23450 – struggled a bit

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time – 26:54

At least 10 minutes slower than I would have liked. It was tricky in places but not that hard! Perhaps I should stop going out on Friday nights…

ACROSS

1 S(CH,IS)M – SM = extremes in StorM
9 FASTENER – similar to adding -er to a word like flower=river, add -ener to enable something, e.g. if you write a list, would you be a listener?
10 ME(MO)IR – we seem to have had a few Israeli PMs lately – this time it’s Golda Meir‘s turn.
11 HE(A,RHEA)R – nice to see the two elements clued differently for a change. A lazier setter might have gone for (cryptic treatment of hear) “twice”
13 SK,EG,NE,SS – first and last letters (i.e. “borders”) of SuffolK ExpandinG NinE SuburbS – I got this from the checking letters and only worked out the wordplay later
20 KE(RN)EL – Talk about old chestnuts! Has this ever been clued any other way?
21 SU(N replaces PER(m))VISOR – complex wordplay handled very succinctly and with a good surface reading
22 O,NEW,AY
23 EPI(DEMI(se))C – another one that was easy from the definition but took a while to figure out the wordplay

DOWN

2 COAL,ESC(ap)E – last one I put in
3 IN,T(h)E,REST – in neither Collins nor Chambers is “intrigue” given as one of the meanings of “interest”. [But as it’s been pointed out to me, “to make interested or curious” is one of the meanings of “intrigue”]
4 M(END)ELEE,V(=against) – Dimitri Mendeleev was the creator of the Periodic Table.
5 BERTRAND RUSSELL – anagram of “errs last blunder”
6 THESE(U)S – the guy who killed the Minotaur and escaped from the labyrinth
7 ROO(F,RAC=car rev)K
8 PUR(B~L)IND – PURL and BIND twisted together, so I invented a new notation to indicate it (probably never have to use it again).
14 SC(I)ENT,IS,T(rials) – took a while to get this – I got 4d first and worked backwards
17 SEXINESS – not sure how this clue works. It’s an anagram of ESSEX’S + IN, but how is that indicated? [Explained in the first comment]
18 (s)IM(MOB)ILE
19 OPE(n),RATE

Entry for Jumbo 668 to follow later this afternoon.

3 comments on “23450 – struggled a bit”

  1. Collins defines “intrigue” as “to make interested or curious” and “interest” as “to arouse or excite the curiosity or concern of”. Looks like a good match.

    17D is one of those clues where the answer is treated as the wordplay for something else: “SEX in ESS” => ES(SEX)’S.

    1. Intrigue: fair enough then. That meaning of intrigue isn’t in Chambers, and I think I only looked up “interest” in Collins.

      Sexiness: neat, why didn’t I see that?

  2. Coalesce was my LOI too. Device at Purblind also never seen before or will be again?

    5a Flatter and knock clean over = BUTTER UP (butt=knock and pure = clean = erup when put backwards)
    12a The juice is not quite one’s favourite part = PET ROL(e)
    15a First pair of webbed feet crossing line served by shuffle = WE FT (warp & weft = along & across threads in weaving loom using shuttle?)
    17a A runner on snow would = SKID
    19a A set of teeth used in EsperantO VERB ITErations = OVERBITE
    24a Ruffle fiendish (she-devil)* = DISHEVEL
    25a (Turk’s) worried about (E)*nglish origin for Merchant Ivory = TUSKER (the Merchant is presumably in there as a diversion to make us think of a film title? Remains of the Day did not quite fit.)

    15d What’s one one’s plate? Stewed (woodlark)* = WORKLOAD (sounds neither tasty or satisfying)

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