An enjoyable solve – especially 9ac, 14ac, and 18ac. Thanks to Kite for the puzzle
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | NARRATE |
Describe artist engaged in painting in Newcastle? (7)
|
| RA (Royal Academician, “artist”), inside ART=”painting”; all inside NE
NE is used for Newcastle postcodes, or perhaps Newcastle leading to NE for North East (of England) |
||
| 5 | HARICOT |
Henry’s business delivered foodstuff (7)
|
| sounds like (“delivered”): ‘Harry Co.’ = Henry’s company=”Henry’s business” | ||
| 9 | TOP OF THE MORNING |
Tam’s Irish greeting? (3,2,3,7)
|
| “Tam” can be described as TOP OF THE i.e. top letter of T-[he], plus MORNING i.e. AM ante meridiem | ||
| 10 | CREEL |
Third dance, perhaps it’s a trap (5)
|
| definition: a fish trap
C=”Third” in a ranking after A and B; plus REEL=”dance” |
||
| 11 | CHILLIEST |
Most cold sauce ingredients initially tasty (9)
|
| CHILLIES=”sauce ingredients”, plus initial letter of T-[asty] | ||
| 12 | DEEPENING |
Dictator’s letter writing that’s more intense (9)
|
| sounds like (“Dictator’s” i.e. when dictated): ‘D’=”letter” + ‘penning’=”writing” | ||
| 14 | CLEAN |
English family houses spotless (5)
|
| E (English), housed inside CLAN=”family” | ||
| 15 | GATES |
Entrepreneur Bill upset agribusiness, returned feeds (5)
|
| definition refers to Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft
contained inside [up]-SET AG-[ribusiness] reversed/”returned” “feeds” perhaps in the sense of ‘provides’, or perhaps ‘takes in’ |
||
| 16 | PARSONAGE |
Minister’s housing saint, pagan or English rogue (9)
|
| anagram/”rogue” of (S pagan or E), with S for “saint” and E for “English” | ||
| 18 | ARTHRITIS |
King out of uniform is welcoming sex that produces swelling and stiffness (9)
|
| ARTH-U-R (as in King Arthur of legend), minus U (Uniform, NATO alphabet), plus IS (from surface); and around IT=”sex” | ||
| 21 | SHEDS |
That woman detective takes off (5)
|
| SHE=”That woman” + DS (Detective Sergeant) | ||
| 22 | GIVE THE GAME AWAY |
Pass on Monopoly? (4,3,4,4)
|
| definition: to share or pass on some information
to “Pass on Monopoly” could also be read as ‘to give the board game Monopoly to someone’ i.e. GIVE THE GAME AWAY |
||
| 23 | WASHOUT |
State bay is a disappointment (7)
|
| WA (Washington, US state) + SHOUT=to “bay” | ||
| 24 | SAMOYED |
Short prophet after tip-off played with dog (7)
|
| SAM (“Short” for Samuel, a prophet in the Bible); plus [t]-OYED=”played” with the first letter (“tip”) taken “off” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | NOTICED |
Remarked such a cake is unprepared (7)
|
| a cake that is NOT ICED has not been finished with icing | ||
| 2 | REPRESENTATIVES |
Blessed priests venerate MPs maybe (15)
|
| anagram of (priests venerate)*
for the anagram indicator, ‘bless’ can mean to wound, to damage |
||
| 3 | AWFULNESS |
Terrible state of justice after beheading (9)
|
| [L]-AWFULNESS=”state of justice”, beheaded with its top letter removed | ||
| 4 | ETHIC |
Nietzsche’s final, brief broad principle (5)
|
| final letter from [Nietzsch]-E, plus THIC-[k]=”broad” shortened/”brief” | ||
| 5 | HUMDINGER |
Unusually large one, drone a US hit (9)
|
| HUM=a “drone” sound; plus DINGER=slang for a home run in baseball=”US hit” | ||
| 6 | RURAL |
Two rivers in the country (5)
|
| two rivers: R (river) + URAL=the name of a river | ||
| 7 | CHINESE TAKEAWAY |
Why eat anise cake confection in food parcel? (7,8)
|
| anagram/”confection” of (Why eat anise cake)* | ||
| 8 | TIGHTEN |
Eastern country unit reported to be tense (7)
|
| sounds like (reported to be): ‘Thai ten’=”Eastern country unit” | ||
| 13 | IMPATIENT |
Irritable setter’s one found in hospital (9)
|
