Due to an unfortunate concurrence of events - not least my PC being on the blink and the time machine needing further time at the service centre to remove all traces of the use it was previously put to in the Outback - I am writing this up on my iPad, having solved the puzzle thereon on the Times website.
To save time - and also to enable additional comment on this grey Monday morning - I will be writing this entire entry up using only what is stored up in my little grey cells, with no recourse to Google and his slightly rebellious offspring, Wikipedia.
So, you will be getting the naked, unadulterated Ulaca. A scary thought, indeed. Thank God this was largely weighted towards the Classics, even if there is one suspiciously scientific clue, which I may make a complete cock-up of, parsing wise.
Still, that will cause great delight in some quarters, so I rather think everyone will be happier rather than sadder upon reading this blog. 33:50 on the dodgy and incredibly slow iPad.
ACROSS
1. DISACCHARIDE - I mean, honestly, what a silly word. For goodness sake, call a spade a spade and all that. An anagram* of 'sic[k] I had cared'.
8. RETRIAL - reversal of I + R in LATER.
9. BAVARIA - reversal of AB followed by V + ARIA.
11. AVENGER - 'fury, perhaps'; VEN (archdeacon) in AGE + R.
12. SENATOR - SENIOR with I replaced by A T.
13. HOYLE - ELY and OH reversed. No idea if this is Sir Fred the astronomer, and to which games the reference might be being made. Possibly the theoretical kind I don't understand. Thanks to McText: Edmond Hoyle wrote 'treatises' on various card games (some of them invented for crosswords, such as quadrille and piquet), one on chess and one on probability theory. It obviously did him no harm, as he lived to nearly a hundred.
14. DESCENDER - this would be a CD referring to the orthographic arts, methinks.
16. FILAGREED - I + LAG in FREED; I put in filigreed at first until I twigged that a lig is something you only find on a Scrabble board and never in the can.
19. SAGAS - a palindromic Njally thing.
21. INSTANT - charade of IN ST and ANT. What Keriothe has next to the Bisto in his kitchen cupboard.
23. CORNICE - another charade, of COR + NICE.
24. GORDIAN - the sort of clue I pray for, even if this one is far too generous with the first letter being given. ADORING*, with 'fans' being the cunning anagrindisator.
25. IMMENSE - the setter must be someone who has suffered the trauma of being clubbed about the head by a mathematical type (note the punctiliousness of 'relatively short'). I + MM + SEEN*.
26. AMERICANISED - got to love this clue, but would it be even better with a 'zee'? Thanks to K: there's an overt reference here (missed by me) to Americans spelling words like colour sans U; and there's a delicious covert reference to that sort of thing being, well, you know, just not cricket. Shades of Charters and Caldicott.
DOWN
1. DITHERY - A Replaced by THE in DIARY.
2. SHINGLE - H in SINGLE.
3. COLERIDGE - COLE + G in RIDE.
4. HOBBS - the great Sir John Berry of Surrey and England, the scorer of a record 197 first-class centuries: one record that will never be broken. OB (short for 'obiit' - 'he [has] passed on' in Latin) + B in HS.
5. REVENUE - 'income'; RE + VENUE.
6. DERATED - RAT in DEED; 'derided' is a far superior word, but a 'rid' is not a pest.
7. PREACHIFYING - CHIEF PRAYING*; I'd have though the whole point of preachifying is that it is something one does when he or she isn't in the pulpit. Not even in holy orders, in fact.
10. AIR FRESHENER - REFRAINS HERE*.
15. SEDUCTION - CUTIE NODS*.
16. LUSTRUM - a word that most of us will only have come across in crosswords; LUSTR[e] + UM.
18. GLACIER - one for our Northern brethren; if someone oop North has a vacant look on their face (not indeed an altogether uncommon occurrence), and it is a look that is even more vacant than the average, you could say that their look is 'glassier' than ever, even if autocorrect is not on your side.
19. SHRIMPS - last of [ou]R in SH and IMPS.
20. GRINNED - [o]NE in GRIND; I suppose a grimace is like a grin - with some people I can think of, definitely, now I come to think of it, Steptoe for one.
