I had most of this done very quickly and on first pass, but couldn’t see the wood for the trees at 15dn and a handful of other clues. Eventually reflecting on an average time, I see no real reason for the hold ups, except perhaps some lovely neat clueing.
Note the &lit (and literally), in which every word of the clue is required for both definition and wordplay. COD to the aforementioned 15dn – great when the penny dropped.
Definitions underlined.
|
Across |
1 |
A sham critic could possibly be appealing (11) |
|
CHARISMATIC – anagram of (could possibly be) A SHAM CRITIC. |
9 |
Cordiality and warmth – that’s about right (5) |
|
HEART – HEAT (warmth) surrounding (about) R (right). |
10 |
Large insect found behind mother (7) |
|
MAMMOTH – MOTH (insect) after (found behind) MAM (mother). |
11 |
Superfluous, and under changes with time (9) |
|
REDUNDANT – anagram of (changes) AND UNDER with T (time). |
13 |
Spoil horse, having tail docked (3) |
|
MAR – MARe (horse) missing last letter (having tail docked). |
14 |
Such as vinegar, excellent applied to nervous condition (6) |
|
ACETIC – ACE (excellent) and TIC (nervous condition). |
16 |
In charge after curtailment of prison medical centre (6) |
|
CLINIC – I.C. (abbreviation of in charge) after CLINk (prison) missing last letter (curtailment). |
17 |
Individual working with energy (3) |
|
ONE – ON (working) and E (energy). |
18 |
Lost again at sea, looking back over one’s course? (9) |
|
NOSTALGIA – anagram of (at sea) LOST AGAIN. |
21 |
Attempt to accommodate ancient play like Hamlet (7) |
|
TRAGEDY – TRY (attempt) surrounding (to accommodate) AGED (ancient). |
23 |
What’s topping individual cakes, including nice gateaux? (5) |
|
ICING – first letters of (what’s topping) Individual Cakes Including Nice Gateaux. A clear example of an &lit clue. |
24 |
The writer put in revised other term for measuring device (11) |
|
THERMOMETER – ME (the write) put inside an anagram of (revised) OTHER TERM. |
|
Down |
2 |
Difficult keeping old collection stored away? (5) |
|
HOARD – HARD (difficult) surrounding (keeping) O (old). |
3 |
Keeping school punishment with new head taking over (9) |
|
RETENTION – dETENTION (school punishment) with R replacing first letter (different head taking over). No indication of what the new letter should be, but clear from the definition. |
4 |
Dance when lifting business degree (5) |
|
SAMBA – reversal of (lifting) AS (when) and MBA (business degree). |
5 |
Point a major road uphill (3) |
|
AIM – A and reversal of (uphill) MI (M1, a major road). |
6 |
Tough sports event to flatten many, but not all (4,3) |
|
IRON MAN – IRON (to flatten) and all but the last letter of (not all) MANy. |
7 |
Swear he misled when covering fight location (11) |
|
WHEREABOUTS – anagram of (misled) SWEAR HE, surrounding (covering) BOUT (fight). |
8 |
Fail to give full details to brusque coppers? (5-6) |
|
SHORT-CHANGE – SHORT (brusque) and CHANGE (coppers). |
12 |
Take vital moves, providing a running commentary? (9) |
|
TALKATIVE – anagram of (moves) TAKE VITAL. |
15 |
English trees? Nonsense (7) |
|
EYEWASH – E (english) with YEW and ASH (trees). |
19 |
Directive for one young man has overlooked name (3-2) |
|
SAY-SO – SAY (for example, for one) and SOn (young man) ignoring (overlooked) N (name). |
20 |
Men overheard in this pretence (5) |
|
GUISE – homophone of (overheard) “guys” (men). |
22 |
Attention seized by the artist (3) |
|
EAR – hidden in (seized by) thE ARtist. |
No problem here with EYEWASH as it came up in the main puzzle I blogged only last week where it was also defined as ‘nonsense’.
Somehow I ran on, covering miles in demanding sports
event (4,3).
Took 20 minutes and then ground to a halt with nostalgia, thermometer, retention, say so, guise and LOI Eyewash which always seems to cause me problems.
So best part of an hour including breakfast!
COD ICING.
Edited at 2017-09-13 05:40 am (UTC)
5’45”
16:28. Also flew through across clues but bogged down by the two long down clues. Avoided ‘Acidic’, which looked like a clever mislead.
LOI was Eyewash but unparsed -could not see the trees for the wood. Thanks for the explanation.
Nice puzzle. David
Thanks for the blog.