| It’s almost as if I hadn’t been away, as I return to a steamy Hong Kong and a straightforward (for me – but clearly not for everyone) Monday puzzle. Many thanks to the Catwoman for standing in for me. Nice to have a touch of class on alternate Monday mornings for a change…
15:01 Across |
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| 1 | Chap’s tax-free savings account (5) |
| ISAAC – an ISA (Individual Savings Account) followed by AC (account). Two ‘accounts’ to account for, but the first one must be discounted to make sense of the clue. The interest you earn on money in a cash ISA remains tax-free for the life of the ISA, providing all ISA conditions are met. | |
| 4 | Presentation speech is holding record (9) |
| DEPICTION – EP in DICTION | |
| 9 | Closest human perhaps circling bull? (9) |
| PROXIMATE – OX in PRIMATE | |
| 10 | Choral piece assembled around Biblical texts (5) |
| MOTET – OT IN MET | |
| 11 | One of two I encountered in upper atmosphere (6) |
| EITHER – I in ETHER. There’s a pattern here… | |
| 12 | Revolutionary is one cutting food plants (8) |
| NARCISSI – IS I in SCRAN all reversed. Scran is a slang term for food, which I have never knowingly come across. | |
| 14 | Kuwait’s capital Arabs are changing old settlement (5,4) |
| SKARA BRAE – anagram* of K |
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| 16 | Port’s initially like Erith but without river (5) |
| LEITH – L |
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| 17 | Decapitated poet’s killers (5) |
| ORCAS – |
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| 19 | Firm in Russian city concerning for Scotland (9) |
| PERMANENT – PERM (Russian city) ANENT (‘concerning’ or ‘about’ in Scots) | |
| 21 | Corresponding material in rubbish promos is rejected (8) |
| ISOMORPH – in chemistry, this refers to ‘the existence of two or more substances of different composition in a similar crystalline form’ (Collins) | |
| 22 | Get browned off about theatre that’s boring (6) |
| TREPAN – REP in TAN (get browned off – I’m not quite sure if this works, rather than just ‘get brown’); a cutting instrument, especially as used in surgery | |
| 25 | It turned dark, turning fearful (5) |
| TIMID – IT and DIM both reversed by their own reversal indicators | |
| 26 | Transported cup at Holi for aromatic oil (9) |
| PATCHOULI – CUP AT HOLI* | |
| 27 | Problem with sister getting in fake spirit (9) |
| CONUNDRUM -NUN in COD (fake) RUM | |
| 28 | Short TV feature about northern tip (5) |
| PRONG – N in PROG; some of us will remember the ‘JY prog’, AKA the Jimmy Young programme on Radio 2 | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Just like one mimicking, say, Renoir in cinema early on (15) |
| IMPRESSIONISTIC – IMPRESSIONIST (say, Renoir) I |
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| 2 | Nothing being in touch is concerning (5) |
| ABOUT – O in ABUT | |
| 3 | Crimea suffering being invaded by hard monster (7) |
| CHIMERA – H in CRIMEA* | |
| 4 | One’s leaving perfect bargain (4) |
| DEAL – |
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| 5 | Possibly flat pastry mistake over putting fruit in (4-1-5) |
| PIED-A-TERRE – DATE (fruit) in PIE (pastry) ERR reversed (mistake over) | |
| 6 | Mike invested in fuel — that’s ridiculous (7) |
| COMICAL – MIC in COAL; MIC and MIKE are two ways to abbreviate microphone | |
| 7 | One new exam in English of which colon is a part (9) |
| INTESTINE – I N TEST IN E | |
| 8 | In spite of being without status (15) |
| NOTWITHSTANDING – if you are a bit of a pariah, others might say of you that you are ‘not with standing’. All in all, better to be a pariah from such people, perhaps. | |
| 13 | Wrapping ground pepper with care (5,5) |
| CREPE PAPER – PEPPER CARE* | |
| 15 | Host’s mooring on island (9) |
| ANCHORMAN – ANCHOR MAN (Isle thereof) | |
| 18 | Rambling on downs and upland (7) |
| SNOWDON – ON DOWNS* | |
| 20 | Broadcasts invitation to cheer flyer (7) |
| AIRSHIP – AIRS HIP (invitation to cheer as in it is the first word in the formulation ‘Hip-hip-hooray!’) | |
| 23 | Body that’s downgraded parking on most of airport (5) |
| PLUTO – P LUTO |
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| 24 | I am cut by the heartless couple (4) |
| ITEM – T |
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Some good Scottish words there so not surprised that they were tricky for the majority of solvers. SKARA BRAE was a good anagram and fairly obvious although I’ve never even visited Orkney. I wouldn’t use it myself but I always thought that SCRAN was a Scots word for food and the Scran and Scallie gastropub is a local here.
As for ANENT – can’t say it would be heard/written much today but used to be fairly common in legal documents. It’s the kind of word that Walter Scott liked throwing into his dialogue when he was describing discussions amongst lawyers.
Good puzzle even if it took me a while to work out that ORCAS were “killers”. Thanks again to setter and blogger and all who take the time to comment and discuss.
Tricked into having a go at this by a Snitch rating of 80 – just about the sweet spot fo me. A day later (I did a few other things as well. . .), I used aids to get loi Narcissi, having nho Scran. Having also nho, but still getting, Skara Brae and Patchouli, I can’t really complain about falling at the last fence, but a Snitch of 80 for this ? Invariant
Luckily, I’ve been to Perm so it was only Anent that confounded me.