Despite being quite out of practice, I found this fairly easy to get into. The left hand side of the grid was a bit slower to click, with 1dn and 2dn eluding me the longest. I do like a good anagram indicator, and was particularly pleased with two used here; one was going to be a quibble until I looked up the precise definition, the other pleasantly unusual.
Only writing up the blog did I notice that there is a preponderance of definitions at the beginning of clues (all but one in the acrosses) but that obviously didn’t make the puzzle seem predictable at the time of solving.
Enjoy…
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Notorious home recognised by many (8) |
| INFAMOUS – IN (home) plus FAMOUS (recognised by many). | |
| 5 | A very large amount of land here in Kansas I acquired (4) |
| ASIA – hidden in kansAS I Acquired. | |
| 8 | Livener to take, short (5) |
| TONIC – TO and NICk (take, without last letter (short)). | |
| 9 | Trees in area of East London, and South (7) |
| POPLARS – POPLAR (area of East London) plus S (South). | |
| 11 | Feathery stuff from a plant, lots the wind scattered (11) |
| THISTLEDOWN – anagram (indicated by scattered) of LOTS THE WIND. | |
| 13 | Develop spin in absence of leader (6) |
| EVOLVE – rEVOLVE (spin) without the first letter (leader). | |
| 14 | Field event record set by American (6) |
| DISCUS – DISC (record) plus US (American). | |
| 16 | Essayist becharms all, subtly (7,4) |
| CHARLES LAMB – anagram (indicated by subtly) of BECHARMS ALL. He was somewhere in the back of my mind, though I’ve not read any of his essays, made all the more difficult by the anagram indicator which I thought was a stretch. In fact, subtle can be defined as “ingenious and elaborate”, or “clever and indirect”. | |
| 18 | Stupid, a transgression in office at the end (7) |
| ASININE – A with SIN (transgression) plus IN and E (last letter of officE). | |
| 19 | Boy finding any number in lake (5) |
| ERNIE – N (any number) in ERIE (lake). | |
| 20 | Job in test, as keeper (4) |
| TASK – hidden in tesT AS Keeper. | |
| 21 | Dreadful ad item: it’s taken off (8) |
| IMITATED – anagram (indicated by dreadful) of AD ITEM IT. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Volunteers to go after one old Greek character (4) |
| IOTA – TA (Territorial Army, volunteers) after I (one) and O (old). | |
| 2 | Bureaucrats sign to support party (13) |
| FUNCTIONARIES – ARIES (sign of the zodiac) underneath (supports) FUNCTION (party). | |
| 3 | Cunning politician — I’ve a call with him arranged (11) |
| MACHIAVELLI – anagram (indicated by arranged) of I’VE A CALL with HIM. | |
| 4 | Winning sympathy, becomes arrogant (6) |
| UPPITY – UP (winning) and PITY (sympathy). | |
| 6 | Who produced Opposition’s manifesto? To follow it can be complicated (6,7) |
| SHADOW CABINET – SHADOW (to follow) and an anagram (indicated by complicated) of IT CAN BE. | |
| 7 | Fire-raiser nobbled on stairs (8) |
| ARSONIST – anagram (indicated by nobbled) of ON STAIRS. Lovely unusual indicator. | |
| 10 | Dilemma caused by the last word in forecast (11) |
| PREDICAMENT – AMEN (last word) inside PREDICT (forecast). | |
| 12 | Liking page with charm (8) |
| PENCHANT – P (abbreviation of page) with ENCHANT (charm). | |
| 15 | Respect shown by eastern power in speech (6) |
| ESTEEM – E (eastern) and homophone of “steam” (power, in speech). | |
| 17 | Soldiers on duty, initially in fix (4) |
| MEND – MEN (soldiers) on D (initial letter of Duty). | |
Edited at 2015-03-18 08:05 am (UTC)
Not sure what it says about me but at 8 across I thought of tonic in a short drink!