This puzzle certainly wasn’t a sprint…and I had to stop for a few ‘comfort breaks’ along the way…but it turned out to be a very enjoyable EV, with a quirky/off-the-wall denouement.
Six unclued entries, relating to an event 10 years ago ‘yesterday’, were to be deduced: 2, 17 and 18, and A B and C. Odd that, why the mix of letters and numbers? Still, they are unclued, so we can’t do much about them at the start…let’s get solving and get a few crossing letters for those first.
I pressed on with some general solving. A nice mix of challenging, hard and – thankfully – some easier clues kept me busy for a while, and a few crossing letters started to slot in. 2D had PA?L?, 17A ???C?IF?E – and after a bit of head scratching and guessing I hit lucky and spotted 17A RADCLIFFE – of the 2D PAULA variety.
B then logically became MARATHON, and a quick bit of Wiki-reference revealed that on 13-October-2002 (10 years ago ‘yesterday’ from the date of publication) she broke the marathon WORLD RECORD (clue C) in CHICAGO (A) – making her the WINNER (18D) of that race.
The final step was to ‘justify’ the title below the grid – which revealed the final impressive bit about this grid construction – the winning time was 2 hrs, 17 minutes and 18 seconds. Nice touch. I also liked 23A OUTRUNS – quite appropriate in the circumstances!
I found this an enjoyable – and instructive – puzzle, as I will now probably never forget this factual nugget! Quite a few new words – to me – but all were gettable from the wordplay, followed by a quick check of Chambers to be sure: 9D KAID; 14D POPJOY, 32D TAISH and 28D NA-DENE (hyphenated in my admittedly ancient Chambers, so probably should have been indicated as (2-4)?
Overall a relatively quick solve compared to some recent EVs I have been lucky enough to miss in the blogging schedule – at least I managed to finish this one…
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Entry | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1A | EPIC | Impressive draw, both sides having been disregarded (4) / (D)EPIC(T) – draw, depict, without ‘side’ letters |
| 4A | SEASPEAK | Lingo in the main is heard from what person at the top does (8) / homophone/&lit-ish – person at the top (of a mountain) would see the peak…or would they? You could argue they’d see everything BUT the peak! |
| 10A | ASHEN | Pale lady’s boring one (5) / AN (one) around (bored, or pierced, by) SHE (lady) |
| 11A | ALFA | Narrow-minded man’s given lead to authorities, being a grass (4) / ALF (Alf Garnet, narrow-minded TV character) + A (first letter of Authorities) |
| 12A | TUMID | Enlarged corporation has description of card used by many people (5) / TUM (corporation, belly) + ID (card, used by many people) |
| 13A | IONISER | Electrical equipment is covered by individual in current rule (7) / I (i,electric current) + R (rule) around ONE (individual), itself around IS |
| 14A | PLACET | Spike in part gets wrong court decision (6) / PT (part) around LACE (spike, as in add something to a drink) – ‘placet’ being often wrongly used for ‘placit’, court decision |
| 15A | REFINED | Splendid drills Jock’s put in order and polished (7) / RED (or redd, Scottish to make tidy) around (drilled by) FINE (splendid) |
| 17A | RADCLIFFE | Unclued (9) / Thematic deduction |
| 19A | PEAG | Mostly favoured silver native American coins (5) / PE(T) (mostly pet, or favoured) + AG (silver) – PEAG being North American Indian shell money |
| 21A | MUTI | Note nurses do traditional medicine (4) / MI (note, in sol-fa notation) around (nursing) UT (do, or doh, another note!) |
| 22A | JAT | Indian’s crown coming from the east (3) / JAT (person of north-west India, or Pakistan) = TAJ (crown) reversed (from the East) |
| 23A | OUTRUNS | Leaves behind not in rushes (7) / OUT (not in) + RUNS (rushes) |
| 25A | RON | Man from van leaves FT outside (3) / (F)RON(T) – van(guard) – without FT (outer letters) |
| 26A | OCHE | Sporting line from new edition of Echo (4) / anag (i.e. new edition) of ECHO |
