Friday 7 August 2015

No 11467, Friday 07 Aug 2015, Arden


ACROSS
1   Drink and voice displeasure with church (6) HOOTCH {HOOT}{CH}
4   Court verdict about the way of taking stock (8) RUSTLING {RU{ST}LING}
10 Insect finds fish under hay (9) COCKROACH {COCK}{ROACH}
11 Youngster losing urge to become a boxer (5) TYSON  YOuNgSTer*
12 Time to be confident of deletion (7) ERASURE {ERA}{SURE}
13 All male ensemble forming a thin layer (7) LAMELLA*
14 Welsh — odd, odd, odd grey (5) DODGE {ODD}*}{GrEy}
15 Peter on rail, glaring (8) FLAGRANT {FLAG}{RANT}
18 Group from mountains connected with arts, perhaps (8) CULTURAL {CULT}{URAL}
20 Window offers choice to refund some money (5) ORIEL {OR}{IEL<=}
23 Wine — endless delight after a drink (7) CHABLIS {CHA}{BLISs}
25 All encompassing declaration of one's inclination — later one drops to fourth place (7) AMBIENT {A(-i)M}{B(+i)IENT}
26 State of union speech, gets surprise reaction (5) IDAHO {I}{D{AH}O}
27 Saint Lawrence shunned wine, maybe belonging to forefathers (9) ANCESTRAL {SAinT+LAwReNCE}*
28 Nice looking — but see, John's extremely dirty (3,5) EYE CANDY {EYE} {CAN}{DirtY}
29 One with swept back hair will take a firm stand (6) ASSERT {A}{SSERT<=} Definition found as answer at 9D!

DOWN
1   Had a nice accommodation (8) HACIENDA*
2   Garden, mostly rock strewn and untilled (7) ORCHARD {ROCk}*{HARD}
3   Money collected fast — not small but huge (9) CORPULENT {CORPUs}{LENT}
5   Marriage not made in heaven (6,8) UNHOLY ALLIANCE [CD]
6   Met others, some who climbed the pole (5) TOTEM [T<=]
7   Slight deficiency in hormone (7) INSULIN {INSULt}{IN}
8   Nothing pleasant getting leg in a tangle — on the contrary (6) GENIAL*
9   Appropriate to find arms at random, if you insist (4,1,4,5) TAKE A FIRM STAND {TAKE} {FIND+ARMS+AT}*
16 Figures they are roadhouses having public transport (9) RHOMBUSES {R}{HOM{BUS}ES}
17 Food will hinder its presence in the blood (8) PLATELET {PLATE}{LET}
19 Not knowing warehouseman left homes demolished (7) UNAWARE WAREhoUsemAN*
21 Wild, fierce — key to safe passage of ships in freezing weather (3-4) ICE-FREE {ICE-FRE}*{E}
22 Writer's corner containing plagiarised work (6) SCRIBE {S{CRIB}E}
24 Scrubber brings up a clot (5) LOOFA {LOOF}{A}<=

GRID

18 comments:

  1. Loved this one too 26a was my Cod. 17d was the last to fall.

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  2. Enjoyable one. My COD is extremely dirty, ..err.. on the contrary, nice looking 28Ac. Missed out a few. Overall a satisfied solve. Thanks Arden.

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  3. To my knowledge, this is the first time I come across a split definition-8D.
    Nice enjoyable (though a bit difficult) CW but very few comments.
    Still not clear about Idaho- is speech 'I do'?

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    Replies
    1. Union speech = marriage vow

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    2. Related to -- "I do", a phrase used in some marriage vows; used by brides and grooms in response to questions posed by either the officiant or the other marriage partner ... From WIKI.
      (Union = Marriage)

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  4. A small doubt about 3D-
    'Not small' though applying to corpus comes after 'fast'?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The wordplay as is (Money {CORPUS} collected fast {LENT}) would give us CORPULENTS - the "not small" simply indicates that the "S" has to be dropped. If the "S" were dropped before putting in LENT, then the "collected" part of the clue wouldn't work, since LENT would then just get added on to (rather than incorporated in) CORPU.

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    2. It does get added on, isn't it? It is not incorporated in 'Corpu' . (Corpu- lent)

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    3. You could collect it by appending it. It need not be kept inside.

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    4. Money collected- Corpus. Fast- lent. Not small- delete 'S'
      Huge- Defn.

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  5. Brilliant stuff from Arden again. I got stuck for (what seemed like) an eternity in the SW corner, held up by words like CHABLIS and SCRIBE that - in retrospect - should have jumped off the page on reading the clue. Once CHABLIS clicked, the rest of that quarter fell into place quite neatly.

    I absolutely loved the clues for DODGE and IDAHO. A small niggle in 7d: I am not fully convinced about deficiency = INSULT. Any references that anyone has for this equivalence?

    Thanks to Arden and to DG!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually it is INSULT from 'slight'. "Deficiency' is curtailment indicator.

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    2. d-uh! Thank you for pointing that out. It seems so obvious now. :(

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  6. Amazing xword! Loved the brilliant wordplay...for me the western corners, both N & S, took ages...loved 23a..25a & 26 a brought a smile..

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  7. Forgot to mention. .the elision of 16d..nicely done

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  8. Very nice crossword. 14A and 26A were my favourites. Thanks Arden!

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