| I’M=the crossword setter is=”setter’s” + PATIENT=”one found in hospital” | ||
| 14 | CROSS-BEAM |
Spanner from Ford and BMW not English, right? (5-4)
|
| definition: a CROSS-BEAM extends across the ‘span’ of a building
CROSS=to “Ford” a stream; plus BEAM-[er]=a “BMW” car, minus E (English) and R (right) |
||
| 15 | GLASGOW |
Immature girl wearing good, short dress in Northern city (7)
|
| LAS-[s]=”girl”, not fully complete or developedi.e. “Immature”; inside/”wearing” G (good) + GOW-[n]=”short dress” | ||
| 17 | ESSAYED |
Tested article by journalist (7)
|
| ESSAY=”article” + ED (editor, “journalist”) | ||
| 19 | RETRO |
Old, half-hearted rotter disgruntled (5)
|
| anagram/”disgruntled” of (ro t er)*, with only half of the ‘heart’ or central letters of ro-tt-er | ||
| 20 | SCANS |
Studies about investing in tins (5)
|
| CA (circa, “about”), inside SNS=Sn (chemical symbol for tin), with an S added at the end=”tins” |
Interesting set of clues, which I appreciated more after revisiting. A few clunky surfaces, but I thought TOTM was neat and I also liked PARSONAGE, SAMOYED, NOTICED, REPRESENTATIVES, HUMDINGER, CHINESE TAKEAWAY and CROSS BEAM. I didn’t think DEEPENING worked as ‘Dictator’ seems to imply that the whole word is a homophone rather than just DEE.
Ta Kite & manehi.
Thanks Kite and manehi
Very slow start on the acrosses, but after a few downs went in it fell out nicely. TOTM favourite.
SAM is a very short prophet!
I don’t think 22a quite works.
TOTM was indeed my Top of the Morning solve.
Thanks to S&B
Tricky and enjoyable.
I could not parse 9ac, 24ac, 20d although I thought about CA = circa.
New for me: CREEL although I probably came across it in past puzzles – it’s not a word that sticks in my brain!
Only needed help with the parsing of haricot. Thanks
Yes tricky and enjoyable. Only needed help parsing haricot. Thanks
Nice crossword but not totally convinced by 8D TIGHTEN being synonymous with Tense ? Also needed all the crossers for 16A as I could not see past ST for Saint.
8d particularly weak, among many other horrors, in my opinion.
Yes, an enjoyable solve, though I got a general impression that there were several clues that required just the first letter of a “thing” to be included in their parsing. Perhaps I should qualify that more, but I’m in a bit of a rush for a GP’s appt…
As an Irish person, can I just say that the only time we’d say ‘top of the morning’ is if we’re taking the piss out of other people’s stereotypes. So, it’s a bit disappointing to see it in the Graun as if it’s OK.
Sorry if this comes across as being a bit over-sensitive.
SimoninBxl @7: I wondered about that but Chambers has tense as the verb, “to subject to tension” so I reckon it’s OK.
Nho dinger and didn’t think the monopoly clue works frightfully well. I don’t see anything implying letting a secret out. Anyone?
Otherwise all reasonable.
Some fun, some not. A nice bit of fission in TOP OF THE MORNING and a good (if rather obvious) anagram for CHINESE TAKEAWAY. I liked the NOT ICED cake but not the Thai Ten. Oddly, I solved WASHOUT by guessing the bay was the WASH, and only got the right parsing afterwards.
I liked the neatly hidden definition for PARSONAGE, but isnt it getting rather close to the dreaded indirect anagram? And I’ve just discovered that I’ve been pronouncing HARICOT wrong all my life, which is why I couldn’t parse it.
I filled in samoyed but got stuck on parsing because I took ‘s’ as short and AMO as prophet with tip off, so was wondering how YED could mean ‘played with’
I concur with the first two sentences of gladys @13. Some nice constructions but some word salad surfaces. I liked TOTM (though the phrase itself is a tired cliche) but GTGA only works for me as a rather weak single CD.
