Gurney is todays compiler in the FT.
After a few short entires slotted in without my having to think too hard, I needed to solve METAPHORICAL and GLOBETROTTER to give me a few more crossing letters before I could get my teeth into the puzzle. It took way too long to solve the other two long entries, which held me up for a bit, SERENADE and DRAGOON were the last two to be solved and satisfactorily parsed, so I got there in the end, but it took a while.
Thanks Gurney.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | METAPHORICAL |
Using images, sadly proclaim hate (12)
|
| *(proclaim hate) [anag:sadly] | ||
| 10 | ORCHARD |
Fruit here as alternative to vegetable (7)
|
| OR (“as alternative to”) + CHARD (“vegetable”) | ||
| 11 | DRAGOON |
After return, no opening for difficult criminal force (7)
|
| <=(h)ARD (“difficult” with no opening, after return) + GOON (“criminal”) | ||
| 12 | COATI |
Mammal’s outside layer is trimmed (5)
|
| COAT (“outside layer”) + I(s) [trimmed] | ||
| 13 | SERENADE |
To beloved, this possibly endears one ultimately? (8)
|
| *(endears e) [anag:possibly] where E is (on)E [ultimately] | ||
| 15 | MENACINGLY |
Trouble in my glance? (10)
|
| *(in my glance) [anag:trouble] and &lit. | ||
| 16 | EDIT |
Revise course after reflection (4)
|
| <=TIDE (“course”, after reflection) | ||
| 18 | LIST |
Lean piece of veal is tempting (4)
|
| Hidden in [piece of] “veaL IS Tempting” | ||
| 20 | PASSIONATE |
Difficult situation — island, extremely tense, emotional (10)
|
| PASS (“difficult situation”) + IONA (Hebridean “island”) + [extremely] T(ens)E | ||
| 22 | ANARCHIC |
Part of Norman arch I cite as following no rules (8)
|
| Hidden in [part of] “normAN ARCH I Cite” | ||
| 24 | SYRIA |
Country premises finally well-ventilated, written about (5)
|
| (premise)S [finally] + <=AIRY (“well-ventilated”, written about) | ||
| 26 | CHIMERA |
Unrealistic idea? Agree, risible actually at the outset (7)
|
| CHIME (“agree”) + R(isible) A(ctually) [at the outset] | ||
| 27 | SPANIEL |
Glib talk about a new pet? (7)
|
| SPIEL (“glib talk”) about A + N (new) | ||
| 28 | GLOBETROTTER |
Attempt to include large wager by despicable guy — he’s seen many places (12)
|
| GO (“attempt”) to include L (large) + BET (“wager”) by ROTTER (“despicable guy”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ENCHAIN |
Captivate attention of number coming up, welcoming tea (7)
|
| <=NINE (“number”, coming up) welcoming CHA (“tea”) | ||
| 3 | AT A PINCH |
After first-class exploit, move carefully forward if necessary (2,1,5)
|
| after A (first class) + TAP (“exploit”), INCH (“move forward”) | ||
| 4 | HIDE |
The man gathering papers, obscure (4)
|
| HE (“the man”) gathering ID (identitfication “papers”) | ||
| 5 | RUDDERLESS |
Daughter introduced to complicated dress rule with no clear aim (10)
|
| D (daughter) introduced to *(dress rule) [anag:complicated] | ||
| 6 | CRAVE |
Urgently need word of warning about Romeo? (5)
|
| CAVE (Latin for “beware”, so “word of warning”) about R (Romeo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) | ||
| 7 | LEOPARD |
One spotted senior church figure, American friend in brief (7)
|
| (Pope) LEO (XIV) (“senior church figure”) + PARD(ner) (“American friend”, in brief) | ||
| 8 | NONCOMPLIANCE |
Regularly unsound, complain with exchange of letters, engineer a refusal to budge (13)
|
| [regularly] (u)N(s)O(u)N(d) + COMPL(ai)N [with exchange of letters] becomes COMPL(IA)N + CE (civil “engineer”) | ||
| 9 | UNDER THE TABLE |
One over the eight, referring to sweetener? (5,3,5)
|
| Double definition, the first referring to being very drunk, the second to an illicit deal | ||
| 14 | INVALIDATE |
Discredit dreadful vigilante ad, no good (10)
|
| *(viilante ad) [anag:dreadful] where VIILANTE is VI(g)ILANTE with no G (good) | ||
| 17 | CONSTANT |
Loyal contestant missing outside of Tralee? (8)
|
| CON(te)STANT missing [outside of] T(rale)E | ||
| 19 | STAYING |
On visit for while, give information about river (7)
|
| SING (“give information”) about (River) TAY | ||
| 21 | AIRLINE |
Firm on the up in broadcast row? (7)
|
| AIR (“broadcast”) + LINE (“row”) | ||
| 23 | CREDO |
Clubs have another go at set of principles (5)
|
| C (clubs) + REDO (“have another go at”) | ||
| 25 | TSAR |
Leader at first taking serious action rapidly (4)
|
| [at first] T(aking) S(erious) A(ction) R(apidly) |
Thanks for the blog , good and solid set of clues with nice touches .
