Today sees a rare Wednesday outing for Quixote and a rare opportunity for me to blog a sample of his work.
I found this quite straightforward by Quixote standards, on a par with an average-difficulty Dac puzzle, which we might have expected to be confronted by this Wednesday morning.
In the end, I was left with 19 and 25. On the latter, I knew “insole” and not “inner sole” and thus didn’t feel confident about writing it in until I had solved 19, where I wasn’t sure where in the clue the definition was to be found and was also distracted for a long time by “scout” and “send out”.
My favourites today were 12, for its smooth surface; 21, for its misdirection around “fair” and “subject”; and 16, for its construction and for making me smile!
(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 01 | SPIFFING | Excellent Greek character, very loud in chorus?
[PI (=Greek character, i.e. letter of Greek alphabet) + FF (=very loud, in music)] in SING (=chorus) |
| 05 | PEEP | Cautious look in both directions
“in both directions” indicates a palindrome |
| 10 | EXPERTISE | No longer cheeky, is tyke finally showing skill?
EX (=no longer) + PERT (=cheeky) + IS + <tyk>E (“finally” means last letter only) |
| 11 | ALIVE | Animated adult wanting wickedness overthrown
A (=adult) + LIVE (EVIL=wickedness; “overthrown” indicates reversal) |
| 12 | GOETHE | Writer departs not having finished article
GOE<s> (=departs; “not having finished” means last letter dropped) + THE (=article, in grammar); the reference is to German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) |
| 13 | USED CARS | Old vehicles that may be adapted for crusades
*(CRUSADES); “that may be adapted” is anagram indicator |
| 14 | YEHUDI MENUHIN | You and philosopher will entertain princess, and sister will go about greeting musician
YE (=you) + [DI (=Princess (of Wales) in HUME (=philosopher, i.e. the Scot David Hume)] + [HI (=greeting) in NUN (=sister)]; Yehudi Menuhin (1916-99) was an American-born violinist and conductor |
| 17 | OCTOGENARIANS | Coo at grannies, funny old folk
*(COO AT GRANNIES); “funny” is anagram indicator |
| 21 | READJUST | Maybe book fair is subject to some changes
(a) READ (=maybe book) + JUST (=fair, as adjective); the “subject” of the definition is a verb, not adjective |
| 22 | BRUNEI | British character formerly attached to one Asian state
B (=British) + RUNE (=character formerly, i.e. letter of former Germanic alphabet) + I (=one) |
| 24 | DEISM | Belief conveyed by code is mysterious
Hidden (“conveyed by”) in “coDE IS Mysterious” |
| 25 | INNER SOLE | One lying down in Oxford?
Cryptic definition, where “Oxford” is a type of shoe |
| 26 | EDGE | Advantage of protection in the East End?
<h>EDGE (=protection; “in the East End” suggests that the letter “h” is dropped) |
| 27 | RECENTLY | Not long ago bank would keep a bit of money
CENT (=a bit of money) in RELY (=bank (on)) |
| Down | ||
| 01 | SLEDGE | Piece of winter equipment son put on shelf
S (=son) + LEDGE (=shelf) |
| 02 | IMPIETY | Godlessness of little devil, one yet needing reform
IMP (=little devil) + I (=one) + *(YET); “needing reform” is anagram indicator |
| 03 | FOR THE HIGH JUMP | Athletics competitor may be entered thus, expecting terrible punishment
An athletics competitor may be entered for the high jump event |
| 04 | NAIF | Green enthusiast turning up to protect island
I (=island) in NAF (FAN=enthusiast; “turning up” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 06 | EPITAPH | Words of grave significance
Cryptic definition, where “grave” is to be read as “tomb(stone)” |
| 07 | PLEASANT | Delightful prayers followed by a big chunk of Scripture
PLEAS (=prayers) + A + NT (=big chunk of Scripture) |
| 08 | BESSEMER | Elizabeth has upset engineers, one engineer in particular
BESS (=Elizabeth) + EMER (REME=engineers, i.e. Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers; “upset” indicates vertical reversal); the reference is to English engineer Henry Bessemer (1813-98), known for developing the Bessemer process for making steel from molten pig iron |
| 09 | MAIDENHAIR TREE | Something growing in Japan I admire near the ground
*(I ADMIRE NEAR THE); “ground” is anagram indicator; the maidenhair tree is also known as the gingko |
| 15 | DYNASTIC | Detectives turning up about nasty upset in connection with powerful family
*(NASTY) in DIC (CID=detectives; “turning up” indicates vertical reversal); “upset” is anagram indicator |
| 16 | PORRIDGE | What’s soft and ‘ideous say when served up as prison food?
