Solving time: Lost, but about 5 mins I think.
A pretty straightforward puzzle this week including a couple of famous names, one of which seems to be spelt incorrectly.
I’m sorry this is a day late – I unexpectedly had no Internet access yesterday.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | DEAL (2 defs) |
| 3 | A TALL ORDER (semi-cryptic defn) |
| 10 | NORTH STAR; S (= ‘special’) in NORTH (= ‘direction’) + TAR (= ‘sailor’) |
| 11 | FEVER; EVE in FR – the Elvis Presley hit, originally by Otis Blackwell. |
| 12 | ROAST (2 defs) – ‘pan’ in the sense of ‘criticise’. Good clue. |
| 13 | NIHILIST; anag. of PHILISTINE without P[ower] and E[nergy] |
| 15 | RICHARD DREYFUS (sic); (CRAYFISH + RUDDER)* – the actor, whose name (according to various reliable Internet sources) is actually spelt ‘Dreyfuss’, which is rather embarrassing for the crossword. (One source does suggest that his birth name maybe have been spelt ‘Dreyfus’, but there’s little to support this, and even then I think this would still be a mistake as only his professional name would be fair game in this puzzle.) |
| 19 | ARRAYED; RAY in A RED |
| 21 | COMPERE; (E after MP) in CORE |
| 22 | CHOW MEIN; (MINCE HOW)* |
| 24 | START (2 defs) |
| 27 | TH[r]ONG |
| 28 | SWEET PEAS; (WATE[r] SEEPS)* |
| 29 | LEMON GRASS; rev. of (R[iver] GNOME)* in LASS – the cunning ‘river sprite’ needs splitting here. |
| 30 | BARS (2 defs) |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | DON BRADMAN; MAN (= ‘servant’), after DON (= ‘put on’) + BRAD (= ‘a boring thing’) – very devious definition (‘batter’) which may have made this a difficult clue if you didn’t know the name of arguably the best batsman ever. |
| 2 | AORTA; (OR + T[ankard]) in A.A. |
| 4 | TETANUS; (AUNT)* in rev. of SET |
| 5 | LURCHER (half-cryptic defn) |
| 6 | OFFAL (hidden) – pretty poor clue which doesn’t really work as an &lit; the definition is really just ‘Some scoff’ which is also part of the wordplay. |
| 7 | DEVASTATE; rev. of SAVED, + TATE – ‘northern’ to mean ‘going upwards’ makes no sense to me. |
| 8 | RARE (2 defs) – ‘of low density’ in an atmospheric context. |
| 9 | WHITEFLY; (THE WILY F[ox])* – not a pest I have met before. |
| 14 | ADVERTISES; (SEDATIVES + R)* |
| 16 | EARTHWORM; (RAW MOTHER)* |
| 18 | CAMPSITE (cryptic defn) – pretty dubious wording, even with a question mark (‘Intent on…’ => ‘In tent’) but at least the answer is clear. |
| 20 | DRESSER (2 defs) |
| 21 | CON[i]FERS; ‘furs’ => “firs” – my last entry, and I spent at least a minute nearly writing in ‘conveys’ but luckily resisted. |
| 23 | WAGON – ‘on the wagon’ meaning ‘teetotal’. |
| 25 | ARE(N)A – maybe one day someone will clue this word in a different way. |
| 26 | ET AL; rev. of LATE |
Then, I was convinced that in 9 down, ‘cunning’ was cluing ‘fly’ in 19th century flash slang, which made a hash of the rest of the cryptic.
Moreover, I knew there was a word ‘compere’, but had little idea of its exact meaning, and expected ‘English politician’ to be ‘E MP’ and not ‘MP, E’.
Finally, I never understood ‘campsite’ at all.
But I did manage to solve the puzzle within the allotted week.