ENCHAIN held me up , could not get away from enchant with the cha but failed to make the number bit work . Not convinced by the definition but will check Chambers later .
GLOBETROTTER could have involved Harlem for a bit of 70s nostalgia .
We seem to see Gurney around the middle of each month. This started off easily enough, but I then found several clues challenging that were easier to answer than parse.
It certainly started off with a bang – I really liked 1ac. I also thought SYRIA and ORCHARD were clever
I was unable to parse UNDER THE TABLE (NHO one over the eight = drunk) and DRAGOON. I was not sure what american friend in brief is in LEOPARD and find it hard to believe it is pardner. NHO CAVE as word of warning – seems to be English school slang. In PASSIONATE, why is difficult situation = PASS?
Thanks Gurney and loonapick. In particular thanks for teaching me even more British slang for drunk and criminal. I think I must have encountered at least 100 new examples of each in these crosswords.
Martyn@2 , CAVE is Latin for beware , CAVE CANEM is preserved in a mosatc at Pompeii . Think I have heard PARD in old Westerns .
For LEOPARD, I thought the senior church figure was Lord and the American friend was a pal, leaving an unexplained E. Good to see a more plausible parsing.
Good fun, and I learnt another Scottish river.
Roz@1: Having looked at Chambers(2016) I don’t think ENCHAIN=CAPTIVATE either (or only at a very long stretch). I wonder whether Gurney was confusing enchain/enchant and/or captivate/capture. Perhaps Pelham Barton will have something to say later.
Collins has this under ENCHAIN
to hold fast or captivate (the attention etc)
(Chambers has ‘to hold fast (informal)’)
Martyn@2
I think difficult situation=PASS as in “It has reached such a pass”.
Someone may have a better explanation.
Thanks KVa. I don’t have such ready access to Collins. And a long way down its definitions of PASS (noun) Chambers has “a predicament, critical position”.
For some reason my anagram brain was switched off today. Really struggled with RUDDERLESS, MENACINGLY and even SERENADE despite correctly identifying the fodder. Also got fuddled thinking of ‘Lyria’ as a possible country. Not my best outing.
Thought maybe enchain might have a technical meaning in cognition, but no, KVa’s Collins entry seems to nail it. Enjoyed the puzzle, ta both.
[Saw the Harlem Globetrotters in ’56; we got complimentary tix for putting their poster in our shop window]
Thanks Gurney and loonapick. I will not have access to my dictionaries until this evening, but I can confirm that CAVE was used at my school in the early 1970s. Having heard it spoken many times before I ever saw it written down, I long thought it was K.V. and didn’t think it wise to ask what the letters stood for.
My lack of attention to detail was my problem today, making me put in ENCHANT, thinking it involved ten and cha. Only when I concluded that MENACINGLY had to be an anagram was I able to correct it.
We also thought ENCHAIN for ‘captivate’ a bit of a stretch but if it’s in Collins …
Otherwise no real problems. SERENADE was our LOI after a sudden PDM while we were frustrated by all the crossing letters being vowels.
Thanks, Gurney and loonapick.
Many thanks, loonapick, for the excellent blog and thanks also to all who commented.
Definition in ENCHAIN is “captivate attention of”.
A satisfying puzzle from GURNEY today. Fairly straightforward for me except the SE corner held me up for a while. Many thanks.
Fifty plus years of watching American TV and movies, and reading American literature, and I’ve never heard or read anyone say “Pard”.
There must be a better way to clue those four letters. “Standard breast size” leaps to mind.
7dn: Collins 2023 p 1450 has pard¹ n US short for pardner, and then pardner n US dialect friend or partner. Setters have access to dictionaries: they do not have access to individual commenters’ memories of what they have or have not heard or read.