… but I have to say I didn’t enjoy this as much as our usual Wednesday workouts. Hard to put a finger on why, there’s nothing unfair or too obscure; I just felt some of the surfaces were a bit ugly and the random DBE’s like “role on stage” were loose. The other queries are covered below.
Apologies, Mr Setter, if it was just me in a grumpy mood.
Definitions underlined in bold, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, anagrinds in italics, [deleted letters in square brackets].
| Across | |
| 1 | Suggesting my words are false introduces pressure (8) |
| IMPLYING – I’M LYING with P inserted. | |
| 6 | Revolutionary has fun pets (6) |
| STROPS – reversal of SPORTS = has fun. That kind of pet. | |
| 9 | Ruler favouring the Tories crows, stifling unknown protest forcefully (3,4,6) |
| CRY BLUE MURDER – CR (Charles Rex), BLUE (Tories) MURDER (collective noun for crows), insert Y an unknown. I admit I biffed this and parsed it afterwards. | |
| 10 | Retailer’s opening guide for one making a career (6) |
| RUSHER – R[etailer], USHER = guide. Do you ‘make a career?’ Rushing can be careering, yes, but I think this is a dubious surface. | |
| 11 | They may hold drugs from ace smugglers smuggling a lot of marijuana (8) |
| AMPOULES – A[ce], MULES (smugglers) with PO[t] inserted. Another one solved first and parsed afterwards. | |
| 13 | Wide, rotten boat full of animals covers miles (3,3,4) |
| OFF THE MARK – OFF (rotten), THE ARK with M[iles] inserted. | |
| 15 | It holds large quantity of alcohol still ultimately doubled (4) |
| BUTT – still = BUT, double the last letter = BUTT. A butt can store wine, or beer, or be a water butt in your garden. | |
| 16 | Go nuts, giving a twirl (4) |
| STAB – BATS (nuts) reversed. As in have a stab, have a go. | |
| 18 | Hack off lizard’s tail with inarticulate sound? Man perhaps admits it (10) |
| DISGRUNTLE – D (end of lizard), ISLE (Man perhaps), insert GRUNT. | |
| 21 | Sunny capital of Eritrea maybe pedestrianised around the outside (8) |
| CAREFREE – Pedestrianised could be CAR FREE, insert E[ritrea]. No need to go looking for Asmara. | |
| 22 | As yet struggling to dress wife covered in beads (6) |
| SWEATY – (AS YET)* with W[ife] inserted. | |
| 23 | Scottish runner offering to conserve energy now (3,3,7) |
| FOR THE PRESENT – FORTH (Scottish river), PRESENT (offering), insert E for energy. | |
| 25 | On vacation, Croatian houses dear in Split (6) |
| CLOVEN – insert LOVE (dear) into C[roatia]N. | |
| 26 | Sort of music that is at a higher tempo than the rest (8) |
| RAPIDEST – RAP music, ID EST = i.e., Latin for that is. Neat. | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Entertainer accepting a dodgy role on stage (7) |
| MACDUFF – MC (entertainer), insert A, DUFF = dodgy. I wasn’t keen on this clue. An MC is the bloke who introduces the entertainers, not the entertainer per se. Does duff mean dodgy? And a random pick of a million possible stage roles to get to one from the Scottish play. | |
| 3 | Athlete ably running in set places (3,3,5) |
| LAY THE TABLE – (ATHLETE ABLE)*. | |
| 4 | Youngster losing head hands round drug, one unlikely to work (5) |
| IDLER – [k]ID = youngster losing head, L and R are hands, insert E our usual drug. | |
| 5 | Socialist Party in summer time uprising (7) |
| GUEVARA – RAVE inside AUG[ust], all reversed. Another clue I’m luke warm about. I thought Che was a Marxist, not a Socialist. | |
| 6 | Game is fine, with Reds put in new positions on the wings (4,5) |
| STUD POKER – OK = fine, put that into (REDS PUT)*. Another biffed then parsed. | |
| 7 | Half-hearted, cross staff (3) |
| ROD – RO[o]D. | |
| 8 | Sign nothing’s missing in substandard holiday accommodation (7) |
| PORTENT – a POOR TENT could be substandard holiday accommodation, remove an O = nothing. | |
| 12 | Account not meriting credit or PIN in refined neighbourhood’s banks (5,6) |
| URBAN LEGEND – URBANE (refined), insert LEG (pin) gives you URBAN LEGE, add N[eighbourhoo]D. | |
| 14 | Pernod drunk hot and cool? It makes you feel good (9) |
| ENDORPHIN – (PERNOD)*, H, IN = cool. This one I solved from the wordplay. | |
| 17 | He leaves the lecture in an emotional state (7) |
| TEARFUL – THE EARFUL could be a lecture, remove HE. | |
| 19 | Someone who sells fish turned over a kipper? (7) |
| SLEEPER – all reversed; REP (someone who sells), EELS (fish). | |
| 20 | 50 old songs played at gig coming up, including It’s Not Unusual? (7) |
| LITOTES – L (50), IT, O[ld], SET reversed. If you don’t know what a litotes is, it’s not unusual, look it up. | |
| 22 | What’s up with album’s mindless followers? (5) |
| SHEEP – EH’S? = What’s? Reversed = SHE, add EP. I thought an album was an LP not an EP but I’m in a pedantic mood today. | |
| 24 | Soldiers see gun (3) |
| REV – RE (soldiers), V (vide, see). As in rev / gun the accelerator. | |
About an hour, with one wrong, BYTE for 15 a
probably thing of a gigabyte. Very enjoyable, thanks setter and blogger..
Put me in the column that enjoyed this, I guess I was GRUNTLED. It took me 36 mins which I thought was slow but I see many people took a lot longer, or gave up after an hour, and so on. My only MER was EP as “album” which it is not, but it was close enough it didn’t hold me up. I loved the clue for LITOTES, although these days when I see something like a song title or a group (we had “Iron Maiden hit” last week) I know I’m going to need to do something with it so I’m immediately looking for what. Obscure 18th century poets are more likely in The Times than having to know Iron Maiden’s LPs (I doubt they produced any EPs whether or not they called them albums).
I guess we’re finished with the Crossword Championship puzzles now and back to normal Wednesday fare.
35.16
Late entry; tired after too much booze last night and a chess match so a bit sluggish but happy enough to finish all green.
am I the only one who can’t justify litotes? L =50. o= old. set= gig reversed. how is It/ti songs? doing my head in.