7:25. Pretty gentle stuff from Robert this week, but the usual collection of concise and elegant clues with pristine surfaces. Lovely.
As usual the top and bottom rows constitute a delightfully awful pun.
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Providing aid from stake money invested in silver |
| ABETTING – A(BET, TIN)G. | |
| 5 | Place to buy in or sell out |
| SHOP – DD. Neat. | |
| 10 | Jersey artist of high standing |
| TOP DRAWER – TOP (jersey), DRAWER (artist). A purist might argue that the definition by example (‘jersey’) needs indicating here but I’m no purist. | |
| 11 | Boat staff bringing nothing on board |
| CANOE – CAN(O)E. | |
| 12 | Raid spanning a period of a year |
| FORAY – FOR (spanning a period of), A, Y. I separate the parts of the clue here because ‘for a Y’ isn’t a recognisable expression. | |
| 13 | Car chase mostly prepared, DS means to get ready |
| CASH CARDS – (CAR CHAS |
|
| 14 | Look back on gas sanctions |
| COUNTENANCES – COUNTENANCE, |
|
| 18 | What newsreaders read in French, the expert seducer conceals |
| TELEPROMPTER – TE(LE, PRO)MPTER. The slightly intricate wordplay here is TEMPTER (seducer) containing (concealing) LE (in French, the), PRO (expert). | |
| 21 | Comic character from Peru: he’s funny or contrary |
| SUPERHERO – (PERU HES)*, reversal (contrary) of OR. | |
| 22 | Dance backwards while gripping a medic |
| SAMBA – reversal of AS (while) containing A, MB (Bachelor of Medicine). | |
| 23 | Skip over some novel ideas |
| ELIDE – contained in ‘novel ideas’. | |
| 24 | Striking people outside that hurt colleagues |
| CO WORKERS – C(OW)ORKERS. | |
| 25 | I’m exasperated seeing time being wasted |
| SIGH – SIGH |
|
| 26 | Forecasters for hours absorbed by “cats and dogs”? |
| PROPHETS – PRO, P(H)ETS. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Something made a report extremely close to the truth |
| ARTEFACT – A, R |
|
| 2 | Oslo’s latest new premium clothes store |
| EMPORIUM – (PREMIUM)* containing (clothing) |
|
| 3 | Yankee that’s annoying turning up late |
| TARDY – reversal of Y, DRAT. | |
| 4 | Spreading concern, few seen gathering briefing papers |
| NEWS CONFERENCE – (CONCERN FEW SEEN)*. | |
| 6 | Suspended on railway for lacking sufficient fare |
| HUNGRY – HUNG, RY. | |
| 7 | Quietly letting agreement bring happiness |
| PLEASE – P, LEASE. | |
| 8 | Troops secured a row for snipers somehow |
| PRISONERS OF WAR – (A ROW FOR SNIPERS)*. | |
| 9 | A squealer’s confession sounded sweet, but cold |
| ICE CREAM – sounds like ‘I scream’. | |
| 15 | What’s up with MPs limiting speculation? |
| THEORIES – reversal (up) of EH (what) in TORIES. Here the question mark covers the definition by example, which is arguably a bit loose given that not all TORIES are MPs and vice versa. Statistically speaking ‘MPs’ would be a more valid definition for WOMEN! | |
| 16 | Charge identified with electron |
| STAMPEDE – STAMPED, E. | |
| 17 | State vessel used to rescue an elite force |
| ARKANSAS – ARK, AN, SAS. | |
| 19 | Advantages of dogs off the lead |
| ASSETS – |
|
| 20 | Careful cutting a stem |
| SPRING – SP |
|
| 22 | Something footballers put on skin |
| STRIP – DD. | |
34:47 WOE
I bunged in ARTIFACT at 1d, making a mental note to come back to check E/I, and of course forgot. I surprised myself by remembering STRIP, which I learned here some time ago. A lovely puzzle, as always from Robert. COD to SHOP.
20 minutes. Only hold-ups were COUNTENANCES – I thought of it early on but was trying to make the wordplay more complicated than it was – and THEORIES, where I needed all the checkers before I figured it out.
Thanks Guy and Robert.
FOI Elide
LOI Theories
COD Prophets
It wasn’t me this time!
Oops – apologies keriothe and Guy, I dashed off my comment in a hurry this morning!
25ac I get the answer to the clue but how does “a betting shop sigh prophets” constitute a pun? thanks
A betting shop’s ‘igh profits…?
Or, “a betting shop (sigh) profits”?
Some of this was straightforward for me, some less so. I had particular problems over COUNTENANCES, TELEPROMPTER, an unfamiliar word which I know as an autocue, and SUPERHERO. 8d took me ages, as I somehow failed to notice the 2,3 split of the bottom half and was convinced the second word was POWER, which mucked up the anagram and didn’t help with the 21 across clue.
28 mins WOE in COUNTENeNCES but yes, otherwise a gentle stroll with some pleasant scenery. Thanks K and RP.
Surely all jerseys are a form of top (clothing) so it’s not a definition by example? ‘Top’ does have other meanings of course but I don’t think that’s in point.
No that’s the wrong way round. Not all tops are jerseys, so jersey is an example of a top. Shirt, vest, blouse etc would all also be definitions by example for top.
You’re quite right of course, my apologies. I’d somehow confused the word in the clue with the word in the answer. ‘Top’ could be used to define ‘jersey’ but not properly vice versa.
DNF
An incorrect ASIDE prevented the correct dogs appearing, and I was very slow to see TELEPROMPTER and SUPERHERO (where I was lookin’ for something more high falutin’). THEORIES was also a late arrival. Most of it in 15 but gave up on the half hour mark with _S_A_S unsolved/unsolvable.
Nice puzzle; liked the expert seducer.
Thanks Robert/Keriothe.
Fared better today than usual with the Sunday poser: off to a good start with 1 and 10a, then picked my way steadily around the grid , surprising myself with getting some without too much labouring ( NEWS CONFERENCE straight in, maybe due to yesterday’s CONFERENCE pear?). Biffed COUNTENANCE but couldn’t see how it worked, likewise TELEPROMPTER. Had to look up both SPRING and SUPERHERO ( looking for the wrong type of comic character), but SIGH a very neat clue ( as is SHOP of course) : only to be expected of this master setter.
Thanks Robert and keriothe
Finished this under the hour after three days of end of year, wedding, etc. functions -so not too bad ! Didn’t properly parse COUNTENANCES and this time didn’t properly work out the nina phrase across the top and bottom. Enjoyed prising out some of the longer charades and untangling some of the longer anagrams.
Finished in the SW corner with ASSETS (not sure why this took so long), SIGH (again not so hard in hindsight) and SPRING (with the ‘originating’ definition slow to come to mind).