A toughie from GUY this Friday.
FF: 8 DD: 10
I got through 75% of it before needing to get some help with the solves in the interest of getting the blog out.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SCURVY |
Siren primarily voluptuous menace to sailors (6)
|
| S ( Siren, primarily ) CURVY ( voluptuous ) | ||
| 4 | SANGUINE |
Celebrated victory, sounding that confident (8)
|
| SANG ( celebrated ) UINE ( sounds like WIN, victory ) | ||
| 10 | RECUMBENT |
Lying copper married criminal after romance on vacation (9)
|
| RE ( RomancE, without inner letters ) CU ( copper ) M ( married ) BENT ( criminal ) | ||
| 11 | OOMPH |
Energy zero, speed corresponding to that? (5)
|
| O ( zero ) O MPH ( 0 mph, speed corresponding to zero ) | ||
| 12 | SOPHISTICATED |
Clever chap sets idiot anagrams (13)
|
| [ CHAP SETS IDIOT ] | ||
| 15 | ORDINANCE |
Regulation in force around Brittany town, but fine cancelled (9)
|
| fORCE ( without F – fine ) around DINAN ( brittany town ) | ||
| 17 | IDAHO |
Turned back some who had illegal ID (5)
|
| hidden reversed in “..whO HAD Illegal..” | ||
| 18 | ROVER |
Typical dog runs too much (5)
|
| R ( runs ) OVER ( too much ) | ||
| 19 | PERSEVERE |
Soldier on a grave (9)
|
| PER ( a ) SEVERE ( grave ) | ||
| 21 | SALMAN RUSHDIE |
Writer’s original surname is Dahl (6,7)
|
| [ SURNAME IS DAHL ]* | ||
| 24 | AGAIN |
Military leader elected for another term? (5)
|
| AGA ( military leader ) IN ( elected ) | ||
| 25 | BILLABONG |
No object you throw comes back in vast Aussie backwater (9)
|
| { reverse of [ NO BALL ( object you throw ) ] } in BIG ( vast ) | ||
| 27 | PRESTIGE |
Honour litter bearer carrying others back from battle (8)
|
| [ REST ( others ) in PIG ( litter bearer ) ] E ( battE, last letter ) | ||
| 28 | CLOSET |
Finish last in cricket in which you’re not out? (6)
|
| CLOSE ( finish ) T ( crickeT, last letter ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STRASBOURG |
Grass to rub off Alsatian’s seat (10)
|
| [ GRASS TO RUB ]; alsatian referring to ‘of alsace’ | ||
| 2 | UNCAP |
Open new account upset charges increase (5)
|
| [ N ( new ) CA ( account = AC, reversed ) ] in UP ( increase ) | ||
| 3 | VIM |
Drive taking M4 the other way (3)
|
| reverse of M IV ( 4, roman numerals ) | ||
| 5 | ARTICLE |
Very common adjective journalist’s writing (7)
|
| double def | ||
| 6 | GHOSTLINESS |
Eery quality publican notes in empty gents (11)
|
| [ HOST ( publican ) LINES ( notes ) ] in GS ( GentS, empty i.e. without inner letters ) | ||
| 7 | IMMEDIATE |
Next time swimming across different channels (9)
|
| [ TIME ]* containing MEDIA ( different channels ) | ||
| 8 | ECHT |
German’s sterling kept by Czech tourist (4)
|
| hidden in “..czECH Tourist” | ||
| 9 | NEWTON |
Old Cambridge professor went dancing and running (6)
|
| [ WENT ]* ON ( running ) | ||
| 13 | INNER PLANET |
Private jet back in first world on shorter round trip (5,6)
|
| INNER ( private ) PLANE ( jet ) T ( firsT, last letter of ) | ||
| 14 | LOSE WEIGHT |
According to Spooner, courts at night become lighter (4,6)
|
| spoonerism of WOOS ( courts ) LATE ( night? ) | ||
| 16 | DEVASTATE |
Really upset Hindu god, say (9)
|
| DEVA ( hindu god ) STATE ( say ) | ||
| 19 | PEAT BOG |
Gap to be fixed, soaking fuel store? (4,3)
|
| [ GAP TO BE ]* | ||
| 20 | RARELY |
Gunners count with large intervals (6)
|
| RA ( gunners ) RELY ( count ) | ||
| 22 | DROSS |
Refuse piece of cake that Republican cuts (5)
|
| R ( republican ) in DOSS ( piece of cake, easy task ) | ||
| 23 | DAMP |
Supplier of hydro power affected by water? (4)
|
| DAM ( supplier of hydro~ ) P ( power ) | ||
| 26 | ALL |
Walls with bearings removed on each side (3)
|
| wALLs ( without directions at the extremeties, West, South ) |
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs
4ac: I prefer to think of this as SANGUINE sounding like SANG WIN. I am not sure that UINE really has a pronunciation.