Three rather iffy sound-alikes in one puzzle seems excessive – and as two crossed with each other they were my LOI.
But it was pleasant enough as a pastime.
Thanks to Kite and manehi
Re my comment at 14 above, just realised I’m not sure ‘s’ can stand for short, so I was confused there
Sneaky homophones, and couldn’t parse SCANS (I was stuck on CANS for TINS, and couldn’t find the S).
Billy Mills@10: Yes, I’ve never heard anyone say this other than ironically. On the other hand it is a well-known if stereotypical phrase, so I think it’s OK. Slightly jarring that Tam is a Scottish word (or name), but you can’t have everything.
Not sure that 22A works at all, and how can TEN be a unit at 8D? NHO DINGER, but nothing else would fit. Quite liked 9A, although, as our Irish contributor suggests above, I’ve never actually heard anyone say it. A bit of a curate’s egg, IMO.
William@12
To pass on means to spread information, which then gives the game away, so all s8ts well with me
A very rare zero ticks. I thought there were too many slack clues here. I’ve never seen beemer spelt with an A and HUMDINGER doesn’t mean large – at least according to Chambers
Kite should go straight to jail and not collect £200 for the monopoly clue
AC@1 don’t you need the soundalike to account for the single N in DEEPENING vs PENNING?
Cheers M&K
Mike @14
An elderly acquaintance bought a new suit. On the label it said SP. He thought it meant “special”, but was very disappointed when it was explained it stood for “short and portly”.
D-penning and Thai ten? No.
Not convinced by “immature girl” for LAS[s].
A cake that is not iced is not necessarily unfinished.
Too much looseness for my liking.
I needed a lot of help with the parsing today, so extra thanks to manehi. I found Tam delightfully neat, even if the greeting itself is outdated.
Could someone help me understand why ten=unit?
Thanks to Kite!
Not as gnarly as Kite can be.
I did have a stray w in my TOP OF THE MORNING clue but put it down to Teh Grauniad.
SAMOYED caused me the most grief as I wanted the short prophet to be YODA.
Thanks Kite and Manehi
I often begin with the clues to five-letter answers, and I enjoy neat and poetic surfaces, so the clue for RURAL made a nice start.
Unfortunately though, that was it for me. I found the rest of the crossword a bit of a slog. Good that some others enjoyed it though.
“Tam” in 9a is very clever – thank you, manehi, for explaining it – though I take the point made by Billy Mills @10. However, the ? perhaps lets Kite off the hook.
Seems I’m in a minority of one, but I found so much of this vague and inaccurate I gave up. Final straw was the Beamer. To me it’s a Beemer.
Others – the Dinger 🤷♂️ (I’ve been watching highlights of the US Rounders and have never heard anyone refer to this), the one of any number of prophets, Harry Co,, Top of the morning (to be sure, to be sure 🤦♂️), the Monopoly, one of any number of ingredients in any number of sauces.
Lucky I’ve still got the Indy to to. For now at least.
I appear to have enjoyed this for all the reasons that some others didn’t. I guess one person’s ‘looseness’ is another’s misdirection (which I thought was the whole point of a cryptic).
Thanks to Kite and manehi
Calabar Bean @24 I thought the unit was “ton” rather than “ten”. It works just as well, since neither ton nor ten is an exact match for the “in” sound of the latter section of tighten. But maybe other folks pronounce it differently. 🙂
I needed the parsing for NARRATE and the clever TAM. Thanks Kite and manehi.
I’ve always disliked clues that say sounds like. Most of them don’t sound anything like that which they’re supposed to.
22a isn’t a good clue
Managed to complete it but struggled with some of the parsing, as per previous comments, and had to Google the dog breed. Still, always nice to see a full and correct grid.
I used to have an Irish colleague and whenever we were on a meeting together, I would say “Top of the morning to you, Mary!” in a cheery faux-Irish accent and she would reply “And the rest of the day to yourself!” in her authentic one. All in good fun, though apologies to any Irish offended.
Anyway, 9A went in right away, although it took me almost to the end for the penny to drop on the parsing.
