Parksolve time = 36:50. Slow run, quickish solve.
Our first (and therefore best) contribution from Myles for 2025.
Nice to see a shoutout at 12ac to the technological marvel that has kept me gainfully distracted for nearly four decades.
There’s a paucity of anagram clues aside from a little burst in the middle downs. But it seems to be a non-controversial (obscurity-free?) offering overall. Please share your comments about how you found it.
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics. In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
| Across | |
| 7 | Complete quartet back in country house (5) |
| VILLA – ALL IV (all four = complete quartet) reversed (back) | |
| 8 | I come ashore again in European country (7) |
| IRELAND – I + RE-LAND (come ashore again) | |
| 10 | Disorderly carnival city, from our perspective (7) |
| RIOTOUS – RIO (carnival city) + TO US (from our perspective) | |
| 11 | Vagrant parking behind public transport (5) |
| TRAMP – P (parking) behind TRAM (public transport) | |
| 12 | Computer displayed academic credential? (9) |
| MAINFRAME – MA (Master of Arts, academic credential) IN FRAME (displayed)
I stumbled aimlessly into the mainframe world in the 1980’s to the resounding refrain of “it’ll be dead in a few years”. And yet here we are in 2025, feeling confident of squeezing one more year out of it before hanging up my POPs (if you know, you know). |
|
| 14 | Short piece, that’s standard on course (3) |
| PAR – Double definition
First def referring to an abbreviation of “paragraph”. Second def referring to a golf score that is sadly anything but standard for me. On edit: Quadrophenia in the comments has it as short piece = PARt, and I find it very difficult to disagree. |
|
| 15 | Starts off holding us gently in embrace (3) |
| HUG – First letters of (starts off) Holding Us Gently | |
| 16 | Plan return of huge pastries (9) |
| STRATAGEM – Reverse (return) of MEGA (huge) + TARTS (pastries) | |
| 18 | Sacks turned over as something to sit on (5) |
| STOOL – LOOTS (sacks) reversed (turned over) | |
| 20 | Early movie star, fellow nothing set back (7) |
| CHAPLIN – CHAP (fellow) + NIL (nothing) reversed (set back) | |
| 22 | Deeply felt because true, apart from odd bits (7) |
| SINCERE – SINCE (because) + |
|
| 23 | Religious book whose author conceals its name (5) |
| HOSEA – Hidden in wHOSE Author
And very skilfully hidden, I might add. It’s not easy to find non-obvious ways to clue hiddens. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Done with English politician, has one’s excessive level of stress (12) |
| OVEREMPHASIS – OVER (done with) + E (English) + MP (politician) + HAS + IS (one’s) | |
| 2 | Admitting nothing settled (8) |
| ALLOWING – ALL OWING [nothing repaid (settled)] | |
| 3 | Asian dictator hiding yen in part of Ireland (4) |
| MAYO – MAO (Asian dictator) “hiding” Y (yen) | |
| 4 | Seat is rearranged for rest of afternoon (6) |
| SIESTA – (SEAT IS)*
“Rest” of afternoon. Very good. |
|
| 5 | Security device that could be testable (8) |
| SEATBELT – (TESTABLE)* | |
| 6 | At short notice, turned up numerical information (4) |
| DATA – [AT + AD (short for advertisement (notice))] reversed (turned up) | |
| 9 | Of a mind to support exit of a branch of government (12) |
| DEPARTMENTAL – MENTAL (of a mind) after (to support) DEPART (exit) | |
| 13 | US rifle I adapted for British soldier (8) |
| FUSILIER – (US RIFLE I)*
A word that has had various meanings around the world over time. Various spellings too it seems, as the British version began with the Royal Regiment of Fuzileers in 1655. |
|
| 14 | Dog I catalogue as boxer (8) |
| PUGILIST – PUG (dog) + I + LIST (catalogue) | |
| 17 | Crime that’s handled skillfully in court (6) |
| RACKET – Double definition | |
| 19 | Sound from pen and old writing material (4) |
| OINK – O (old) + INK (writing material)
A bit chestnutty perhaps, but nice use of two wildly disparate definitions of the word “pen”. |
|
| 21 | Feel bad as expert swallowing bench’s conclusion (4) |
| ACHE – ACE (expert) “swallowing” H (conclusion of bencH) | |
11:59, with LOI ALLOWING unparsed.
thanks Galspray and Myles
12.18 Mostly OK but I had PINK for a while (thinking of engine noise) and spent three minutes on LOI SEATBELT where I didn’t spot the anagram until I’d biffed it. Thanks galspray and Myles.
6.21. I’m rather unsure about Ireland being defined as a European country.
Ireland is in the EU, so, counts as European.
That’s The Republic of Ireland – Ireland on its own includes Northern Ireland.
Massively breezeblocked by ALLOWING. I solved 23 clues at the rate of one a minute (quite fast for me), but then spent nearly as much time on my LOI. Every alphabet trawl missed the solution and every reappraisal of the clue failed to reveal its true parsing. I gave up and was seeking some sympathy from Mrs Random (fat chance of that) when it suddenly popped into my head. A tortuous process, but I suppose I got there. And my team has just gained a superb victory over Newcastle, thereby ending their 9-game winning streak. So, what’s not to like?
Many thanks to galspray and Myles.
Terrible result, but we were played off the park today.
Toon supporter? Yup, a shellacking today unfortunately. And I captained Isak in FPL
Ouch, he barely had a kick today.
This afforded me 16:35 minutes of enjoyment (not a bad time by my standards). Loved OVEREMPHASIS, it’s always fun to unravel a clue as I read it. ALLOWING baffled me to the end, when I biffed it then thought, slowly, reluctantly, oh, yeah… excellent clue! Too many good surfaces to mention, really enjoyed this.
Great puzzle. Thanks to Myles and galspray!
18:29
Nice puzzle. Plenty to think about but nothing obscure. Didn’t see where the academic qualification came in with MAINFRAME until I read the blog. LOI SIESTA.
Parksolve 52 minutes but it was very, very hilly this morning.
15:19, just over my target. Liked IRELAND and the large pastries, but COD goes to the MA IN FRAME, which I hadn’t parsed.
Thanks to Myles and Galspray.
A very pleasant 11:50. Thank you for the blog!
Didn’t parse MAINFRAME either, but everything else was clear. A nice, satisfying puzzle, enjoying seeing the answers appear from the wordplay.
6.37
Liked SIESTA. Thanks all
Came to this late this morning as yesterday was an early start and left Mrs RH in bed. Don’t usually comment this late but Myles produced such a great puzzle that we felt obliged to!
As for many others, oink was a real favourite, with much enjoyment around the rest of the grid. Started well but couldn’t see allowing so worked our way anti-clockwise until we got back to it at around 18 minutes. At 20.25 the penny dropped!
Thanks Galspray for parsing of mainframe and data – we had a tad which didn’t really make sense and I was having a MER at data being numerical, which of course it doesn’t have to be.
Too easy.Solved in 20 seconds.