Regular blog readers may recall that I’m partial to an anagram or two, which probably helped me scoot through this one at a decent clip. It also helped that there was nothing very obscure. The two artists, the writer, the tree, the politician and the city would be familiar to most of us. And I don’t know if RED-TOP is commonly used in the UK, but it certainly is in Crossword-land.
ENUNCIATE might have been tough if you were slow to spot the anagrist. And FORELIMB and FORECASTER were both difficult to parse, if not to solve. But hopefully you had enough checkers in place by then to lighten the load a little.
So let’s get on with it. Looking forward to the comments to see how everyone went. But first, a shout-out to Mara. I’m glad I was blogging today as many of the surface readings were very good, something that can go unnoticed in the quest for a speedy solve. Nice one Mara.
(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 | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Principal thread, same for weaving (10) |
| HEADMASTER – (THREAD SAME)* | |
| 7 | I’m wearing bright check (5) |
| LIMIT – IM (I’m) “wearing” LIT (bright) | |
| 8 | Right journalist to pick, initially, for tabloid (3-3) |
| RED-TOP – R (right) + ED (journalist) + TO + P (Pick, initially) | |
| 10 | Better headgear (3) |
| CAP – Double definition
A verb and a noun. |
|
| 12 | Character with remarkable powers treated pure horse (9) |
| SUPERHERO – (PURE HORSE)* | |
| 13 | A little nymph one day called (6) |
| PHONED – Hidden in (a little) nymPH ONE Day | |
| 14 | Writer cries uncontrollably about book (6) |
| SCRIBE – (CRIES)* “about” B (book) | |
| 17 | State where niece and aunt resettled (9) |
| ENUNCIATE – (NIECE + AUNT)* | |
| 19 | Snake in need of company, female supporter? (3) |
| BRA – COBRA (snake) lacking (in need of) CO (company) | |
| 20 | Fitness of Conservative prime minister probed by liberals, primarily (6) |
| HEALTH – HEATH (Conservative prime minister) “probed by” L (Liberals, primarily) | |
| 21 | Belief in figure, extra-terrestrial (5) |
| TENET – TEN (figure) + ET (extra-terrestrial) | |
| 23 | Happy boy, one seen on pirate ship (5,5) |
| JOLLY ROGER – JOLLY (happy) + ROGER (boy) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | The police destroyed right aircraft (10) |
| HELICOPTER – (THE POLICE)* + R (right)
Since realising that this word derives from the Greek for spiral and wing, I find myself pronouncing it HEH-lih-koh-tɛər. I’m assured that this is every bit as annoying as you’d imagine it to be. |
|
| 2 | Objective in the morning to have one tucked in (3) |
| AIM – I (one) “tucked in” to AM (in the morning) | |
| 3 | Steam is swirling for French artist (7) |
| MATISSE – (STEAM IS)* | |
| 4 | Remove English band (6) |
| STRIPE – STRIP (remove) + E (English) | |
| 5 | More mature tree (5) |
| ELDER – Double definition | |
| 6 | Member backing middle-distance runner from Britain (8) |
| FORELIMB – FORELIM {MILER (middle-distance runner) + OF (from)] reversed (backing)} + B (Britain)
I spent a bit of time trying to squeeze old Seb Coe into this one. |
|
| 9 | English author holding card up, one predicting the future (10) |
| FORECASTER – FORSTER (English author) “holding” ECA [ACE (card) reversed (up)]
Definitely a case of solve first, parse later. |
|
| 11 | Impresario procured cast (8) |
| PRODUCER – (PROCURED)* | |
| 15 | Joy envelops street in English city (7) |
| CHESTER – CHEER (joy) “envelops” ST (street) | |
| 16 | Artist playing Harlow (6) |
| WARHOL – (HARLOW)* | |
| 18 | Little room on top of organ for stringed instrument (5) |
| CELLO – CELL (little room) on O (“top” of Organ) | |
| 22 | What takes part in gymkhana, generally? (3) |
| NAG – Hidden in (takes part in) gymkhaNA Generally
And an &lit to round off proceedings. |
|
So many write-ins today in this but came unstuck with FORELIMB, thanks for the parsing G, saw ‘miler’ but didn’t see ‘of/from’. ENUNCIATE was another where I was looking for a country/state, always thought the word meant something more like ‘pronounce clearly’. WARHOL took a while to come, along with CELLO, where I was thinking that the ‘little room’ was ‘loo’ before seeing the light. Everything else pretty straightforward.
Thanks G and setter.
I didn’t worry about the parsing of forelimb, and only glanced at the parsing of forecaster. All the answers went in pretty quickly, although the only real chestnut was cello.
Time: 5:30