Back after the Bank holiday sunshine and an 8 hour trip to Felixstowe (don’t ask).
Not sure how many Gordius puzzles I’ve done let alone blogged, there’s one or two clues where I’m a little uncertain so comments and clarifications welcome . A bit of political stuff, I see but no Ninas or other themes in the answers.
| Across | ||
| 7 | SOBRIETY | Moderation, yet Boris might achieve it (8) |
| [YET BORIS]* | ||
| 9 | ABOARD | Maybe a group of bankers all at sea? (6) |
| A & BOARD (Excutives etc) | ||
| 10 | AKIN | It’s like baking without gas (4) |
| British Gas (BG) removed from (b)AKIN(g) | ||
| 11 | BILLERICAY | Boy hugs girl in Essex (10) |
| ERICA in BILLY | ||
| 12 | SPLICE | Wed without children? Nits! (6) |
| Not entirely sure here. S(ingle) P(erson) perhaps & LICE [Edit see comments 1&2] | ||
| 14 | OVERSEER | How Rees becomes the foreman? (8) |
| REES reversed hence OVER SEER | ||
| 15 | SECRETE | Hide endless Mediterranean island (7) |
| Spent too long think CRETE is a Med. Island, it’s SE(a) – Endless MED & CRETE (island) | ||
| 17 | ALARMED | With apprehension of little boys at arm’s length (7) |
| AL & ED separated by ARM | ||
| 20 | DISSOLVE | Break up with plunge over reflected failure (8) |
| LOSS reversed in DIVE | ||
| 22 | HEELED | Well this is a bit rich! (6) |
| Well HEELED means rich, not sure if there’s more to this though | ||
| 23 | GILLINGHAM | Where to get off colour in cloth (10) |
| ILL in GINGHAM, one of two towns pronounced differently. | ||
| 24 | DRIP | Ineffectual character died with a short prayer (4) |
| D & R.I.P. | ||
| 25 | BEETLE | Insect let out another (6) |
| BEE and LET* another insect that is | ||
| 26 | DOGFIGHT | Encounter that’s not just pettish? (8) |
| Cryptic def | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PORKY PIE | You can’t Adam and Eve it! (5,3) |
| Hmm well you can believe lies that’s rather the point. Cockney Rhyming time for BELIEVE and LIE. What is cockney rhyming slang for cockney rhyming slang? | ||
| 2 | WREN | Architect seen to be right in new erection (4) |
| R in NEW* | ||
| 3 | KEMBLE | College accommodates a large number here in Gloucestershire (6) |
| M (Thousand) in KEBLE college | ||
| 4 | HAREBELL | Spring flower Spooner calls unadorned misery (8) |
| Spoon of BARE HELL | ||
| 5 | ROTISSERIE | Tories rise to be sprayed with spit (10) |
| [TORIES RISE]* | ||
| 6 | ARCANE | Something quite clear can easily become mysterious (6) |
| Hidden answer | ||
| 8 | YELLOW | Shout with painful cry and colour (6) |
| YELL & OW | ||
| 13 | IRRESOLUTE | Tories’ rule broken, lacking purpose … (10) |
| Another tories anagram… [TORIES RULE]* | ||
| 16 | TALENTED | … thanks to fast party leader with ability (8) |
| TA & LENT & ED (milliband) | ||
| 18 | EYESIGHT | Military order (excluding front rank) that makes sense (8) |
| R(ank) removed from EYES (r)IGHT | ||
| 19 | METHOD | It helps to do them wrong (6) |
| [DO THEM}* Do seems to be doing double duty to me | ||
| 21 | IRISES | One grows up and blooms (6) |
| 1 & RISES | ||
| 22 | HOMAGE | Where one lives without a good reverence for one’s superior? (6) |
| HOME around (A & G) | ||
| 24 | DAIS | Something raised short of a bloomer (4) |
| DAIS(y) | ||
Thanks Flashling and Gordius. I rather liked PORKY PIE.
Re HEELED – I think you have it. “this” = HEELED in the reading.
Re SPLICE: sine prole (without issue)
12a – SP is an old abbrev. from Latin “sine prole” = “without children” in obits, etc. Typical Gordius cliche?
Thanks flashling and Gordius
A bit mixed, I thought, though some entertaining clues (I particularly liked PORKY PIE and GILLINGHAM).
I found the SE took a long time, and coincidentally wasn’t able to parse the SE in SECRETE.
I was a bit puzzled by “spring flower” for HAREBELL – my flower book gives flowering time July – September!
Thanks for the SP! Never studied latin is my excuse. I thought about whether the HARE bouncing around might be a further bit of jocular wordplay.
Thanks flashling and Gordius
Entertaining and relatively quick puzzle with some clever clues.
I ticked 22a, 10d, and 21d.
A very enjoyable Times-style puzzle. I thought DOGFIGHT was particularly good, with its allusion, possibly!, to the ‘no holds barred’ nature of the contest in question through ‘not just’. EYESIGHT wasn’t too shabby either.
Is it just me or is Gordius suddenly getting all playful in his old age? PORKIE PIE, HEELED, EYESIGHT, DRIP, BILLERICAY – not to mention a couple of digs at the conservatives – all jolly good fun.
It was all quite funny today, though it still had the Girdius Touch on some clues. I got the PIE clue, but thought it bit weak. Good to dig at the Tories, I coulds stand that all day long!
Very enjoyable – lots to smile at – I think Mitz@7’s ‘playful’ description sums this one up very nicely.
I did like 23a as in my commuting days I did from time to time get off the train at the one in Kent.
Thanks to Flashling (still resisting the temptation to ask about Felixstowe :)) and above all to Gordius for making me smile.
