Good to be back with you. I’ve been jabbed, boosted, passported, Lateral Flowed until I’m blue in the nose, PCR’d and even Located on a Passenger Form. These were more wearing than the actual travel but it was all worth it to help and connect with a wonderful young family in Missouri (who, thankfully, were missed by the recent tornados).
Now to the puzzle. Even accounting for 4 weeks of rustiness, I found this tricky and took 13 minutes. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to complete the 13dn/21ac crossers and the long LOI 7dn needed a great deal of careful thought as to where to place the I and Y. I’ve enjoyed writing the blog and so being better able to relish some of the wonderful clue constructions.
I hope you fared well.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | In poem airborne soldier dies horribly, way off course (8,4) |
| PARADISE LOST – airborne soldier (PARA) anagram (horribly) of DIES, way off course (LOST). It’s an ‘epic poem in blank verse’ by John Milton. Stop me where I go wrong, but it seems that blank verse restricts itself to regular metrical lines and messes about with iambic pentameters whereas free verse can’t be bothered with any of that and goes off and does its own thing. | |
| 8 | Fury convulsed Regan (5) |
| ANGER – anagram (convulsed) of REGAN. | |
| 9 | Coupon one confirms as valid (7) |
| VOUCHER – I’d say that someone who vouches for something / confirms as valid (a Voucher) is a humourous description rather than a straight second defintiion. But who knows? If you do then let me know. | |
| 10 | Wife putting out extra cotton wool (7) |
| WADDING – wife (W), putting out extra (ADDING). | |
| 11 | A poster’s oddly seen in recesses (5) |
| APSES – a (A), (P)o(S)t(E)r(S). | |
| 12 | In depression, beginning to turn stormy (6) |
| TROUGH – (T)urn, stormy (ROUGH). | |
| 14 | Lent is wrong for Christmas decoration (6) |
| TINSEL – anagram (wrong) of LENT IS. Nice nod to the upcoming festive period. | |
| 17 | Victoria for example collapses (5) |
| FALLS – double definition. | |
| 19 | Social climber out of bed to get going (7) |
| UPSTART – out of bed (UP), get going (START). | |
| 21 | Repay engineers completely (7) |
| REQUITE – engineers (RE), completely (QUITE). I enjoyed the eventual PDM. | |
| 22 | Transmits time signal to cover end of programme (5) |
| PIPES – time signal (PIPS – at the third pip it will be…) covering/around programm(E). Transmit as in piped music. | |
| 23 | Just arrived, establish secure island (12) |
| NEWFOUNDLAND – just arrived (NEW), establish (FOUND), secure e.g. a job (LAND). Flew by this not so long ago. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Take big risk with hi-fi we partly repaired (4,4,4) |
| PLAY WITH FIRE – anagram (repaired) of HI-FI WE PARTLY. | |
| 2 | Refusing to compromise and falsify identity (5) |
| RIGID – falsify (RIG), identity (ID). | |
| 3 | Risking swallowing large sweet (7) |
| DARLING – risking (DARING) swallowing large (L). | |
| 4 | Wild herb covers area at head of valley (6) |
| SAVAGE – herb (SAGE) covers area (A) and (V)alley. | |
| 5 | Liberal ambience is the making of a girl (5) |
| LAURA – Liberal (L), ambience (AURA). | |
| 6 | Message about church is creating ruptures (7) |
| SCHISMS – message (SMS) about church (CH) and is (IS). I don’t remember seeing SMS for message before. | |
| 7 | Non-verse style I’d worked out and campaigned for (12) |
| PROSELYTISED – non-verse (PROSE), anagram (worked out) of STYLE I’D. No verse or pentameters (iambic or otherwise) in prose. To proselytise is to try to persuade/convert someone to your beliefs and I’ve only seen it in Crosswordland. | |
| 13 | Inclined as old boy to spill secrets while talking (7) |
| OBLIQUE – old boy (OB), homophone of spill secrets – leak (LIQUE). Great homophone which wins COD. | |
| 15 | Popular taste one day becomes uninteresting (7) |
| INSIPID – popular (IN), taste (SIP), one (I), day (D). | |
| 16 | In office, you are texting boyfriend to come round (6) |
| BUREAU – ‘you are’ in txt is (UR) with boyfriend (BEAU) coming round. Good link to SMS in 13dn. | |
| 18 | Glide over water with double force in small boat (5) |
| SKIFF – glide (SKI), double force (F F). | |
| 20 | First-grade mountain, hard ascent at first (5) |
| ALPHA – mountain (ALP), (H)ard (A)scent. | |
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