Hello everyone. Ulaca is away this month, so I have the pleasure of standing in.
Although slow to start I soon warmed up to finish in 14:34, and that was having been held up a little by at least one of the anagrams. It was much simpler to write up than expected too. So I’m not anticipating any problems from the seasoned solvers among us. Scanning the clues again to pick out a COD, I can’t choose but do notice lots of commendably smooth surfaces. Thanks setter!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are usually in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | First of comedians gets a lot of laughs (6,2) |
| CRACKS UP — The first of Comedians + RACKS UP (gets a lot of) | |
| 6a | Judge beginning to swear, surrounded by fools (6) |
| ASSESS — The initial letter of (beginning to) Swear surrounded by ASSES (fools) | |
| 9a | Time taken to resolve complaint? (13) |
| CONVALESCENCE — Cryptic definition, the complaint being an illness | |
| 10a | Arrested by church, father turning red (6) |
| CERISE — Inside (arrested by) CE (church), SIRE (father) reversed (turning) | |
| 11a | Speculator, one believing gold to be within his grasp? (8) |
| THEORIST — THEIST (one believing) with OR (gold) going inside (to be within his grasp) | |
| 13a | Case cracked: 500 held by French city authority (10) |
| ASCENDANCY — CASE anagrammed (cracked) + D (500) inside (held by) NANCY (French city) | |
| 15a | Revolutionary Soviet leader beheaded in square (4) |
| NINE — In reverse (revolutionary) [l]ENIN Soviet leader without the first letter (beheaded) | |
| 16a | One fuming after bet knocked back? (4) |
| ETNA — ANTE (bet) reversed (knocked back) | |
| 18a | No swearing about these descendants of the Vikings? (10) |
| NORWEGIANS — An anagram of (… about) of NO SWEARING. | |
| I wanted this to start with NORSE, but NORSEMEN was too short, and NORSEWOMEN didn’t quite have the requisite letters. Never mind that this would leave “descendants of” unneeded … | |
| 21a | Joint squad carrying out visit to begin with (8) |
| DOVETAIL — DETAIL (squad) containing (carrying) Out Visit to begin with | |
| 22a | Figure has Sumerian features (6) |
| ASSUME — Hidden: hAS SUMErian features the answer | |
| 23a | Traders here swapping cattle for sheep? (5,8) |
| STOCK EXCHANGE — An exchange of stock could involve swapping cattle and sheep | |
| 25a | Drug finishing off naive novelist (6) |
| GREENE — E (drug) following (finishing off) GREEN (naive) | |
| 26a | Entertainer dean sues mistakenly (8) |
| DANSEUSE — An anagram of (… mistakenly) DEAN SUES | |
| Down | |
| 2d | Supporters missing top game (7) |
| RACKETS — bRACKETS (supporters) without the first letter (missing top) | |
| 3d | Donates rice crackers, being kind (11) |
| CONSIDERATE — DONATES RICE anagrammed (crackers) | |
| 4d | Trap initially set a long time back, capturing knight (5) |
| SNARE — Initially Set plus the reversal of (… back) ERA (a long time) surrounding (capturing) N (knight) | |
| 5d | Quickly reaching northern city (7) |
| PRESTON — PRESTO (quickly) + N (northern) | |
| 6d | Model in sports car going under bridge (9) |
| ARCHETYPE — E–TYPE (sports car) going under ARCH (bridge) | |
| 7d | A setter’s offspring, might one say? (3) |
| SUN — Sounds like (… might one say?) SON (offspring) | |
| 8d | Leave this young fellow’s hat (7) |
| STETSON — STET (leave this) + SON (young fellow) | |
| 12d | Investigation extinguishing party’s revival (11) |
| RENAISSANCE — RE[con]NAISSANCE (investigation) taking out (extinguishing) CON (party) | |
| 14d | Criminal not masked? I’ve no idea (4,3,2) |
| DONT ASK ME — An anagram of (criminal) NOT MASKED | |
| 17d | Nick right to be upset with old addict (7) |
| TROUSER — RT (right) reversed (to be upset) + O (old) + USER (addict) | |
| 19d | Laid-back cardinal holding large guitar (7) |
| RELAXED — RED (cardinal) holding L (large) and AXE (guitar) | |
| 20d | Book of Songs (7) |
| NUMBERS — Two definitions, the first biblical | |
| 22d | A second layer devoid of colour (5) |
| ASHEN — A + S (second) + HEN (layer) | |
| 24d | Broadcaster’s outstanding offering at Eisteddfod? (3) |
| ODE — Homophone of (broadcaster’s) OWED (outstanding). | |
| Eisteddfod, the Welsh festival, is one of those things I knew but couldn’t remember the meaning of until prompted by the wordplay | |
A pleasant puzzle, all done over a lunchtime pint in 26 minutes. No issues. Could not parse DOVETAIL at the time but it was fairly clear from the crossers. Thanks Kitty for the enlightenment.
FOI – ETNA
LOI – ODE
COD – ASHEN
Thanks to Kitty and other contributors.
Does anyone else think that cerise is pink rather than red?
According to my ODE cerise is ‘a light clear red colour’. I suppose ‘pink’ is a light red colour.
hallo everyone. Referring to ante, it’s short for ante-post, it’s a bet taken with an early price, rather than the SP (starting price).
For example, in 1989 I took the ante-post price of 12/1 on Desert Orchid winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which he narrowly won at the SP of 5/2..