Time: 23:26, though a lot of it felt rather easier on review. There are some very straightforward anagrams, for example. A couple of less familiar words are well signposted.
And the clues are fine enough, with some very smooth and believable surfaces and some daring dipping of toes into the world of contemporary and not so contemporary politics. I need someone from Liverpool to confirm pronunciation and/or idiom, though I’ve done my best.
Definitions I underline in bold italics, everything else is presented as I fancy: I’ve limited my use of [] to show excluded letters, as I thought that was getting rather untidy.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cut price of fine material? (8) |
| LACERATE – The short definition’s just great
And the wordplay laid out on a plate Fine material’s LACE Which is put in its place In front of a price, which is RATE. |
|
| 6 | Shame about your abstention from sex (6) |
| PURITY – To withdraw from the passions of Cupid
Comes from UR for your in texts you did Set in PITY for shame…. Enough! I exclaim: To limerick more would be stupid. |
|
| 9 | Essential, like class A drugs? (13) |
| INDISPENSABLE – Hm. That question mark’s doing a lot of work. While there are (understandably) strict rules about dispensing class A drugs such as morphine and cocaine, it’s not impossible to do so in the UK for certain purposes. My local Boots won’t supply me with LSD across the counter (probably, I haven’t tried!) but there are conditions in which it can be used. When I worked in healthcare, one of the least well-kept secrets was the dispensing of the Brompton Cocktail to terminally ill patients, a mix of morphine and heroin ensuring a pain and stress-free shuffling off of the mortal coil. So, in my opinion, Class A drugs are not strictly in-dispensable, but I can see the game the setter is playing and the answer is clear, even if I struggled to decide on -ible or -able.
That would have been an indefensibly long limerick: I meant what I said at the end of the second one: sorry to disappoint/happy to provide the relief. |
|
| 10 | A politician pursues enclosure to erect temporary accommodation (6) |
| ENCAMP – They don’t come much easier. A plus MP, usually a politician, tagged on to ENC, which you write on an envelope to indicate there are enclosures. | |
| 11 | Highly sought-after editor of plays (2,3,3) |
| TO DIE FOR – An anagram (plays) of EDITOR OF. | |
| 13 | One submitting main point in concerning angry outburst (10) |
| REGISTRANT – Not the more common registrar, this is someone who submits a trademark or patent for registration. GIST is main point, placed between RE for concerning and RANT for angry outburst. | |
| 15 | Identity cards ultimately being responsible for mischief (4) |
| SELF – The last letter (ultimately) of cardS and a being responsible for mischief, in this case an ELF | |
| 16 | Irritatingly complacent fools putting sons first (4) |
| SMUG – Fools are MUGS, move the S for sons to the fore. | |
| 18 | Blur track covering Billie’s early recordings, primarily Strange Fruit? (10) |
| CLOUDBERRY – Billie Holiday indeed recorded Strange Fruit in 1939, a powerful, deeply emotional protest song challenging the lynching racism of America’s Jim Crow era, so I think it’s fine to excuse the otherwise redundant “strange” in the clue. Otherwise CLOUD comes from Blur, RY from R[ailwa]Y track, and, in between, the first letters of Billie’s Early Recordings. | |
| 21 | Fun composer announced collection of recordings (8) |
| PLAYLIST – Fun is PLAY and the LIST comes from the pronunciation of composer (Franz) Liszt. | |
| 22 | Bananas are not fancy! (6) |
| ORNATE – Bananas is the anagram indicator, and ARE NOT is the fodder. | |
| 23 | Troubled genius protected by landlord had somewhere to live (7,6) |
| HOUSING ESTATE – An anagram (troubled) of GENIUS set inside HOST for landlord, followed by ATE indicated by had. | |
| 25 | Headmaster noticed lagging behind (6) |
| ASTERN – Our “hidden” for today, in headmASTER Noticed. | |
| 26 | Has a feeling American president’s beginning to divide factions (8) |
| SUSPECTS – US American and the beginning of President P, set within SECTS for factions. How to make a political comment without making a political comment. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Property recipient once called in support of first-class story (7) |
