7:23. Not a difficult puzzle but a delight to solve. Nice punning reference to South Pacific in the top and bottom rows. Is there some specific relevance to the words AT HOME here?
Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, deletions like this, anagram indicators are in italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Call on mum’s mobile |
| SUMMON – (ON MUMS)*. | |
| 4 | University’s left troubled after Charlie sang |
| CHANTED – C, HA |
|
| 9 | Visiting ladies Penny kept informed |
| IN THE LOOP – IN THE LOO, P. | |
| 10 | Lists of body parts |
| HEELS – DD. | |
| 11 | Wrong girl mentioned by legal document |
| MISDEED – homophone of ‘miss’, DEED. | |
| 13 | Who might get bronze or silver? |
| TANNERS – DD. A TANNER was a sixpence, which Collins tells me was a silver coin. | |
| 14 | Protect nail with gel, newly adding a metallic finish |
| ELECTROPLATING – (PROTECT NAIL GEL)*. | |
| 17 | Stir consciousness after wasting one’s life? |
| PRISON SENTENCE – PRISON, SENT |
|
| 19 | Island clubs hosted by evil sex criminal |
| ILLICIT – ILL(I, C), IT. | |
| 21 | Appropriate things to wear backless |
| TROUSER – TROUSER |
|
| 22 | Reportedly, Othello’s one affair |
| AMOUR – sounds like ‘a Moor’. | |
| 23 | Girl wearing Irish boy’s cross |
| IRRITATED – IR(RITA), TED. | |
| 25 | Still popular, golf in twilight |
| EVENING – EVEN, IN, G. | |
| 26 | Do in |
| AT HOME – DD, arguably &Lit! | |
| Down | |
| 1 | One joins maidens in flings and dances shakily |
| SHIMMIES – SH(I, MM)IES. Or possibly SHI(MM, I)ES. | |
| 2 | Runner’s companion failing to finish |
| MAT – MAT |
|
| 3 | Some trimmed nettles stewed in dishes |
| OMELETTES – (SOME, |
|
| 4 | Landlords in London SW? |
| CAPITAL LETTERS – LETTERS in the CAPITAL. | |
| 5 | Like one sort of chicken pasty |
| ASHEN – AS, HEN. | |
| 6 | Hills in those days visited by record numbers |
| THE PENNINES – TH(EP)EN, NINES. | |
| 7 | A series of episodes is to cease |
| DESIST – contained in ‘episodes is to’. | |
| 8 | Feckless eccentric or God of Love? |
| GOOD FOR NOTHING – (OR GOD OF)*, NOTHING. | |
| 12 | Country formed from earlier ones |
| SIERRA LEONE – (EARLIER ONES)*. | |
| 15 | Retaliation in an east London derby? |
| TIT FOR TAT – DD. The second definition here is Cockney rhyming slang, more usually seen in the shorter form ‘titfer’. | |
| 16 | Appeal to a Dickensian mind |
| BEGRUDGE – BEG, Barnaby RUDGE. | |
| 18 | The less enlightened pupils do this |
| DILATE – CD. | |
| 20 | Dog’s privates appearing in special effects |
| CORGI – C(OR)GI. | |
| 24 | A couple, overly outspoken |
| TWO – sounds like ‘too’. | |
15:13
Surprisingly easy–must be my best time for one of Robert’s–but enjoyable as always. COD to AT HOME, about as terse a clue as one can get (although Dean has the record, with “To? (4,3)”).
CROP TOP?
Manx cat
OK, a bit better than ‘crop top’, but the possibility of other answers shows that such short clues are not that difficult to devise, especially with use of the ? mark (the clue writer’s friend). I could go one shorter than Dean with : A? (5,2,3) – the answer being a common enough phrase and quite easy with a checker or two (but a bit pedestrian compared with some of Dean’s inventions).
O (8,6) which I remember from the Computer Weekly puzzle ca. 1990
First of all?
Ker-rekt!! And with no checkers! I could have been dishonest and said it is Heart of oak which I thought of later and is perhaps a bit more Deanly inventive. And I expect there are other reasonable solutions …
Almost as good!
Thanks.
Yes, rather easy for a Sunday, but I’m not complaining as I enjoyed it, especially the DILATE clue.
Perfect Sunday fare …. nice one, Robert.
34 minutes total in two goes – needed a break after 25, unable to get past assuming UL were part of the answer to 4A. Had I completed in one sitting, it might well have been an ‘enchanted evening’. Despite the pun, I couldn’t see ‘a stranger’!
Nice puzzle – liked TANNERS, CAPITAL LETTERS, THE PENNINES, GOOD-FOR-NOTHING. COD to DILATE for cunning use of ‘enlightened’.
26A How does do = at home
From Wikipedia: In the context of old-fashioned entertaining—particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries—the expression “At Home” refers to a specific social custom where a hostess designated a particular day of the week or month to receive visitors
Sorry should perhaps have explained this. I have only ever been to one do that was advertised as an AT HOME. The hostess was extremely posh and the thing was not at her home, but at one of the London clubs that don’t allow women. 🤷🏻♂️
Agree with all the above – a very pleasant solve.
Good fun if brief at 17 mins but a typo in TIT FOf TAT.
RP very kind this week – all was done in one sitting except LOI 16d. For anyone unfamiliar with Dickens’ characters I suspect it will prove difficult, as it’s not the first synonym of ‘mind’ that comes to mind! I don’t think that 15d really works. TIT FOR TAT may be the derivation of the CRS, but the word is ‘titfer’ as K says – the whole point being that you never use the latter part of the phrase.
I was very slow, as ever, to get the CD of 4d. Even after LETTERS it took a few more crossers to dawn. Mr Ego saw it immediately, but let me work it out for myself.
I both noticed and appreciated the South Pacific reference, for once.
I think that generally the longer versions of CRS (apples and pears etc) are also recognised as such.
Never? I wouldn’t Adam and Eve that.
Yes, very pleasant experience.
The song (continuing, “You may see a stranger”) is about hoping for a new soulmate. It’s a nice twist to think of the enchanted evenings after the stars have aligned.
14.17
Enjoyable as always. Loved SHIMMIES. Thanks Keriothe and Robert.