Time: 09:02. Just about the right degree of difficulty for me. Not everything was a write-in but there wasn’t anything unreasonably convoluted or esoteric. My favourites were the mental picture of the louche aristocrat sipping a cocktail at the social function in the Berkshire town and the implicitly cross-referenced 22a and 20d.
No big deal but we have a (probably inadvertent) Nina here – has anyone spotted it?
Thanks to Shay
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Returned mate’s make-up (4) |
| SLAP – Reversal (‘Returned’) of PALS (‘mate’s)
I’ve only ever heard SLAP for ‘make-up’ referring to theatrical make-up. The definition in Chambers specifically mentions this and the Oxford Dictionaries def has the term as informal for any cosmetics, “especially when applied thickly or carelessly”. |
|
| 3 | Son packed and fled (8) |
| SCRAMMED – S (‘Son’) CRAMMED (‘packed’) | |
| 9 | Physical therapist uses arm vigorously (7) |
| MASSEUR – Anagram (‘vigorously’) of USES ARM | |
| 10 | My animal’s coat is pink (5) |
| CORAL – COR (‘My’) A |
|
| 11 | Dance beat with verve (5) |
| TANGO – TAN (‘beat’) GO (‘verve’)
Echoes of Tom Lehrer. |
|
| 12 | Inevitably result in ear, nose and throat trouble. (6) |
| ENTAIL – ENT (‘ear, nose and throat’) AIL (‘trouble’)
I did wonder if the ‘ear, nose and throat’ should have been capitalised to indicate the medical specialty or hospital department. As far as I know (and a quick look at the dictionaries backs this up) E, N and T do not stand for ear, nose and throat respectively in any usage other than the ENT initialism. |
|
| 14 | Sign of unusually fine anatomist (13) |
| MANIFESTATION – Anagram (‘unusually’) of FINE ANATOMIST | |
| 17 | Snooze in second-row seat (6) |
| DROWSE – Hidden (‘in’) I’ve been having a very bad run at spotting hiddens lately – this not very difficult clue was one of my LOI’s. |
|
| 19 | On reflection, Channel Islands school is fabulous (5) |
| MAGIC – Reversal (‘On reflection’) of CI (‘Channel Islands’) and GAM (‘school’)
GAM for ‘school’ of whales, a setters’ favourite. |
|
| 22 | Mental picture of one’s later years (5) |
| IMAGE – I’M (‘One’s’) AGE (‘later years’)
I’M for “I am” = “one is”, with “one” used for the first person. I imagine ‘Mental’ was included to help the surface reading. See also 20d. |
|
| 23 | Our pets running amok in carriage (7) |
| POSTURE – Anagram (‘running amok’) of OUR PETS
‘Carriage’ as in deportment or physical bearing and nothing to do with a vehicle. |
|
| 24 | Children of humble cook (5,3) |
| SMALL FRY – SMALL (‘humble’) FRY (‘cook’) | |
| 25 | Imitates war poets every so often (4) |
| APES – Alternate letters (‘every so often’) of |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Former tommies bursting with energy (8) |
| SOMETIME – Anagram (‘bursting’) of TOMMIES and E (‘energy’) | |
| 2 | Incendiary crime of vicar after power cut (5) |
| ARSON – |
|
| 4 | Cleaner reprimands one in tears (6,7) |
| CARPET SWEEPER – CARPETS (‘reprimands’) WEEPER (‘one in tears’) | |
| 5 | Starts to arrange social function in Berkshire town (5) |
| ASCOT – A The surface reading is not nicely inviting us to to separate the ‘social’ and the ‘function’. I only did General Mathematics in Year 12 at school and never got as far as the cotangent or COT which is the ratio of the adjacent side to the opposite side in a right-angled triangle, or the reciprocal of the tangent; I’d better stop there. |
|
| 6 | Swallow one cocktail (7) |
| MARTINI – MARTIN (‘Swallow’) I (‘one’)
My AI tells me that although a swallow and a martin look similar and belong to the same family Hirundinidae they are separate species with different colouring and physical characteristics such as tail shape. Still, close enough for crossword purposes although some twitchers may disagree! |
|
| 7 | Twerp from Telford periodically turned up (4) |
| DOLT – Reversed alternate letters (‘periodically turned up’) in T The famous engineer Thomas Telford, after whom the town was named, cracked a mention in QC 3293 which I blogged a couple of weeks ago. |
|
| 8 | Extremely louche aristocrat allowed to go unpunished (3,3) |
| LET OFF – L Amusing surface. |
|
| 13 | Underwear thieves reported (8) |
| KNICKERS – Aural wordplay (‘reported’) of NICKERS (‘thieves’) | |
| 15 | Ultimate goal of Buddhist group (7) |
| NIRVANA – Double definition
The final goal of Buddhism and the American rock band – Kurt Cobain et al. |
|
| 16 | Practically lost, am flustered (6) |
| ALMOST – Anagram (‘flustered’) of LOST AM | |
| 18 | Said we’ll go round (5) |
| WHEEL – Aural wordplay (‘Said’) of WE’LL | |
| 20 | Surly type finally staying behind (5) |
| GRUMP – See also 22a. |
|
| 21 | Fail to notice girl (4) |
| MISS – Double definition | |
I didn’t understand the wordplay for nirvana, and thought it was nearly a straight definition, an escapee from the concise. I did struggle a bit with the long anagram, but carpet sweeper was obvious – we’ve had a lot of the trainspotter style clues lately.
Time: 7:42
The long anagrams set me back a bit and some other clues were quite hard, but I got there in 8.25. Thanks Shay and BR.
A few Bif then Parse clues NIRVANA, MAGIC, ASCOT in a very doable puzzle to finish once again on the right side of 20mins. COD ASCOT with NIRVANA just behind.
Thanks Bletch and Shay.
9 minutes, and another sub-10 to encourage me after a long spell without any. That’s 3 of the last 4 QCs. Such a shame about my disastrous effort on Saturday that interrupted the run.
I missed the double definition of NIRVANA, although having read the blog I realise I was vaguely aware of some sort of a pop group of that name.