13a was a wee gem in its own way – clever, elegant and original: it certainly provided me with a rewarding “penny drop moment” when I finally spotted what was going on. That said, I suspect (though I may be wrong) that newbies may struggle with this one as it does not fit readily into the more typical clue types, and requires you to think outside the box. But it’s the sort of clue where, if you do get it as a new solver, your confidence levels should increase considerably.
11a, though more orthodox in terms of construction, was also quite tricky I thought, and would not have been out of place in the 15×15. And 14dn was a very nicely constructed hidden.
So, thanks to Mara for a most enjoyable puzzle, and I’ll be interested to see what the rest of you made of it.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(–): omitted letters indicated by {-}
| Across | |
| 1 | Just terrible alongside Labour leader (6) |
| LAWFUL – AWFUL (terrible) goes ‘alongside’ L (Labour leader) | |
| 4 | Land also at sea (4) |
| LAOS – *(ALSO) with “at sea” signposting the anagram, giving us the small landlocked country (or ‘land’) which aspires to become the “battery” of south east Asia through its ambitious hydroelectric power schemes | |
| 9 | Funny spat in polished comedic genre (9) |
| SLAPSTICK – *(SPAT) – with “funny” indicating the rearrangement – ‘in’ SLICK (polished) | |
| 10 | Bird stuck in the mud (3) |
| EMU – Hidden in (stuck in) thE MUd | |
| 11 | Sad direction taken in trial (5-7) |
| HEART-RENDING – TREND (direction) inside (taken in) HEARING (trial) | |
| 13 | As is “T” for “Tiramisu”, perhaps? (6) |
| AFTERS – Nifty cryptic wordplay – T is “after S” in the alphabet, and if you’re lucky you might get tiramisu for pudding (or ‘afters’ in non-U English). Lovely stuff. | |
| 15 | Energetic sort many recalled in party (6) |
| DYNAMO – MANY reversed (recalled) ‘in’ DO (party) | |
| 17 | Final part getting house in order (4,8) |
| HOME STRAIGHT – If you are getting your house in order, you might be said to be getting home straight | |
| 20 | Field in spring, cut (3) |
| LEA – LEA{p} (spring cut) | |
| 21 | Latest run for paper (9) |
| NEWSPRINT – NEW SPRINT (latest run). Neat. | |
| 22 | Rugby in state of disrepair (4) |
| RUIN – RU (rugby union) + IN | |
| 23 | Writer implicating boy in fraud (6) |
| CRAYON – RAY (boy) in CON (fraud) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Tilt table (4) |
| LIST – DD | |
| 2 | Cry out loud for marine animal (5) |
| WHALE – Sounds like (out loud) WAIL (cry) | |
| 3 | Predictable uprisings run out of control (12) |
| UNSURPRISING – *(UPRISINGS RUN) with “out of control” signalling the anagram | |
| 5 | US crime appalling within borders of Alabama (7) |
| AMERICA – *(CRIME) – with “appalling” indicating the rearrangement – inside (within) A A (borders of AlabamA). This took me a while to spot as I was looking for something more complicated! | |
| 6 | So urgent to cook fish (8) |
| STURGEON – *(SO URGENT) with “to cook” signalling the anagram | |
| 7 | Record attack written up with accuracy, ultimately (5) |
| DIARY – RAID reversed (attack written up) + Y (last letter – ‘ultimately’ – of accuracY) | |
| 8 | One totally exposed in the water? (6-6) |
| SKINNY-DIPPER – Cryptic definition that’s barely (no pun intended!) cryptic | |
| 12 | Bishop has composed chorale for a single man (8) |
| BACHELOR – B (bishop) + *(CHORALE) with “composed” pointing us to the rearrangement. For those who enjoy good surfaces, I thought this was a beauty. | |
| 14 | Things beaten in defeat, I’m panicking! (7) |
| TIMPANI – Hidden in (‘in’) defeaT IM PANIcking – a fine example of this clue-type | |
| 16 | Boast new top (5) |
| CROWN – CROW (boast) + N (abbrev. new) | |
| 18 | Scary — like a moustache? (5) |
| HAIRY – I think further explanation is somewhat superfluous! | |
| 19 | College record elevated (4) |
| ETON – NOTE reversed (record elevated) | |
It’s amazing how little you can see and still finish correctly.
COD America.
DNF, as did not get 11a. Checkers we’re not helpful, and was half looking at synonym for Trial.
ETON again, that’s certainly a chestnut.
13a : I didn’t parse until the blog.
AFTERS reminded me of the old chestnut H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O (5 letters).
PlayUpPompey
I had similar problems to others e.g. 11a, 14d and 13a (which I never got close to parsing).
COD (now I understand it) and LOI 13a, completed in 23 minutes.
Thanks for the blog
“The usual mix from Mara of some very straightforward stuff to help newcomers get some early runs on the board, and some trickier fare that is more at the 15×15 level” – i.e. good mix of easy and hard.
Thanks Nick and Mara.