A sting in the tail of this one, as I missed the enumeration of 8ac and was convinced it would end -CIAN, and was flummuxod by the parsing of 24ac. All green in the end, though, and my fastest solve of the week so far.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 3 | Father unhappy with European article about Californian city (8) |
| PASADENA – PA (father), SAD (unhappy), E (European) then a reversal of (about) AN (article). | |
| 7 | Way of cooking meat in France, on vacation (6) |
| FLAMBE – LAMBE (meat) contained by (in) the forst and last letters of (on vacation) FrancE. | |
| 8 | Crustacean caught by Scotsman on net (4,4) |
| LAND CRAB – LAND (net), with C (caught) and RAB (Scotsman). | |
| 9 | Greek character risked ace (4) |
| BETA – BET (risked) and A (ace). | |
| 10 | Newsman set about new objective (3) |
| END – ED (editor, newsman) containing (about) N (new). | |
| 11 | Joker‘s trick involving TV, newspapers, etc (8) |
| COMEDIAN – CON (trick) containing (involving) MEDIA (TV, newspapers, etc.). | |
| 13 | Large-scale English film (4) |
| EPIC – E (English) and PIC (film). | |
| 15 | Highly valued ruminant animal discussed (4) |
| DEAR – sounds like (discussed) “deer” (ruminant animal). | |
| 17 | That lady’s driver follows small forest (8) |
| SHERWOOD – HER (that lady’s) and WOOD (driver, in golf), all following S (small). | |
| 19 | Consumed tea messily (3) |
| ATE – anagram of (messily) TEA. | |
| 22 | Ray‘s gymnastic apparatus (4) |
| BEAM – double definition. | |
| 23 | Type of coffee — rep’s working fuel? (8) |
| ESPRESSO – anagram of (working) REP’S, then ESSO (fuel?). | |
| 24 | Grumble about the Italian switching faith (6) |
| BELIEF – BEEF (grumble) containing (about) a reversal of (switching) IL (the, in Italian). | |
| 25 | Enthusiast Angela, not half, in party dance (8) |
| FANDANGO – FAN (enthusiast), then the first three letters of (not half) ANGela contained by (in) DO (party). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | US puritan dejected by corrupt ones (8) |
| BLUENOSE – BLUE (dejected) and an anagram of (corrupted) ONES. Not a word I knew, but easy-ish from checkers. | |
| 2 | Pierce, male friend in centre of Amiens (6) |
| IMPALE – M (male) and PAL (friend), all contiained by (in) the middle letters from (centre of) amIEns. | |
| 3 | Training lieutenant to sprint (4) |
| PELT – PE (physical exercise, training) and LT (lieutenant). | |
| 4 | Criminal may receive this, delivered enclosed with drug (8) |
| SENTENCE – SENT (delivered), ENC (enclosed), and E (ecstasy, drug). | |
| 5 | Immoral to ignore series of religious books some years (6) |
| DECADE – DECADEnt (immoral) minus (to ignore) ‘NT’ (New Testament, series of religious books). | |
| 6 | Close new organ (4) |
| NEAR – N (new) and EAR (organ). | |
| 12 | Popular spice, ready for eating (2,6) |
| IN SEASON – IN (popular) and SEASON (spice). | |
| 14 | One meets very tardy daughter, standing apart (8) |
| ISOLATED – I (one), SO LATE (very tardy), and D (daughter). | |
| 16 | Disciplinarian hit staff (6) |
| RAMROD – RAM (hit) and ROD (staff). | |
| 18 | Front of boat lifted, belly occasionally tremulous (6) |
| WOBBLY – reversal of (lifted) BOW (front of boat), then every other letter from (occasionally) BeLlY. | |
| 20 | Huge land mass of Sumatra is amazing northwards (4) |
| ASIA – hidden in (of) sumatrA IS Amazing, when reversed (northwards). | |
| 21 | Tramp‘s house with bad smell (4) |
| HOBO – HO (house) and BO (body odour, bad smell). | |
… only to record a bad DNF. Bluenose, Land crab (both NHO) and Ramrod (not known in this sense) all defeated me. Took a long time to get Wobbly too — was fixated on Prow for the front of a boat not Bow.
So, not a great day — it has been a difficult day but I hadn’t realised it had been that stressful and tiring!
One to forget for me; roll on tomorrow.
Many thanks to William for the blog.
Cedric
BLUENOSE was LOI, NHO in that context, but cluing was straightforward.
6:08 says the clock.
Gary A