An enjoyable offering from Orpheus, with some delightful moments of whimsy (particularly liked 15a and 17d). I thought this one was at the easier end of the scale, but you never know… Quite a few jokey / pun type clues that might require you to be on the setter’s wavelength, and could cause a bit of trouble if you are not (luckily I was).
Thanks to Orpheus for a very nice puzzle.
If anyone is struggling to access it, the puzzle can be found here http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20160113/12914/
Definitions underlined; DD = double definition; anagrams indicated by *(–)
| Across | |
| 1 | Youth given unknown sentence – one with spots (8) |
| LADYBIRD – LAD (youth) + Y (unknown) + BIRD (sentence – i.e. prison) | |
| 5 | Fight between two people owing pounds (4) |
| DUEL – DUE (owing) + L (pounds – currency symbol) | |
| 9 | Large antelope encountered in many a land (5) |
| NYALA – hidden (signalled by ‘encountered in’) in maNY A LAnd. This beast crops up every now and again in Crosswordland, as do several other antelope type creatures. Worth remembering. In this instance, the hidden was clearly signalled so even if you did not know the creature, it was fairly easy to guess once any of the cross checkers were in place. | |
| 10 | First male worker, stubbornly resolute (7) |
| ADAMANT – ADAM (first male) + ANT (worker) | |
| 11 | Large cask a crazy person brought back (3) |
| TUN – Reverse of NUT (crazy person brought back). “The Three Tuns” is a very popular pub name, apparently because it was originally the symbol for the Worshipful Company of Brewers. The tun holds two hogsheads, in case you need to know… | |
| 12 | A man seeks converted people similarly identified (9) |
| NAMESAKES – *(A MAN SEEKS) with “converted” as the anagrind | |
| 13 | Means to follow passenger vehicle reversing in underpass (6) |
| SUBWAY – WAY (means) follows BUS reversed (passenger vehicle reversing) | |
| 15 | Touched down like some of the gentry? (6) |
| LANDED – The landed gentry… very droll | |
| 17 | Reportedly hanging about for extra allowance (9) |
| WEIGHTING – Sounds like (homophone indicated by ‘reportedly’) WAITING (hanging about) | |
| 19 | Main home counties area (3) |
| SEA – SE (home counties – South East) + A (abbrev. area) | |
| 20 | Elderly relative finally attending spectacular musical (7) |
| GRANNIE – Last letters (finally) of attendinG spectaculaR + ANNIE (musical). I had always thought of grannies as elderly until, as a student, I got a holiday job in a cider factory in Somerset: several of my colleagues were ladies in their late thirties who were grandmothers. Anyway… | |
| 21 | Provoke with mockery on leaving Somerset town (5) |
|
TAUNT – the ON leaves TAUNT |
|
| 22 | Genuine-sounding Scottish dance (4) |
| REEL – Our second homophone – sounds like REAL (genuine) | |
| 23 | Envy bachelor – for example, Dickens’s Barnaby (8) |
| BEGRUDGE – B (abbrev. bachelor) +EG (for example) + RUDGE. Bit of a give away provided you knew the name of the Dickens novel | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cough mixture supplied by trade union in Grimsby area? (7) |
| LINCTUS – TU (trade union) in LINCS (Lincolnshire – where Grimsby was located until it became part of the new administrative area of Humberside, as I understand it) | |
| 2 | Strained, having produced sketch (5) |
| DRAWN – DD – not much to add | |
| 3 | Indoctrination of supporter in laundry? (12) |
| BRAINWASHING – BRA (supporter) + IN + WASHING (laundry) | |
| 4 | A lot of papers about large kingdom (5) |
| REALM – REAM (a lot of papers) goes ‘about’ L (abbrev. large) | |
| 6 | Admitting knight, a duke’s oddly not invited (7) |
| UNASKED – *(A DUKES) with N (knight – chess notation) also thrown into the mix (admitted) with “oddly” as the anagrind | |
| 7 | Water lily? A great many around university (5) |
| LOTUS – LOTS (a great many) ‘around’ U (abbrev. university). The water lily and the water lotus are, apparently, different plants but are often confused with each other – hence the question mark: very subtle | |
| 8 | Crime – and chap’s inappropriate reaction? (12) |
| MANSLAUGHTER – MANS (chap’s) LAUGHTER (indeed, an inappropriate response to the crime) | |
| 14 | Part of army ordered to seize oil installation (7) |
| BRIGADE – BADE (ordered) ‘seizes’ RIG (oil installation) | |
| 16 | Conscript‘s simple floating structure in river (7) |
| DRAFTEE – RAFT (simple floating structure) in DEE (river) | |
| 17 | Person who carries on war, say, for a bet? (5) |
| WAGER – If one wages war, then one might be said to be a WAGER – beautifully whimsical | |
| 18 | Woman‘s anger over new drug (5) |
| IRENE – IRE (anger) ‘over’ N (abbrev. new) + E (drug) | |
| 19 | Safe arm of the ocean (5) |
| SOUND – DD (for the latter definition, think of Plymouth Sound) | |
There were some great clues – I thought the wordplay in 3d was lovely. LOIs 6d and 23a.
Brian
Edited at 2016-01-13 10:53 pm (UTC)