14dn: I think the indication for LATE is “at night”.
My faves: SANGUINE, OOMPH, IDAHO, UNCAP, INNER PLANET,
LOSE WEIGHT and DAMP.
PEAT BLOG
I think ‘soaking’ is part of the def.
LOSE WEIGHT
courts at night=woos late (Taking it together with ‘at’ makes a better reading, I feel)
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs.
Thought I was going to get almost nowhere after the first pass.
In the end the one I couldn’t parse was the DOSS part of DROSS.
Pelham Barton@1
SANGUINE
Agree with you.
This was a super way to end the working week, with 21a alone well worth the effort.
The grid was chock-full of clever and imaginative wordplay from the surface of STRASBOURG to the neat simplicity of PERSEVERE, RARELY and VIM. I also liked 1a’s surface hinting at a mythological threat but producing an unpleasant seafarer’s malady instead.
Very satisfying.
Thanks to Guy and Turbolegs.
Thanks Guy. This was a slog and a big DNF for me. Of course there were some very satisfying clues such as RECUMBENT, SOPHISTICATED, IDAHO (COTD), VIM, and NEWTON. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.
Thanks for the blog , great puzzle , Diane@5 has put it much better than I can .
LOSE WEIGHT , agree with KVa@2 , the whole phrase is Spoonerised .
Rather chuffed to have finished this, given the blogger’s comments, and fairly briskly (for me). A doable challenge. Thanks to Guy and Turbolegs.
Diane@5 reflected my thoughts too in her elegant summary. For me, the scores were FF 10, DD 8-9.
I liked VIM & SANGUINE and loved SOPHISTICATED (great surface and great anagram), RUSHDIE (ditto) and IDAHO. There were so many lovely surfaces that I could have ticked many more.
I thought 1ac would have been a great clue had SCURVY not been solved in the late 18th century. RARELY and PERSEVERE took quite a bit of time to solve at the end, I needed help to parse ORDINANCE, not knowing dinan, and I am still not sure I understand the first part of ARTICLE.
Thanks Guy, I thought you were in great form. And thanks too to Turbolegs
Martyn@9 ARTICLE adjectives are THE ( definite ) A and AN ( indefinite ) . By far the most common adjectives .
Comment #11
5dn: Further to Roz@10, SOED 2007 p 125 has meaning 12 of article as “A member of a small set of words (in English two, traditionally regarded as adjectives, now also classed as determiners) that give definiteness or indefiniteness and specificness or genericness to the application of a noun”. Chambers 2016 p 82 has “the adjective the (definite article), a or an (indefinite article) or the equivalent in another language (grammar)” as a meaning of article. Some people seem to prefer the term “deteminer” for various words which I certainly was taught to call adjectives: I do not remember being taught the word “determiner” as a part of speech. Anyway, there is support in current dictionaries for articles to be considered as adjectives.
Many thanks Roz@10 and PB@11. My high school English classes were at a time when grammar was considered unnecessary by the relevant authorities. They clearly did not anticipate clues such as 5dn.
Martyn@13 , I used to just read my Physics books in all my other lessons , but I do now know a lot of experts a short walk away .
My English lessons did require categorization of words and parsing (of sentences, not crossword clues) but we were taught that the definite and indefinite articles were sui generis, not any other part of speech such as adjectives (or determiners, a term we never encountered). Ah well…
A good and enjoyable puzzle, though I finished less than half. When first attempting 22 I had only the O, and answered “Scorn” as a definition of refuse (the verb) with wordplay R in “scon” being a shortened version (piece) of “scone”, which I thought might plausibly be described as a cake. I wonder if anyone else did. When I got SALMAN RUSHDIE I had to think again, and guessed at DROSS, though “doss” in this context was unknown to me.
I thought “pig” for “litter bearer” was a tough one, albeit fair. Lots of other creatures have litters, and one would normally think of a sow having a litter rather than a pig.
This was a good test. I really liked INNER PLANETS. I took ages to see STRASBOURG. I liked most of the clues in the end. Last time I was faced with 5 letters ending with a suspected MPH, I wanted to put OOMPH, but couldn’t because it was nymph. It came around quickly!
Thanks Guy and Turbolegs.
Babbler @15: One can think of a pig as a ‘slob’ or one who may litter i.e. toss rubbish inappropriately.
Some clever clues, but not much fun. Did not finish.
Managed to finish but it was hard work! Nothing wrong with Guy’s clues in retrospect, just couldn’t quite get on his wavelength.