I almost completely forget my blogging duties today! A commentary will appear once I’ve had a chance to solve it…
…as quickly as possible! I was held up by 16dn (don’t know why), 18ac (as a result of my ignorance) and 20ac (due to being out-cryptic’d). Nowhere near as difficult as the last few Friday’s have been, which is a stroke of luck for me! Please ask if my brief explanations are unclear.
And enjoy the Bank Holiday.
Across |
1 |
CORK – double definition. The Irish port and the type of bottle stopper that Mr. Codd tried to make obsolete. |
3 |
SWINGING – SING (confess) about WING (part of prison) for hanging. |
8 |
NEWMARKET – double definition, with the first as a cryptic definition. A new market could be a chance of extra sales, and the Suffolk town famous for horse racing. |
10 |
PAN – another double definition. The Greek god is also a word for harshly criticise. |
11 |
PURGE – softly (in music) is P + URGE (press) for clear. |
12 |
CORDIAL – my = COR (as in, “oh my!”) with DIAL (face) gives a warm characteristic. |
13 |
STIR-FRY – the Chinese dish is an anagram of FIRST (indicated by prepared) next to RY (railway). |
18 |
NEHRU – NU (letter of the Greek alphabet) surrounds (holds) an anagram of HER (indicated by wrongly), for an Indian leader (Prime Minister, in fact). |
19 |
SUSTAIN -STAIN (slur) on US reversed (backward American) gives a synonym for suffer. |
20 |
CRICKETER – I guess this is a cryptic definition. The “third man” is a fielding position in cricket, and the “twelfth man” a substitute cricketer. As far as I’m aware, none of the numbers in-between (fourth, fifth, etc.) correspond to named positions. |
22 |
GAS – G (good) + AS for fuel. |
23 |
SEEP – leak slowly is SEE (notice) and P (pressure). |
24 |
APPENDIX – an addition to the end of a book, and what’s removed during an appendectomy operation. |
Down |
1 |
CANOPY – COPY (journalist’s work) includes AN (example of an article) for the forest treetops. |
2 |
REWARD – reversal of DRAWER (till) for offered money. |
4 |
WOK – W (wife) + OK (fine) is where one might make 13ac, stir-fry. |
5 |
NATURE RESERVE – NATURE (mother, they say) has RESERVE (book) for animal sanctuary. |
6 |
IMPAIR – weaken is I (one) + M (married) + PAIR (couple). |
7 |
GENTLE – the definition here is the adjectival moderate, from GEN (information) and an anagram of LET (indicated by out). |
9 |
AWESTRUCK – anagram of WEAK CRUST (indicated by collapses) gives overwhelmed with dread. |
12 |
CORPS – COPS (police) surrounding (suppressing) R (resistance) for body of soldiers. |
14 |
SNACKS – new = N, put it in SACKS (big bags) for light bites. |
15 |
SHRINE – SHINE (shed light) around the last letter of enteR for this venerated site. |
16 |
RAGGED – double definition. To be teased is to be ragged, and poorly dressed. |
17 |
UNISEX – this sort of hairdresser can been seen in tUNIS EXceptionally. |
21 |
TIP – double definition. An untidy place and useful information. |
This was a relatively straightforward one for me – around 20 minutes. Trickiest for me was CORDIAL: took me a fair while to spot the connection between Cor! and My! But, neat clue and glad to have worked it out eventually.
Agree with Jack that 20ac was a bit of an odd clue. Answer was pretty obvious (certainly after a couple of cross checkers): third man and 12th man naturally put you in cricketing country, but the “but nothing in between” put me into some doubt as to whether something far more complex was going on.
Can only assume that the clue is based on the fact that there is no 4th, 5th, 6th etc. etc. man involved from a terminology perspective.
Edited at 2014-05-23 01:23 pm (UTC)
In deference to the blogger, I won’t display the answer but will try to give you a nudge.
R can be an abbreviation of resistance (physics formulae). Insert this into a common slang word for the police and you will see a word that means a group of soldiers…
Hope that helps.
Edited at 2014-05-23 01:45 pm (UTC)
Happy to be corrected but I don’t think that there is any problem with giving assistance, although as you say, as a courtesy to the blogger, he/she normally gets ‘first dibs’. We do not have the issue here of people commenting on Prize puzzles before the deadline closes but over in The Times Crossword Club, comments on Prize puzzles start immediately. However, any comments that give too much assistance tend to be zapped by someone pretty promptly.
Edited at 2014-05-23 01:50 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2014-05-23 01:09 pm (UTC)
Some excellent clues for beginners today, especially 1a,1d,8a,14d,16d. Clues that made me tear out my hair: 12a. Had no problems with 20a – very obvious to a cricket fan!
Thanks as ever to the bloggers and encouraging words to the hard-trying newbies.
Edited at 2014-05-23 03:51 pm (UTC)
Today we have (horizontal) Line Symmetry instead of Rotational Symmetry. A new Friday feature?
Stronon