ST 4323 (Sun 5 Apr) – Boa awe

Author   talbinhoPosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
Solving time: 2:46

An easy puzzle but I enjoyed lots of these clues, especially 20ac. Do I detect the hand of Tim Moorey?

A very happy (if slightly belated) Easter to all readers.

* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.

Across
1 MAT + E
3 AMBASSADOR – ‘In capitals, he’ gives HE which stands for ‘His Excellency’.
10 NORTH; (THORN)*
11 ACTUARIES; ACT (= ‘turn’) + U (= ‘universal’) + ARIES (= ‘stars’)
12 CENTRAL HEATING; (ENTRANCE + A LIGHT)* – excellent anagram.
14 ROUTERS (2 defs) – ‘Groovy’ because a router is a tool for hollowing out or making grooves, as well as a piece of computer equipment.
15 ST + RANGE – not sure if this is intended as ST ‘to go over’ RANGE, which doesn’t work for an across clue, or whether it’s ‘range’ as a verb meaning ‘to go over mountains’, which also doesn’t seem quite right.
17 S(C)ANDAL
19 MR RIGHT; RR in MIGHT – RR for Rolls Royce. I was amused to see this crossing ‘scatterbrained’ and ‘nightmare’.
20 BOA CONSTRICTOR (cryptic definition) – my favourite clue of the puzzle (‘It prefers squash to snakebite!’), punning on the drinks squash and snakebite (half beer, half cider).
23 ON THE MEND; (NEED MONTH)* – another good anagram.
24 ERATO; (TEAR)* + [intr]O
25 PLEASANTRY; (PAY ANTLERS)* – I didn’t understand this when solving or for a long time afterwards, but eventually I realised that ‘five’ referred to the answer to clue 5. Perhaps this was a digit in the paper version? I can’t see why it wasn’t here, since they managed ‘8’ correctly in the clue to 4dn.
26 HERB (hidden) – nicely concealed in a hyphenated word (‘stretcher-bearer’).

Down
1 MANICURIST (cryptic definition) – a pun on ‘digital’ meaning ‘of fingers’, with the surface reading perhaps referring to digital airbrushing of photos.
2 TARANTULA; T,A + (NATURAL)*
4 MEASLES (hidden)
5 ANTLERS; (ALERT + N[ew] S[oldiers])*
6 SCATTERBRAINED; (BRENDA I)* – wordplay in the answer; scatter ‘brained’ to get ‘Brenda I’.
7 DEIGN; rev. of GI in DEN
8 RAS + H
9 CHARLES DICKENS; CHICKENS around (EARLS* + D)
13 LETTER BOMB (cryptic definition) – I wasn’t convinced by the pun here (‘Frankly’).
16 NIGHTMARE; (HIT GERMAN)*
18 LANTERN (cryptic definition) – fairly obvious but well-worded nonetheless.
19 MATADOR (cryptic definition) – this time a pun on ‘gore’ meaning ‘to pierce’, as a bull, rather than ‘blood and guts’.
21 OUTRE (hidden)*
22 SOAP (2 defs)

7 comments on “ST 4323 (Sun 5 Apr) – Boa awe”

  1. 12 to 13 minutes or so which is good time for me not that speed is a priority. In hindsight however, it does feel good.
    You must have been downright beside yourself clocking
    2:46. Some kind of record?

    1. p.s.
      I remember now what slowed me down. I’d put in ‘slander’ at first. With ‘scandal’ the rest fell into place.
    2. Certainly one of my fastest times, and quicker than my daily Times PB; not sure how legible some of the letters were, though!
  2. 30 minutes for this one with one clue (25/PLEASANTRY)unexplained until one of the other contributors helped me out. I think if the clue had “5” instead of “five” I would have seen it for myself.
  3. 5:34 for me, solved on the train last Thursday. No quibbles about any of the clues for a change, and it felt so fast I was surprised I’d gone over 5 mins. Mind you, I doubt if I could clock 2:46 if I was just writing the answers in having previously solved it.
  4. The lack of marginal notes and general neatness shows that this was a pretty easy solve. Thanks for the explanation of AMBASSADOR at 3a. I don’t think that (he’s) is really equivalent to H.E. but I’m only miffed because I didn’t see it.

Comments are closed.