Some nice cluing from Mara in this one with very few superfluous words in any of the clues.
I’ll confess that I looked up the spelling of the Irish premier. I finished in 11:30, which is faster than my average, so would indicate that this one is towards the easier end of the range.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Parmesan exemplifies bad luck (4,6) |
| HARD CHEESE – A double definition.
I’ve not heard the “bad luck” usage in the US, so this may be a bit tricky for non-UK solvers. |
|
| 7 | Island animal tapir traps (5) |
| MALTA – the phrase “aniMAL TApir” hides [traps] the answer. | |
| 8 | Words of wisdom from person wandering into lead (7) |
| PROVERB – ROVER (person wandering) in PB (chemical symbol for lead).
By coincidence, the same answer clued in the same way occurred the last time I was on blog duty. |
|
| 10 | A Scot, he and I upset about a premier in Ireland (9) |
| TAOISEACH – (A SCOT HE I A)*
I knew the word, I knew the letters. Could I put them in the right order? Reader, I could not. It looks like the result of an explosion in a Scrabble factory. |
|
| 12 | Call of ostrich, primarily avian sound (3) |
| COO – First letters [primarily] of C Thank heavens I didn’t spend too long worrying what an ostrich sounds like. |
|
| 13 | Usher adjusted corset (6) |
| ESCORT – (CORSET)*
I think the verb sense works best here: to usher/escort someone out, for example. |
|
| 15 | Firm retaining trainee initially showing little interest (6) |
| STOLID – SOLID (firm) containing T |
|
| 16 | Head lost in European tavern (3) |
| INN – “Inn” was the third three-letter word for tavern that I tried to make work here, after “pub” and “bar”. |
|
| 17 | Hurry past monster insect (9) |
| DRAGONFLY – FLY (hurry) after [past] DRAGON (monster). | |
| 20 | Go, grab bananas around wide planting area (4,3) |
| GROW BAG – (GO GRAB)* around W (wide, cricket abbreviation). | |
| 22 | Article, pretty serious (5) |
| ACUTE – A (an article) + CUTE (pretty). | |
| 23 | Fed up changing cover on four sofa beds (7,3) |
| BRASSED OFF – a tricky one: you have to first take the “cover” of FOUR to get FR, and then make an anagram of that with SOFA BEDS. (FR SOFA BEDS)* | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Agony, duck for opener? (5) |
| HELLO – HELL (agony), O (duck, another cricket reference). | |
| 2 | US readers relaxed and at ease (9) |
| REASSURED – (US READERS)* | |
| 3 | Out of bed, father after cold drink (5) |
| CUPPA – UP (out of bed) and PA (father) after C for cold. | |
| 4 | Personal pride, say, with love (3) |
| EGO – E.G. (exempli gratia, – say), O (love).
This time the sport is tennis. |
|
| 5 | Clients amended template (7) |
| STENCIL – (CLIENTS)* | |
| 6 | Substance in serenade, small amount (10) |
| SMATTERING – MATTER (substance) in SING (serenade). | |
| 9 | Old boy’s pet mixed up A and B, perhaps (5,5) |
| BLOOD TYPES – (OLD BOYS PET)* | |
| 11 | Stolen plant is a delicate matter (3,6) |
| HOT POTATO – HOT (stolen) POTATO (a plant). | |
| 14 | Curved line, arc ultimately going round the country? (7) |
| CONTOUR – |
|
| 18 | Bitter possibly about vacuous nauseating viewpoint (5) |
| ANGLE – ALE (bitter possibly) around the first and last letters [vacuous] of N I think this is the first time I’ve seen “vacuous” used like this. I like it a lot, since it means empty, devoid of content. |
|
| 19 | Mess up soft bits (5) |
| FLUFF – A double definition | |
| 21 | Briefly crowded, public transport vehicle (3) |
| BUS – BUS |
|
Another flying start which ground to a crawl 😅 This time it was the SE corner which did for me, but I got there in the end, although not quite all done and dusted as I didn’t fully parse BRASSED OFF.
I was a bit unsure about the definition of STOLID – I think of it more as being calm or reliable, and not overly emotional, rather than lacking in interest.
I liked REASSURED, CONTOUR and BLOOD TYPES.
13:49 FOI and COD Hard cheese LOI Acute
Thanks Mara and Doofers for the fun blog
Notice she didn’t mention her time. But of course, it’s not just about times – enjoyment can be enough.
I guess she’s just counting the minutes till she sees her 🖤🖤🖤 man again!
To be honest, I don’t get why she is willing to take her man back after he dumped her like that. Love is a fragile thing and once someone tells you they think someone else is better, *that* spell is broken. I think Dr Osaka has done her a disservice by bringing this guy back into her life. She will always have doubts now …
Yep, poor scottymary – two bounders in her life! She’ll never be able to trust either of them. Oh, wait a minute….
🤣🤣🤣
As an intermediate beginner,i’m happy to solve at least 50% of the clues.So i’m not competing against time to complete but just how many i can will do.