Well, well, well. A quirky and somewhat challenging Monday puzzle. A rara avis, indeed! More like this, please, Ed!
38:54
| Across | |
| 1 | Second option mostly involving ultimate academic (10) |
| SCHOLASTIC -LAST in S CHOIC |
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| 7 | Damp, but not the second source of damp (4) |
| MIST – M |
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| 9 | Deduce computer network turned evil (8) |
| INFERNAL – INFER LAN reversed | |
| 10 | Crab, perhaps, unable to be cracked (6) |
| NEBULA – anagram* of UNABLE; a nebula in Taurus | |
| 11 | Main route all but fixed from here (6) |
| SEAWAY – SE |
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| 13 | Island I leave to probe US city villainy (8) |
| INIQUITY – I (island) then I QUIT in NY | |
| 14 | Spoiled girl embracing grand feature of church (7,5) |
| STAINED GLASS – G (grand) in STAINED (spoiled) LASS (girl) | |
| 17 | Token of love in entirety, playing Wagner operas (8,4) |
| ETERNITY RING – ENTIRETY* RING; I will be singing in the chorus of Jaap van Zweden’s swansong with the HK Phil, The Flying Dutchman, before he moves to Seoul. Took me ages, did this one, as my knowledge of amatory rings stops at engagement and wedding. | |
| 20 | Extremely good, more than once, about British article in winter sports equipment (8) |
| TOBOGGAN – B (British) in TOO (extremely) GG (good, more than once) then AN (article) | |
| 21 | In the past, you’d backed including place for second-in-command (6) |
| DEPUTY – PUT (place) in a reversal of YE’D (in the past, you’d) | |
| 22 | Play for which actor given licence (6) |
| HAMLET – HAM LET; I can’t actually think of a context where ‘given license’ can be substituted for ‘let’. It just doesn’t seem to be possible to use the passive, even though ‘let’ is used transitively in phrases like ‘they let him escape.’ Answers on a postcard, please… | |
| 23 | Money received by office worker: good, attractive (8) |
| TEMPTING – TIN in TEMP G | |
| 25 | Horrific cut — may result in this (4) |
| SCAR – SCAR |
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| 26 | European capital willing to consider form of change externally (10) |
| COPENHAGEN – OPEN (willing to consider) in (‘externally’ is the containment indicator) CHANGE* (‘form of’ is the anagram indicator) | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Court accommodating former King and old Emperor? (8) |
| CONCERTO – ONCE (former) R (king) in CT O; referencing Beethoven’s piano concerto no. 5 | |
| 3 | Lines up one to head paper round (3) |
| ODE – reversal (‘up’) of ED (one to head paper) O (round); there’s a certain oddness to this clue | |
| 4 | Upset PA sees head of team leaving (5) |
| ANNOY – |
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| 5 | Significant narration (7) |
| TELLING – double definition | |
| 6 | Close friend cooked and brought in meat dish (9) |
| CONFIDANT – AND* in CONFIT; I’m a bit of a dab hand in the kitchen, I like to think, but I’ve never attempted this. It’s basically duck or goose cooked, slowly, in its own fat and preserved. From the French word meaning ‘to preserve,’ as also is ‘comfit’, which is essentially a candied fruit or nut. | |
| 7 | Imports business reduced by half reorganised in one-sided arrangement (6,5) |
| MOBIUS STRIP – IMPORTS BUSI |
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| 8 | Welcome line in fried food (6) |
| SALUTE – L in SAUTE; the noun sauté refers to a dish of fried food. More French cuisine… | |
| 12 | A little attention around college regarding office work (5-6) |
| WHITE-COLLAR – COLL in WHIT (a little) EAR (attention) | |
| 15 | Not initially unbranded, about to become active (9) |
| ENERGETIC – GET (to become) in |
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| 16 | Isn’t upset over a new church, for example (8) |
| INSTANCE – ISNT* followed by A N CE | |
| 18 | No poles: circus tent continuing to move? (7) |
| NONSTOP – NO NS (north, south > poles) TOP | |
| 19 | Descriptive of stones or tablets? (6) |
| MOSAIC – not sure whether this is a double definition or a cryptic one; anyway, stones are used to make a Roman mosaic, and Moses carried the tablets down from the mountain, not once, but twice, having smashed the first lot because the Israelites were misbehaving. Moving right along… | |
| 21 | Energetic figure from cycling world in France (5) |
| DEMON – this is an anagram of the French word for world, i.e. MONDE. Thus an indirect anagram, though clearly marked. Just as well I don’t have any tablets to hand, else I might be chucking them against the wall. Whatever next? A quotation from Shakespeare as a cloze test clue? | |
| 24 | Drop of salt water, not right for drink (3) |
| TEA – TEA |
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