Another enjoyable Quicky with nothing in the way of obscurities. I did spend a while on 23A because of going down a blind alley that I was reluctant to reverse from, but I’m sure many solvers will have spotted the answer straight away.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Parsley’s chopped up thinly (8) |
| SPARSELY – anagram (chopped up) of PARSLEY’S | |
| 5 | Note snake and catch one’s breath (4) |
| GASP – G (Note) + ASP (snake) | |
| 9 | Courageous bishop has wild party (5) |
| BRAVE – B (bishop) + RAVE (wild party) | |
| 10 | In Vermont, an attractive part of the US (7) |
| MONTANA – hidden (in) in VerMONT AN Attractive. Conveniently, both states are known for their natural beauty. | |
| 11 | Regret the French urban way (3) |
| RUE – double definition | |
| 12 | Putting in a bid to look after European band (9) |
| TENDERING – TEND (to look after) + E (European) + RING (band) | |
| 13 | Texan city giving money to Australia (6) |
| AUSTIN – AUS (Australia) + TIN (money), for the state capital of Texas that’s twinned with Hackney. In other Texas news, on this day in 1970 some people in space told some people in Houston that they’d had a problem. | |
| 15 | Like kippers? Please, but done properly (6) |
| ASLEEP – anagram (done properly) of PLEASE, with “kipper” referring to someone who kips rather than a cured herring | |
| 17 | Only one to turn informer and give the game away (9) |
| SINGLETON – SING (to turn informer) + LET ON (give the game away) | |
| 19 | Poem soldier read regularly (3) |
| ODE – alternate letters (read regularly) of sOlDiEr | |
| 20 | Mean to state publicly how old one is (7) |
| AVERAGE – AVER (to state publicly) + AGE (how old one is) | |
| 21 | Soundly shows disapproval of alcohol (5) |
| BOOZE – homophone (Soundly) of BOOS (shows disapproval) | |
| 22 | Job found in the mail room? (4) |
| POST – double definition | |
| 23 | Stake money added to one’s account (8) |
| INTEREST – double definition. I almost came a cropper on this. In Crosswordland, “stake” often equates to “ante”, so I was convinced the answer was going to begin with ANTE. Further, “money” could equate to “cent”, and I seriously considered entering ANTECENT. I held back because I’d never heard of the word and, after abandoning this line of thinking, the correct answer came seconds later. Note that the technical term for something like ANTECENT is a “momble” – this is an answer that appears to fit the wordplay and has the look of a proper word, but turns out to be simply a collection of letters that mean nothing at all. The term was coined on this site about a year ago – it’s great to have a word to describe something that I’m sure every solver has encountered at one time or another. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Remote region of southern Spain and Portugal (7) |
| SIBERIA – S (southern) + IBERIA (Spain and Portugal) | |
| 2 | Come to a vigil for the departed (5) |
| AWAKE – A + WAKE (vigil for the departed) | |
| 3 | Bill coming after pudding that could be kind of pink (5,7) |
| SWEET WILLIAM – WILLIAM (Bill) after SWEET (pudding), for the flowering plant Dianthus barbatus. A pink is any plant of the genus Dianthus. | |
| 4 | Bright yellow honeydew, perhaps partly on the turn (5) |
| LEMON – MELON (honeydew, perhaps) with the first three letters reversed (partly on the turn). The wordplay would also support answers such as emlon or melno, say, but these wouldn’t fit the (or, in fact, any) definition. | |
| 6 | Greed wanting specially prepared caviare (7) |
| AVARICE – anagram (specially prepared) of CAVIARE. Based on Google hits, caviare is a much less common spelling of caviar, which is obviously necessary for the anagram but also perhaps provides a hint to solvers that an anagram is on the cards. | |
| 7 | Made a call after parking crash (5) |
| PRANG – RANG (Made a call) after P (parking) | |
| 8 | Disturbed neuronal base functioning with bias? (12) |
| UNREASONABLE – anagram (Disturbed) of NEURONAL BASE | |
| 14 | Seedling’s beginning, except in permanent shadow (7) |
| SUNLESS – S (Seedling’s beginning, i.e. the first letter of “Seedling”) + UNLESS (except) | |
| 16 | Stop public relations function (7) |
| PREVENT – PR (public relations) + EVENT (function) | |
| 17 | Flood moved through water pressure (5) |
| SWAMP – SWAM (moved through water) + P (pressure) | |
| 18 | Promotional film that is in the can? (3-2) |
| TIE-IN – IE (that is) in TIN (can) | |
| 19 | Fresh air round district is wanted (5) |
| OZONE – O (round) + ZONE (district) | |
I’ve seen ozone a few times defined as fresh air in crossword and never really thought of it as being particularly fresh, so I decided to look up the definition today – the definitions seem rather contradictory!
1. An unstable, poisonous allotrope of oxygen, O3, that is formed naturally in the ozone layer from atmospheric oxygen by electric discharge or exposure to ultraviolet radiation, also produced in the lower atmosphere by the photochemical reaction of certain pollutants. It is a highly reactive oxidizing agent used to deodorize air, purify water, and treat industrial wastes.
2. Informal Fresh, pure air.
Philip
ASLEEP excellent.
Thanks
Hannah