| 30A | SCORN | Mock something oldfashioned on Sabbath (5) / S (Sabbath, Sunday) + CORN (something hackneyed, or old-fashioned) |
| 31A | OLFACTION | Look back on group creating a stink (9) / OL (Lo, interjection, ‘Look!’, backwards) + FACTION (group) |
| 33A | PINTADO | Cape pigeon seen in the drink with a gull (7) / PINT (drink) + A + DO (con, trick, or gull) |
| 34A | APPEAR | Show before a meal’s brilliant (6) / AP (ante prandium, Latin, before a meal) + PEAR (pear-shaped gem, or a brilliant – noun, not adjective) |
| 36A | TRACERS | Nags one going fast in case of tiredness (7) / TS (case, or outside of TirednesS) around RACER (one going fast) |
| 38A | OASIS | Rockband love getting changed? The opposite (5) / O (love, nil, as in sports score) + AS IS (unchanged) |
| 40A | NAAN | Middle cut out of prophet’s bread (4) / NA(TH)AN – prophet with middle letters cut out |
| 41A | ICTUS | Fit shown by unnatural gaping? Not right (5) / (R)ICTUS – unnatural gaping – without R (right) |
| 42A | GLANDERS | Looks to hedge the pound? An ass would find that fatal (8) / GANDERS (looks) around (hedging) L (pound, as in LS&D) |
| 43A | ECHT | Authentic article about cold rolling (4) / THE (article) around C (cold) – all ‘rolling’ in reverse |
| Down | ||
| Clue No | Entry | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1D | EFT | More progressive political stance polled once again (3) / (L)EFT (Left-wing, progressive, politically) polled (i.e. top letter chopped off |
| 2D | PAULA | Unclued (5) / Thematic deduction |
| A | CHICAGO | Unclued (7) / Thematic deduction |
| 3D | MEDE | Old Persian field announced (4) / Homophone/double defn-ish – MEDE – old Persian people sounds like MEAD (meadow, or field) |
| 4D | SNITCH | Nick has new desire (6) / S (‘s, contraction of has) + N (new) + ITCH (desire) |
| 5D | AENEID | Deputy Lieutenant missing deadline, abandoned large work (6) / anag (i.e. abandoned) of DEA(DL)INE without DL – Deputy Lieutenant |
| 6D | STIFFENS | Braces or contretemps (in the French sense) (8) / SENS (french for sense) around TIFF (argument, or contretemps) |
| 7D | PAS | Ballet step beyond last cast (3) / PAS(T) – beyond – with last letter cast (off) |
| 8D | AFREET | Demon Australian ready on tee (6) / A (Australian) + FREE (ready) + T (tee) |
| 9D | KAID | Constant help for an African chief (4) / K (constant, in Physics or chemistry) + AID (help) |
| C | WORLD RECORD | Unclued (5, 6) / Thematic deduction |
| B | MARATHON | Unclued (8) / Thematic deduction |
| 14D | POPJOY | Amuse oneself with music? Bliss (6) / POP (music) + JOY (bliss) |
| 16D | NEURONES | State (US) holding right individual in special cells (8) / NE (Nebraska, US state) + US around R (right) + ONE (individual) |
| 18D | WINNER | Unclued (6) / Thematic deduction |
| 20D | SURFACED | Got out of bed to browse one day (8) / SURF (browse, t’internet + ACE (one) + D (day) |
| 24D | SCOPATE | Tufted head seen in East Barking (7) / COP (head) in anag (Barking – mad) of EAST |
| 27D | CHITAL | Deer shoot in US state (6) / CAL (California, another US State) around HIT (shoot) |
| 28D | NA-DENE | No Scottish lodges study Indian languages (6) / NAE (no, Scottish) around (lodging) DEN (study) – technically (2-4)? |
| 29D | STASIS | Yen to come out of feminine underwear is leading to arrest (6) / STA(Y)S (stiffening parts of corsets, without Y – yen) + IS |
| 32D | TAISH | It has represented a voice in the Highlands (5) / anag ( i.e. re-presented) of IT HAS |
| 33D | PONG | Jerry’s new Golf gives a hum (4) / PO (chamberpot, jerry) + N (new) + G (golf) |
| 35D | POCO | Little person interested in party affairs losing heart (4) / PO(LITI)CO – person interested in politics, or party affairs – losing heart, or middle letters |
| 37D | ANN | Girl soon dropping round (3) / AN(O)N – soon, dropping O – round |
| 39D | SOT | Drunk from well at top of town (3) / SO (well) + T (first letter of town) |