Had to bash this out fast as a result of (a) work and then (b) champagne as the fruits of work. No frills; no time either (see point (b) above). Hope you enjoyed it.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Makeshift quantity of butter he’d put in cup (7-2) |
| PATCHED-UP – PAT [quantity of butter] + HE’D inside CUP. | |
| 6 | Pet fur? Nothing shed (3) |
| CAT – C{o}AT. A coat could be “fur”, remove the o [nothing shed]) | |
| 8 | Glamour in good collection of puppies? (7) |
| GLITTER – G [good] + LITTER [collection of puppies]. | |
| 9 | Some assassin in Japan (5) |
| NINJA – hidden, and an &Lit. | |
| 10 | Confirm nastiest tuba is melted down (12) |
| SUBSTANTIATE– anagram [is melted down] of “nastiest tuba”. | |
| 12 | Hard wood is what steerer holds (4) |
| HELM – H [hard] + ELM [wood]. I got fixated on “ash” for the wood and had to move on till the E arrived. | |
| 13 | Boy returned hot food (4) |
| NOSH – NOS [boy returned, i.e. reversal of “son”] + H [hot]. There used to be a takeaway van on the pier at Tobermory called Posh Nosh, marvellous scallops straight off the boats. | |
| 17 | Emergency worker can name album that’s playing (12) |
| AMBULANCEMAN – anagram [that’s playing] of “can name album”. | |
| 20 | Skill retaining O and A in key supply of blood (5) |
| AORTA – ART [skill] including O [retaining O] + A [and A]. | |
| 21 | Emergency mission, perhaps, first couple of chaps having fallen from mountain transport (7) |
| AIRLIFT – {ch}AIRLIFT. Chairlift is “mountain transport”; remove the CH [first couple of chaps having fallen]. | |
| 23 | Popular name for place to get drinks (3) |
| INN – IN [popular] + N [name]. | |
| 24 | Precocious child — great new source of exasperation, possibly (9) |
| TWEENAGER – anagram [possibly] of “great new” and E [source of exasperation]. Chambers doesn’t list tweenager at all [edit: see the discussion in the comments below. I was using Chambers online, which doesn’t have it, but it seems that various paper editions do. I didn’t bother checking my paper Chambers, since there was no entry online!] Collins just has it as “a child of approximately eight to fourteen years of age”, nothing to do with being precocious. Not totally convinced by the definition, therefore, but I don’t have online OED and my paper one is far too elderly to have it, so one source unchecked. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Servant opening up over closure of palace (4) |
| PAGE – PAG [opening up, i.e. reversal of “gap”] above [over] E [closure of palace]. | |
| 2 | Compliment family welcoming aunt regularly (7) |
| TRIBUTE – TRIBE [family] containing [welcoming] UT [aunt regularly]. | |
| 3 | Attractive MC disowning son (3) |
| HOT – “host” [MC, i.e. Master of Ceremonies] without the S [disowning son]. | |
| 4 | Doctor to act badly around university city (6) |
| DURHAM – DR [doctor] + HAM [to act badly] going outside [around] U [university]. | |
| 5 | Little change about English idiot? A sorry state (9) |
| PENITENCE – PENCE [little change] going around [about] E [English] + NIT [idiot]. | |
| 6 | Conservative General Assembly dance (5) |
| CONGA -CON [Conservative] + GA [General Assembly, no doubt a valid abbreviation somewhere for someone]. | |
| 7 | In the morning, diving into the southern river (6) |
| THAMES – AM [in the morning] going inside [diving into] THE + S [the southern]. | |
| 11 | Time to support distribution of musical’s programme on different media? (9) |
| SIMULCAST – T [time] at the bottom of [to support] an anagram [distribution of] “musical’s”. | |
| 14 | Winter sport takings revived (7) |
| SKATING – anagram [revived] of “takings”. | |
| 15 | Question one kidnapping a sailor from Arab country (6) |
| QATARI – Q [question] + I [one] containing [kidnapping] A TAR [a sailor]. Doesn’t look right without a U, does it? | |
| 16 | I am at end of line welcoming new resident (6) |
| INMATE – I’M [I am] + AT [at] + E [end of line] containing [welcoming] N [new]. | |
| 18 | Dull person endlessly referring to chemical element (5) |
| BORON – BOR{e} [dull person endlessly] + ON [referring to]. | |
| 19 | Celebrity’s backing singers (4) |
| STAR – people who “sing” (grass, squeal, inform) are sometimes called “rats”. Reversal gives you STAR. I hate it when the reversal indicator is the middle of three words. Rats/star, star/rats. No real way to be sure which it was so I waited for checkers. | |
| 22 | Sprint disaster — I must drop out (3) |
| RUN – “ruin” [disaster] without the I [I must drop out]. | |
Today I tried harder or else the clues came easier. Must own up to not parsing PATCHED UP, though knowing all about butter pat/s, rather a long time ago. Don’t think I’ve met a TWEENAGER, know lots of teenagers, but today’s Times has a World Record snooker player only two years old!!
My thanks to Pedro and Templar.
17a Ambulanceman, difficult word, and not in Cheating Machine, added. Working out the anagram wasn’t so hard, but.
24a Tweenager, not a familiar word. I confess I cheated on this but as it is in C.M. it has come up before either here or in the 15*15. I tried biffing teenager but had too many empties for the anagrist.
11d Simulcast. Oh dear, I suppose I have to accept this as being a real word. Perhaps I’ll go and learn German instead of persevering with English.
15d Qatari, good example of Q but no U. Took me an age.
19d Star, entered with NO CHECKERS, but in light pencil, in case it was rats.
Just inside revised target at 14:40, not bad considering it’s Pedro and I no longer seem to be able to find either time or peace to sit and savour.
SUBSTANTIATE, SIMULCAST, TWEENAGER and INMATE all took way too long.
As ever, thanks both
15 minutes. Slowly coming to the awful realisation that I will never achieve my goal of being fast.
4 short on 15 x 15 after well over an hour! Should have completed it now I’ve seen the blog.