) + A (American) |
| O | 4 | DUETTI |
Musical performances exactly in accordance with note (6) | musical performances: DUE TO (exactly in accordance)+ TI (note) |
| O | 5 | INCH | Scottish island’s rudimentary, lacking deity (4) | Scottish island: INCHOate (rudimentary lacking deity) |
| R | 6 | ERA | Miss the mark with a geological period (3) | geological period: ERR (miss the mark) + A |
| R | 7 | ROSILY | Ablush and sorrily upset (6) | ablush: SORRILY* |
| O |
8 | SHE | Girl’s gambling device (3) | girl: SHOE (gambling device) |
| B | 9 | SOVEREIGN | Old Irish mayor’s ruined: nob grieves (9) | old Irish mayor: NOBGRIEVES* |
| I | 10 | RETRIEVE | Repossess – I’ve retired, without a penny, broke (8) | repossess: IVERETIREd* |
| 12 | WEATHERCOCK |
|||
| N | 14 | SATIRE | Retains disjointed literary production (6) | literary production: RETAINS* |
| D | 17 | RAND | Doctor and a strip of flesh (4) | strip of flesh: DR + AND |
| O | 18 | DULE | Deceitfully Belgium kicked out Scottish goal (4) | Scottish goal: DOUbLE (deceitfully Belgium kicked out) |
| T | 21 | SONIC BOOM |
Report being repeated when special invigorating medicine has sudden rise in value (9, 2 words) | report being repeated: S (special) + TONIC (invigorating medicine) + BOOM (sudden rise in value) |
| H | 23 | TINKERER |
Person with a powerful mind, English Rector, someone who fiddles (8) |
someone who fiddles: THINKER (person with a powerful mind + E (English) + R (Rector) |
| E | 25 | WIND UP | Drank alcohol, with vigour, to irritate (6, 2 words) | irritate: WINED (drank alcohol) + UP (with vigour) |
| N | 26 | WIN | Open up centre of awning (3) | open up: aWNINg |
| P | 28 | SAIN | Heal old plodding student at home (4) | heal old: SAP (plodding student) + IN (at home) |
| O | 30 | BARGEE | Crewman on lighter to obstruct moulding (6) | crewman on lighter: BAR (obstruct) + OGEE (moulding) |
| O | 31 | CRISTA | Acrostic is cut and reformed for ridge (6) | ridge: ACROSTIc |
| R |
32 | CODDER | Crown stranger, a fisherman (6) | fisherman: CR (crown) + ODDER (stranger) |
| T |
35 | GERES | Harnesses old German muscle (5) | harnesses old: G (German) + TERES (muscle) |
| H |
37 | BURN | Oddly, bought Ron a cigarette (4) | cigarette: BoUgHtRoN |
| I |
38 | NAME | New French mistress is well-known (4) | well-known: N (new) AMIE (French mistress) |
| N |
39 | ENA | Pennant displays girl’s name (3) | girl’s name: pENNAnt |
| G |
40 | GUN | Australian expert’s zealous, lacking moderations (3) | Australian expert: GUNG–ho (zealous lacking moderation) |
40 Down – I don’t see why the plural form of moderation was given in the clue as we are only deleting
‘ho’ (a singular moderation). Could have been a misprint, I suppose.
My dear Newboy,
It was, I wager, due to lack of attention to detail on the part of Syd Lexis, the editor, or some other individual.
Such lapses necessarily happen frequently. It is easy to miss little details.
Details such as:
“My sole, tiny quibble is that, in 40dn, ‘moderations’ is given where, I think, ‘moderation’ is intended.” (See above)
…
My sincere apologies. I could not resist.
Mister Sting
I am the one who owes an apology.
I have to admit that I did not read your preamble at all.
On my original paper I had marked this clue(40D) as one that I have difficulty with
so I went straight to your solution to see whether you had an explanation.
It just goes to show that fools seldom differ.
Your contributions are much appreciated.
Alas I missed the printed solution to this – but I thought the enclosed letter was G, not R (since the robin ‘hides his head under his wing’ and the word ‘wing’ was incomplete.)