22. TONIC - COT around IN, all reversed.
To save time - and also to enable additional comment on this grey Monday morning - I will be writing this entire entry up using only what is stored up in my little grey cells, with no recourse to Google and his slightly rebellious offspring, Wikipedia.
So, you will be getting the naked, unadulterated Ulaca. A scary thought, indeed. Thank God this was largely weighted towards the Classics, even if there is one suspiciously scientific clue, which I may make a complete cock-up of, parsing wise.
Still, that will cause great delight in some quarters, so I rather think everyone will be happier rather than sadder upon reading this blog. 33:50 on the dodgy and incredibly slow iPad.
ACROSS
1. DISACCHARIDE - I mean, honestly, what a silly word. For goodness sake, call a spade a spade and all that. An anagram* of 'sic[k] I had cared'.
8. RETRIAL - reversal of I + R in LATER.
9. BAVARIA - reversal of AB followed by V + ARIA.
11. AVENGER - 'fury, perhaps'; VEN (archdeacon) in AGE + R.
12. SENATOR - SENIOR with I replaced by A T.
13. HOYLE - ELY and OH reversed. No idea if this is Sir Fred the astronomer, and to which games the reference might be being made. Possibly the theoretical kind I don't understand. Thanks to McText: Edmond Hoyle wrote 'treatises' on various card games (some of them invented for crosswords, such as quadrille and piquet), one on chess and one on probability theory. It obviously did him no harm, as he lived to nearly a hundred.
14. DESCENDER - this would be a CD referring to the orthographic arts, methinks.
16. FILAGREED - I + LAG in FREED; I put in filigreed at first until I twigged that a lig is something you only find on a Scrabble board and never in the can.
19. SAGAS - a palindromic Njally thing.
21. INSTANT - charade of IN ST and ANT. What Keriothe has next to the Bisto in his kitchen cupboard.
23. CORNICE - another charade, of COR + NICE.
24. GORDIAN - the sort of clue I pray for, even if this one is far too generous with the first letter being given. ADORING*, with 'fans' being the cunning anagrindisator.
25. IMMENSE - the setter must be someone who has suffered the trauma of being clubbed about the head by a mathematical type (note the punctiliousness of 'relatively short'). I + MM + SEEN*.
26. AMERICANISED - got to love this clue, but would it be even better with a 'zee'? Thanks to K: there's an overt reference here (missed by me) to Americans spelling words like colour sans U; and there's a delicious covert reference to that sort of thing being, well, you know, just not cricket. Shades of Charters and Caldicott.
DOWN
1. DITHERY - A Replaced by THE in DIARY.
2. SHINGLE - H in SINGLE.
3. COLERIDGE - COLE + G in RIDE.
4. HOBBS - the great Sir John Berry of Surrey and England, the scorer of a record 197 first-class centuries: one record that will never be broken. OB (short for 'obiit' - 'he [has] passed on' in Latin) + B in HS.
5. REVENUE - 'income'; RE + VENUE.
6. DERATED - RAT in DEED; 'derided' is a far superior word, but a 'rid' is not a pest.
7. PREACHIFYING - CHIEF PRAYING*; I'd have though the whole point of preachifying is that it is something one does when he or she isn't in the pulpit. Not even in holy orders, in fact.
10. AIR FRESHENER - REFRAINS HERE*.
15. SEDUCTION - CUTIE NODS*.
16. LUSTRUM - a word that most of us will only have come across in crosswords; LUSTR[e] + UM.
18. GLACIER - one for our Northern brethren; if someone oop North has a vacant look on their face (not indeed an altogether uncommon occurrence), and it is a look that is even more vacant than the average, you could say that their look is 'glassier' than ever, even if autocorrect is not on your side.
19. SHRIMPS - last of [ou]R in SH and IMPS.
20. GRINNED - [o]NE in GRIND; I suppose a grimace is like a grin - with some people I can think of, definitely, now I come to think of it, Steptoe for one.
22. TONIC - COT around IN, all reversed.