7. each meal out of order = ea corn out of order = cornea = seeing part
8. turned harlot into nymph = turned harlot into io = lothario = philanderer
9. X reportedly in Catalonia = kiss in Catalonia = kith (because of the famous Catalunyan lisp) = cultural group (4)
10. thrice do entries bamboozle = ccc (in music) entries bamboozle = eccentrics = Hatters
11. stake eight report headlines reassuringly state = ante ate r s = anteaters = exemplary echidnas
13. speeches from the last to the first = talks from the last to the first = stalk = follow 15. raise twice un-English to the core = bring up rear un-English to the core = bring up rear the (un in Spanish is the in English) to the core = bring up the rear = be last
15. raise twice English die splits the middle = bring up rear English die splits the middle = bring up rear the (die in German is the in English) splits the middle = bring up the rear = be last
18. heard Kenny left the arena = heard G left the MCG = heard MC = emcee = ringmaster
20. Spooner, on a poorer wage, to head south = Spooner worse paid s = persuade s = persuades = inveigles
24. punch to last too long = snap drag on = snapdragon = flower
25. essentially hurt by Rocky, yes = ur by yo = your = second person’s
26. French Fleming = Paris Ian = Parisian = French Fleming
27. net embraced fashionable fork = net embraced in y = ninet y = ninety = twenty years ago on computers (remember the Y2K bug?)
DOWN
1. what promo left behind = promo left behind tion (from promotion) = no tion = notion = view
2. Bern = in Switzerland = in CH = inch = move slowly
3. confused men fault at length = lamentfu l = lamentful = replete with sorrow
4. fasten together strips = fasten together = stent = internal support
5. Golfing standards taking a turn for the worse = par rot = parrot = you can say that again
6, 14. See 14 down = circular
8. smashes first five clearly = smashes clear = lacer = spiker
12. First 17-down (era) energised = e on = eon = for two or more 17-downs (eras)
14. See 6 down = reasoning
16. novel Scotch John’s = roman Ian = Romanian = French relation
17. He-man’s sister lost sibilance = Shera – sh = era = an apportioned 12-down (eon)
19. drug binge confession = e spree confession = esprit = liveliness
21. sheds pet vulgar line = e lg in = Elgin = light-fingered lord
22. stereo’s dials to pause sound = eq wait sound = eq uate = equate = consider the same
23. union success = IR win = Irwin = nature lover
25. Northerner = Yank = yank = pull
Got them all but 9A, couldn’t quite get my head around that one. I just finished today’s DA and have to report it’s an absolute ripper. Gold all round; clever, convoluted and a whole lot of fun.
If you couldn’t quite get 9A, then it was probably too hard.
And thanks for reminding me to post about this week’s DA.
Apologies for late comments AS but congrats on your crossword. far too good for me. thanks for posting the answers. many great clues, including 10A, 20A, 24A, 25A, 2D and more. my only quibble would be on one of my favourite clues (maybe because it was one of the few i solved!), 15A. very much enjoyed the “raise twice” part of the clue but would dispute that un=the. un in spanish = an in english, both indefinite articles.
Thanks for the kind words, RV, and I apologise profusely for the error!
The silly thing is I speak Spanish and I still made the mistake!
I’ve updated the clue and made it work with German and die, which I’ve just made sure means the in English.
Phew! I tried this whilst I was overseas. Very tough! Got it all out eventually apart from 9A (I had Sikh, but couldn’t really justify it) and 18A (never heard of Kenny G). And I lacked several explanations too, which have now been mostly solved.
10A: I was going to complain that “do” is C only if the key is C major or A minor, but I’ve just discovered via Google that this relates only to the movable do system (used in Britain, Australia, US etc), not to the fixed do system (used in Spain, France etc), where “do” is always C. So I’ll reluctantly let that go through to the ‘keeper.
15A: Couldn’t fathom un-English and now you’ve “corrected” it, I find it only marginally better. IMO, it’s too oblique to refer to a foreign word (in this case un or die) with no indication of the actual language (Spanish/German).
20A: I really struggled with this Spoonerism. I got “persuades” as the answer but when I did the reverse Spoonerising on “persuade”, I saw/heard the two syllables as “per/swaid” so Spoonerising gave “swer/paid”! Which didn’t help at all! Whereas you had “pers/waid” which Spoonerises correctly to “wers/paid”.
26A: This was the first one I got, but I’m still confused! French Fleming = Paris Ian. I’m OK with that. But Parisian = French Fleming? I can’t see that. I’ll grant you Parisian = French, so it’s a partial &lit.
