An enjoyable puzzle from Teazel today, with some pleasingly succinct clues that combine smooth surfaces with concise wordplay (e.g. 11A and 15A). Apologies for the even briefer than usual blog but circumstances have conspired against me. Please raise any queries in the comments and I will answer them in due course.
Definitions are underlined, {} = omission
| Across | |
| 7 | Offer view over tree (5) |
| OPINE – O (over) + PINE (tree) | |
| 8 | Opposed to a way to secure advantage (7) |
| AGAINST – A + ST (way, i.e. street) around (to secure) GAIN (advantage) | |
| 10 | It’s different in the south-east — I told you so (2,5) |
| SO THERE – OTHER (different) in SE (south-east). Depending on how you interpret “it”, Northerners’ interest may be piqued. | |
| 11 | Wrote about tall building (5) |
| TOWER – anagram of (about) WROTE | |
| 12 | Passes fish, making gesture of greeting (9) |
| HANDSHAKE – HANDS (Passes) + HAKE (fish) | |
| 14 | Price paid: consider that is pounds short (3) |
| FEE – FEE{l} (consider that is pounds short, i.e. the word “feel” (consider) without the letter l (pounds)) | |
| 15 | No time for fat girl (3) |
| SUE – SUE{t} (no time for fat, i.e. the word “suet” (fat) without the letter t (time)) | |
| 16 | Contended with horseman, say, several days (9) |
| FORTNIGHT – homophone of (say) FOUGHT (Contended with) KNIGHT (horseman) | |
| 18 | Collect in a church service (5) |
| AMASS – A + MASS (church service) | |
| 20 | Dislike missing a translation (7) |
| VERSION – {a}VERSION (Dislike missing a, i.e. the word “aversion” dislike without the letter a) | |
| 22 | Country retreat, note (7) |
| DENMARK – DEN (retreat) + MARK (note) | |
| 23 | A stunner — stare wildly (5) |
| TASER – anagram of (wildly) STARE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Put up partner whose wife earns the money? (5,7) |
| HOUSE HUSBAND – HOUSE (Put up) + HUSBAND (partner) | |
| 2 | Detective takes position in gap (8) |
| DISTANCE – DI (Detective, i.e. Detective Inspector) + STANCE (position) | |
| 3 | Parish event held in cafeteria (4) |
| FETE – hidden (held) in caFETEria | |
| 4 | One takes pictures secretly, in this (6) |
| CAMERA – if something is said to be “in camera”, then it is in secret. The clue implies that the phrase “in this” means secretly, where the “this” refers to the answer (i.e. camera). | |
| 5 | Big cat almost on temple (8) |
| PANTHEON – PANTHE{r} (Big cat almost, i.e. the word “panther” (Big cat) without its last letter) + ON | |
| 6 | Precipitation small, at the moment (4) |
| SNOW – S (small) + NOW (at the moment) | |
| 9 | Terence goes round canteen drunk for anniversary (12) |
| TERCENTENARY – TERRY (Terence) around an anagram of (drunk) CANTEEN, to give the word for a 300th anniversary. I always want to put more n’s in this so the anagram was helpful. Sadly, a cursory glance at Wikipedia suggests that nothing of great interest happened today in 1717. | |
| 13 | Secure armchair: always returned here? (4,4) |
| SAFE SEAT – SAFE (Secure) + SEAT (armchair), to give (Chambers): “A parliamentary seat that the incumbent political party will almost certainly win again in an election” | |
| 14 | Clueless, not having this soft egg I scrambled (8) |
| FOGGIEST – anagram of (scrambled) SOFT EGG I, with the definition referring to “not having the foggiest” informally meaning to not have the least idea (clueless). The clue looks as though it should strictly speaking lead to THE FOGGIEST rather than just FOGGIEST but if anyone can’t solve it then I doubt that that will be the reason why. | |
| 17 | Cancel fine received by endless noisy party (6) |
| REVOKE – OK (fine) in (received by) REVE{l} (endless noisy party, i.e. the word “revel” (noisy party) without its last letter) | |
| 19 | Spots: a card contains any number (4) |
| ACNE – ACE (a card) around (contains) N (any number) | |
| 21 | Mechanical repetition of sacred text in religious lessons (4) |
| ROTE – OT (sacred text, i.e. Old Testament) in RE (religious lessons, i.e. Religious Education) | |
On the other hand, I wrote in ‘fortnight’ without hesitation, although I use a completely different scheme of pronunciation myself.
Vaguely remembered camera was related to secretly.
COD and LOI pantheon.
The second part of 4dn (secretly, in this) refers to the expression IN CAMERA used in legal circles and meaning: ‘in a judge’s private chambers, not in open court’, or more generally: ‘in secret or private session, not in public’
Edited at 2017-11-20 06:34 am (UTC)
One takes secret pictures in the CAM ERA.
Thanks for the blog BTW!
13:50, a good start to the week. Also Biffed OLIVE early on. The anagram at 23a has multiple solutions, of which TASER is the least likely: aster, rates, tares, tears…
COD 19d
5’30”
Edited at 2017-11-20 11:28 am (UTC)
I started slowly with 3d and then proceeded steadily and was surprised to finish in 14 minutes with Pantheon -it’s always harder without the first letter but clearly clued.
COD to 1d after challenges from 10a and 12a and others.
Hats off to the setter and thanks as always to our blogger. David
for a learner, this was relatively easy and has followed the same pattern for the last few Monday’s.
COD Denmark. It just threw me for a little while until it became obvious!
Kevin please ellucidate!?
12.47 so a bit of a crawl
COD & WOD 14dn FOGGIEST
Edited at 2017-11-20 01:42 pm (UTC)
Have these places and their inhabitants ever appeared in cryptics?
I also had OLIVE for 7a but I wasn’t happy with it and changed it before submitting.