I’m with KateE. So many clues in need of an edit(or) it’s difficult to know where to start
Many thanks to manehi for a super blog and to all commenters. TOP OF THE MORNING is in various dictionaries eg the ODE: Irish English used as a friendly morning greeting: top of the morning to you, Inspector. and Collins: A morning greeting, regarded as a characteristic utterance of Irish people, so apologies if it caused any offence. Collins has: Beemer or Beamer although Beemer seems to be preferred.
Kite is pushing cruciverbalistic licence a bit too far in a good many of these clues. Not a pleasant solve for me.
Thanks manehi for the parsing.
bodycheetah @21: it wasn’t the spelling, my quibble is that DEE PENNING does not sound like DEEPENING, or maybe I’m being too picky.
AlanC – no you’re not. If only the editor took a similar approach….
Thanks for dropping by Kite @34. Good stuff, and that clue seemed reasonable to me, despite the cliché.
I’m in the minority who found this difficult, partly because I forgot I had the great big anagram for CHINESE TAKEAWAY to sort out. I solved it all and parsed everything except TOTM, which I think I’d have been OK with if I’d remembered to revisit it.
Thanks manehi.
To answer some of the above:
It’s Thai ton – I think that works
The sound-alike for D-penning is clued by Dictator’s
I’m not sure about 24. It looks like it should be S for short, AMO[s] for prophet after tip-off but then one is stuck with YED. I suppose it just about works as stated but does “played with” really clue TOYED? I would say it means toyed with, not toyed.
Like Nakamova@29 I parsed 8d as homophone of Thai = Eastern country and ton = unit (of measurement of weight) which in my vocalisation is pretty much identical to how I pronounce TIGHTEN.
I enjoyed this and none of the quibbles people have mentioned seemed to bother me.
Gladys@13 I don’t think there’s an indirect anagram as the anagrist is all just listed with ‘rogue’ telling us to mix it up afterwards. An indirect anagram is when the anagrist isn’t directly present in the clue as I understand it. Rather you’re supposed to think of a synonym and then juggle about with that. Steering clear of that does seem to be one clearly understood and universally respected rule (when so much else is fluid especially in the Guardian where editorial control seems to be deliberately laxer than in some places – or maybe it just costs too much so they don’t bother).
DC@39: you could substitute TOYED for PLAYED in the clue and get the same meaning; the ‘with’ attaches to each of them.
Billy #10 if it offends an Irish person, I don’t think it’s for others to say it’s ok. I’ve never heard it said by an Irish person and instinctively have always thought it was a patronising stereotype.
[Thanks Nakamova@29 et al, Thai ton fits well! But not in a million years I would pronounce this like tighten.
Not a comment on the clue, but on the challenges of my hopelessly English-as-a-second-language accent 🙂 ]
I don’t know what you’re all moaning about. I enjoyed it. Thanks Kite.
I’m sure ‘Thai ton’ is what was intended as the sound-alike for TIGHTEN, but I pronounce the word as ˈtʰaɪ̯tn̩, with a vocalic n and not even a trace of a schwa 🙂
Thanks for dropping by, Kite: it’s always instructive to hear the setter’s thinking. I’m sorry but, OED notwithstanding (& hooray for using that source) if I were to try greeting Irish friends with TOTM I’d probably get a smack for taking the piss…
I’m another who had THAI TON and Beemer and I, too, tried to parse SAMOYED like Dave Curtis.
I liked AWFULNESS and CLEAN.
Thank you for the blog, manehi: my tea-stained copy had lotsa crossings out and semi parsed messes…
This was interesting and somewhat easy for me. Didn’t know a few but looked them up. SAMOYED for instance. I guess my engagement with cryptics is somewhat like a walk in the park listening to birds. No compulsion to conquer!
Thanks a lot Kite and manehi
Didn’t take me long but… sorry. Weak. Poorly clued. ‘Dee Penning?’. Wouldn’t Henry’s company be ‘Harry’s Co’? 22A has no definition of the phrase in the clue. A few more but, whatever.
Maybe “ten” refers to units the decimal system? Would “tighten up” be similar to “tense up”, as when you’re nervous?
