A very quick “no frills” blog today I’m afraid – I was lucky to be able to get it out at all as I’m currently on a visit to Australia and beset by technology problems. Unlikely will be able to reply to any comments so hopefully others will do that.
Straightforward QC today – thanks to setter.
Apologies for any typos etc. – dashed off in great haste…
Definitions underlined: anagrams indicated by *(–): deleted letters indicated by {-}
| Across | |
| 1 | Girl, pagan at heart, that’s last to go (6) |
| AGATHA – Heart of pAGAn + THA{t} (last letter goes) | |
| 5 | Office equipment shown by policeman? That is right (6) |
| COPIER – COP (policeman) + IE (that is) + R (right) | |
| 8 | Entered marina, rebuilt, much water there! (13) |
| MEDITERRANEAN – *(ENTERED MARINA) with “rebuilt” as the anagrind | |
| 9 | Elitist initially seemed nervous over background (4) |
| SNOB – First letters (initially) of Seemed Nervous Over Background | |
| 10 |
Mocking Caesar — not half! — backed by academic in charge (8) |
| SARDONIC – SAR (half of caeSAR) + DON (academic) + IC (in charge) | |
| 11 | Raver loses head in Tennessee pub (6) |
| TAVERN – {R}AVER (‘loses head’) ‘in’ TN (abbrev. state of Tennessee) | |
| 13 | Barriers met by the Spanish girl, old-fashioned (6) |
| DAMSEL – DAMS (barriers) + EL (the in Spanish) | |
| 15 | March round island — a perfect location (8) |
| PARADISE – PARADE (march) goes round IS (abbrev. island) | |
| 17 | In New York on return so inquisitive (4) |
| NOSY – OS (reverse – return – of SO) ‘in’ NY (abbrev. New York) | |
| 19 | A private’s keen to reform one who’s not had to learn the language (6,7) |
| NATIVE SPEAKER – *(A PRIVATES KEEN) with “to reform” as the anagrind | |
| 21 | Extremely alert after grotto warning (6) |
| CAVEAT -AT (extremes of AlerT) go ‘after’ CAVE (grotto) | |
| 22 | Very many made advances in wings of party (6) |
| PLENTY – LENT (made advances – i.e. loans) in PY (wings of PartY) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Find out glass at first not full (5) |
| GLEAN – G (Glass at first) + LEAN (not full) | |
| 3 | After mishap the limb provides protection for finger (7) |
| THIMBLE – *(THE LIMB) with “after mishap” as the anagrind | |
| 4 | “Say when” used regularly brings wonderment! (3) |
| AWE – Every other letter (used regularly) of sAy WhEn | |
| 5 | Case for explosive in vehicle on crest (9) |
| CARTRIDGE – CART (vehicle) + RIDGE (crest) | |
| 6 | Play that amuses worker in Post Office? (5) |
| PANTO – ANT (worker) ‘in’ PO (post office) | |
| 7 | Held up by the visa, very hard to pin down? (7) |
| EVASIVE – Very nice reverse hidden in thE VISA VEry | |
| 10 | Some present I mentioned giving opinion (9) |
| SENTIMENT – Another hidden, this time not reversed – preSENT I MENTioned | |
| 12 | Like graduate mother in US State (7) |
| ALABAMA – A LA (like) + BA (graduate) + MA (mother). Neat. | |
| 14 | Unusually unnamed, unexciting (7) |
| MUNDANE – *(UNNAMED) with “unusually” as the anagrind | |
| 16 | A soldier on lake with energy, nimble (5) |
| AGILE – A GI (a soldier) ‘on’ L (lake) + E (energy) | |
| 18 | Exhausted writer in street (5) |
| SPENT – PEN (writer) ‘in’ ST (street) | |
| 20 | Liveliness the same after upset (3) |
| PEP – Palindrome (the same after upset – i.e. reversal) | |
I thought I’d finished a bit quicker but eventually I noticed that 13ac couldn’t be DEMODE. (I knew it must be wrong really – it doesn’t fit the clue.) Another example of bad biffing tonight was ALUMNUS for 12dn. Sometimes I think the setters must do this on purpose. 😉
Held up by 19a Native Speaker, even knowing it was an anagram, and 20d pep.
I missed the hidden word for 7d evasive, and couldn’t parse 1a (I had AGA + T as last letter of that and was trying to think of to go = ha!).
Can I claim a pedant point for the observation that even a NATIVE SPEAKER has had to learn the language?
Edited at 2016-11-16 01:13 pm (UTC)
I shall now go back to the Saturday cryptic and try and finish it off. David
PS some very helpful comments from Corelli on yesterday’s blog.