Solving time: About 8 mins; one mistake (25ac)
A most unsatisfying puzzle with few good clues. As well as a spelling error at 15dn, 11ac should have been (15), not (5); I may be missing the point at 2dn (ANDROCLES) and 7dn (PROBE).
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SPARROW; SPAR (= ‘boom’) + ROW (= ‘noise’) |
| 5 | FOOT PAD – a pun on ‘sole’. |
| 9 | MADEIRA; (ADMIRE A)* |
| 10 | LISSOME; (SLIME SO)* |
| 11 | THOUGHTLESSNESS; (GUNSHOTS SHE’S LET)* – shame about the incorrect enumeration, but not a bad anagram. |
| 12 | MULLET (2 defs) – as sported by Chris Waddle. |
| 14 | STRIKERS (2 defs) – Shakespeare (i.e. ‘the bard’) used ‘striker’ to mean a highwayman. |
| 17 | BASSOONS; BASS (= ‘fish’) around SOON (= ‘very shortly’) – not a satisfactory definition. |
| 18 | IN DEED |
| 21 | NONGOVERNMENTAL; (A GLEN ON MT VERNON)* – also inaccurate, with ‘has’ meaning ‘having’ in the definition. |
| 24 | INSPIRE; I + (SPIN)* + RE (= ‘about’) |
| 25 | IPOMOEA; (A POEM I O)* – I guessed this was a plant also known as the ‘morning glory’, but didn’t know the answer or the required Greek root (ipos meaning ‘worm’) so went for ‘imopoea’, probably by analogy with ‘onomatopoeia’. |
| 26 | GRISTLE; (IT’S + R + LEG)* |
| 27 | GREASED; GREED around A + S[cone] |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SYMPTOM; (MY POST)* + M[ine] |
| 2 | ANDROCLES – I think this whole clue is just a reference to the Aesop’s fable where Androcles removed a thorn from a lion’s paw and was later saved by the same lion, although if the 5 across (‘footpad’) is the lion’s then I don’t know what the purpose of ‘we hear’ is, nor is there anything cryptic that I can see. |
| 3 | RUING; U in RING |
| 4 | WEALTH; (THE LAW)* – an old anagram. |
| 5 | FALSETTO; FALSE (= ‘deceiving’) + (TOT)* |
| 6 | OBSESSION; OB’S (= Old Boys’) + (NOISES)* |
| 7 | PROBE – this might be wrong, but I can’t see anything better. Possibly ‘President’ = P (for which I can find no support) and ‘right’ = R, but then ‘accepts’ (which is normally a containment indicator) isn’t doing anything and ‘reward’ must give OBE, which doesn’t seem right; perhaps ‘award’ was intended, but even then this is a mess. |
| 8 | DRESSES (2 defs) – I put this in with some doubt, but couldn’t see anything else that would fit. Later I realised that ‘tire’ is an archaic form of ‘attire’, so ‘Gets tired’ could mean ‘Gets dressed’, but I’m not sure that’s suitable for this crossword. Also, does anyone outside the military use ‘dress’ to mean ‘fall into line’? |
| 13 | ECONOMIST; (INCOMES TO)* – this almost works, but the word ‘be’ doesn’t fit properly. |
| 15 | ELECTIONS; (LICENSE TO)* – but ‘licence’ as a noun is spelt with a ‘C’, not an ‘S’, so the surface reading is faulty. The argument that Americans use ‘license’ for both doesn’t wash at all, although at least the syndicated versions in the Toronto Star etc will be ok. |
| 16 | ANTECEDE; A + (DECENT)* + E[arl] |
| 17 | BUNTING (2 defs) |
| 19 | DULLARD; DULL (= ‘Pedestrian’) + A[rterial] + RD |
| 20 | ENDING; (DINE)* + N[o] G[ood] |
| 22 | NASHI; ASH in NI – the Asian pear tree, and the second answer word I didn’t know in this puzzle (25ac being the first). |
| 23 | EVOKE; EVE around OK (= ‘rubber-stamp’) |
I am less sure about license.. you could argue that the word as used in the clue does not actually need to be a noun.. if the general standard of the ST cryptic was up to scratch we would not be criticising that usage, perhaps
PROBE is the given solution to 7D. P = President is included in Collins (1986) – surely this is a fairly common usage!? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen “accept” used like that as well, and I find it entirely legitimate. There are things wrong with most ST puzzles (this one included), but I can’t fault that clue.
Neither Licence nor Certainty have been corrected in our version.