Short of time again today. Sorry for the minimal blog – and I’ve probably made tols of misteaks!
Went just over 10 minutes – unnecessarily held up by 1d but then struggled to finish in the SW.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | A politician lied, oddly enough (5) |
| AMPLE – a (A), politician (MP), (L)i(E)d. | |
| 4 | Irritated and out of bed following injury (5,2) |
| WOUND UP – out of bed (UP) following injury (WOUND). | |
| 8 | Majestic area somewhere in Georgia (7) |
| AUGUSTA – majestic (AUGUST), area (A). Think golf. | |
| 9 | Specialized hospital in pleasant surroundings? (5) |
| NICHE – hospital (H) inside pleasant (NICE). | |
| 10 | Activated with second reset (8,2) |
| SWITCHED ON – anagram (reset) of WITH SECOND. | |
| 14 | Feels weird grabbing one personal photo (6) |
| SELFIE – anagram (weird) of FEELS holding one (I). | |
| 15 | Gun rule read out (6) |
| CANNON – homophone of canon – a general rule or principle. | |
| 17 | Place for pool, say, up for discussion (2,3,5) |
| ON THE TABLE – double definition. | |
| 20 | Old character featuring in multi-author narrative (5) |
| THORN – inside multi-au(THOR N)arrative. Thorn or þorn (Þ, þ) is a letter in the Old English, Gothic, Old Norse, Old Swedish, and modern Icelandic alphabets, as well as some dialects of Middle English. Who knew? – but the directions were clear. | |
| 22 | Plait rearranged around one girl’s head? (7) |
| PIGTAIL – &lit, I believe – anagram (rearranged) of PLAIT around one (I) and (G)irl’s. | |
| 23 | Calls for demos: and for nothing (7) |
| DEMANDS – demos (DEM)oS – replacing O with (AND). | |
| 24 | Emotional time before New Year (5) |
| TEARY – time (T), anagram (new) of YEAR. Clever anagrind. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Assumed name lacks heart, unfortunately (4) |
| ALAS – assumed name (AL)i(AS) without the central letter. ANON wouldn’t go far enough away to allow me to solve this for a while. | |
| 2 | Pay up front to be getting on section of website (4) |
| PAGE – (P)ay – up front – first letter- getting on AGE. Hmm – getting on = age or ageing. | |
| 3 | Former wife in St. Helier, somehow (9) |
| ERSTWHILE – wife (W) inside an anagram (somehow) of ST HELIER. | |
| 4 | Money made by breaking the law (6) |
| WEALTH – anagram (breaking) of THE LAW. | |
| 5 | Be paid, reportedly, for pot (3) |
| URN – homophone (reportedly) of earn. | |
| 6 | After ten years, books degraded (8) |
| DECADENT – books (NT) after ten years (DECADE). | |
| 7 | Expecting power in control (8) |
| PREGNANT – power (P), in control (REGNANT). | |
| 11 | Sheer and occasionally delicate part of a car (9) |
| HEADLIGHT – s(H)e(E)r (A)n(D), delicate (LIGHT). | |
| 12 | Various ashtrays emptied — problem solved! (8) |
| ASSORTED – (A)shtray(S), problem solved (SORTED). | |
| 13 | Plant erasing non-users initially from restored computer system (8) |
| PLATFORM – plant (PLA)n(T) – taking out (N)on-users, anagram (restored) of FROM. | |
| 16 | Parties seen round university and its grounds (6) |
| CAMPUS – parties (CAMPS) around university (U). | |
| 18 | Talk about a long story! (4) |
| SAGA – talk – gas – backwards (SAG), a (A). | |
| 19 | Work steadily, hosting a performance (4) |
| PLAY – work steadily (PLY) holding a (A). | |
| 21 | At first, nobody usually notices she might have a habit (3) |
| NUN – (N)obody (U)sually (N)otices. | |
Definitely a different feel with Jalna, although I’d be hard-pressed to descibe how or why, but always entertaining. I liked the misdirection at 17a — I got In the swim stuck in my head even though it didn’t fit or, indeed, make sense!
FOI Alas
LOI Demands
COD Wealth
Thanks to Jalna and Chris