| It’s all going wrong today. First there is the error at 23 ac which threw me. Then distracted by that, I failed to spot a typo elsewhere and was plugging in ever more ridiculous answers for 23, getting the dreaded ‘Unlucky!’ each time. Then LiveJournal threw away three quarters of my blog as I posted it, which is why some of you early birds may have spotted the frantically rewritten blog appearing piecemeal.
So despite that, an enjoyable solve with lots of construction work that newbies might find a bit challenging. Also a couple of stiff bits of general knowledge. My time was all over the place, the thick end of 20 minutes. Across |
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| 1 | Prevent everyone going to the end of wood (9) |
| FORESTALL – FOREST (wood) + ALL | |
| 6 | Vehicle almost completely destroyed (3) |
| BUS – Short for BUST | |
| 8 | Ogre featured in sermons — terrible! (7) |
| MONSTER – hidden word – serMONS TERrible | |
| 9 | Sir Toby’s expulsion after meal? (5) |
| BELCH – Sir Toby Belch is a character in Twelfth Night | |
| 10 | Dishonesty getting last chairman sacked (12) |
| CHARLATANISM – anagram (‘sacked’) of LAST CHAIRMAN | |
| 12 | Mouth silent monk only half needed (4) |
| TRAP – half of TRAPPIST | |
| 13 | Warriors making personal claim to holiness? (4) |
| IMPI – A personal claim to holiness would be to say “I’m pi” (pi = pious) Impi are Zulu warriors | |
| 17 | Break during academic period — is boy outside front of institute? (12) |
| INTERMISSION – IN TERM + IS SON with I inside | |
| 20 | Another girl upsetting Alice (5) |
| CELIA – anagram (‘upsetting’) of ALICE | |
| 21 | Detestable bit of play written by old boy (7) |
| OBSCENE – bit of play is SCENE, old boy is OB by convention | |
| 23 | Boy in study retreating (3) |
| DEN – Right, unless Izetti has broken just about the only cast iron rule of cryptic crosswords, i.e. that the definintion should be either at the beginning or the end, this is an error. NED would work with the clue as written, ‘retreating boy in study’ would work as the clue. | |
| 24 | Author from abroad hiding in trees crazily (1,1,7) |
| E M FORSTER – anagram (‘abroad’) of FROM inside anagram (‘crazily’) of TREES. Room with a View and all that. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Celebrity, female wanting the last word getting cut short (4) |
| FAME – F + AMEN cut short | |
| 2 | Farmer managed to get companion, top lady (7) |
| RANCHER – RAN + CH (Companion of Honour) + ER (The Queen, top lady) | |
| 3 | In street sits little old drunkard (3) |
| SOT -ST for street with O inside | |
| 4 | Woman dubbed “la Douce” hugged by an aviator (6) |
| AIRMAN – The woman is IRMA, from Irma La Douce, a French musical and later a film with Jack Lemmon. How you’re supposed to know that in the QC I can’t say. IRMA is ‘hugged by’ AN | |
| 5 | Places you can read stories about Irish gathering support (9) |
| LIBRARIES – another construction job: stories are LIES, Irish is IR, support is BRA | |
| 6 | Curry dish — the thing experimental unit served up (5) |
| BALTI – ‘the thing’ is IT, experimental unit is LAB, all ‘up’, i.e. backwards. | |
| 7 | Conservative overwhelmed by shame messed up plan (6) |
| SCHEMA – Conservative is C, inside anagram (‘messed up’) of SHAME | |
| 11 | Presentation concerning period for imbibing drink (9) |
| REPORTAGE – RE AGE with PORT inside | |
| 14 | Demonstration in favour of having international match (7) |
| PROTEST – PRO (in favour of) + TEST (international match) | |
| 15 | Showed discomfort in church when beset by gastric problem (6) |
| WINCED – Church is CE, inside WIND | |
| 16 | Hint given by superior gent, carrying minimal cash (3-3) |
| TIP-OFF – superior gent is TOFF, minimal cash is 1p or IP | |
| 18 | One that grabs cards laid out on table (5) |
| TALON – double definition. I didn’t know the second one | |
| 19 | Try in this place to be listened to (4) |
| HEAR – sounds like ‘here’ | |
| 22 | Knight in prison with time to waste (3) |
| SIR – Prison is STIR, minus T for time | |
treesparrow