| ALIENEE – NEE, meaning once called (one’s surname at birth) supports A and LIE for story. “A person to whom property is transferred”, English Law being full of such weird terms. | |
| 3 | Charmingly wind up lady on vacation transfixed by heartless stud? (11) |
| ENDEARINGLY – Wind up is END, lady with her inner letters vacated provides the LY, and the stud is an EARRING from which you remove the middle R before inserting the remains into the other two bits. Transfixed, pierced through, is a rather violent insertion indicator. | |
| 4 | Old author brought up main work (5) |
| AESOP – SEA for main reversed (brought up) followed by OP for work. The writer of fables, of course. | |
| 5 | Chosen Republican American, one with daddy issues? (7) |
| ELECTRA – Electra hated her mother Clytemnestra for murdering her father Agamemnon, giving Jung a name for a psychological complex, which is a girl’s psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father. Here, a chosen or ELECT R[epublican] A[merican] provides the material. Once again, our setter steers well clear of political comment, though I believe at the moment Daddy’s home from his foreign excursions | |
| 6 | School across street partner endorsed for the future (9) |
| POSTDATED – POD is a school of whales or seals. Across indicates that the rest of the wordplay is inserted, here being ST[reet] and DATE for partner. | |
| 7 | Snubbed writer making a comeback to ridicule (3) |
| RIB – The writer is a BIRO, but being snubbed, it loses the O, and making a comeback is reversed. | |
| 8 | Perhaps Clover left Rio unexpectedly (7) |
| TREFOIL – “Three leaved”, like 5,o75 out of 5,076 clover plants. An anagram (unexpectedly) of LEFT RIO. I wasn’t aware the Watership Down bunnies made it that far. | |
| 12 | Each authoritarian better finish off here in South African province (7,4) |
| EASTERN CAPE – EA[ch], STERN for authoritarian, CAP for better and the last letter of herE. Eastern Cape was/is the heartland of the ANC. | |
| 14 | I can act, primarily influencing troop manoeuvres? (9) |
| TACTICIAN – &lit. An anagram (manoeuvres) of I CAN ACT plus the first letters of Influencing Troop. | |
| 17 | Puts compost on church’s borders wearing shoes unsuitable for gardening (7) |
| MULCHES – ChurcH’s borders are CH, and MULES are shoes allegedly not suitable for gardening. I think if all you’re doing is a spot of weeding, mules are perfectly OK. | |
| 19 | Goods lost in transit away from home awhile (7) |
| OUTAGES – I only know the word when my electricity goes off, but our setter’s version is Chamber’s first definition. Away from home OUT, awhile AGES. | |
| 20 | Go back again nurse (7) |
| RETREAT – If you nurse again you RE-TREAT. | |
| 22 | Scouser’s audible disappointment with sibling’s band (5) |
| OASIS – I’m assuming something like “oh eh sis” is how a proper Liverpudlian would show disappointment with their sister. Oasis is famously from Manchester, as any fule kno. | |
| 24 | Regularly take public transport naked (3) |
| USE – Local transport, certainly round here, if rather infrequent, is/are BUSES. Strip off the outer layer. | |
Re, OA. Well, I’m from the other side of the Mersey, so close enough. But I think it’s a pretty poor clue and no doubt solvers from foreign parts would be stumped. However, I think your explanation of the answer is correct.
Loved this and was pleasantly surprised to finish in a good time, so definitely not a tricky Thursday. Some tricky words like ALIENEE for me anyway, but the wordplay was plain. Liked TREFOIL, CLOUDBERRY and the &lit TACTICIAN. ENDEARINGLY had me stumped for ages and couldn’t get ‘enchantingly’ out of my head. INDISPENSABLE my last in.
Thanks Z and setter.
Loved this. A bit beyond my knowledge of Scouse, but with the SIS bit being obvious and the answer being a group I took it on faith that a Liverpudlian would say oo-ah Ior maybe oh-ah). Held up at the end by the CAP of the EASTERN CAPE, spending too long looking for a word like “punter” for better. NHO ALIENEE but wordplay was clear enough.
Well, wavelength must exist, because I was on it. The clues seemed hard at first, but when I started (at the bottom) everything just fell into place. I didn’t parse many of the answers, and ended up with cloudberry, which I thought was going to end in -s, but then I saw what was going on. Perhaps they are a bit strange.
Time: 20:03