5D: I couldn’t (and still can’t) see why standards (plural). Surely par is a golfing standard (singular)?
19D/11A: When only part of the answer is a homophone, should we use the pronunciation of that part considered in isolation or as sounded in the whole answer? This has bugged me for some time. You seem to have supplied one example of each! In 19D, “sprit” is to be pronounced as it is sounded in “esprit”. But in 11A, “ate” is to be pronounced as a separate word, and thus not at all as it is sounded in “anteaters”. Do we have any authoritative pronouncements on this matter?
Thanks for the comments, RB. And yep, I freely admit that I made things too hard — something which is very easy to do.
On 15A, I thought I was skirting the bounds of incomprehensibility, but I reckon if there were more clues like that, it would be something more easily spotted and less problematic, kinda like nog = no g etc.
On 5D, I think it’s a feature of English that you can say there’s been a “par rot” and mean a general drop in standards, just like you can say there’s been a “goal drought” and mean there hasn’t been many goals scored at the 2010 World Cup.
On the homophone issue, that’s not something I’ve ever thought about, but you have a point. SPRIT is only a phonetic rendition of SPREE in a particular word, that being ESPRIT, so I can see why that’s starting to draw a long bow.
Nevertheless, I remember a DA clue for KARAOKE that had KARA as the phonetic rendition of CARRY (or something like that, anyway). I remember thinking at the time that was a bit strange, perhaps even unfair, but I liked the clue too much!
I don’t know what the standard is or whether or not it’s Ximenean, but I suppose I take a liberal view on what’s acceptable as a homophone, that being: a phonetic rendition of a word is acceptable if the particular sound is spelt that way in another English word or if the particular sound is spelt phonetically, i.e. CARRY = KARA = CARRIE and PHLEGM = FLEM and KNIGHT = NIGHT = NITE are all acceptable as phonetic renditions of each other.
5D: OK. I see now. I misinterpreted your original explanation, thinking that you had clued “par” and “rot” separately, when in fact you clued them together as the phrase “par rot”.
What did you make of my comment re 26A?
On 26A, yep, I’d say you’re right.
There’s the one definition, Paris Ian = French Fleming, and the other one that is Parisian = French Fleming (as in a person whose got a name Fleming that is French). But the Fleming in the second case is superfluous — it could just as well be French = Parisian — so the &lit isn’t as neat as it could be.
ACROSS
7. each meal out of order = ea corn out of order = cornea = seeing part
8. turned harlot into nymph = turned harlot into io = lothario = philanderer
9. X reportedly in Catalonia = kiss in Catalonia = kith (because of the famous Catalunyan lisp) = cultural group (4)
10. thrice do entries bamboozle = ccc (in music) entries bamboozle = eccentrics = Hatters
11. stake eight report headlines reassuringly state = ante ate r s = anteaters = exemplary echidnas
13. speeches from the last to the first = talks from the last to the first = stalk = follow
15. raise twice un-English to the core = bring up rear un-English to the core = bring up rear the (un in Spanish is the in English) to the core = bring up the rear = be last15. raise twice English die splits the middle = bring up rear English die splits the middle = bring up rear the (die in German is the in English) splits the middle = bring up the rear = be last
18. heard Kenny left the arena = heard G left the MCG = heard MC = emcee = ringmaster
20. Spooner, on a poorer wage, to head south = Spooner worse paid s = persuade s = persuades = inveigles
24. punch to last too long = snap drag on = snapdragon = flower
25. essentially hurt by Rocky, yes = ur by yo = your = second person’s
26. French Fleming = Paris Ian = Parisian = French Fleming
27. net embraced fashionable fork = net embraced in y = ninet y = ninety = twenty years ago on computers (remember the Y2K bug?)
DOWN
1. what promo left behind = promo left behind tion (from promotion) = no tion = notion = view
2. Bern = in Switzerland = in CH = inch = move slowly
3. confused men fault at length = lamentfu l = lamentful = replete with sorrow
4. fasten together strips = fasten together = stent = internal support
5. Golfing standards taking a turn for the worse = par rot = parrot = you can say that again
6, 14. See 14 down = circular
8. smashes first five clearly = smashes clear = lacer = spiker
12. First 17-down (era) energised = e on = eon = for two or more 17-downs (eras)
14. See 6 down = reasoning
16. novel Scotch John’s = roman Ian = Romanian = French relation
17. He-man’s sister lost sibilance = Shera – sh = era = an apportioned 12-down (eon)
19. drug binge confession = e spree confession = esprit = liveliness
21. sheds pet vulgar line = e lg in = Elgin = light-fingered lord
22. stereo’s dials to pause sound = eq wait sound = eq uate = equate = consider the same
23. union success = IR win = Irwin = nature lover
25. Northerner = Yank = yank = pull
Got them all but 9A, couldn’t quite get my head around that one. I just finished today’s DA and have to report it’s an absolute ripper. Gold all round; clever, convoluted and a whole lot of fun.
