23,510 – and all that jazz?

Author   foggywebPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: about 1 hour 20 minutes

Enjoyable enough – decent wordplay (difficult in places) but quite a few smiles to be had.

Apologies for today’s brevity (and lack of my usual hypertextuality) – a last minute change of plans requires me rushing to get a plane…

Across

1 COCK,CROW
2 THESE[u]S
3 M,AND,RILL
10 S,P(RAW)L
15 ERI(C)A – not sure about the wordplay C=caught in AIRE reversed?
16 M,IS,TIGRIS – the name given to joker in some card-games, looked this up
18 CARTOU(CH)E – Companion of Honour in anagram of ‘to cure a’
19 S(Y)NOD – Y=youth leader in reverse of dons=teachers
20 IM(PEN)ETRABLE – PEN in anagram of ‘male tribe’
24 [r]EVOLVE[r]
25 NINE,TIES – who remembers the naughty nineties?
25 S(TEE)LY – tee being a support in golf
27 BESTIARY – anagram of Sybarite (no idea who or what that is) – I did look up bestiary, but I’m sure I’ve seen it before

Down

1 COMB[i]
3 CARBON,A,DO
4 OK,LA(HO,MAC,IT)Y – I guess this is OK=Very good, HO=home, MAC=coat, IT=appeal and LAY=secular — a bit of an effort for me!
6 HIPPO – I guessed St Augustine came from there
7 SILVERSIDE – a fish and a cut of beef – can someone help me out with the rest?
8 CROSS EXAMINE – anagram of ‘excess iron am’
13 T(ETCH,IN)ESS
14 VI(=female),BRA(=supporter),PHONE(=call) – kitchen puzzled me for a while, I guess it refers to e.g. a jazz kitchen
17 IN SOL(V)ENT – v=vessel’s bow, I don’t think I’ve seen bow used like this before
21 NO(V)EL – She is the Haggard novel I didn’t know a month or so ago – I have seen it a few times since.
22 MICA=”Micah” – I’m pretty good on the Bible so I worked backwards, I guess others probably know that muscovite=mica

6 comments on “23,510 – and all that jazz?”

  2. 15A – correct, AIRE is a river in Yorkshire, hence current.
    7D – SILVER as in Long John Silver from Treasure Island, who was a sea cook, +S (first letter of “serving”) + IDE (fish).

    I was stumped with 22dn, as I was looking for a famous resident of Moscow whose name sounds like a book. Best I could think of was RIDA (sounds like “reader”) but knew it was wrong as Google turned up nothing.

  4. 7:15 here. Might have been quicker if braver on COCK-CROW (ironic for someone called Peter). Mica = muscovite: I have a vague memory of reading that mica was used in old Russia to make windows (like thin sheets of alabaster in some Italian cathedrals).
  6. An impressive lack of omitted “easies” by Foggy.

    Here they are:

    12a Language used making fuss over meat? (6,6)
    MOTHER TONGUE.

    2d Lacks ability to tilt? Humbug! (4)
    CANT. Treble definition (TD) plus a ? AND a !

    7d Moving unsteadily, causing astonishment (10)
    STAGGERING. Double Definition (DD).

    23d Catch sight of ThisbE’S PYramid in the centre (5)
    ESPY. Hidden answer (HA).

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