It looks like the scheduled blogger has not been able to produce a blog today so here’s a quick one. Some of the surfaces in this were great, in particular 2D and 11D. 13A and 1D may not be in everyone’s vocab, and I can’t say I’d ever heard of 7D.
Please ask in the comments if you need further explanation.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across |
| 1 |
No voters instructed and forced (11) |
|
CONSTRAINED – CONS (No voters, i.e. those voting no, as opposed to pros who would be voting yes) + TRAINED (instructed) |
| 8 |
Those regularly in salesroom should and can, under pressure (7) |
|
AEROSOL – alternate letters (Those regularly) in sAlEsRoOm ShOuLd. Nicely hidden definition. |
| 9 |
Cut volume in what NHS provides (5) |
|
CARVE – V (volume) in CARE (what NHS provides) |
| 10 |
Mad racist thrown out for overemotional behaviour (9) |
|
DRAMATICS – anagram (thrown out) of MAD RACIST
|
| 12 |
Fool – like son (3) |
|
ASS – AS (like) + S (son) |
| 13 |
Sign to get round a bad-tempered woman (6) |
|
VIRAGO – VIRGO (Sign, i.e. sign of the zodiac) round A
|
| 15 |
Navy’s after style that’s new (6) |
|
MODERN – RN (Navy, i.e. Royal Navy) after MODE (style) |
| 17 |
Fled Islamic republic without capital (3) |
|
RAN – {I}RAN (Islamic republic without capital, i.e. Iran without its capital letter) |
| 18 |
Charles X has editor humbled (9) |
|
CHASTENED – CHAS (Charles) + TEN (X) + ED (editor) |
| 20 |
Make a change to last word, fourth letter (5) |
|
AMEND – AMEN (last word) + D (fourth letter – of the alphabet) |
| 22 |
Area in Belgium initially in dispute with many ethnicities (7) |
|
RAINBOW – A (Area) + IN + B (Belgium initially, i.e. the first letter in Belgium), all in ROW (dispute) |
| 23 |
Host snidely stirring in an insincere manner (11) |
|
DISHONESTLY – anagram (stirring) of HOST SNIDELY
|
| Down |
| 1 |
Papal court is somewhat mercurial (5) |
|
CURIA – hidden (somewhat) in merCURIAl |
| 2 |
Sadly remembering losing cat in accident (9) |
|
NOSTALGIC – anagram (in accident) of LOSING CAT
|
| 3 |
Modern film of alcoholic following end of treatment (6) |
|
TALKIE – ALKIE (alcoholic) after (following) T (end of treatment, i.e. the last letter of treatment – you could argue that treatment has two ends, both of which happen to be t, but I think it’s more common for “end” to refer to the last letter) |
| 4 |
Part of circular curve (3) |
|
ARC – hidden in (Part of) circulAR Curve. Semi-&lit – I wouldn’t want to call it a full &lit because there are arcs that aren’t part of circular curves. It would be a full &lit if there was some indication of the DBE (e.g. a question mark, a “perhaps”, a “maybe”, etc) |
| 5 |
Tell a ranter off (7) |
|
NARRATE – anagram (off) of A RANTER
|
| 6 |
Reprimand what workers may be doing on a Friday (8-4) |
|
DRESSING-DOWN – double definition, the second without a hyphen |
| 7 |
Progressively surrender playing cards held (4,4,4) |
|
HAND OVER HAND – HAND OVER (surrender) + HAND (playing cards held) |
| 11 |
Final few candidates drink and heel over (9) |
|
SHORTLIST – SHORT (drink, i.e. a short drink usually of spirits) + LIST (heel over) |
| 14 |
Rook greatly annoys park attendants (7) |
|
RANGERS – R (Rook, in chess notation) + ANGERS (greatly annoys) |
| 16 |
Children’s author having endless blockage (6) |
|
BARRIE – BARRIE{r} (endless blockage, i.e. barrier without its final letter) |
| 19 |
Splendidly old British left in New York (5) |
|
NOBLY – O (old) + B (British) + L (left), all inside NY (New York) |
| 21 |
Pair half of duck with a whole one (3) |
|
DUO – DU (half of duck, i.e. the first two letters of duck) + O (a whole one, i.e. zero as a cricket score) |
I have a bit of a quibble with Talkie being described as a modern film but I guess I should have been able to figure it out from the clue. Other than that an enjoyable puzzle
Edited at 2015-03-27 09:21 am (UTC)
A combination of a trip to Germany and a dose of cellulitis and hospital trips has derailed me.
I will be back to normal next week! Promise!!
For what it’s worth, I thought this was the hardest Joker QC during the time (6 months or so) I have been doing them Invariant