P (=soft, i.e. piano in music) + <h>ORRID (=<h>IDEOUS) + G.E. (E.G.=say; “when served up” indicates reversal) |
| 18 | TRACING | Finding time to get to the Sport of Kings
T (=time) + RACING (=the Sport of Kings) |
| 19 | SENT OUT | Emissary is given a little money to try to get business
SEN (=little money, in Japan) + TOUT (=to try to get business); an emissary is “sent out” on a mission |
| 20 | TIMELY | Tiny boy, see, being early
TIM (=Tiny boy, i.e. character in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol) + ELY (=see, diocese) |
| 23 | ONCE | A single time just after church
ON (=just after) + CE (=church) |
I wallowed in self-doubt in the SW corner here (good job we can’t post pictures in this blog!)
20D Timely is defined as “early”, but I’ve always understood it to mean, “at the correct time”. The dictionary tells me that the “early” meaning is known, but archaic.
22A Brunei – I just didn’t see that rune was a character, which was unobservant of me.
19D Sent Out – I didn’t know that a sen was a coin.
25A Inner Sole – it’s a CD, and my opinion of CDs is not worth repeating here
but I did sort it all out eventually. The SW corner took as long as everything else, though.
My favourite is 2D, just because I’m always in favour of godlessness.
All thanks, of course, to Quixote for the entertainment, and to RatkojaRiku for teaching me about the sen.
Now I remember I was confused by 5A, “Cautious look in both directions”, for which I originally entered “slow”, thinking the definition was “cautious”, both directions were S and W, and look was “Lo!”
But I was barking up the wrong tree, as usual. Or perhaps just barking.
I stalled on 19D, and although I had SENT OUT as a possible fit I couldn’t make sense of it and still can’t. There’s no definition in the clue as far as I see. “Sent out” would be a continuation of the phrase “Emissary is … ” rather than a definition of it, and there’s nothing in the clue to indicate that’s what’s needed.
Apart from that whinge, very enjoyable. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I too was held up by the SE corner (Emrys@1 did you mean SE rather than SW?) with INNER SOLE and SENT OUT being my LOIs.
I think there is a mini-theme present associated with 17A.
Perhaps that is why I’m always having trouble with geography clues 🙂
Yes, sorry, SE!
I found this more straightforward than a lot of the Don’s puzzles, and I was very glad of that today after a couple of tricky puzzles in the Times and the Guardian. I don’t have a problem with “emissary is” as a definition for SENT OUT, and I think it is quite clever. Maybe one reason I found this easier than some of the Don’s puzzles is the comparative lack of obscure answers, and the only one I didn’t know beforehand was MAIDENHAIR TREE which was my LOI after I finally sorted out the anagram fodder. Having said that, I’m glad I had the Y?H checkers at the start of 14ac when I first read the clue because it meant I could biff YEHUDI MENUHIN without bothering to unravel the wordplay.
Thanks Quixote and RR,
INNER SOLE made me laugh, I should think anyone who tried to put them in their Oxfords would be lying down, the shoes were made smaller than the feet to give men a mincing gait (the generation who wore the bespoke shoes are probably lying down permanently).
I did like SPIFFING, a long time since I heard it spoken, and DYNASTIC.
@7
I don’t understand. What shoes were made smaller than the feet? My Oxfords certainly weren’t.
Herb @8, you have the choice of sizes, I don’t suppose many people have their shoes made for them now, but they did when I was young (a shoemaker these days would not make bespoke Oxfords smaller than their client’s feet).
I was another one who struggled with the bottom right corner (I won’t take a chance on calling it SE or SW). I was also a bit lost on the sent out for emissary – it seems uncharacteristically vague for a Quixote definition – and it took me quite a while to think of Brunei.