It had to happen sometime – I have finally solved one of these in one pass.
It took about half hour – I was making notes for the blog as I went so there was plenty of thinking time in there. This also depends on how I define a “first pass” (ends when I tackle the last un-tackled clue), and the order the clues are tackled: I generally tackle the next clue with the highest number of crossing letters in place (a given first letter counts as a kind of trump card) – but of course sometimes clues catch your eye and you’ve just got to do them there and then.
In this case after 1A and 1D being near write-ins, I swiftly found myself in the bottom half of the grid after getting the long 10D and 27A. So for instance I had plenty of crossing letters in place before I thought about 5/14 which made that much easier than it might otherwise have been.
I suppose as a consequence I have to rate this puzzle on the easy side, but no less enjoyable for that.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ENTITY | Being twenty, wayward wife is exchanged for one! (6) (TWENTY -W[ife] +I (one))* AInd: wayward |
| 4 | STAVES IN | Mark, clutching underwear, almost breaks open a barrel (6,2) VES[t] (underwear, almost) inside STAIN (mark) |
| 9 | VENTRICLE | Lower chamber opening – odd relic (9) VENT (opening) (RELIC)* AInd: odd |
| 11 | SHRUB | Possibly elder Republican interrupted Bush rashly (5) R[epublican] inside (BUSH)* AInd: rashly |
| 12 | LECTERN | Centre moved right of Labour leader in support of speaker (7) L[abour] (CENTRE)* AInd: moved |
| 13 | ADORNED | Being tarted up, loved to cover Johnson’s back (7) [johnso]N inside ADORED (loved) Last one in for no particular reason |
| 16 | ARCH ENEMY | Most of the media, as far as Trump’s concerned? Hence army mobilised (4,5) (HENCE ARMY)* AInd: mobilised |
| 19 | GREAT DANE | Enormous cur, Niels Bohr, say? (5,4) Double Definition |
| 20 | ANAL | Arse-like, trivial book ditched (4) [b]ANAL |
| 23 | ALMANAC | Rushdie hasn’t begun a Conservative register (7) [s]ALMAN A C[onservative] |
| 24 | TELSTAR | Satellite broadcast alerts after Trump’s inauguration (7) T[rump] (ALERTS)* AInd: broadcast |
| 26 | ETHER | Anaesthetic hitch — temperature’s dropped (5) TETHER – T[emperature] |
| 27 | OBNOXIOUS | Odious nob gets round ten debts (9) (NOB)* AInd: gets round, X (ten), IOUS (debts) |
| 28 | NOWADAYS | Won round a former TV presenter with sex present (8) WON<, A DAY (former TV presenter, ref. Robin D), S[ex] |
| 29 | BRONCO | Eleanor, firm, rough ride? (6) [Eleanor] BRON CO (firm) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENVELOPE | Even pole dancing is a cover-up (8) (EVEN POLE)* AInd: Dancing |
| 2 | TONIC | Boost to tourist city (not English) (5) TO NIC[e] |
| 3 | TORIES | Politicians of old right put into trusses (6) O[ld] R[ight] inside TIES (trusses) |
| 5/14 | THE WASHINGTON POST | Not Trump’s favourite daily Sousa march (3,10,4) Double Definition. Had to look this up to check “The Washington Post” I did not know the name of this very recognisable tune |
| 6 | VISCOUNT | Peer cuts “vino” out? (8) (CUTS VINO)* AInd: out. You have to be careful in an Eye crossword “peer” can sometimes mean “pee-er” |
| 7 | STRONGMAN | Pick-up expert, Norm, plagued with angst? (9) (NORM ANGST)* AInd: plagued with. |
| 8 | NOBODY | Hardly a celeb getting nothing but head? (6) NO BODY |
| 10 | CONTRADICTORY | Inconsistent DIY contractor’s crap (13) (DIY CONTRACTOR)* AInd: crap |
| 15 | SCRIMSHAW | Chris M. was buggered – a sailor’s handiwork (9) (CHRIS M WAS)* AInd: buggered. Scrimshaw: Lovely word for lovely things |
| 17 | MANNERED | Artificial bloke/ass, conserving energy (8) E[nergy] inside MAN NERD (bloke/ass) |
| 18 | ALFRESCO | Outdoors, a large French supermarket fails to open (8) A L[arge] FR[ench], [t]ESCO |
| 21 | CAVERN | Beware sailors’ den (6) CAVE (beware) RN (sailors) |
| 22 | FLEXOR | Rolf reformed, once imprisoned, becoming a joint mover (6) EX (once) inside (ROLF)* AInd: reformed |
| 25 | THORN | God takes name “Spike” (5) THOR (God) N[ame] |
Chris Grayling has been made head of British Intelligence – no more jokes anymore
Your parsing of 27 only gives OBNXIOUS. The missing O could be represented by ’round’ but that would leave ‘gets’ alone as the anagram indicator which seems insufficient. Has anyone else managed to parse this one? ‘Odious nob’ would give the OBN but requires ‘Odious’ to perform double duty. Either way I think Cyclops has missed a trick here, the OBN being one of the highest honours the Eye can bestow.
