An excellent challenge from Bradman this Friday with just the right mix of mind-benders and quick wins. I did have to re-calibrate my estimate on the finishing time during the course of the solve. This was largely due to the fact that the 5 anagrams in the crossword got me going quickly and after that progress became a lot slower=. I still needed help with parsing 24ac and 3d. My pick of the lot was 10ac.
Overall, a delectable treat from a trusted setter.
FF: 8, DD: 7
| Across | ||
| 1 | CUSHIEST | Being in nick, aims to be most comfortable (8) |
| SHIES (aims, as in ‘have a shy at’) in CUT (nick) | ||
| 5 | BLOBBY | Spotted bishop by reception area (6) |
| B (bishop) LOBBY ( reception area ) | ||
| 8 | IOU | Note of inpecuniousness? (1,1,1) |
| Hidden in ‘impecunIOUsness’ – Short for “I Owe You”, an informal credit note. | ||
| 9 | DRAG QUEENS | Day with student event at Oxford college – folk dressing unconventionally (4,6) |
| D (Day) RAG (student event) QUEENS (Oxford college) | ||
| 10 | ALTHOUGH | Gangster hard outside, hard inside, for all that (8) |
| AL (Gangster, Capone) [ TOUGH (hard outside) containing H ( hard inside)] | ||
| 11 | HASSID | Strict Jew rejecting part of meal as brought in (6) |
| AS in HSID (part of meal – DISH, rejecting – reversed) | ||
| 12 | HEED | In auditorium the man would briefly listen (4) |
| Sounds like HE’D (the man would) | ||
| 14 | STRIPLINGS | Youths having flings with effect of drug admitted (10) |
| SLINGS (flings) admitting TRIP (effect of drug, slang) | ||
| 17 | PANTOGRAPH | Hang pop art the wrong way in studio frame? (10) |
| Anagram of HANG POP ART | ||
| 20 | LOON | See leg revealed by bird (4) |
| LO (see) ON (leg-side, cricket) | ||
| 23 | SPRING | It’s bound to be a time of growth (6) |
| DD | ||
| 24 | CROMWELL | Bringer of order against his king we will see here (8) |
| CR (King, Charles Rex) OM (order, of merit) WELL (we”ll – we will) [Thanks Gaufrid]
My original text: Am sure I need help with this. This is one of my last clues in, and I am guessing Cromwell here. Wiki tells me that Oliver Cromwell signed the death warrant for King Charles I so I take that to be the reference for “bringer of order against his king”.Possibly a nice clue to delve into for our resident historian, Eileen! |
||
| 25 | UPINTHEAIR | Awaiting a decision – from ground control? (2,2,3,3) |
| Cryptic clue – alluding to decision(s) required from the ATC on landing permissions for circling aircrafts (for example). | ||
| 26 | ADD | Tot knocks the edges of father (3) |
| d]ADD[y – knocking the edges of father | ||
| 27 | BEGGAR | Tramp in pub eating food (6) |
| EGG (food) in BAR (pub) | ||
| 28 | AT BOTTOM | Where this answer goes, in reality (2,6) |
| Position of 28ac in the grid | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CHINA SHOP | Son in country dance – not the best place for it! (5,4) |
| S (son) in CHINA (country) HOP (dance) – The quintessential bull in a ….I am marking dance for double duty here. Anybody feels differently about this? | ||
| 2 | SCUTTLE | Make hole in fuel container (7) |
| DD – Container used for transporting coal to a fire. | ||
| 3 | INDOOR | Trendy men holding function within building (6) |
| IN (Trendy) OR (men, Other Ranks) holding DO (function). | ||
| 4 | SLAUGHTER | Real thugs involved in killing (9) |
| Anagram of REAL THUGS | ||
| 5 | BRUSH UP | Clean and tidy study again? (5,2) |
| DD | ||
| 6 | OVERSPILL | Maidens possibly quiet and unwell – a waste of lager? (9) |
| OVERS (Maidens possibly, from cricket) P (quiet) ILL (unwell) | ||
| 7 | BUSKING | Transport chief providing musical entertainment (7) |
| BUS (transport) KING (chief) | ||
| 13 | DETAINING | Stopping in India, gent on a detour (9) |
| Anagram of INDIA GENT | ||
| 15 | IMPORTANT | Bring in worker from abroad? It’s vital (9) |
| IMPORT ( bring in ) ANT (worker ) | ||
| 16 | SINGLEDOM | Celebrate good-looking female turning up in unmarried state (9) |
| SING (celebrate) LEDOM (Model – good looking female, reversed) | ||
| 18 | AMPOULE | A beast carrying pot and little bottle (7) |
| A MULE (beast) carrying PO (pot?) | ||
| 19 | GAGSTER | Stagger around as someone who tries to be funny (7) |
| Anagram of STAGGER | ||
| 21 | OVERACT | Ham it up as singing dame in the course of month (7) |
| VERA (singing dame – Vera Lynn) in OCT (month) | ||
| 22 | EMBRYO | Get more by redeveloping an early version? (6) |
| Anagram of MORE BY | ||
*anagram
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Does The Don wear an easier hat in the FT? I usually struggle with the last few clues of his in the graun, but breezed through this in a couple of passes – certainly my fastest ever solve for this setter.
Turbolegs, PO = POT as in the sort that you (used to) have under the bed.
@Turbolegs
To respond to your question against 1dn – I would not think that ‘ball’ does double duty there. The pronoun ‘it’ refers back to ‘dance’ or even ‘country dance’, that’s all.
Like Turbolegs, I finished the SW quarter in about three minutes and then … clonk. Anyway, I finally got there — thanks, Bradman. By the way, is singledom really a word? Philologically it’s horrible
Hi Hornbeam
“By the way, is singledom really a word?”
Chambers has “singledom or singlehood, noun, – the state of being unmarried”.
Collins only has ‘singledom’ defined as “the state of being unmarried or not involved in a long-term relationship”. COED and Oxford on-line have ‘singledom’ but with no definition, simply indicating it as a derivative from ‘single’.
Thanks, Gaufrid. My Chambers is a little elderly (I prefer it that way!)
Printed this off to take to bed, but got started straightaway and finished in one go. Good clueing at a nice degree of difficulty – just right! Didn’t know Hassid but inferred it from the clue.
Thx to setter and blogger!
Hi Turbolegs
I didn’t do this puzzle but I do sometimes have a look through the blogs and have just seen your comment on CROMWELL, which is, indeed, ‘my’ period of A Level History. Your parsing is spot on – nice &littish clue, too.
[There’s a more readable [than Wiki] account of it here:
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/takingliberties/staritems/51charlesdeathwarrant.html
PS: to be pedantic, CR stands for Carolus Rex.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Dragged this off the backlog pile whilst in bed with a flu. Dunno whether the flu had slowed down the brain a bit, but unlike the rest of you I found it hard to get started. Eventually got the LHS done and then the RHS fell out quite quickly.
Last couple in were HASSID and DRAG QUEENS. PANTOGRAPH and HASSID were the only slightly obscure words – so we got off lightly from the Don with this one.