Solving time: 3:49
A quick solve despite inexplicable slowless on 1ac. Some of the cryptic ‘grammar’ was loose in this puzzle (e.g. 1ac, 23dn, 28dn).
Quotation of the day: “Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word” (Charles de Gaulle)
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | PAN + A + MA – the construction ‘On A, B carries C’ is dubious, as it’s (A + B) doing the carrying here, not just B. |
| 5 | TAPESTRY – I think this is just a cryptic definition. |
| 9 | STOCK CUBES – a slightly hackneyed pun on ‘dies’. ‘Sugar cubes’ was my foolish first attempt. |
| 10 | LESS[on] |
| 11 | THAI; “TIE” |
| 12 | ABSTEMIOUS; (I MESS ABOUT)* – nice anagram. |
| 14 | GG in rev. of GONE – I’m sure ‘horse’ for GG will have its opponents. |
| 16 | ABSTRACT (double definition) |
| 20 | LOCUS + T |
| 22 | FIELD EVENT; (EVEN LIFTED)* |
| 29 | TRUE BLUE – I think the second half of this clue (“…unlike a Tory MP at election time!”) is a pun on ‘true’, implying that politicians at such times are not averse to telling pork pies. I’m surprised that the editor let this through; after all, ‘at election time’ is clearly superfluous. |
| 30 | SAT + RAP |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | AITCH (first letter of ‘How’) – the wording doesn’t quite work here for me (“How this character introduces it”). |
| 3 | A(U)CTION |
| 4 | ARCHANGEL; CHANGE in (A + R + L) |
| 7 | SOLDIER (cryptic definition, referring to toast soldiers) – ‘clutch’ for a group of chicken’s eggs is worth remembering. |
| 13 | SE(A)TTLE |
| 17 | SPLIT PEAS; (IT’S APPLES)* |
| 19 | PAL + PATE – the definition (‘touch’) confused me when solving, but I was thinking of ‘palpitate’. |
| 21 | CHA(RIO)T – ‘chat’ is a bird to remember, Rio a song to remember. |
| 23 | E-MAIL; rev. of ME + AIL – unless I have misinterpreted it this a poor clue, with ‘is sick’ for AIL. Why not “I returned sick correspondence”, or “Messages I returned are sick”? I’m not overly keen on ‘I’ = ‘me’ either. |
| 28 | P(I)E – another grammatical solecism (“I join gym…”), and ‘join’ for ‘placed inside’ is questionable anyway, though the answer was clear. |
John M
There are some omitted “easies” left for us bunnies:
18a Lacking nitrogen (hemp pla)n(t)* withers in the tract (8)
PAMPHLET
24a Help is what the gambler must have! (4)
A BET
26a Regular nEpTuNeAn volcano (4)
ETNA
27a Be fully aware of and increase in value (10)
APPRECIATE
5d Thanks Bishop Bill (3)
TA B
6d American author goes round ship for a gang (5)
PO SS E
8d (Secures or)* otherwise provides money for (9)
RESOURCES
15d Warrior – happy one on a hill (9)
GLAD I A TOR
25d There’s more outside (5)
EXTRA. Presumably a DD of more and outside as in extra-mural?