Blogging in a hurry – luckily nothing too difficult today.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 7 | CATARACT | As in waterfall, and as in the eye disease. |
| 9 | EQUALS | (squeal)* |
| 10 | TIER | TIE R[iver] |
| 11 | COMPANY CAR | an escort being company |
| 12 | STOCKS | The medieval foot restraints, and financial assets. |
| 14 | LUDDITES | Can’t get much out of the wordplay “Fear of redundancy drove them to breaking point” giving Luddites, but the only trickery in the clue seems to be that they actually did break things. |
| 15 | IRON AGE | (a region)* |
| 17 | CONGEAL | CO[mpany] + (angle)* |
| 20 | ARTICLES | Not sure how exactly to parse this – “the” is an article (singular), “the things” could define ARTICLES, and people write ARTICLES. |
| 22 | JUDGES | double definition – JUDGES being a book of the Old Testament. |
| 23 | JUNGLE BOOK | Kipling’s book, forest = jungle and reserve = book. |
| 24 | CHIP | An approach shot in golf, and chips as in french fries or other small bits of things can be sliced. |
| 25 | PENNON | =Standard. PEN + N[orth]=point + ON=attached |
| 26 | TOLD A LIE | (I led a lot)* |
| Down | ||
| 1 | CANISTER | rev(RETSINA + C[ollege]) |
| 2 | PAIR | P[iano] AIR |
| 3 | DANCES | DANES around C |
| 4 | YES AND NO | (Andy’s one)* |
| 5 | JURY-RIGGED | |
| 6 | CLEAVE | which can mean both CHOP and STICK (cleave something or cleave to something) |
| 8 | TUMULT | TUM for stomach, and ULT is the Latin abbreviation for last month |
| 13 | CONTINGENT | =dependent on, G[ood] in CONTINENT |
| 16 | GALLEONS | GALL EONS |
| 18 | APERITIF | reverse of FIT IRE PA |
| 19 | ASSORT | =grade, A S[econd] SORT=class |
| 21 | ROUTES | (sure to)* |
| 22 | JEKYLL | The better half of Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. |
| 24 | CHAR | Double definition. |
I’m not generally a fan of cryptic definitions, but I thought 11ac was brilliant.
Agreed about 11 Across, especially as I put ‘company man’.
Never did like ‘restina’, even when I (eventually) spell it correctly.
Is there a phrase ‘jury rigged’ meaning ‘makeshift’?
Don – Yes Jury rigged means makeshift especially when repairing a ship in order to get it home where more substantial repairs can be carried out.
Of course nowadays it means something quite different.
25Ac I didn’t know but a pennon is a small flag on top of a lance.
Thought 8D was great.
Don,
type “define: jury-rigged” into google.
I particularly liked “Chopstick (6)” in this puzzle, especially when checking in the dictionary and finding something like: “cleave¹: to split apart, to divide” following immediately by “cleave²: to stick together, to unite” 🙂
I agree about 11 across being very clever as well.
The only new word for me here was PENNON, but fortunately it was quite possible to guess from the subsidiary part.
Come to think of it, I suppose 11ac is a double definition, so I like it twice as much.
Googling “jury-rigged” will also give interesting information about its connection with “jerry-built”, which probably has nothing to do with Jerry = German.
Oops, please ignore my last remark – I was thinking of “Company car” as a clue for “escort” rather than vice versa.
I’d never come across JURY-RIGGED before, either, but it cropped up in a crossword a few weeks ago.
[I impaired my own vision for a minute or two by putting in ‘blizzard’ for 7ac.]
I agree, Don: retsina’s awful stuff!
Eileen, it’s worse when one spells it ‘restina’ and try to fit it into 1 Down as I did.
May I just put in a plug for the BBC4 hour-long programme tonight at 9 pm on cryptic crosswords?
Thanks, Rufus – it looks as if it will be on iPlayer in case anyone misses it.
I’m hoping it will, since I don’t get BBC4!
3dn DANCES: I see the wordplay DAN(C)ES; but is the definition in “and so do we”?
I don’t see “dances” I’m afraid. In what way does a dance “hold a number”?
And aren’t chips (the edible kind) always sliced rather than may be? I can’t see how to make them any other way. Plus my chips on the golf course usually do.
And I don’t like “originally” as an anagrind in 15 ac.
Otherwise not a bad start to the week.
3dn DANCES: I think, John, that manehi explained the wordplay. You have to put a number (C is the Roman numeral for 100) into ‘Scandinavians’ (DANES in this case). But there should be a part of the clue defining the whole thing, and I do not see how “- and so do we!” does that. Perhaps “hold a number” is a slang term for ‘dance’?
I love retsina, although for some reason it only tastes nice in Greek restaurants!
On the other hand if someone suggested how awful most grappa was, I would be forced to agree…
Hi Muck! I don’t go to many dances nowadays but in the halcyon days of mn youth the phrase was “to hold a dance”. Perhaps the modern idiot, sorry, idiom, will use a different phrase. “So do we” was meant to continue from “The Danes hold a number” of dances, and “so do we hold a number of dances”. I could have been clearer. Sorry!
Hi Rufus! It is always great when setters reply to queries on 15sqd. I always enjoy your puzzles, and you have no need to apologise.
Hear, hear to Muck’s comment.
Dear Muck: Thanks for your comment on my question. Of course I perefctly well understood “c” in “danes”, but my point, underlining yours, was that there is no satisfactory definition within the clue. I’m afraid I still don’t understand even after Rufus’ clarification. The clue doesn’t talk about holding dances, it talks about holding a number, which appears to mean a number of dances. And who are the “we”? The British nation? Sure some of us “hold dances”, but it’s hardly a national trait, either here or in Denmark.
Being new to this lark it’s great to find somewhere to guide me through the puzzles. Particularly impressed that compilers get involved too! Can’t say that i finished this one, but i thought 11Ac was brilliant. I look forward to trying more.
Further to comments by Rufus (#10), Mhl (#11) & Eileen (#12), I do have BBC4 and the crossword programme at 900pm tonight was great. I especially enjoyed seeing some of my favourite setters. Unfortunately, I didn’t record the programme. Is it possible to do this from iPlayer?
Just watched the crossword programme on iplayer – what a delight! Some lovely anecdotes and interviews. Thanks for the plug Rufus – I enjoyed seeing you on it and putting a face to a name that has provided so much fun on Mondays over the years. It was great to see again Araucaria’s appearance on University Challenge, although I seem to remember the Crossword Compilers being soundly thrashed by the British Librarians!
Muck
“Unfortunately, I didn’t record the programme. Is it possible to do this from iPlayer?”
I don’t know but I doubt it. However, the programme is being repeated on BBC4 next Sunday (16/11) at 2130, which is just as well because we had a two hour power cut yesterday evening which began five minutes before the programme was due to start 🙁
Thanks Geoff for news of the repeat. I did check whether it is possible to record from iPlayer and it seems not, legally or practically