Hello again. This crossword I really liked. I thought the clues clever and mainly concise, with good surface readings and just the right level of difficulty. Mr Manzoni apart, no unusual words at all, and no queries. A pleasure. What did you think?
I use the standard conventions like underlining the definition, CD for cryptic definition, DD for a double one, *(anargam) and so forth. Nho = “not heard of” and in case of need the Glossary is always handy
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Film invalid — delete freely (4,3,3,3) |
| LIVE AND LET DIE – *(INVALID + DELETE) I just wrote it in, from the enumeration and one checker.. | |
| 9 | Amusing pretty girl runs boards (5) |
| DROLL – R(uns) in DOLL. | |
| 10 | Obscene rating split half of “horsey” bores (9) |
| ABHORRENT – AB (rating, ie able seaman) + HOR(sey) + RENT, split. | |
| 11 | Finally suing after Guardian feature covers substituted child (10) |
| CHANGELING – ANGEL (guardian) in CHIN, a (facial) feature, + (suin)G. My older sister used to claim she was a changeling, when she was annoyed with us. | |
| 12 | Lavish with compliments? (4) |
| FREE – a DD | |
| 14 | Guaranteed return of some comrade Russians one’s abandoned (7) |
| ASSURED – hidden rev. as shown above, with the i removed as instructed.. | |
| 16 | Horse trainers encourage racing primarily on flat (7) |
| EVENTER – EVEN (flat) + T(rainers) E(ncourage) R(acing) | |
| 17 | Essentially potty release price for component of Windows (7) |
| TRANSOM – (po)T(ty) + RANSOM, a release price. Bits of windows and doors turn up regularly enough in crosswords, though I couldn’t say which bit this is. | |
| 19 | Adult regularly wearing pig skin (7) |
| SWINDLE – (a)D(u)L(t) in SWINE, a pig. Skin is one of a startling number of words meaning to defraud or swindle. Evidently a very popular human activity. | |
| 20 | Smell ultimate in fear that’s terrifying (4) |
| REEK – (fea)R + EEK, a word also found in last Friday’s cryptic. | |
| 21 | Barren crop in mostly fluid ground (10) |
| UNPROLIFIC – *(CROP IN FLUI(d)). | |
| 24 | Human attention beginning to be engaged by old character (9) |
| EARTHBORN – EAR (attention) + B(e) in THORN, an old character, specifically: Þ, þ .. and not to be confused with ETH, ð. How very human, to assume that “earthborn” refers only to us, and not the millions of other species we share the planet with.. | |
| 25 | Trunk’s more or less on time (5) |
| TORSO – T, OR SO | |
| 26 | Stressful period, arguably, if credit is doubled (3-4,6) |
| MID-LIFE CRISIS – Well, IF is indeed mid-lIFe, isn’t it? + CR(edit) IS IS. I really liked this clue. I had my mid-life crisis last year when I was 74, which is quite encouraging when you think about it. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Noble queen left with earl hosted by loquacious heroine (4,10) |
| LADY CHATTERLEY – LADY (noble) + L(eft) and E(arl) in CHATTERY, loquacious. Was Lady Chatterley actually a heroine? She is in the book’s title, I suppose. Discuss. | |
| 2 | Large fiddle comprises half of offences (5) |
| VIOLA – VIOLA(tions). Yes, 50% exactly. | |
| 3 | Symbolic storyteller building toy trails around houses (10) |
| ALLEGORIST – LEGO, in *(TRAILS). | |
| 4 | Tried to get connection put up on type of display? (7) |
| DIALLED – LAID (put), rev. + LED, a type of display more tellys use than not | |
| 5 | Intensify limit of humanitarian assistance, mainly in European church (7) |
| ENHANCE – (humanitaria)N + HAN (d), assistance mainly, in E CE. | |
| 6 | Mysterious closure of blood vessel (4) |
| DARK – (bloo)D + ARK (vessel) | |
| 7 | Found 10 packed in box south of river (9) |
| EXECRATED – EXE (river) + CRATED. Found to be abhorrent, in other words, as per 10ac. | |
| 8 | What might be seen as positive symbol for part of the UK (2,7,5) |
| ST GEORGES CROSS – + and – are electrical symbols for positive and negative terminals respectively. See an AA battery for example. And I think we all know these days what the cross of St George looks like. Ironic that nobody knows what St George himself looked like. Or anything else much about him.. allegedly he was a soldier in the Roman army who never came anywhere near England. As for the dragon he supposedly slew, that doesn’t appear until about 700 years after George died. You couldn’t make it up (except they did). | |
| 13 | Lawmaker on trial — so unexpected (10) |
| LEGISLATOR – LEG (on, a cricket side that isn’t off) + *(TRIAL SO). Simple once I managed to unscramble the anagrist. | |
| 15 | Instrument captured spirit (5,4) |
| SNARE DRUM – SNARED, captured, + RUM (spirit). | |
| 18 | Piece about island inhabited by unknown poet (7) |
| MANZONI – Z (an unknown, along with X and Y) in MAN (piece, as in chess piece) + ON (about) + I(sland). This was my LOI, but I would have got is sooner if I had twigged piece = man, which I always seem to be slow to do. Also, nho Alessandro Manzoni, which perhaps I should have, since Wikipedia says he wrote a book “generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature.” (The title is at the top of this page, in case you hadn’t noticed, and means “The Betrothed.“). The book is available from booksellers and having read some of the reviews on Amazon, I’m rather tempted to acquire a copy. | |
| 19 | Way to classify alien (7) |
| STRANGE – ST (way, street) + RANGE, to classify; maybe, if you squint. | |
| 22 | Makes more stable companies (5) |
| FIRMS – a DD. Someone who firms could be making something more stable. Maybe. If you squint.. | |
| 23 | Sound spanned by Port Hudson (4) |
| THUD – hidden, as above. | |
Thanks, jerry, I’m with you in having found a lot to like today.
We must have had Manzoni before. I didn’t remember him even when I looked him up, but I did remember following a link to The Bethrothed once.