Thanks so much for the puzzle Kite, I enjoyed it. I appreciate you may not have known that TOTM might offend Irish people, but that could have been avoided by replacing Irish with other adjectives like hackneyed, legendary or even mythical.
And thanks for the bog manehi. I’m a bit surprised no-one has yet mentioned the parsing of 3D: I thought the definition must be TERRIBLE STATE for AWFULNESS, rather than TERRIBLE. I think JUSTICE alone can stand for LAWFULNESS.
Kite’s a great setter, just not sure he was flying his highest today – DuncT@28 claims one person’s looseness is another’s misdirection, but in my book real misdirection is completely tight, albeit misleadingly so. Enjoyed it though, thank you Kite and manehi
The criticisms seem overly harsh to me. I enjoyed the puzzle which was a little trickier than the usual Kite.
I didn’t know bless could mean wound or hurt, so TILT for me. I did wonder about the ten as a unit. Perhaps using figure in the clue could have reduced the gripes.
Yet more whining about homophone clues. When are we ever going to accept that we all have slightly different accents and that soundalikes are not sound-exactly-the-sames?
22a is just a CD imho and these typically do not further define the end result. In 21a, I felt the That could have been omitted for a slightly smoother surface.
Thanks, K&m.
Staticman1 at 25.
I did have a stray w in my TOP OF THE MORNING clue but put it down to Teh Grauniad.
This was in the online version but it was eventually corrected so the w was dropped.
I couldn’t see the relevance of TAMS thinking it was more Scottish than Irish. However I took TOT Morning to be M, an upside down W, so spent sometime trying to rationalize this with TAMS, to no avail of course.
17 down-essayed means tried, not tested. Assayed means tested. Confusing.
Am I the only one not completely gruntled about the use of “disgruntled” as an anagram indicator, and “feeds” as a hidden word indicator? I’m willing to accept that it’s overly pedantic to point out that “Harry Co” isn’t grammatical and needs a question mark, but I feel on safer ground griping about these!
@phitonelly
I agree generally re homophones but no-one anywhere since the dawn of time has ever said DEEPENING in the way the clue suggests…
I could pick out issues in multiple clues but just for starters, the wordplay for ARTHRITIS doesn’t work. The IS part doesn’t surround IT in the last part unless there’s an indicator that IT is to be reversed. Needless to say, there isn’t one.
Bingy@58 my general sentiment is much the same, but I think that clue is defensible. “It” is contained in “King out of uniform is,” not just “is.”
Well that was fun. A few minor quibbles but none that mattered. I like crosswords where I can finish, but I have to keep coming back to it, and this was one such.
Only issue was the misprint stray “w” in the print version for the clue to TOP OF THE MORNING, which I failed to parse. Now I understand it, I think it’s clever!
Bingy @58,
The clue doesn’t say IS alone surrounds IT. It’s ARTHR IS (King out of uniform… is) surrounding IT.
Re: DEEPENING. Dee penning isn’t exactly right, no, but it’s a sufficient clue to get to the answer and that’s all I’m looking for in homophone style clues.
Sorry, Tom @59. We crossed.
Hras anybody ever said “Top of the evening”? Top of the afternoon? Top of the mid-morning tea?
The Dee-penning clue reminds me of Sylvia Earle, the marine biologist and explorer of the ocean depths known as “Her Deepness.”
Did anybody else try “pit” as the tip off in the dog clue?
“Blesser” is a “wound in French, but I can’t find any such use of the word in English. I also join others in being unable to remember any use of “dinger” to mean “home run.” A common term for it is from bridge, “grand slam.”
Thanks to Kite and manehi.
I agree with @Billy Mills #10 and @Dave F #43 – disappointing to see TOTM in the crossword. I’m not Irish but visited there recently and have a great respect for the country and its people. That term is seen as a rather patronising caricature these days, though I’m sure many English people may be unaware of this.