Thanks Beermagnet! But you burst my bubble completely with your half hour. I was feeling really cocky having done it in 90 mins or so…without making notes as I went along!!!! Back in your box, Winsor!!!!
Thanks beermagnet and Cyclops. I enjoyed this one also. Was pleased with15d as the crossing letters led me to SCRIMSHAW with a vague recollection that such a word existed. Have to say did not know 21d CAVE = Beware until I had looked it up. I only got as far as amo, amas, amat in Latin before it was dropped for my class.
Fermat @ 1 I also puzzled (excuse the pun) over 27 in the same way. If double tasking is allowed (for OBNOXIOUS), I suppose that works, but I think you can also think of GETS = PRODUCES which would seem an acceptable anagram indicator. Without BN’ing I liked the reference to OBN.
Thanks beermagnet, I share the confusion over exactly how to arrive at OBNOXIOUS and assumed Odious somehow was doing double duty, answer is almost an anagram of “Odious nob” as well which only confused me further.
Winsor@2 while beermagnet’s time is impressive you still beat me by a long way as I really struggled on first attempting the top left for some reason and it took a long one to get me started (as the actress said to the bishop) so you can get out of your box again if you like!
Franko@3, I have even less formal Latin than you but fortunately “Caveat Emptor” and to some extent “Cave Canem” seem to have entered my vocabulary which helped.
I did wonder how well known Eleanor Bron is to anyone under 40 (I am mid 40s and only really know her name because she had a cameo in a classic old Dr Who episode). I suppose given the Eye’s likely demographic it isn’t going to cause too many problems.
15D was my favourite although I probably only know the word from the Antiques Roadshow.
26ac: not a “number” today, then?
27ac: “round” = O as Fermat says. I think I didn’t examine the clue too closely,as I don’t remember noticing anything wrong at the time.
28ac: brilliant! Nothing means what it seems to mean except “former TV presenter”.
5dn/14 I looked up the title, but didn’t listen to it till you mentioned it was familiar, Beermagnet. I thought I had an idea what it would sound like but it turned out to be something completely different.
SCRIMSHAW was the subject of a cluing competition in the Sunday Times im 2017. I see from my emails I wrote:
In short, one offending playwright by staging initial production at sea? (9)
In short, one offending (CRIM) playwright (SHAW) by staging initial (S) production at sea? (Defn)
I quite liked it but I don’t think it got a mention.
Humour can begin again!
MPs on the Intelligence & Security Committee have elected Tory backbencher Julian Lewis to chair the committee – rebelling against No10 which wanted Chris Grayling to get the role.
Failing Grayling failed to get elected chair in a rigged vote where his party had a majority and controlled the process. Top work.
I took the letters from “odious nob” then took “ten debts” as “X + IOUs”, giving me OBNOXIOUS. But then I am only just learning how to do these so probably got it all wrong!