Lots to like here. How did you get on?
A rather sluggish 23:19 for me, attributable mainly, I think, to my limited skills. But life’s a bit like that, isn’t it?
| Across | |
| 1 | Highland service provided carnet for exchange student (6,7) |
| MASSIF CENTRAL – MASS (service) IF (provided) anagram* of CARNET L (student) | |
| 9 | Tool for gripping shellfish, pointed at the front (5) |
| CLAMP – CLAM P~ | |
| 10 | Undertones performed like this – drunk, one failing to sing? (5,4) |
| SOTTO VOCE – SOT (drunk/drunkard) TO VO |
|
| 11 | Note bold soirée uncovered everything for performance (10) |
| REPERTOIRE – RE PERT |
|
| 12 | Resigned from the French newspaper (4) |
| LEFT – LE FT | |
| 14 | Back in Birmingham’s first beat club (7) |
| NIBLICK – IN reversed B~ LICK (beat, as in ‘the Proteas licked the Green and Yellows’); back in the day before, very sensibly, someone named them the 1-9 irons, wedge etc, we had all sorts of weird clubs, including the niblick and the mashie niblick. | |
| 16 | Told fibs about first-class head of state that’s acted as intermediary (7) |
| LIAISED – AI S~ in LIED | |
| 17 | Endless merry-go-round of US party (7) |
| CAROUSE – CAROUSE |
|
| 19 | Comedy act, very new, excites (5,2) |
| TURNS ON – TURN SO N | |
| 20 | Hairy chap selecting news value periodically? (4) |
| ESAU – Not a word wasted, even if many are repeated. Are repeated. |
|
| 21 | Bachelor studies brilliant, featuring university accompaniment to main course (5,5) |
| BREAD SAUCE – B READS U in ACE | |
| 24 | One swimming in lochs if drowsy must turn around (9) |
| SWORDFISH – hidden reverse | |
| 25 | Header disallowed in dismal game featuring dozens of cards (5) |
| OMBRE – sOMBRE; from my brief scan of the Wikipedia page, this game was/is typically played with 40 or 52 cards | |
| 26 | Greece: my next island hopping escape (9,4) |
| EMERGENCY EXIT – GREECE MY NEXT I*; strangely enough, we travel to Kos at the end of the week to spend time with friends, followed by a hop to Astypalea | |
| Down | |
| 1 | One has ice cream prepared in a dish (8,6) |
| MACARONI CHEESE – ONE HAS ICE CREAM* | |
| 2 | Bank starts to suspend card and refuse payment (5) |
| SCARP – S~ C~ A~ R~ P~; a steep slope, or escarpment | |
| 3 | Immune to influence, Victor props up dodgy prime debt instruments (10) |
| IMPERVIOUS – PRIME* V IOUS (debt instruments) | |
| 4 | Mama who sang clubs wearing fine, long robe (7) |
| CASSOCK – [Mama] CASS C (clubs) in OK (fine); I wore a scarlet one when I was an angelic treble at prep school, sometimes with my rugby shorts underneath | |
| 5 | Unspoilt ancient city in old SA province (7) |
| NATURAL – UR in NATAL | |
| 6 | Criminal’s caught out swindler (4) |
| ROOK – |
|
| 7 | English soccer team at home in The Den? (9) |
| LIONESSES – cryptic definition; it’s a toss-up whether the England women’s or men’s team is more of an underachiever | |
| 8 | Wearing kit, Italian club set to play Partisan side (6,8) |
| VESTED INTEREST – VESTED (wearing kit) INTER[nazionale] SET* | |
| 13 | Yes, heartless blond Conservative admits “made up fantasy” (5,5) |
| FAIRY STORY – YeS in FAIR TORY | |
| 15 | Song from pub singer King famously (9) |
| BARCAROLE – BAR CAROLE [King]; it’s too late, baby… | |
| 18 | Having a job, longing to spend yen (7) |
| EARNING – |
|
| 19 | Conference side failing to finish attack (5-2) |
| TEACH-IN – TEA |
|
| hi22 | Peacekeepers fight to get out? (5) |
| UNBOX – UN BOX | |
| 23 | Move gradually along ridge, letting go of line (4) |
| EDGE – |
|
First daily 15×15 after several months of QCs (and a few weekend “let’s check the SNITCH for an easy one from this week”) and was fairly happy with it – had to biff a few, but was able to parse all but OMBRE and TEACH-IN, where I kept thinking back to schooldays and what seemed to be endless teachers’ conferences they’d always be away for.
COD MASSIF CENTRAL, lovely memories of summer holidays there. Thanks setter and ulaca (particularly for the Alan Bennett link!)
Fairly quick; held up by not knowing the LIONESSES, nor the TEACH-IN ( really?), and the choices for types of sauces took a while; but thought the reverse hidden was brilliant , and enjoyed the whole puzzle without too much strife.