I’m normally a fan of Kite, but today’s had, far too many slack clues to be enjoyable. Most of which mentioned here. Not a difficult solve, and maybe I’m being a bit harsh as I managed to parse them all after the event except TIGHTEN. Thanks, I think, to the many who parse it as THAI TON (ten cannot be a unit). On the other hand, whatever your mother language, the last syllable is never pronounced remotely like TON. I was going to add CREEL to the dislikes as I’d never heard of it as a trap. Now I’ve learnt something, so I can’t feel quite as hostile as I originally did. As a print version solver, I was puzzled by an extraneous “w” at the end of the clue for TOP OF THE MORNING. I did like this clue and a few others brought a smile. I wondered at the time what the Hibernian reaction would be to its inclusion – now I know!
Dinger is so common a term for a home run that the Colorado Rockies (who play in a hitter friendly ballpark at altitude) named their mascot Dinger.
Thanks phitonelly @65; Chambers, the ODE and Collins all give dinger as home run. Some may be disgruntled but it is in my Chambers list of anagrinds. I’m not sure I understand the criticism of DEEPENING; to me it sounds just like DEE [D] PENNING.
Valentine #62; Just to be picky, Blesser is the infinitive ‘to wound’, the noun being ‘une blessure’
Thanks for the blog , I thought it was great , after a very busy day it was good to see some very imagiinative touches ,
TOP OF THE MORNING – I soon decided the stray W was just a misprint , the use of fission and a.m. is very clever . Perhaps it could have said Oirish , my Irish students use this to mock stereotypical pubs etc .
ARTHRITIS has very neat wordplay . WASHOUT very deceptive with the break in the words not matching .
I’m interested in the absence of discussion of the compiler’s use of Sns = tins. Are we prepared for Pbs =leads, Fes =irons and so on?
Also, does the use of the NE post code for Newcastle given the green light for using SL as a container for Stoke Poges – albeit with a question mark?
I took tins as minor fission , tins = tin s = sn s .
For Newcastle I do not think NE is the postcode . The city is the prime example of the North-East for England .
baerchen and Roz
Newcastle is often used to generate “north-east”, but it’s a bit misleading – it’s actually west of Leeds and Oxford.
Old quiz question: if you fly a direct course from John o’Groats to Lands End, how many English counties do you fly over?
Answer: one, if you count Cornwall.
baerchen@69 – Sns was one of the one’s that as a “huh, really?” for me. Probably because I think multiple tin (atoms) would be Sn2, Sn3.
Kite@66. Re DEEPENING. D-PENNING works as parts but I would pronounce the whole as something like D-puhning. Or even Deep-ning.
phitonelly@65. Yet to hear the term mentioned at any time in the post season highlights. But I follow it enough to know the Rockies don’t actually hit enough “Dingers” to be successful.
I found this a fairly tricky but decent puzzle, & I don’t have a problem with any of the clues, except GIVE THE GAME AWAY. This phrase always refers to an inadvertent revelation; it’s pretty much identical to “let the cat out of the bag”. Whereas to “pass on” information is intentional in idiomatic English. The solution wasn’t hard to get, but I harrumphed as I typed it in.
Kite@66: to me it is D Pinning but to others, who knows, nice clue though.
I recall when then-Vice President Mike Pence made a state visit to Ireland around St. Patrick’s Day, and began his remarks to (I think) a conference of business leaders with “Top of the morning to you”. It went down like a lead balloon.
To those criticising TOTM, a great clue, as an Irishman you should
hang your heads in shame with your faux outrage. One of least offensive clues I’ve ever seen, gratuitous nonsense.
As an Irishman (lot of us about here), AlanC is right about TOTM. Irish wokeism.
I’m again with those that didn’t mind the soundalikes; inexact-homophone complaints strike me as raising something of a straw man. I can’t see _ten_ as a “unit”, so agree with those who read it as _ton_. (Also no problem with the definition “tense” as a verb.)
I thought of the 9a cliché right away but, wary of misdirection, didn’t write it in until the crossers made me try harder at parsing it. MORNING for “am” seemed pretty clear, but the reverse clue for “T” took much longer.
I failed to parse a couple, but can’t complain. Except that GLASGOW should be a Western city, shouldn’t it? ;p
Completed this one earlier in the day, but couldn’t post until now. A really good mix of accessible clues, to get a foothold, and chewier ones, to cause some head scratching. No favourites to mention, just a good, enjoyable set of clues
Couldn’t parse 8d TIGHTEN, so thanks manehi
And thank you Kite!
