| Across | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
| 1 | CASHMERE | |
| Crocheter primarily has knitted with pure and simple wool (8) | (C)ROCHETER + anagram of HAS + MERE | |
| 5 | RECTUM | |
| Passage near outlet is so not needed by disgruntled customer (6) | Anagram of CUSTOMER minus SO | |
| 10 | SMART | |
| Recall of vehicles turned out well (5) | TRAMS reversed | |
| 11 | PATROLLED | |
| Kept guard perfectly rotated (9) | PAT + ROLLED | |
| 12 | EPICUREANS | |
| Foodies ordered pie, one with sides of pickles (10) | Anagram of PIE + (AN inside CURES) | |
| 13 | MAR | |
| Spoil drive going west (3) | RAM reversed | |
| 15 | CHEESE | |
| These cafes served fresh, not fast, food (6) | Anagram of THESE CAFES minus FAST | |
| 16 | AGAINST | |
| Stove enclosed by stone is on (7) | AGA + IN + ST | |
| 18 | REPLANT | |
| Part of future plan to establish new growth (7) | futuRE PLAN To | |
| 20 | DRENCH | |
| Medicine with lithium withdrawn from children experiencing disorder (6) | Anagram of CHILDREN minus LI | |
| 23 | CAR | |
| Machine maintenance a little lacking (3) | (CAR)E | |
| 24 | STREETWISE | |
| Wily sort of setter is inspiring people in general (10) | Anagram of SETTER + (IS inside WE) | |
| 26 | PAPER OVER | |
| Try to hide copy retained by tester (5,4) | APE inside PROVER | |
| 27 | GO BAD | |
| Spoil a marshland receding close to bushland (2,3) | (A + BOG) reversed + BUSHLAN(D) | |
| 28 | TITLED | |
| Noble provided guidance after time with IT (6) | LED after (T + IT) | |
| 29 | CRATERED | |
| Container, a light colour, is covered in holes? (8) | CRATE + RED | |
| Down | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
| 1 | CASHEW | |
| Use teeth eating a small nut (6) | CHEW outside (A + S) | |
| 2 | SPANISH | |
| Censure is expressed in quiet language (7) | (PAN + IS) inside SH | |
| 3 | METHUSELAH | |
| Provider of alcohol and drug treatment hospital outside LA (10) | METH + (USE + H) outside LA | |
| 4 | REPRESENTATIVE | |
| Agent sent in crooked privateer before end of lease (14) | SENT inside anagram of PRIVATEER + LEAS(E) | |
| 6 | ETON | |
| Upmarket English school raised money (4) | NOTE reversed | |
| 7 | TELAMON | |
| Image of upright male forming part of heavy weight? (7) | MALE reversed inside TON | |
| 8 | MODERATE | |
| Approach speed is average (8) | MODE + RATE | |
| 9 | STANDARD-BEARER | |
| Speculative investor accommodated by different traders and leading figure (8-6) | BEAR inside anagram of TRADERS AND | |
| 14 | WATERTIGHT | |
| Impregnable bow of warship hit target at sea? (10) | (W)ARSHIP + anagram of HIT TARGET | |
| 17 | CROCKPOT | |
| Toss quietly in bed – it makes you stew, doesn’t it? (8) | (ROCK + P) inside COT | |
| 19 | PARAPET | |
| Knock up a special wall used for protection (7) | RAP reversed + A + PET | |
| 21 | CLIMBER | |
| Carbon and plastic crampon, say (7) | C + LIMBER | |
| 22 | NEEDED | |
| Required leader not used by one editor repeatedly (6) | (O)NE + ED + ED | |
| 25 | FREE | |
| Fine fishing gear reduced and let go (4) | F + (REE)L |
I’m having trouble parsing 24-ac. I can only read IS inspiring WE as IWES. I see WISE as IS *inspired by* WE. What am I missing?
Thanks,
Steve = : ^ )
I had the same issue in parsing last week. I expected the people in general “we” to be inspired by either a sort of “setter is” or “is” which would have required the letters w and e to be together. I settled on a sort of “setter is” inspiring “we” thus a sort of “setter is we” which would allow the separation of the w and e.
The Chambers’ first definition of “inspire” is “To infuse into..”. So, IS infusing into WE, perhaps?
But if IS inspires (infuses) WE it should be IWES we not WISE.
If the clue was changed from
to
Wily sort of setter is inspired by people in general
it would solve the problem
I consider “is inspiring people in general (we)” to be a conceptual wordplay construct, as many are. That is, it’s more about the picture that gets painted than the literal meaning of the words used. In this case, I employed what I thought was relatively common usage of the term “to inspire”, that is, to instil or infuse something into something else. If A inspires B, then A is the giver and B is the receiver. Likewise, C inspiring D, is C giving to D. Certainly conceptual, and if not considered this way, then a visit to the dictionary is certainly warranted. This is where things get interesting.
As Greg mentions Chambers’ first entry under inspire says “To infuse into…” (infuse means to implant) which backs up the conceptual construct in the clue; but there’s a problem: there’s also an entry (the last one) “To draw or inhale into the lungs”, which, I suspect is the meaning that Steve uses to reverse the original intention. This seems to be a late meaning assigned to the word as it should be noted that the original meaning was “to infuse (breath, life, etc., into) by breathing, which matches how we now use inspire in everyday conversation. Confirmation of this can be seen in the etymology which is listed in Macquarie as “[Middle English inspire(n), from Latin inspirare breathe into]”
So, I guess it’s up to you whether “inspiring” does the job in the clue, but, for me it has the capacity to do so.
I have no trouble with inspiring.
My issue is with the placement of w and e (as a container) if we is inspired by is (which is indicated as the container). However I accommodated that in my own analysis.
David,
after reading your post I finally get the intention. As you say, it’s unfortunate that the expression can legitimately be taken in exactly the opposite way and, for me, this opposite meaning is less ‘conceptual’, more literal – even if it is the later addition to English. However, it’s also less common, and anyone who didn’t know ‘inspire’ = ‘breathe in’, would probably have twigged to the intended meaning.
It’s tricky and I wasn’t the only one who initially thought there was a ‘problem’.
Thanks,
Steve = : ^ )
Enjoyed reading through this, very good stuff, thanks . “Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.” by Euripides.