Time: 22 minutes
Music: Berlioz, Harold in Italy, Davis/Menuhin/LSO.
Despite my good time, I found parts of this puzzle rather inexplicable. Some of the cryptics are very obscure, and give little reassurance to a biffer hoping for a quick time. Yes, you can figure most ot them out eventually, but this is likely to slow down your solve considerably. At least none of the answers are at all obscure, which would have made this puzzle very difficult indeed.
Two other quick notes:
I am very pleased with the two newest bloggers I have recruited, known locally as brnchn and curarist. We have a good reliable set of bloggers here, who post their blogs on time and without fuss, but I always have some degree of trepidation when I bring in a new blogger. However, their blogs have turned out to be excellent, fully up to the high standard we try to maintain.
As Verlaine has mentioned, he is visiting New York City at the beginning of August. We are trying to set something up for the 30th of July, which will probably be in a public bar or restaurant. As soon as we have a venue fixed, I'll make an announcement.
Music: Berlioz, Harold in Italy, Davis/Menuhin/LSO.
Despite my good time, I found parts of this puzzle rather inexplicable. Some of the cryptics are very obscure, and give little reassurance to a biffer hoping for a quick time. Yes, you can figure most ot them out eventually, but this is likely to slow down your solve considerably. At least none of the answers are at all obscure, which would have made this puzzle very difficult indeed.
Two other quick notes:
I am very pleased with the two newest bloggers I have recruited, known locally as brnchn and curarist. We have a good reliable set of bloggers here, who post their blogs on time and without fuss, but I always have some degree of trepidation when I bring in a new blogger. However, their blogs have turned out to be excellent, fully up to the high standard we try to maintain.
As Verlaine has mentioned, he is visiting New York City at the beginning of August. We are trying to set something up for the 30th of July, which will probably be in a public bar or restaurant. As soon as we have a venue fixed, I'll make an announcement.
| Across | |
| 1 | Didn't shut reference book writer has gone into (6) |
| OPENED - O.(PEN)E.D., our old friend the Oxford English Dictionary. | |
| 5 | Worrying about noise recurring in Alcatraz, say (8) |
| CAREWORN - The evident answer, but I really can't make anything of the cryptic. 'About' must = either 'c' or 'ca', but that's as far as I can get. | |
| 9 | Car judge reversed across street (8) |
| DRAGSTER - REGARD backwards around ST. | |
| 10 | Place to meet in 'ackney? That is relative (6) |
| AUNTIE - [h[AUNT + I.E. | |
| 11 | Book in its entirety produced on time, in fact (10) |
| TRUTHFULLY - T + RUTH FULLY, another book of the Bible clue. | |
| 13 | Sound of gunfire from urban guerrillas (4) |
| BANG - hidden in [ur]BAN G[uerillas]. | |
| 14 | Mentioned a bit of a fork in river (4) |
| TYNE - sounds like TINE. | |
| 15 | Playing tonight — Man City (10) |
| NOTTINGHAM - anagram of TONIGHT - MAN. I had biffed "Tottingham", but I have learned enough to count the letters by now. | |
| 18 | Cheers a military officer seizing large city of old (3,3,4) |
| ALL THE BEST - A L(L,THEBES)T, where "of old" does not indicate an 'o' or an 'ex'. | |
| 20 | Fancy wife and that man getting together (4) |
| WHIM - W + HIM, a clue escaped from the Quickie. | |
| 21 | Farm animal eats hot dog (4) |
| CHOW - C(H)OW, another Quickie clue | |
| 23 | Lolly: endlessly gooey snack item (10) |
| BREADSTICK - BREAD + STICK[y]. | |
| 25 | To the west, a space in which to create temple (6) |
| PAGODA - A DO GAP backwards, lift and separate. | |
| 26 | Little fellow's to hitchhike, covering miles (3,5) |
| TOM THUMB - TO (M) THUMB. | |
| 28 | Note enclosed by a person posting letter (8) |
| ASCENDER - A S(C)ENDER, a technical term of typography. | |
| 29 | Dim-witted baronet stuck in river (6) |
| OBTUSE - O(BT.)USE. It is helpful to know the correct abbreviation for baronet! | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Jamaican town or ancient city in China (4,5) |
| PORT ROYAL - Double definition. Now a town in Jamaica, it was a large city until destroyed by by an earthquake in 1692. It is also apparently a style or brand of porcelain, but this has proved very hard to track down. | |
| 3 | Item of lingerie at hand, with lace on the bottom (7) |
| NIGHTIE - NIGH + TIE, where 'lace' is a verb. | |
| 4 | Oz heroine briefly making a point (3) |
| DOT - Double definition, where 'Dot' is the nickname for 'Dorothy'. However, the Oz heroine is always called 'Dorothy'. | |
| 5 | Hymn about Jesus almost over? (5) |
| CAROL - CA + LOR[d] upside-down. | |
| 6 | Keen to study ditty we composed (5-6) |
| READY-WITTED - READ + anagram of DITTY WE. | |
| 7 | Shoot the breeze principally? One might (7) |
| WINDBAG - I can only see a cryptic definition. 'The breeze principally' might indicate 'B', but I can't get any further on this line. | |
| 8 | Govern Niger after revolution (5) |
| REIGN - anagram of NIGER. | |
| 12 | Bit of a fiddle? Suspect council of guilt (11) |
| FINGERBOARD - FINGER BOARD, in an entirely different sense. | |
| 16 | Finish off next article (3) |
| THE - THE[n], another Quickie escapee. | |
| 17 | A funny programme and last parts of The Professionals, in no set order (2,2,5) |
| AS IT COMES - A SITCOM + [th]E [professional]S. | |
| 19 | Closed faulty power line (7) |
| TOWROPE - TO + anagram of POWER. 'To' meaning 'closed' often catches me out. | |
| 20 | We act oddly, note, in cave! (5,2) |
| WATCH IT - W[e] A[C]T + CHIT. The temptation to make an anagram (oddly) of WE ACT is very strong. | |
| 22 | Takes charge of macho publicity? (5) |
| HEADS - HE-ADS. | |
| 24 | Half-decent Queen record (5) |
| ENTER - [dec]ENT + ER. | |
| 27 | Minutes accepted at the start by old chairman (3) |
| MAO - M[inutes] A[ccepted] + O. | |