Reasonably smooth going today. I solved this having got up early to take Mrs Curarist to the airport, so I am a bit more awake than usual, It came in just under 7 minutes. Lots of double definitions, some homophones, and some nicely disguised definitions. Not sure about 5d, but overall a very nice puzzle. My favourite is 22a
| Across |
| 1 |
Selecting a ballad that’s cheap (5,3,1,4) |
|
GOING FOR A SONG – double definition |
| 8 |
Underground gets new head, consciously old-fashioned (5) |
|
RETRO – METRO (‘underground’) with a new first letter (‘head’) |
| 9 |
Amused mark of approval came first (7) |
|
TICKLED – TICK (‘mark of approval’) + LED (‘came first’) |
| 10 |
Kitchen utensil, I hear, is larger (7) |
|
GREATER – Sounds like ‘grater’ (kitchen utensil) |
| 11 |
Track down a tiny quantity (5) |
|
TRACE – Double definition |
| 13 |
Intended recipient of notice sees red, being replaced (9) |
|
ADDRESSEE – AD (‘notice’) + anagram of (‘replaced’) SEES RED |
| 17 |
Relatives found in usual places, commonly (5) |
|
AUNTS – Now, if you happen to be frightfully common, like, say Parker out of Thunderbirds, you may not aspirate your aitches quite as well as posh people. Thus HAUNTS (‘usual places’) becomes ‘AUNTS. In crosswords, the same speech impediment is assumed of anyone who lives in East London. |
| 19 |
Travelled zigzag courses as told, an imposition on driver (4,3) |
|
ROAD TAX – ROAD sounds like RODE (‘travelled’), TAX sounds like TACKS (‘zigzag courses’) |
| 20 |
Unable to sail in a grand circle (7) |
|
AGROUND – A + G (grand) + ROUND |
| 22 |
Body recently demoted from place ordered out (5) |
|
PLUTO – PL (‘place’) + anagram of (‘ordered’) OUT. I love this sort of imaginative definition. Pluto, once a planet, now just another lump of rock in the Kuiper belt. Sic transit gloria mundi (geddit??) |
| 23 |
Mad not to be playing with nursery horse? (3,4,6) |
|
OFF ONES ROCKER – double definition |
| Down |
| 1 |
Say, a cloth picked up in motor home (6) |
|
GARAGE – EG A RAG ‘picked up’ i.e. upside down. Another cleverly worded definition. |
| 2 |
Largely at sea (2,3,4) |
|
IN THE MAIN – double definition. MAIN in crosswordland always means the sea, as in ‘the Spanish Main’ |
| 3 |
Exulted, told age was wrong (7) |
|
GLOATED – anagram of (‘was wrong’) TOLD AGE |
| 4 |
Subeditor here corrected “British Isles” (5,8) |
|
OUTER HEBRIDES – Anagram (‘corrected’) of SUBEDITOR HERE. All punctuation in crossword clues is there to mislead. It may even represent the definition. There was a clue is saw recently the the answer was COLON and the definition was ‘:’ |
| 5 |
A Hibernian course (5) |
|
ASCOT – Now hang on, I thought Hibernian meant Irish?? Spent a while trying to crowbar that in (?AERSE ?AERIN ?AEIRE). I know there’s a Scottish football team called Hibs, but then there’s an English rugby team called London Irish. |
| 6 |
First off, burn fuel (3) |
|
OIL – I suppose BOIL can mean BURN (e.g. “It was boiling/burning hot”). Take the first letter off. |
| 7 |
Wander about to obtain device (6) |
|
GADGET – GAD (‘wander about’) + GET (‘obtain’) |
| 12 |
Very afraid weak crust has collapsed (9) |
|
AWESTRUCK – Anagram (‘has collapsed’) of WEAK CRUST |
| 14 |
Hair product, counterfeit and low quality, not finished (7) |
|
SHAMPOO – SHAM (‘counterfeit’) + POOR (‘low quality’), take off the R (‘not finished’). Unwritten rule that any word signified in a clue as short or unfinished will be missing only one letter. |
| 15 |
Tries a drop in house (3,1,2) |
|
HAS A GO – A SAG (‘a drop’) inside HO (‘house’) |
| 16 |
Area of Somerset no longer low, with river? (6) |
|
EXMOOR – EX (‘no longer’) + MOO (‘low’) + R (‘river’). Low means moo, as in Away In A Manger: ‘The cattle are lowing’. |
| 18 |
Disdain incentive, finally stubborn (5) |
|
SPURN – SPUR (‘incentive’) + N last letter of (‘finally’) ‘stubborn’. |
| 21 |
Concerned with following man on the pitch (3) |
|
REF – RE (‘concerned with’) + F (‘following’) |
It’s no big deal, c, but we are missing one or two underlined definitions along the way.
Edited at 2017-08-11 06:46 am (UTC)
COD was 22ac PLUTO
WOD 12dn AWESTRUCK a nice change from AWESOME!
Mr. C. re- Hibernian it is Irish. However, there is a band from Birkenhead/Tranmere way who go by the name of ‘Half Man Half Biscuit’.
As a surgeon you might be a bit disappointed – as there is no actual biscuit involved.
PS Could you also take my wife to the airport!?
Edited at 2017-08-11 08:33 am (UTC)
So perhaps it’s the other way round: Scots are Hibernian because they’re from Ireland.
Although Pluto’s been demoted, now we’ve had a good look at it, it deserves to be called more than ‘another lump of rock’.
Today’s was easier and contained some excellent clues I thought e.g. 1d and 15d but clever throughout.
I knew too little to worry about Hibernian. I finished in 17 minutes with Pluto which was LOI because of a very lazy Exeter at 16d which required correction.
Excellent puzzle and blog. Thanks. David
The ‘Outer Hebrides’ clue was a excellent, with a very good surface. A bit of a change after all those transexual wedding participants.
anyone else having difficulty with accessing this site from an IOS device where it seems to have been hi-jacked by some outfit trying to offload iPhone 8 on us???? Can only access the site now from my desktop machine….anyone had and solved this problem?
12 minutes all told, FOI 1a, LOI 18d, though I didn’t manage to get through them strictly in order, sadly. Nearly scuppered myself by trying to squeeze G+ROUNDED into 20a before seeing the light, but plain sailing apart from that. Thanks to Teazel and curarist.