What a relief to have an accessible puzzle after last Friday’s Monster! I thought there was a lot of nice stuff going on here and enjoyed myself a lot, finishing in 20:46.
11 across caused me a lot of head-scratching, though. So much so that I had to ‘phone a friend.’ Actually, having had it explained to me, it was a Hit rather than a Miss in my book. An innovative clue type, where such things are at a premium. Of course, most people would just biff it anyway…
| Across | |
| 1 | Economical type — watch — in pursuit of pub profit (7-6) |
| BARGAIN-HUNTER – HUNTER (watch) after BAR (pub) GAIN (profit) | |
| 8 | Cut out large manœuvre by figure skater (4) |
| AXEL – AXE L | |
| 9 | Historic swindle involving Young Conservative baker (10) |
| PASTRYCOOK – Y (young) C (conservative) in PAST (historic) ROOK (swindle); one thinks of Alun Armstrong’s innkeeper ‘rooking the guests and cooking the books’ in Les Mis | |
| 10 | Consequences surrounding item of legislation for way of working (8) |
| PRACTICE – ACT (item of legislation) in PRICE (consequences; cunning!) | |
| 11 | Cloak that’s for chop? (6) |
| PONCHO – okay, this was the clue I couldn’t make head nor tails of. Thanks to V, who unravelled it for me: CHOP may be rendered as ‘P after CHO’ or ‘P on CHO’ > PONCHO! | |
| 13 | Who’s quiet, working to pilfer? (10) |
| SHOPLIFTER – a nice semi (I think) all-in-one; the whole clue gives you the solution, while every part of the clue (apart from ‘Who’s’) is used in the wordplay, as follows: SH (quiet) anagram* of TO PILFER | |
| 16 | Methodically search quantity of data stored on firm (4) |
| COMB – CO (firm) MB (quantity of data) | |
| 17 | Chamber group tour finishing early? Over (4) |
| TRIO – TRI |
|
| 18 | Secure northern European cosmetic treatment (4,6) |
| NAIL POLISH – NAIL (secure) POLISH (European) | |
| 20 | That woman’s following key Dutch artist (6) |
| ESCHER – ESC (computer key) HER (that woman’s); never herd of the fellow, but he sounded more likely than ALTHER, DELHER, ENDHER or TABHER | |
| 22 | Craftspeople showing outraged reaction about accepting shortened time (8) |
| KNITTERS – cunning wordplay again: a STINK is an outraged reaction; the clue ‘shows’ STINK reversed around (it ‘accepts’) TER |
|
| 24 | Each swirl of nostalgia overlooking old Saxon kingdom (4,6) |
| EAST ANGLIA – EA (each) NOSTALGIA* (minus the O); the five original kingdoms of England are typically deemed to be: Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Kent and East Anglia. If you are interested, a very readable account of this period is given by Marc Morris in his 2021 book, The Anglo-Saxons | |
| 26 | Number eight in cricket team in Somerset venue? (4) |
| BATH – if you go in at number eight, an impish scorer might refer to you as Bat H | |
| 27 | Daughter, having reserve and humour, had worked with the risk intensely (4,4,5) |
| DICE WITH DEATH – D ICE (reserve) WIT (humour) [HAD THE*] | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Dog drinks and pants (5,6) |
| BOXER SHORTS – BOXER SHORTS | |
| 2 | Reignited, temperature turned to carbon old item (5) |
| RELIC – RELI |
|
| 3 | Irish, excluding middle third, supporting current measure relating to frogs? (9) |
| AMPHIBIAN – AMP (current measure) followed by HIB |
|
| 4 | Rise of an aroma just beginning (7) |
| NASCENT – AN reversed SCENT (aroma) | |
| 5 | Skill rising when probing revolting part of plumbing (1-4) |
| U-TRAP – ART (skill) reversed (rising) in UP (revolting, as in ‘the natives are revolting’, i.e. in a state of insurrection) | |
| 6 | Possibly chance it over line of mechanical products? (9) |
| TECHNICAL – CHANCE IT* followed by L (line); I’ll leave it to sciency types to get their rubber gloves off and discuss the niceties of the words involved here | |
| 7 | Animal that jumps requiring a lot of space (3) |
| ROO – ROO |
|
| 12 | Final section of NY prison sentence after being out of prison? (4,7) |
| HOME STRETCH – ‘of NY’ here stands for what we normally find as ‘in Manhattan’ or ‘in Idaho’, i.e. it refers to a usage in the USA. What we in Britain call the home straight in the sport of kings is called the home stretch stateside. The wordplay (slightly cunning once more) is therefore HOME (being out of prison) followed by STRETCH (prison sentence) | |
| 14 | Observing the future, support first Conservative leaving in a rush (9) |
| PROPHETIC – PROP (support) HE |
|
| 15 | Criticise demure article being presented in bright colour? (9) |
| REPRIMAND – PRIM (demure) AN (article) in RED; I suppose it’s usually bright or brightish, but the attribution seems a bit arbitrary to me | |
| 19 | Evidence of poor penmanship: I especially note a good deal around end of book (7) |
| INKBLOT – |
|
| 21 | Give new life to King meeting bridge opponents and bridge partners (5) |
| RENEW – R (king) EN (East and North – opponents in contract bridge) EW (partners in the same game) | |
| 23 | Somewhat upset about iodine in bone (5) |
| TIBIA – I (iodine) in A BIT (somewhat) reversed [upset] | |
| 25 | Support anyone in difficulties at the outset (3) |
| AID – initial letters of Anyone In Difficulties | |
39:23 for the solve! Couldn’t fully unravel PONCHO or KNITTERS
Can anyone explain why hunter=watch?
It’s a sort of pocket watch with hinged front and back covers.
Thanks for the explanation ChrisJ
I disagree with 24A. The Angles were not Saxons. East Anglia was an old Anglian kingdom.
Enjoyed this, as it was almost within my grasp, for a change. Failed on COMB ( NHO MB for stored data) and BATH (too clever!). Happy to get BOXER SHORTS, SHOPLIFTER and PROPHETIC all parsed, and most of the rest. COD to the cleverly constructed DICE WITH DEATH.