6:33. A very gentle puzzle from Harry this week, but none the worse for that. The goddess at 9ac might cause some problems, but she was vaguely familiar to me for some reason. 7dn must seem a bit odd if you don’t happen to know about Billy Connelly’s musical skills, but it’s perfectly solvable without that knowledge.
Thanks to Harry for a fun one, particularly the naughty but brilliant 24ac.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, anagram indicators are in italics.
Across |
1 |
Cursed bedlamp’s alive, man held |
|
BLASPHEMED – (BEDLAMPS)* containing HE. |
7 |
Fire assault rifle with live round |
|
BAKE – B(AK)E. The AK-47 is the most famous of these weapons but others are available. |
9 |
One’s husband volunteers to meet Republican goddess |
|
ISHTAR – I’S, H, TA, R. A Mesopotamian goddess I had vaguely heard of. |
10 |
Inability to hear case of defence? A fine point … |
|
DEAFNESS – DefencE, A, F, NESS (point). |
11 |
… in upholding the employee’s originally overturned case |
|
ETUI – first letters of ‘in upholding the employee’, reversed. |
12 |
Woman pawns bloomers |
|
HOLLYHOCKS – or, er, HOLLY HOCKS. |
14 |
Hewn tree in Glencoe with iodine on the stump? |
|
ELECTIONEERING – (TREE IN GLENCOE, I)*. |
16 |
Where products might be displayed in disarray |
|
ALL OVER THE SHOP – two definitions, one very slightly whimsical. |
19 |
A tie is an accessory |
|
ATTACHMENT – DD. Very simple, not at all hard to solve, but really neat. Kind of sums up this puzzle. |
21 |
Spots of corrosion finally found in service |
|
ACNE – AC(corrosioN)E. Service in the tennis sense. |
22 |
Reddish-orange ruddy duck |
|
FLAMINGO – FLAMING (ruddy, as in ‘this ruddy clue!’), O. I was confused here for a while because I saw from the checkers that FLAMINGO must be the answer but ‘duck’ seemed a strange definition. |
24 |
Result of donning Wonderbra? Ding-dong! |
|
BUST-UP – naughty in the best traditions of Sunday Times cryptic puzzles and brilliant. |
25 |
Old writer yawning |
|
OPEN – O, PEN. |
26 |
Needle girl repurposed as item of angling gear |
|
LEDGER LINE – (NEEDLE GIRL)*. I didn’t know this term, but having looked it up I think I’ve actually used one of these. |
Down |
2 |
Go wild and gamble it all away without bit of prudence |
|
LOSE THE PLOT – LOSE THE (Prudence)LOT. Nice surface. |
3 |
Light passion? That’s what row is about! |
|
SET FIRE TO – SET TO (row) containing FIRE (passion). |
4 |
Hurt was a chart success around end of October |
|
HARD-HIT – HA(octobeR)D HIT. |
5 |
Music genre in which White Lines might sit? |
|
MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD – two definitions, one mildly cryptic in that it appears to refer to the seminal hip-hop song by Melle Mel. Is MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD a genre though? I thought it just referred to bland and unadventurous music of any genre, and the dictionaries seem to think so too. |
6 |
Excessive yen to sit on short guys? That’s awful! |
|
DEARY ME – DEAR, Y, MEn. ‘Excessive’ for DEAR strikes me as a bit loose (if you’re saying that something is expensive you’d normally if not always say that the price is excessive, not the thing itself) but it didn’t cause me a problem. |
7 |
One Billy Connolly might pick on at a gig? |
|
BANJO – a slightly odd clue, which won’t make much sense to anyone who doesn’t know that Billy Connolly is (or was, not sure if he still plays) a noted BANJOist. |
8 |
Island raising fine crops at its eastern tip |
|
KOS – reversal (raising) of OK, cropS. |
13 |
Beastly sort plastered in pink gunge |
|
KING PENGUIN – (IN PINK GUNGE)*. |
15 |
In which cast hears Lear, perhaps |
|
REHEARSAL – (HEARS LEAR)*. I think ‘cast’ is the anagram indicator here and the clue is Semi-&Lit (the definition being technically just ‘in which’), but I’m not sure. In this reading the word ‘perhaps’ isn’t doing anything, so that might be the anagrind and the definition ‘in which cast’. Probably advisable not to think about it too much. |
17 |
Elizabethan old-timer bottles alcohol |
|
ETHANOL – contained in ‘Elizabethan old-timer’. There’s a rule in containment clues that the answer must be part of all the words used for the containment, but hyphenated words count as one. So ‘Elizabethan old-timer’ is fine but ‘Elizabethan old timer’ would not be allowed. |
18 |
Key-opened European desk okay to be put away? |
|
EATABLE – E(A), TABLE. The key of A ‘opens’ (separates) E and TABLE (desk). |
20 |
Promoters of commercial port to secure millions |
|
ADMEN – AD(M)EN. I’m not sure if ‘commercial’ is part of the definition or the indication for Aden here. It doesn’t really matter. |
23 |
Cheek is a part of the face |
|
LIP – DD. |
“I thought only edible was correct, even Google suggested edible when I did a search to see which one was more popular on the internet:
Edible: 17.2 million: Eatable: 2.2 million” English Language & Usage, 2011
FOI 23dn LIP
(LOI) 17dn ETHANOL – Ethel & Ollie
COD 22ac FLAMINGO – currently ‘er indoor’s favourite bird, thanks to James Audubon – they enjoy a 99% divorce rate (Croke, NYT 2014). Get over it!
WOD 12ac HOLLYHOCKS – we have a small and faithful oriental group in the garden – keep the bees busy.
I knew of ledger, ledger bait and ledger tackle in connection with fishing but not LEDGER LINE which for me was only a feature of musical notation.
Well done setter, getting away from George Formby references re BANJO and avoiding the need for pedants such as myself to point out that George actually played a banjolele. Oh dear, I seem to have done it anyway!
FOI ISHTAR
LOI BAKE
COD BUST-UP
TIME 8:32
5D: both Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English have “category” of music, art etc as a definition of “genre”.
18D: both references have “eatable” meaning the same as “edible”
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD no problem, although it did remind me instantly of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep.
I knew from a recent documentary that Billy Connolly can still play the banjo.
David
Thanks all
Got a start with LIP and OPEN down the bottom and was able to steadily progress through the grid. Had heard of ISHTAR, so she presented no issues. LEDGER LINE was the only one that had to be looked up – not a fisherman.
Thought that both SET FIRE TO and BUST UP were the best of a pretty good lot of clues.
Finished back down in that SW corner with ATTACHMENT, that LEDGER LINE and ETHANOL the last few in.