If you couldn’t quite get 9A, then it was probably too hard.
And thanks for reminding me to post about this week’s DA.
Apologies for late comments AS but congrats on your crossword. far too good for me. thanks for posting the answers. many great clues, including 10A, 20A, 24A, 25A, 2D and more. my only quibble would be on one of my favourite clues (maybe because it was one of the few i solved!), 15A. very much enjoyed the “raise twice” part of the clue but would dispute that un=the. un in spanish = an in english, both indefinite articles.
Thanks for the kind words, RV, and I apologise profusely for the error!
The silly thing is I speak Spanish and I still made the mistake!
I’ve updated the clue and made it work with German and die, which I’ve just made sure means the in English.
Phew! I tried this whilst I was overseas. Very tough! Got it all out eventually apart from 9A (I had Sikh, but couldn’t really justify it) and 18A (never heard of Kenny G). And I lacked several explanations too, which have now been mostly solved.
10A: I was going to complain that “do” is C only if the key is C major or A minor, but I’ve just discovered via Google that this relates only to the movable do system (used in Britain, Australia, US etc), not to the fixed do system (used in Spain, France etc), where “do” is always C. So I’ll reluctantly let that go through to the ‘keeper.
15A: Couldn’t fathom un-English and now you’ve “corrected” it, I find it only marginally better. IMO, it’s too oblique to refer to a foreign word (in this case un or die) with no indication of the actual language (Spanish/German).
20A: I really struggled with this Spoonerism. I got “persuades” as the answer but when I did the reverse Spoonerising on “persuade”, I saw/heard the two syllables as “per/swaid” so Spoonerising gave “swer/paid”! Which didn’t help at all! Whereas you had “pers/waid” which Spoonerises correctly to “wers/paid”.
26A: This was the first one I got, but I’m still confused! French Fleming = Paris Ian. I’m OK with that. But Parisian = French Fleming? I can’t see that. I’ll grant you Parisian = French, so it’s a partial &lit.
5D: I couldn’t (and still can’t) see why standards (plural). Surely par is a golfing standard (singular)?
19D/11A: When only part of the answer is a homophone, should we use the pronunciation of that part considered in isolation or as sounded in the whole answer? This has bugged me for some time. You seem to have supplied one example of each! In 19D, “sprit” is to be pronounced as it is sounded in “esprit”. But in 11A, “ate” is to be pronounced as a separate word, and thus not at all as it is sounded in “anteaters”. Do we have any authoritative pronouncements on this matter?
Thanks for the comments, RB. And yep, I freely admit that I made things too hard — something which is very easy to do.
On 15A, I thought I was skirting the bounds of incomprehensibility, but I reckon if there were more clues like that, it would be something more easily spotted and less problematic, kinda like nog = no g etc.
On 5D, I think it’s a feature of English that you can say there’s been a “par rot” and mean a general drop in standards, just like you can say there’s been a “goal drought” and mean there hasn’t been many goals scored at the 2010 World Cup.
On the homophone issue, that’s not something I’ve ever thought about, but you have a point. SPRIT is only a phonetic rendition of SPREE in a particular word, that being ESPRIT, so I can see why that’s starting to draw a long bow.
Nevertheless, I remember a DA clue for KARAOKE that had KARA as the phonetic rendition of CARRY (or something like that, anyway). I remember thinking at the time that was a bit strange, perhaps even unfair, but I liked the clue too much!
I don’t know what the standard is or whether or not it’s Ximenean, but I suppose I take a liberal view on what’s acceptable as a homophone, that being: a phonetic rendition of a word is acceptable if the particular sound is spelt that way in another English word or if the particular sound is spelt phonetically, i.e. CARRY = KARA = CARRIE and PHLEGM = FLEM and KNIGHT = NIGHT = NITE are all acceptable as phonetic renditions of each other.
5D: OK. I see now. I misinterpreted your original explanation, thinking that you had clued “par” and “rot” separately, when in fact you clued them together as the phrase “par rot”.
What did you make of my comment re 26A?
On 26A, yep, I’d say you’re right.
There’s the one definition, Paris Ian = French Fleming, and the other one that is Parisian = French Fleming (as in a person whose got a name Fleming that is French). But the Fleming in the second case is superfluous — it could just as well be French = Parisian — so the &lit isn’t as neat as it could be.