With blogger’s caution, I took a leisurely 16.41 for this, though early results suggest it might be another quick solve for many regulars. There’s some discrete advertising across the upper middle which Nestlé presumably paid for having wrested the product it from Rowntree, and younger viewers might not remember the fabulous John Curry blazing a trail for his sport and for Britain at the winter Olympics. I spotted a couple of slightly naughtily capitalised words, but I liked the two clues employing reverse cryptic devices and the “master of fishing”, adding pleasant touches to a workaday puzzle.
Definitions underlined in italics, excluded letters in [square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Wader limb dips periodically (4) |
| IBIS – Alternate letters of lImB dIpS. A bird of the family Plataleidae a fact you may never need. | |
| 4 | Read an involved letter that stimulates (10) |
| ADRENALINE – An anagram (involved) of READ AN plus (drop me a) LINE for letter. | |
| 9 | Information with note helping peer group (10) |
| GENERATION – Information is GEN. Add one of eight note choices E, and RATION for helping. | |
| 10 | Where man might eat dog’s breakfast? (4) |
| MESS – Two definitions, the first assuming (probably) a military man. | |
| 11 | Curry was one of fish and rice originally (6) |
| SKATER – Reference to John Curry, who revolutionised ice skating in the 70’s by combining great technique with balletic, artistic expression. The wordplay attaches the SKATE fish to the first letter of R[ice] | |
| 12 | City chap shot around noon (8) |
| COVENTRY – COVE for chap and TRY for shot encompassing N[oon] | |
| 14 | Sweet cold wine lacking finish (4) |
| CHOC – C[old] plus the wine HOCK, as it says lacking its finish. | |
| 15 | Dating app perhaps pairing Lucifer with God? (10) |
| MATCHMAKER – A lucifer (strictly without a capital) is a type of MATCH immortalised in the WW1 song Pack Up Your Troubles; “while you’ve a lucifer to light your fag, smile boys that’s the style”. God as characterised in the Creed: “MAKER of all things, seen and unseen”. | |
| 17 | Officer vain at heart gave up backing a politician (4-2-4) |
| AIDE-DE-CAMP – The heart of vain is AI, gave up is CEDED which must be reversed (backing) and then A and politician MP are added. | |
| 20 | Drunk wanting to destroy (4) |
| BLOT – Druk is BLOTTO, remove the TO. | |
| 21 | Sons in slippery conditions turn Zephyr (4,4) |
| WEST WIND – I lost time trying to find a gentle breeze sort of definition, but it’s as it says, and with the capital (technically) the god of the west wind. S[ons] inserted into WET, slippery conditions and WIND for turn. | |
| 23 | Gloomy note written about world and its end? (6) |
| MORBID – The note this time is from sol-fa, and is MI. Write it around ORB for world and add world’s last letter to finish. | |
| 24 | Master of fishing vessel we’re told? (4) |
| ERNE – An erne is a sea-eagle, here poetically described. Sounds like (we’re told) URN for vessel. | |
| 25 | Boss reported Irish county club (10) |
| KNOBKERRIE – A South African throwing and clubbing stick. KNOB is boss as on the centre of a shield. Then the Irish county Kerry donates its sound to the mix (reported). | |
| 26 | Saw that could be done easily (4,4,2) |
| LAID EYES ON – An anagram (could be) of DONE EASILY. The more prosaic meaning of saw. | |
| 27 | Degenerate bore (4) |
| SINK – Two definitions. Took me a while to match both. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | How to make techie start conversation? (5,3,3) |
| BREAK THE ICE – Like this one. You make “techie” when you BREAK “THE ICE”. | |
| 3 | Spot crown jewels kings must leave for display (9) |
| SPECTACLE – Spot is SPECK and both crown jewels and TACKLE are euphemisms for a chap’s bits. Both K[ings] are removed. | |
