Standing in at the last moment for William I prepared this in haste so please forgive lack of commentary. It took me 9 minutes to solve. Here’s my blog…
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]
| Across | |
| 1 | Festival finished after meeting between father and sons (8) |
| PASSOVER – PA (father), SS (sons), OVER (finished). “After meeting between” adds to the surface and positions the various components of the clue | |
| 6 | One way to barbecue / fish for tea (4) |
| CHAR – I make this a triple definition | |
| 8 | Healthy hot drink (4) |
| HALE – H (hot), ALE (drink) | |
| 9 | Prison employee mostly in the red given extra payment? (8) |
| REWARDED – WARDE{r} (prison employee) [mostly] in RED | |
| 10 | At rear of stable I will get on horse (8) |
| STALLION – STALL (rear of stable), I, ON. Not sure that a stall is necessarily at the rear of a stable. On edit, thanks to Geoff H for this: ‘stable’ is clueing ‘stall’, with ‘at rear of’ indicating where to put the ‘i’ with ‘on’ to follow. I should have spotted that but was blogging under pressure today. | |
| 11 | Corner, on turning right (4) |
| NOOK – ON reversed [turning], OK (right) | |
| 13 | Oriental spies, devious characters (13) |
| PERSONALITIES – Anagram [devious] of ORIENTAL SPIES | |
| 16 | Teachers’ union’s reeling in shock (4) |
| STUN – NUT’S (teacher’s union’s) reversed [reeling] | |
| 17 | Where to find hedgerow, incidentally (2,3,3) |
| BY THE WAY – A straight defintion and a cryptic hint | |
| 19 | A catalogue contains weapon, scandalmonger revealed (8) |
| ALARMIST – A, LIST (catalogue) contains ARM (weapon) | |
| 21 | Swim across river? One’s rather wet (4) |
| DRIP – DIP (swim) contains [across] R (river) | |
| 22 | Card game some nippers are playing to begin with (4) |
| SNAP – First letters [to begin with] of S{ome} N{ippers} A{re} P{laying} | |
| 23 | British writer once / playing cricket, perhaps (8) |
| FIELDING – Two definitions, the first being Henry Fielding, the author of Tom Jones | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Flat fit to accommodate male painters? (9) |
| APARTMENT – APT (fit) contains [to accommodate] ART MEN (male painters) | |
| 3 | Balloon finally soars successfully (5) |
| SWELL – {soar}S [finally], WELL (successfully) | |
| 4 | Account in small volume senior translated (7) |
| VERSION – V (small volume), anagram [translated] of SENIOR | |
| 5 | Dispute over a new tree (5) |
| ROWAN – ROW (dispute), A, N (new) | |
| 6 | In court, non-U individual displaying small crown (7) |
| CORONET – ONE (individual) in CO{u}RT [non-U] | |
| 7 | Copy paper with edges torn away (3) |
| APE – {p}APE{r} [edges torn away] | |
| 12 | Formal speech about limits of private enterprise (9) |
| OPERATION – ORATION (formal speech) contains [about] P{rivat}E [limits of] | |
| 14 | In foreign parts, Frenchman’s one place to get a tan (7) |
| SUNTRAP – UN (Frenchman’s one) in anagram [foreign] of PARTS | |
| 15 | Title originally used by leading pair of Beatles? (3,2,2) |
| LET IT BE – Anagram [originally used] of TITLE, BE{atles} [leading pair]. The defintion is &lit – the whole clue – and a spectacular example of the type! | |
| 17 | Lawyer / put in the picture (5) |
| BRIEF – Two definitions | |
| 18 | Stopped pair of journalists covering news at first (5) |
| ENDED – ED + ED (pair of journalists) containing [covering] N{ews} [at first] | |
| 20 | Boy embraced by Little Nell (3) |
| LEN – Hidden in [embraced by] {Litt}LE N{ell} | |
Nell is in the main cryptic as well today, 6d.
Thanks for the blog, wasn’t sure why 6a needed a fish, and I couldn’t parse 6d.
Took 6.31 after my trip to the docs.
So fairly straightforward methink.
13ac PERSONALITIES was a decent enough anagram.
Jack – well done on the emergency blog.
horryd Shanghai
Gentle fare today after Tuesday ‘s head- scratcher. COD 15d. 4’35”
Thank you jackkt and Flamade.
GeoffH
Will