I enjoyed quite a few of the surfaces in this one, in particular 24A and 6D, which always makes me feel well-disposed to a puzzle. No difficult vocabulary but the wordplay for 11A and 6D involves deletions that are a bit more complex than the more common removals of merely a single letter.
The puzzle seems to be up on the Times site as of now, but it can be found here if anyone’s having problems with access: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20160118/12975/
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 8 | Are settled on power, to be in authority (7) |
| PRESIDE – P (power) + RESIDE (Are settled) | |
| 9 | Buzz, as first of insects enters hooter (5) |
| NOISE – I (first of insects, i.e. the first letter of “insects”) inside (enters) NOSE (hooter) | |
| 10 | Thorn, nasty point! (5) |
| NORTH – anagram (nasty) of THORN | |
| 11 | Within a day, ghost leaving house (7) |
| AMONGST – A + MON (day, i.e. the abbreviation for Monday) + G{ho}ST (ghost leaving house, i.e. “ghost” without the “ho” (house)). Note that “leaving” possesses some ambiguity – you might think you were looking for a word for “house” from which you would remove a word for “ghost”, rather than (in this case) completely the opposite. | |
| 12 | Refurbish a red room close to staircase, landing here? (9) |
| AERODROME – anagram of (Refurbish) A RED ROOM + E (close to staircase, i.e. the last letter of “staircase”) | |
| 14 | Really and truly, all leaders vermin! (3) |
| RAT – initial letters (all leaders) of Really And Truly | |
| 16 | A failure going back and forth (3) |
| DUD – the only wordplay we have here is that the answer is a palindrome (going back and forth). Not very helpful as a stand-alone clue, perhaps, but once you had either of the available checkers in the grid then you could infer that the word was D?D, which only admits one likely option fitting the definition (well – two, if your father was unsuccessful). | |
| 18 | Came south after breaking handlebar? (9) |
| MOUSTACHE – anagram (after breaking) of CAME SOUTH. The question mark indicates the usage of a DBE (definition by example). | |
| 21 | Crazy bunch? (7) |
| BANANAS – double definition | |
| 22 | Model, leg in traction? (3-2) |
| PIN-UP – PIN UP (leg in traction?) | |
| 23 | Mother trapping black snake (5) |
| MAMBA – MAMA (Mother) around (trapping) B (black) | |
| 24 | Land turning into sea (7) |
| ESTONIA – anagram (turning) of INTO SEA. The first president of Estonia, Konstantin Päts, died 60 years ago today. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | European resort, sewer coming up beneath it (8) |
| SPANIARD – SPA (resort) + reversal (coming up beneath it) of DRAIN (sewer) | |
| 2 | Dread the ultimate in government failure (6) |
| TERROR – T (the ultimate in government, i.e. the last letter in “government”) + ERROR (failure) | |
| 3 | Desire is coming between extremes of wrath (4) |
| WISH – IS between WH (extremes of wrath, i.e. the first and last letters of “wrath”) | |
| 4 | Try to keep story up – it’s ice-cream! (6) |
| GELATO – GO (Try) around (to keep) reversal (up) of TALE (story) | |
| 5 | Fresh, in water off the Isle of Wight (8) |
| INSOLENT – IN + SOLENT (water off the Isle of Wight). A similar idea was used in the main cryptic about a year ago with the clue: “Where some Channel water is fresh” | |
| 6 | Footballer seeking victory over Germany, but losing many! (6) |
| WINGER – WIN (victory) + GER{many} (Germany, but losing many, i.e. “Germany” without the “many”) | |
| 7 | Opening found in Coventry (4) |
| VENT – hidden in CoVENTry. Cove and oven are also hidden in there, but neither fits the definition. | |
| 13 | Funny comedian, seemingly possessed (8) |
| DEMONIAC – anagram (Funny) of COMEDIAN. You could possibly argue that daemonic also fits the clue, though it would obviously clash with the checkers in the grid plus it’s not really a Quicky word. | |
| 15 | The turn inspiring a performer on stage (8) |
| THESPIAN – THE + SPIN (turn) around (inspiring) A | |
| 17 | Energetic type getting Monday off (6) |
| DYNAMO – anagram (off) of MONDAY. We had a similar clue in Quicky 425: “Energetic person’s awful Monday!” | |
| 19 | Irish region taking part of Istanbul’s territory (6) |
| ULSTER – hidden in (taking part of) IstanbUL’S TERritory | |
| 20 | Tooth circular initially, then a square (6) |
| CANINE – C (circular initially, i.e. the first letter of “circular”) + A + NINE (square, i.e. a square number) | |
| 21 | A lot of money for a weapon (4) |
| BOMB – double definition. Pile also fits the clue but it would clash with the checkers, plus the second definition (a Roman javelin) would be out of place here. | |
| 22 | Light touch over hard course (4) |
| PATH – PAT (Light touch) + H (hard) | |
Edited at 2016-01-18 01:13 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2016-01-18 06:14 pm (UTC)