Solving time: 40 minutes, somewhat interrupted
If you are an experienced solver, this puzzle will be right up your alley – you’re the kind of Pavlov’s dog that sees ‘former police force’ and barks out ‘R.U.C’. If you are just a beginner, however, it may not be so easy.
Music: None, The Player’s on TV due to rain delay
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | OXLIP, O(XLI)P. Careless solvers (like me!) will put in ‘tulip’ from the definition and try to make the cryptic fit. |
| 4 | DOMINICAN, DOMINI[e] + CAN, I needed the cryptic for this one. |
| 9 | FORESIGHT, double definition, just banged in by me, since I didn’t have a clue about ‘Bisley contestant’. Research reveals that Bisley is the home of shooting contests, which require a rifle with a sight at the front. |
| 10 | MANIC, MAN + I.C., a refugee from the Quickie. |
| 11 | RELATE, LE backwards in RATE, not terribly difficult either. |
| 12 | QUIETUDE, QUI + ETUDE, and not an anagram of ‘musical’ + ‘something’ at all. |
| 14 | NON-RESIDENCE, Anagram of ONE [feature]D IN SCREEN, which takes a bit of working-out. |
| 17 | CARICATURIST, CARI[o]CA + T[o]URIST. I didn’t know the Brazilian dance, but the answer should be obvious from the second half. |
| 20 | IMPERIAL, I(MP)E + LAIR backwards, which I entered quickly from the literal. |
| 21 | ACTIVE, ACT I + V[ery] E[nglish]. The grammatical voices are active, passive, and in classical Greek, middle. |
| 23 | ADIEU, A + DIE + U, an &lit clue. |
| 24 | INSTIGATE, IN[v[ery]e[asy]STIGATE, a letter-removal clue, and a good one with a smooth surface. |
| 25 | ABANDONED, A(BAND ONE)D. Band Two is hot on their heels, I suppose. |
| 25 | GOTHA, GOT + H + A, best known in the UK through Prince Albert’s title. |
| Down | |
| 1 | OFFPRINT, OFF + P[roportional] R[epresentation] + IN T. While the track announcer shouts “they’re off”, the word ‘off’ is not a very accurate synonym for ‘start’. |
| 2 | LORDLING, LO + RD + LING, a compendium of cryptic cliches. |
| 3 | PASS THE HAT ROUND, double definition, and not a very cryptic one. |
| 4 | DIGS, double definition, a much better one where there are a lot of way to go wrong, paticularly with ‘turns up’. |
| 5 | METHUSELAH, ME + THUS + HALE upside down. |
| 6 | NUMBER CRUNCHING, NUMBER ‘superior to’ CRUNCHING in different senses. One hopes that ‘dental work’ refers to biting into something hard, and not the actual work of a dentist. |
| 7 | CONCUR, CON + R.U.C. upside down. |
| 8 | NICKER, NIC(K)ER, a bit of a struggle since I only vaguely knew the word. This is definitely different from the ‘nicker’ you find will in Beowulf and such. |
| 13 | VISITATION, VISI(TATI)ON, another one where you have to be a hardened solver in order to automatically substitute ‘Tati’ for ‘film director’. |
| 15 | VIGILANT, VI[r]GIL + A NT. |
| 16 | ET CETERA, [b]ET(CE)TER + A. About 99% of solvers will put this in from the definition and enumeration, and move on. |
| 18 | CICADA, CI(C[orps](A)D[iplomatique])A. Once again, few will trouble with the cryptic. |
| 19 | OPTIMA, hidden backwards in [Coldtr]AM IT PO[stulates], and only up in the actual entry into the grid. |
| 22 | USED, U.S. ED, another one from the Quickie. |
“IMPERIAL” stumped me for a while as well, and I spent some time trying to parse the clue with “beard” in its verbal sense (meaning “confront”). Still, got there in the end.
These last days have seen me in foreign parts, in both the geographical and anatomical senses of the word, hence my absence. Sadly, someone has figured out that I can do less damage back home, so it’s back to the land of rain and expensive drinks.