Well done Mig@79 , I read in the Guardian yesterday about Migfest , it takes place in Yorkshire every September . I am going to attend next year .
I’m with those thinking these clues were fair. All the homophones work to my Midlands ear. And on the Thai ten, I took the unit as a military one (a squad or section of 10 soldiers, or a Roman contubernium (1/10 of a centuria)).
To clarify my earlier comment (see 18 above), I do not regard TOTM as offensive, nor did I mean to express outrage. I was merely remarking that it’s not a phrase anyone ever says with a straight face.
[Roz@80, that’s cool! A bird MIGration festival! Right up your alley. Mine is a childhood nickname. I trust you’ll raise a glass in my honour…]
When I started this puzzle about the same time yesterday afternoon, I got SHEDS and nothing else, so I put it away for after my evening meal. I made slow progress, and took a rest to solve the Killer Sudoku. It appeared that some of my brain cells still functioned, so I went back to Kite. With 17 out of 28 solved I called it a day.
This morning I did better on the train home from the Lake District, and finished it eventually. (It was a three hour journey.) I would have to say it was a hard tussle. Enjoyable? Yes, in parts. And very glad to have finished it.
I’ve read all the comments, some of which I agree with. I think Kite has made a rod for his own back with soundalikes that break some of the “rules”. In HARICOT (one of my last in), the ‘Henry’ in the clue suggests H or Hal or Harry, ‘business’ suggests CO. But it’s been clued ‘Henry’s business delivered’ so the whole thing as clued has to sound something like the answer – but there’s an S after Henry, so that doesn’t work. In a regular clue this could be passed off as meaning “Henry has a word for business next”, but not when we are asked to listen to the words. (If Kite intended us to think of a possible name for Henry’s business, why expect us to think of HARRY CO? And then expect us to change it to HARI COT? Too much.)
Similarly with ‘eastern country unit reported’, surely the soundalike indicator must apply to the whole thing? (Following the model of HARICOT, where it really does sound exactly like HARRY CO.) But while TIGH sounds like Thai, the final syllable of TIGHTEN is tee followed by either a schwa or a vocalised N. If we recognise the answer but don’t understand the clue we are left saying “but TEN is not a unit”; if we get the unit as a TON we then have to change the vowel before writing it in with a shrug. OK, this is not definitively wrong, but it’s certainly misleading solvers in a way that I think Kite did not really intend. (In the third clue of this type, I think Kite has got it right: D-pen(n)ing.)
There’s some good, innovative cluing here, so I hope we see more of Kite.
Once again there are lots of spurious complaints about homophones. I have concocted an alliterative comment on the topic, but will wait for a more timely opportunity to use it (i.e., when more people might see it).
I also think that there is a difference between looseness and incorrectness, and complaints about looseness are not justifiable. If a word is misused, that’s unacceptable. If it is used in an unusual way, e.g. as a synonym that most people would not use, that is, in my opinion, acceptably misleading – it’s supposed to be cryptic, isn’t it?
Thanks, Kite, for the very enjoyable puzzle, and manehi, for the excellent blog.
A lot to be critical about, but for me the ARTHRITIS clue saves the day. What a gem!
What is wonderful in English is that often words are spelt as they sound. You would not pronounce PINNING and PINING in the same way, nor would you for PENNING and PENING.
Being French, I find homophone hard enough. I don’t need the setter to pretend to be….French.
I think Sourdough @40 has the right parsing for 8dn (TIGHTEN). TON makes much more sense to me than TEN for “unit”, and the homophone still works (better than many homophone clues, including 12ac, anyway!).
I’m afraid I’m in the camp that 22ac (GIVE THE GAME AWAY) doesn’t work.
I didn’t understand the parsing of 9ac (TOP OF THE MORNING), but I quite like it now that I see how it works.
As an American and a baseball fan, I can report that I have heard home runs referred to as DINGERs, but I think it’s very old-fashioned slang.
I grumbled about the anagrind in 2dn (REPRESENATIVES), but I stand corrected. I don’t think I’ve seen “bless” used to mean “wound”, but that is the meaning in French, so it’s not surprising that such an English meaning is out there, and at least some dictionaries support it.