Next time I blog, Christmas will have been and gone, so can I take this opportunity to wish you all well over the holiday, whether you are a believer or not.
As usual, anagrams are indicated by square brackets, deletions by curly ones, and definitions are underlined.
Across
1 Show long film in empty depot (6)
DEPICT – An empty depot would be D{epo}T, and put EPIC inside to DEPICT the answer
4 Small print run (6)
SPRINT – Do what it says on the tin – S{mall} and PRINT
9 One seeking ability in latest portent put out (6,7)
TALENT SPOTTER – Anagram (indicated by ‘put out’) of [LATEST PORTENT]
10 Unending rage as skin removed from animal (3)
FUR – The rage is FUR{y} with the Y removed (unending)
11 Twisted druid shed blood in G&S operetta (9)
RUDDIGORE – Anagram, indicated by ‘twisted’, of [DRUID] followed by GORE (shed blood). I’m not a great Gilbert & Sullivan expert, and struggled to remember this, one of their less successful offerings, but the clueing was very clear, and it fell into place with the checkers mostly there
12 Cure male beset by having a thin and high-pitched voice (6)
REMEDY – M{ale} inside REEDY. One definition of reedy is to sound like a reed instrument, especially in being thin and piping
13 Ninth month with sci-fi film group (6)
SEPTET – The ninth month is obvious enough, SEPT{tember}, followed by the classic sci-fi film ET
16 Single prominent feature introduced by most of bad porcelain (4,5)
BONE CHINA – The single prominent feature is ONE CHIN, surrounded by (most of) BA{d}. I haven’t knowingly seen ‘introduced by’ used in this way before, but it seems perfectly fair to me. BONE CHINA incidentally is so called because bone ash is used in the manufacture
18 Tune just lacks force (3)
AIR – Just would be {f}AIR, with the first letter removed – lacks F{orce}
19 Eminent doctor hiding studies (13)
DISTINGUISHED – Anagram, cleverly clued by ‘doctor’, of [HIDING STUDIES]
21 Maxim is remaining after tour’s leader has gone (6)
SAYING – remaining is S{t}AYING, minus the T (T{our’s} leader has gone)
22 Regret following unit when one’s gone wrong (6)
UNTRUE – Regret is RUE, which follows UN{i}T (one’s gone, i.e. removed)
Down
1 Mark needs to complete on time (3)
DOT – To DO something is to complete it, with T{ime} following
2 Mounting insolence very unattractive in religious traveller (7)
PILGRIM – Insolence is LIP, reversed – mounting in a down clue, and GRIM is very unattractive
3 Conflict of meaning I’d turned up in abridgement (13)
CONTRADICTION – As instructed, reverse I’D in CONTRACTION (abridgement)
5 In favour of period of living allowance increase (13)
PROLIFERATION – In favour of gives PRO, period of living gives LIFE and allowance is RATION. I think the clue could work, although maybe not quite as elegantly, without the ‘period of’
6 Preliminary section not requiring all of paint roller (5)
INTRO – hidden answer in {pa}INT RO{ller}
7 One who harasses soldiers trapped between hills (9)
TORMENTOR – The hills in this case are two TORs, surrounding MEN (soldiers), although these days, soldiers could also be women
8 Assistant keeping son out of the way (5)
ASIDE – The assistant is an AIDE keeping S{on}
10 Warns of bad outcome of beers drunk with food (9)
FOREBODES – Anagram clued by ‘drunk’ of [BEERS] with [FOOD]
14 School worker sees a head in term, mostly (7)
TEACHER – I’m not 100% sure of the parsing here. TER{m} is clearly clued by the last two words, but is it ACHE in the middle, as in {head}ACHE, or is it EACH in the middle, as in per head? I’m sure one of our readers will be able to help out
15 Throw away turn in game (5)
BINGO – To throw away is to BIN, and a turn is a GO
17 Very unpleasant royal line suffers double beheading (5)
NASTY – A royal line is a {dy}NASTY. Removing the first two letters could be described as a double beheading
20 Almost serves deer(3)
DOE – Almost serves is DOE{s}, as in ‘it does it for me’, which is equivalent to ‘it serves for me’
I lost time over 22ac, my last one in, which was not helped initially by having written “proliferatING” instead of “proliferatION” at 5dn. I parse everything as I go but on reflection I realised that “rating” for “allowance” did not do the job.
I was also thrown slightly by simplicity of 4ac. Talk about hiding in full view! Nice surface though.
Edited at 2016-12-15 04:59 am (UTC)
I had each as per/a head.
Struggled to parse:
19a and 10d as I didn’t initially see the anagram.
For 11a gore=shed blood was a slight leap.
For 1d I had dot as D and OT for on time!
Last few in were 10a, 11a (didn’t know the opera), 2d and 10d (couldn’t get portends/porter out of my head).
Lots of good clues: 1a, 9a, 2d, 5d, 15d.
Edited at 2016-12-15 05:27 am (UTC)
10.13 which for me meant this was very slightly on the tougher side of medium.
What was 4ac all about? Clue and answer all in one! (IMO pathetic Mr. Joker!)
WOD RUDDIGORE COD 17dn NASTY
And a happy Christmas to you Mr. Rotter – much enjoyed your blog-days.
Thoroughly enjoyed 5dn as I started with period = time, ration = living allowance (as in army rations) and came up with “protimeration” which I think is a lovely word. I must invent an opportunity to use it.
Thoroughly enjoyable solve, as always with Joker.
PlayupPompey
LOI was 22a-tricky I thought.
Had to guess Ruddigore, but it felt OK.. Favourite 10d -a warning for Christmas parties. David