Even if I hadn’t been doing this one in the same room as a physio session for a freestyle skier and loud rock music, it would not have been easy – although maybe not as hard as my 19 minutes would seem to show.
Brain cudgelling was required for 11ac, 13dn and 15dn and the girls at 9ac and LOI 25ac took some time for me to be confident enough to fill them in.
I have an odd feeling we’ve met some of the clues before. Am having problems with LiveJournal – only html view available (this is an iPad) and the ‘preview’ function doesn’t work.
Good luck!
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 Dodgy dealer important people returned to see (4) | |
| SPIV – Important people (VIPS) backwards (returned to see). | |
| 3 After panic, lift biscuit (8) | |
| FLAPJACK – Panic (FLAP), lift (JACK – as in car). | |
| 9 Girl (2, possibly) Mother and I study (7) | |
| MAIREAD – I tried hard to hammer ‘maiden’ in until reluctantly conceding that it didn’t have enough letters. Only after the checkers and some consideration did I think that ‘mairead’ might be an Irish (the clue at 2dn) girl’s name. Mother (MA), I (I), study (READ). | |
| 10 Old part of play is spot on (5) | |
| EXACT – Old (EX – as in parrot), part of play (ACT). | |
| 11 Indian statesman turned heads in unison, recalling his entourage noisily (5) | |
| NEHRU – Take the first letters (heads) of Unison Recalling His Entourage Noisily and write them backwards (turned). Jawaharlal ((dʒəwəhəˈlɑːl)). 1889–1964, Indian statesman and nationalist leader. He spent several periods in prison for his nationalist activities and practised a policy of noncooperation with Britain during World War II. He was the first prime minister of the republic of India (1947–64) | |
| 12 O for a breather! (6) | |
| OXYGEN – O is the symbol for one element of the air we breathe. | |
| 14 Be uninformed about what nudists do? (4,7,2) | |
| HAVE NOTHING ON – Double definition. | |
| 17 French cheeses, we hear, or piece of cake? (6) | |
| BREEZE – Homophone (we hear) of bries. | |
| 19 Old Mexican detective following two in centre of piazza (5) | |
| AZTEC – Detective (TEC) following two letters in the centre of pi(AZ)a. | |
| 22 At front of Gents, old signs (5) | |
| OMENS – Put old (O) at the front of Gents (MENS). | |
| 23 A private (US) art gallery displays rock (7) | |
| AGITATE – A (I), US private (GI), art gallery (TATE). | |
| 24 Ref spoke in a frenzy, always (3,5) | |
| FOR KEEPS – Anagram (in a frenzy) of REF SPOKE. | |
| 25 Jokiness — not OK in a girl (4) | |
|
JESS – I have a friend called NESS (Vanessa) and this could have worked as an answer but it’s unusual for an ‘in the clue clue’ to not cross two words. In the end it turned out to be J |
|
| Down | |
| 1 Fellow in a hat’s unsettled girl (8) | |
| SAMANTHA – Our third girl’s name of the day (is this a record?) didn’t cause as many problems as the others. Fellow (MAN) inside (in) an anagram (unsettled) of A HATS. | |
| 2 Tongue and part of eye itch at the bottom (5) | |
| IRISH – Tongue as in language. Part of eye (IRIS), last letter (at the bottom) of itcH. | |
| 4 Nightingale, having disturbed maple, had to fly (4,2,3,4) | |
| LADY OF THE LAMP – Florence is made up from an anagram (disturbed) of MAPLE HAD TO FLY. | |
| 5 Devotion of shepherd’s maybe timely in the extreme (5) | |
| PIETY – Shepherd’s maybe is PIE, outside letters (in the extreme) of TimelY. | |
| 6 Disreputable person you wouldn’t want at breakfast! (1,3,3) | |
| A BAD EGG – Double definition, the second one cryptic. | |
| 7 Tackle header or footer on elaborate flyer (4) | |
| KITE – Tackle (KIT), last letter of (footer on) elaboratE. | |
| 8 Something shiny and small, associated with horses mostly (6) | |
| SEQUIN – Small (S), associated with horses (EQUINe) without the last letter (mostly). | |
| 13 Turns to remove international body’s teams (8) | |
| UNSCREWS – International body’s (UNS), teams (CREWS). COD, I think, for the neat definition. | |
| 15 Discover me erotically hugging old artist (7) | |
| VERMEER – The answer is in the clue (hugging) discoVER ME ERotically. | |
| 16 Middle Easterners of enormous IQ, aristocratic, turning up (6) | |
| IRAQIS – This answer is alo in the clue (of) enormouS IQ ARIstocratic all backwards (turning up). | |
| 18 Venue’s not opening without first bit of something to follow (5) | |
| ENSUE – Take the first letter off (not opening) vENUE then put it around (without) the first bit of (S)omething. | |
| 20 Find tiny amount (5) | |
| TRACE – Double definition. | |
| 21 Bark with ring, soft in the middle (4) | |
| WOOF – With (W), ring (O), middle of s(OF)t. | |
I thought this was one of the trickier offerings and like our esteemed blogger I was desperate to shoehorn MAIDEN in 9a until I got 2d.
And it’s a pangram – the second in a week!
I must have led a sheltered life to have achieved my advancing age without ever meeting a MAIREAD or even hearing of the name; this held me up for ages as did UNSCREWS which was my LOI. The time on the clock by then must have been the reason I forgot to go back and check 23ac which I had not understood when I bunged in ACITATE (yes, I know it doesn’t even exist!).
I would urge newbies and others who aspire to progress to the 15×15 to have a go at today’s.
Edited at 2015-03-17 08:36 am (UTC)
Having lived in Dublin for ten years I have encountered several lovely Maireads (English = Margaret) although I see according to an online authority it barely scrapes into the top 100 Irish girls’ names in popularity, so a bit obscure for this puzzle.
By the way, in 7d the header and footer of elaborate are ‘e’
Had to have a guess at 9a and 1 and 15d became much easier when I replaced ‘have’ for ‘with’ in the first part of 14a. 11 and 12a were unparsed so thanks for the explanation. COD 25a