| 4 | Squeeze beneath a horse: it makes gelding niggled (7) |
| ANAGRAM – So how does gelding become niggled? ANAGRAM it. Additionally, it’s RAM for squeeze (into a confined space) below A NAG or horse. With the previous clue’s references fresh in mind, I rather thought a gelding would be less niggled by such squeezing than a stallion. | |
| 5 | Dancing dad sang with cast iron bucket (4,4,3,4) |
| RAIN CATS AND DOGS – An anagram (dancing) of everything else except with and the definition. Extra marks if you checked. Even more extra marks if you took it on trust. | |
| 6 | Glory in making return to sack Assad’s capital city (7) |
| NINEVEH – A city of ancient Assyria, famous for quinquiremes and and a fishy-smelling reluctant prophet. HEAVEN stands in for glory, add IN, remove the capital A of Assad, and reverse what’s left | |
| 7 | Still upset — not very (5) |
| INERT – Upset gives INVERT. Remove the V[ery] | |
| 8 | Content of less articulate literary work (5) |
| ESSAY – I assume we’re meant to spell out the letters S and A enclosed in lesS Articulate. There’s no “sounds like” indication. | |
| 13 | Persuasive speaker can hire trio to play (11) |
| RHETORICIAN – An anagram (to play) of CAN HIRE TRIO. | |
| 16 | Scent stabiliser from Big Ears and Mr Messy (9) |
| AMBERGRIS – From the guts of a sperm whale, once used both as a fixative and for its surprisingly pleasant smell in perfumes. An anagram (messy) of BIG EARS and MR. | |
| 18 | Close to safe area in dangerous Hebridean island (7) |
| ERISKAY – The last letter of closE, then A[rea] in RISKY for dangerous. | |
| 19 | Persistently ask relatives for fruit (7) |
| PUMPKIN – PUMP for persistently ask, and KIN for family. | |
| 21 | Despicable person supporting women’s revolution (5) |
| WHEEL – HEEL is despicable person who counterintuitively supports W[omen] | |
| 22 | Offence reduced financial support for part of Asia (5) |
| SINAI – SIN for offence and AID for financial support cut short | |
Cool. I actually entered KNOCKBRAIN, since it was the only thing I could think of that sounded vaguely like a club. Some people have actually heard of KNOBKERRIE, but although I haven’t counted I think they are a minority. The rest of the puzzle had some tricky bits but they were at least solvable, plus a lot of very easy stuff. COD quite definitely to the master of the fishing vessel, which was about all I liked about this.
Well, after a dismal DNF on the quickie this morning, I was somewhat discouraged by the difficulties as detailed above. Consequently, I joined forces with Mr Ego and we finished all correct, with biffing aplenty from him and subsequent parsing from me. SINK and CHOC were dire, I thought, ERNE and BLOT were clever. KNOBKERRIE was finally dredged from the recesses of my memory, having exhausted KNOCK—– as a possibility. NINEVEH spelling was obvious once I made sense of the parsing, and SPECTACLE and ANAGRAM were brilliant, as was MATCHMAKER. Loads to enjoy here. However, I’m still puzzled by the stated low snitch for this, looking at the comments above.
Lured into a dark alley by a low SNITCH and then brutally assaulted by KNOBKERRIE, ERNE, SINK and a couple of equally vicious thugs.
Very much DNF. Thanks Z.
DNF. Another NINEVAH here.
Got as far as checking whether KNOCKBRAIN was a thing before finally remembering KNOBKERRIE
Thanks Z
Needed aids but got there in the end with crossed fingers for SINK. Old enough to remember John Curry (good clue). Agree with l(ES)s SAY. COD to ANAGRAM though.
Debates on homophones go over my Strine head.
I loved this puzzle, took Curry as a skater on trust, bunged in Erne after an alphabet trawl and Pdm. Knew knobkerrie so the crossers jogged my memory for Eriskay, no need to resort to CM.
COD matchmaker.
.thhanks setter and blogger.