The best crossword of the month, as ever, with typically inventive wordplay and wonderful odd words from the dusty corners of the dictionary. I was all done and parsed in a single session of about 1hr 20 minutes, which is quicker than usual, but I’m not complaining it wasn’t hard enough! Clue of the month for me is, I think, 17A with its 6 part assembly instructions resulting in an interesting and unlikely looking word, although I did enjoy 3D too. Thank-you clever setter.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | After time this would result in repetitive spasm of abnormal stress (5) |
| ICTIC – With a T (time) on front {t}ICTIC is TIC TIC (TIC twice; repetitive spasm). | |
| 4 | Width in top seats, best condition for flyer from Prestwick (9) |
| GOWDSPINK – W (width) in GODS (top seats in the theatre), PINK (in the pink; best condition). Enjoy yourself! | |
| 9 | Inject privates with iodine drug to produce sweating (9) |
| JABORANDI – JAB (inject) OR (other ranks; privates) AND I (Iodine). | |
| 10 | Bent, discarded and black in the middle (5) |
| CORBE – An obsolete definition [discarded]. B (black) in CORE (middle). | |
| 11 | Exclude middle third from an irregular protective coating (6) |
| RESIST – Remove 3 middle letters of RES[erv}IST (irregular soldier). Clever! | |
| 12 | Layer in firm container for beans or beetroot, say (8) |
| CHENOPOD – HEN (layer) in CO (company; firm) POD (container for beans). | |
| 14 | Alien, horror edited with extra hour for streaming? (12) |
| RHINORRHOEAL -A great word. (alien horror)* [edited] with an extra H (hour) added. | |
| 17 | Literary Greek king engaged in race with very old country outside Europe (12) |
| KATHAREVOUSA – Another interesting word. A form of written Greek. K (King) AT (engaged in) HARE (race) V (very) O (old) USA (country outside Europe). Great 6 part assembly! | |
| 20 | Sailing the yacht as a cutter (8) |
| HATCHETY – (the yacht)* [sailing]. | |
| 21 | Hollowed out part included reproductive cells in recession (6) |
| INCAVO – INC (included) OVA (reproductive cells) reversed -> AVO. | |
| 23 | Defame officer commanding former member of arcana (5) |
| TAROC – TAR (defame) OC (officer commanding). | |
| 24 | Whenever close friend returned, hit deck and celebrated riotously (9) |
| MAFFICKED – IF (whenever) FAM (close friend) all returned -> MAFFI, (deck)* [hit]. | |
| 25 | King is out of black-tie role, entertaining classy star (9) |
| FOMALHAUT – FO{r}MAL (black-tie) without the R (King), U (classy) in HAT (role). | |
| 26 | Faddish toy from Japan — not magot but samurai sword (5) |
| TACHI – TA{magot}CHI (faddish toy from Japan) without the MAGOT. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | They’ll spoil cool sauce containing bases from our beurre noir (8) |
| INJURERS – IN (cool) JUS (sauce) including last letters of ouR beurrE noiR. | |
| 2 | Preparation of bamboo sap: try one covered with salt (8) |
| TABASHIR – BASH (try) I (one), in TAR (sailor; salt). | |
| 3 | Chapter four’s ending with morals about most unusual area of a learner’s anthology (15) |
| CHRESTOMATHICAL – CH (chapter) fouR [‘s ending] ETHICAL (with morals), about (most)* [unusual] A (area). Another great word and Ikean construction. | |
| 4 | Good stuff to use for writing case (4) |
| GINK – G (good) INK (stuff to use for writing). | |
| 5 | Edges of garish long scarf hemmed with strange thin seam (10) |
| WEIGHBOARD – Outside letters of GarisH, BOA (long scarf) in WEIRD (strange). Neat wordplay and surface. | |
| 6 | Wayward discontent saved in Redeemer’s return I believe (6-9) |
| SECOND-ADVENTIST – (discontent saved)* [wayward]. | |
| 7 | Flock in turn express satisfaction during appeal (6) |
| IRRUPT – PURR (express satisfaction) reversed in IT (sex appeal). | |
| 8 | Massages as protection for joints with excision at the centre (6) |
| KNEADS – KNE{ep}ADS (protection for joints) losing the 2 letters in the middle. | |
| 13 | Perhaps Belafonte with lowered head and level height raised beat’s irregularity (10) |
| ARRHYTHMIA – HARRY (perhaps Belafonte) moving the first letter to second last -> ARRHY, AIM (level a weapon) HT (height) all raised -> THMIA | |
| 15 | Extremely anti a truck, actively opposing inward traffic? (8) |
| AUTARKIC – (a{nt}i a truck)* [actively]. | |
| 16 | Number orfe among yield mostly producing shiny-scaled fish (8) |
| GANOIDEI –NO (number) IDE (orfe) in GAI{n} (yield) [mostly]. | |
| 18 | To accommodate a husband, wife rebuffed speculation (4-2) |
| WHAT-IF – FIT (accommodate) A H (husband) W(wife) all reversed -> WHAT-IF. | |
| 19 | Again taking part, despite rumours (6) |
| ITERUM – Hidden in [part] despITE RUMours. | |
| 22 | What has frame for face set up with use of computers? (1-3) |
| E-FIT – A neat semi-&lit to finish. [frame for] F{ac}E, reversed -> EF, IT use of computers. | |
I think ‘of’ should be underlined at INCTIC; and I don’t know what’s abnormal about an inctus.
Chambers has “Rhythmical or metrical stress in contradistinction to the usual stress of a word in prose, etc (prosody)” as the first definition of ICTUS. Thanks will underline the “of”.