HAREBELL is/was the bluebell or wild hyacinth. The use for the Round-leaved Bell-flower, Campanula rotundifolia is explained by the OED below.
This application appears to have arisen in Scotland, where the Campanula is much more abundant than the wild hyacinth. Sometimes, with reference to the slender stalk, altered to hairbell, which Lindley tried to establish in this sense, leaving harebell to its original use in sense 1. Originally, in English use, ‘Blue-Bell’ was Campanula, ‘Hare-bell’ was Scilla, ‘Hair-bell’ non-existent.
Temptation is too great – what happened at Felixstowe?
Thanks to Gordius and flashling. PORKY PIE – more Cockney rhyming slang which I will never understand. How do you know when you see it?
Cheers…
I didn’t like “porky pie” at all. “Pork pie” = lie = “porky”, but I’ve never heard of “porky pie”……and it’s not in Chambers. Gordius can have one or the other, but not a combination of the two.
Martin @12
Chambers isn’t the only authority you know…
…but it’s the one which is generally accepted.
Thanks to flashling for the blog.
I thought 9 was weak using bankers to mean board. From what I see in the papers most bankers (the kind who make huge gambles) are not directors and hence not on the board.
@Martin
Not by me it isn’t. It’s just one of many. In this case, if it’s good enough for Arthur Daley, DI Jack Regan and, er, The Financial Times then it’s good enough for me.
Martin @12 – Porky pie is in Collins. Mitz’s preference for the Urban Dictionary as an “authority” is a but worrying.
For ‘but’ read ‘bit’.
@rhotician
I never said that I “prefer” the Urban Dictionary as an authority. But it is a constantly updated lexicon of actual, real life word usage and as such is as valid as any of the more traditional dictionaries. I find it worrying in any context when people say that only one source is worthy of reference.
I liked 7a, 16d, 14a, 21d, 1d and my favourites were 4d HAREBELL & 24a DRIP.
New words for me were KEMBLE, Keble College, BILLERICAY, GILLINGHAM, PORKY PIE = ‘lie’, “Adam and Eve it” = “believe it”.
I couldn’t parse 12a, 15a (SE + CRETE?), 18d EYE + SIGHT? 10a (bAKINg).
Thanks Gordius and flashling.
@Mitz
I have to agree that reliance on a single source is to be discouraged. But I feel you could have more gently encouraged Martin to broaden his outlook than by directing his attention to the Urban Dictionary, which is as broad as they come. Valuable as it is it cannot be invaluable in the context of crosswords.
I should have made clear Keble is a minor educational institution in the latin quarter of Cowley. 😛 Literally and I mean literally hen pecked visiting the house I let out in Ipswich and then going to the seaside. Long old trip. Probably going to go back to Ipswich. An east anglian s&b anyone?
@rhotician
Martin’s a grown up; I’m sure he can take it. Either way, I think I made my point without patronising anyone.
@mitz have to agree why should compilers have to use strict sources? English evolves why should crosswords be stuck in the past? Even the Az only recommend a particular dictionary… With some entries not in it.
I got there in the end, but I found this much harder than some of you seem to have done. I thought there was some looseness in the cluing and I’m surprised ulaca@6 thought it was a Times-style puzzle.
10ac – BG is a gas company, not gas, and I don’t think anyone would ever refer to British Gas as gas for short.
1dn – this would have been more accurate as “you shouldn’t” rather than “you can’t”.
3dn – two relative obscurities, Keble and Kemble.
24ac – is R.I.P. really a short prayer? As far as I can tell it is part of the Eternal Rest prayer.
24dn – “short of a bloomer” is an inaccurate and clunky way of saying “take the last letter off a flower”.
On the other hand, I liked DOGFIGHT when I finally saw it.
@Flashling – The compilers of Azed, and the Listener for that matter, are very strict about their sources. For very good reasons.
The Guardian crossword editor is not so strict but I think his setters are aware that he has preferences.
I did say that porky pie is in Collins.
I’ve just made 3 + five = 2. Trying again.
Would you Adam and Eve it, I solved 1 down thanks to our friends’ children from near Huddersfield, who used to accuse each other in quite broad Yorkshire accents: “You’re telling porky pies!”.
Ah, the ‘sources’ argument. Good to see it again.
Well this was a normal Gordius for me. Some good and some bad.
I liked PORKY PIE (which is in SOED (but hyphenated) but didn’t like EYESIGHT or ABOARD and other loose cluing as already mentioned by Andy B.
I’m off for a 2 day break tomorrow so I’m hoping there’s an improvement in this week’s offerings as I’m planning to solve tomorrow’s in a nice bar before a hopefully delicious dinner!
Thanks to Flashling and Gordius
I normally like Gordius’ puzzles but I thought the “functionality” of some clues was strained, e.g. 1d as some have said.
Still, it kept me busy.
Thanks all.
AndyB @ 25, I take your point about BG for Gas, but I think all the others you mention are fine.
1dn – while you are able to believe a lie, it might be argued that it is not logically possible to believe one.
3dn – as an Oxford man, I’d agree that Kemble is obscure!
24ac – RIP on a tombstone would pass muster as a short prayer, no?
24dn – ‘short of a bloomer’ for ‘flower without its last letter’ is fine if the flower is considered as a modifier; ‘daisy chain’ may thus be rendered ‘chain of a bloomer’.
Only half finished, should got rotisserie, the rest was mostly rubbish. Very loose clues (22, 6, 10, 1) and too many obscure places poorly clued(3 & 11, 23 which I pencilled in) for an ex-pat to rumble. Oh well, a dog’s body for some and a pleasure for others. Thanks for the blog, flashling, and the brave try, Gordius.