Solving time: 8 minutes. I don’t often report on surface readings as I’ve trained myself to ignore them when solving, but reviewing them for the blog I was struck today by how excellent they are. They read very naturally and there’s not a single forced one among them.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
| Across | |
| 3 | Reminisce about MP (8) |
| REMEMBER | |
| RE (about), MEMBER (MP – of Parliament) | |
| 7 | Writer outside extremely smart restaurant (6) |
| BISTRO | |
| BIRO (writer) containing [outside] S{mar}T [extremely] | |
| 8 | Expelled one female in group (8) |
| BANISHED | |
| I (one) + SHE (female) contained by [in] BAND (group) | |
| 9 | Attention needed after weight put on (4) |
| WEAR | |
| W (weight), EAR (attention). Friends, Romans and countrymen… | |
| 10 | Signal given by copper close to scene (3) |
| CUE | |
| CU (copper), {scen}E [close] | |
| 11 | Perfectly done imitation volume shows (8) |
| COPYBOOK | |
| COPY (imitation), BOOK (volume) | |
| 13 | Belly laugh coming from muscular oarsman (4) |
| ROAR | |
| Hidden in [coming from] {muscula}R OAR{sman} | |
| 15 | Piece of information I came across in retirement (4) |
| ITEM | |
| I, then MET (came across) reversed [in retirement]. David Maclean clued ITEM as “piece of paper” in his latest ST puzzle. | |
| 17 | Riddle, say, of second shoe (8) |
| STRAINER | |
| S (second), TRAINER (shoe). SOED has ‘riddle’ as a large coarse sieve for separating corn from chaff, sand from gravel, ashes from cinders, etc. | |
| 19 | Poem that’s outstanding, reportedly (3) |
| ODE | |
| Sounds like [reportedly] “owed” [outstanding] | |
| 22 | Graduate? I don’t know (4) |
| PASS | |
| Two meanings | |
| 23 | Made live broadcast historic? (8) |
| MEDIEVAL | |
| Anagram [broadcast] of MADE LIVE | |
| 24 | Son in club concert (6) |
| UNISON | |
| S (son) contained by [in] UNION (club). To be in concert is to be as one. | |
| 25 | Having few worries about a judge appearing heartless (8) |
| CAREFREE | |
| C (about), A, REF{e}REE (judge) [appearing heartless]. Alternatively CA (about) and ignore the ‘a’ in the clue. One might quibble that carefree is to have no worries rather than few, but is anyone ever in that enviable situation? | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Rescue vessel, if able to, at sea (8) |
| LIFEBOAT | |
| Anagram [at sea] of IF ABLE TO | |
| 2 | Factory ultimately supporting shop floor (6) |
| STOREY | |
| STORE (shop), {factor}Y [ultimately]. ‘Floor’ as in levels of a building starting at the ‘ground floor’ in the UK. | |
| 3 | Dress designer finally gets honour (4) |
| ROBE | |
| {designe}R [finally], OBE (honour – Officer of the Order of the British Empire) | |
| 4 | Nickname girl heard (8) |
| MONICKER | |
| Sounds like [heard] “Monica” (girl). More usually spelt ‘Moniker’ I believe, and it doesn’t have to be a nickname, just a name. | |
| 5 | Teacher of poor stream (6) |
| MASTER | |
| Anagram [poor] of STREAM. To explain the surface reading, and in case it’s not a familiar usage overseas, I’d mention that in British schools groups of pupils are sometimes divided into ‘streams’ according to their ability. | |
| 6 | Uniform happening to be short (4) |
| EVEN | |
| EVEN{t} (happening) [short] | |
| 12 | Witness waiter, perhaps, supporting old boy (8) |
| OBSERVER | |
| OB (old boy – of school), SERVER (waiter, perhaps) | |
| 14 | Dislike a particular interpretation (8) |
| AVERSION | |
| A, VERSION (particular interpretation) | |
| 16 | Phone city in Alabama (6) |
| MOBILE | |
| Two meanings | |
| 18 | Following onset of illness, married couple weaken (6) |
| IMPAIR | |
| I{llness} [onset of…], M (married), PAIR (couple) | |
| 20 | Cheese produced by loud Greek character (4) |
| FETA | |
| F (loud – forte, music), ETA (Greek character) | |
| 21 | Conservative down in the dumps? (4) |
| BLUE | |
| Two meanings. In the UK the Conservative Party is associated with the colour blue. Labour has red and the Liberal Democrats have yellow. UKIP were purple. | |
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