This took me about two and a half hours – I made a meal of the top half, wanting Derby in 1A to be a race or hat, and not seeing P,((c)ORRECT) for ages, even with all the checkers. I was also distracted by PTOLOMAEAN as a candidate at 12. I notice as I write this that there are 6 answers starting with P, and wonder whether this is significant. The setter was stated as Tim Moorey on the club version, but the e-mail address provided was for Mike Laws. Tim wrote 2594 so we’ll assume it’s him.
| Across |
| 1 |
PRO=for(CA.=about),CITY=Derby, perhaps |
| 7 |
ISO = isolated relay – hidden word |
| 11 |
PORRECTS – (c)ORRECT in P(yjama)S |
| 12 |
P,TO(LEMAIS = (a smile)*)T |
| 13 |
SP(UTTER)Y |
| 15 |
T=time,WEE=relief,T=time |
| 17 |
SALTATES=jumps – ALT=high, in Tessa* |
| 18 |
NICK – 2 defs |
| 19 |
(y)ARDS |
| 20 |
FAC(EACH)E |
| 25 |
ROTAL = rev. of LA,TOR |
| 26 |
ORC(HELL)A |
| 27 |
PAR(GA.),SITES – solved at least in part by working backwards from -ITES |
| 28 |
VELLEITY = “volition in its lowest form” – (I’ve telly)* |
| 29 |
ES,T(eacher) – very easy as ‘French Art’ means what it usually means, and a flatmate of mine once attended an EST course |
| 30 |
IT BEATS ME – BEAT in Times* |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
PI(PI)TS – some orchestras being found in pits |
| 2 |
OPODELDOC – a name given by Paracelsus to various local medications – dope* in OLD=veteran, O.C.=officer |
| 3 |
COLLE(c=carat)T – a collet is the part of a piece of jewellery containing the stone |
| 4 |
COMP=comprehensive=school,ITAL. – compital=relating to crossroads |
| 5 |
TRITE – double def., the obscure one being the third string of a lyre – MESE and NETE are other lyre strings found with the Chambers CD-rom, but I don’t know how many strings a lyre has and therefore whether this is the full set |
| 6 |
YES=indeed,T(inn)Y |
| 8 |
STERN=hard,CHASER=liquor – a sternchaser is a cannon in the stern of a ship |
| 9 |
O(STY)AK – Chambers indicates that Ostyak and Samoyed are both Ugrian peoples of Siberia and their languages, but not whether they’re the same thing or one is a subset of the other. |
| 10 |
STEWARTRIES = Kirkcudbright offices – (artists were)*, with ‘pop’ as the anag. inidicator |
| 14 |
EPIC,TETUS=st(a)tue* – I though of EPIC soon enough but not the rest, not knowing about Epictetus. I think I ended up looking up EPIC- people in Chambers Biographical Dictionary |
| 16 |
P(ECU)LATE |
| 19 |
A(MOO=low)VE |
| 21 |
A,(t)OR(y),IS,T=tense – AORIST is a “tense, esp. in Greek, expressing simple past time with no implications of continuance, repetition or the like” |
| 22 |
ELY=see,SEE=C=third letter – potential puzzlement finding the wordplay here, when the indicator for the first half of the word turns out to actually be the second half |
| 23 |
T(HAL=Henry)I – I was distracted by h=henry, and then wondered how TALI could mean ‘note’ |
| 24 |
BE(RE=on)T(hel) |
A steady solve this one without any particular problems – nice puzzle.