9:36, but with one stupid error: I put CASES at 24dn. It sort of works, if you’ve an eye to finishing in under 10 minutes, and make a connection between ‘requests’ and CASES in a vaguely legal sense, but it doesn’t really stand up to proper scrutiny, does it?
This week’s controversial clue is the spoonerism at 2dn, which is not a spoonerism as the term is commonly understood. Some on the club forum put forward the view that this is permissible on the basis that the Reverend in question sometimes sangled his myllables in ways other than a simple transposition of initial phonemes. I don't think I'd accept this as a justification for a use of the word 'spoonerism', since what the Reverend actually did is no more relevant in determining the current meaning of this word than goings-on in the Roman army are relevant to the meaning of the word 'decimate': usage is meaning. However the clue doesn’t actually use the word ‘spoonerism’, so if this is the way Spooner spoke (another spoonerism there), then this formulation seems perfectly legitimate. And besides, the answer is obvious from the checkers and perhaps more importantly it’s just a bit of fun.
This puzzle wasn’t hard, but I enjoyed it a lot, and in my blog-related post-solve parsing I came to the conclusion that it’s a first class crossword. 2dn was a particular highlight, and I enjoyed the appearance of PSEPHOLOGIST: such a good word. 6dn is an excellent &Lit, and if this is the first time 27ac has appeared then it’s genius (I expect someone will be along to tell me that it’s an old chestnut, but hey, I enjoyed it). 16ac is also very good, the surface of 20ac is super-smooth… even the gimmes (and there are a few) are elegant. 10ac, for instance, is just my kind of double definition. No cheating with obscure vocabulary, it’s all perfectly familiar: your brain just has to work out how it connects.
So thank you Jeff, and here’s how I wink it all therks.
This week’s controversial clue is the spoonerism at 2dn, which is not a spoonerism as the term is commonly understood. Some on the club forum put forward the view that this is permissible on the basis that the Reverend in question sometimes sangled his myllables in ways other than a simple transposition of initial phonemes. I don't think I'd accept this as a justification for a use of the word 'spoonerism', since what the Reverend actually did is no more relevant in determining the current meaning of this word than goings-on in the Roman army are relevant to the meaning of the word 'decimate': usage is meaning. However the clue doesn’t actually use the word ‘spoonerism’, so if this is the way Spooner spoke (another spoonerism there), then this formulation seems perfectly legitimate. And besides, the answer is obvious from the checkers and perhaps more importantly it’s just a bit of fun.
This puzzle wasn’t hard, but I enjoyed it a lot, and in my blog-related post-solve parsing I came to the conclusion that it’s a first class crossword. 2dn was a particular highlight, and I enjoyed the appearance of PSEPHOLOGIST: such a good word. 6dn is an excellent &Lit, and if this is the first time 27ac has appeared then it’s genius (I expect someone will be along to tell me that it’s an old chestnut, but hey, I enjoyed it). 16ac is also very good, the surface of 20ac is super-smooth… even the gimmes (and there are a few) are elegant. 10ac, for instance, is just my kind of double definition. No cheating with obscure vocabulary, it’s all perfectly familiar: your brain just has to work out how it connects.
So thank you Jeff, and here’s how I wink it all therks.
| Across | |
| 1 | Election experts oppose slight changes about term for voters |
| PSEPHOLOGISTS - (OPPOSE SLIGHT)* containing | |
| 10 | Unpleasantdrive |
| OFFENSIVE - DD. | |
| 11 | Persian starts to fret as Ruby strokes it |
| FARSI - first letters of ‘fret as Ruby strokes it’. The official language of Iran. | |
| 12 | Strip by extremely trendy pool |
| KITTY - KIT (strip), T | |
| 13 | Clear moat with a group of conservationists |
| TRENCHANT - TRENCH (moat), A, NT (National Trust). | |
| 14 | Distinguished artist’s model may say this |
| IMPOSING - or I’M POSING. | |
| 16 | Start to burn a collection of books? |
| KINDLE - DD, and a very neat one too. | |
| 19 | It’s plain aunt is angry about medico |
| TUNDRA - (AUNT)* containing DR. | |
| 20 | Good shot behind farm building bags large type of goose |
| BARNACLE - BARN, AC(L)E. | |
| 22 | I’m 19 and end up unemployed |
| REDUNDANT - (TUNDRA, END)* where TUNDRA comes from 19ac and ‘up’ is the anagrind. | |
| 24 | Animal arrived then left |
| CAMEL - CAME, L. A very simple, very easy but very neat clue. I wonder if this idea has been used before? Seems likely, although I don’t remember seeing it (and I’m not suggesting Jeff copied it). | |
| 25 | One after fish bones |
| CARPI - CARP, I. | |
| 26 | Use lower gear, as many do on Friday |
| DRESS DOWN - I think this is just a cryptic definition, but it’s not very cryptic so I wonder if I’m missing something. | |
| 27 | Cabinet-maker? |
| PRIME MINISTER - cryptic definition, and quite brilliant IMO, even if it’s very simple and the answer is a bit obvious from the enumeration. It’s just one of those clues that is so perfect you have the sense that it was discovered, rather than invented. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Clasp Spooner’s unhealthy looking person from Helsinki? |
| SAFETY PIN - or ‘pasty Finn’, as Spooner might have said it, even if it isn’t a spoonerism. | |
| 3 | Soft black digit |
| PINKY - P, INKY. | |
| 4 | Dropping old glove in centre of Margate |
| OMITTING - O, MITT, IN, | |
| 5 | Keybatsman facing new ball |
| OPENER - simple DD. | |
| 6 | Confine it with dressing! |
| INFECTION - (CONFINE IT)*. &Lit, and a brilliant one too. | |
| 7 | Earth civil engineer’s taken from row of houses |
| TERRA - TERRA | |
| 8 | Vehicle in which Nick gets stuck between junction and traffic |
| FORK LIFT TRUCK - FORK (junction), LIFT (steal, nick), TRUCK (traffic). Not a meaning of TRUCK that was familiar to me. It’s in the usual dictionaries, but with quite different definitions. ODO defines it as ‘barter’, and concept that doesn’t appear in any of the Collins definitions. Just goes to show that the meaning of words can be hard to din pown. | |
| 9 | Overzealous pogo dancer might combust |
| HIT THE CEILING - self explanatory. | |
| 15 | Compound iodine turns to before initially making another chemical |
| STRONTIUM - (I, TURNS TO)*, M | |
| 17 | Crumble lots of fertiliser in a river |
| DECOMPOSE - DE(COMPOS | |
| 18 | Tailless cat on Roman temple |
| PANTHEON - PANTHE | |
| 21 | Green form of transport is what’s used in central Guatemala? |
| TANDEM - the three central letters of ‘Guatemala’ are T AND EM. | |
| 23 | German painter displaying one of his articles about old city |
| DURER - D(UR)ER. UR, the setter’s go-to ancient city. | |
| 24 | Many requests for lots of beer |
| CASKS - C (one hundred, many) ASKS. And not CASES. | |