Quite a lot of untangling required here with a few interesting threads which led me off to the dictionaries. 21ac ended up being my problem clue today – it took me to just over 10 minutes.
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Summary of a British Standard pamphlet (8) |
| ABSTRACT – a (A), British Standard (BS), pamphlet (TRACT). | |
| 6 | Make fun of Alice’s turtle? (4) |
| MOCK – Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ featured The Mock Turtle. It’s name was taken from a dish popular at that time – mock turtle soup (which is an English soup that was created in the mid-18th century as an imitation of green turtle soup. It often uses brains and organ meats such as calf’s head to duplicate the texture and flavour of the original’s turtle meat after the green turtles used to make the original dish were hunted nearly to extinction). | |
| 8 | Pub next to new outbuilding (4) |
| BARN – pub (BAR) next to new (N). | |
| 9 | Came to a big hill, extremely exhausted (8) |
| AMOUNTED – a (A), big hill (MOUNT), the extreme letters of (E)xhauste(D). | |
| 10 | Sort of guess a graduate might make? (8) |
| EDUCATED – a graduate, being educated, may make such guesses. | |
| 12 | In India, study religious image (4) |
| ICON – India (I), study (CON). | |
| 13 | Very unconventional means of escape (3,3) |
| WAY OUT – double definition. | |
| 16 | Learnt to change regular payment (6) |
| RENTAL – anagram (to change) of LEARNT. | |
| 17 | Men’s general appearance remarked on (4) |
| GUYS – homophone (remarked on) of general appearance=guise. | |
| 18 | Make effort to remember note by rebel (8) |
| MEMORISE – note (MEMO) by/next to rebel (RISE – against). | |
| 21 | Made to reflect, perhaps, delivers broadcast (8) |
| SILVERED – anagram (broadcast) of DELIVERS. I was grasping at the definition for a while and eventually accepted it. Collins has ‘coated with a silver-like substance, as quicksilver or tinfoil – e.g. a mirror of silvered glass’. | |
| 22 | Infantry base (4) |
| FOOT – double definition. | |
| 23 | Russian, somewhat vigorous (4) |
| IGOR – part of v(IGOR)ous. | |
| 24 | It’s unimportant, but not more dull? (2,6) |
| NO MATTER – not more dull (NO MATT-ER – not so matt=not more dull). | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Little nail holding one decorative band (5) |
| BRAID – little nail (BRAD) holding one (I). | |
| 3 | A number are inclined not to finish (3) |
| TEN – are inclined (TEN)d – not finishing. They are inclined/tend to. | |
| 4 | A bit separate (5) |
| APART – a (A), bit (PART). | |
| 5 | Communist cause overturned on demand (2,5) |
| TO ORDER – communist (RED) and cause (ROOT) both overturned/upside dow. | |
| 6 | Maybe prelate’s morning so organised (9) |
| MONSIGNOR – anagram (organised) of MORNING SO. | |
| 7 | Wild romance in Italian city (7) |
| CREMONA – anagram (wild) of ROMANCE. Cremona is in N Italy (Lombardy) on the banks of the river Po. | |
| 11 | Angry about mixed styles of music (9) |
| CROSSOVER – angry (CROSS), about (OVER). Mix of styles as in the contemporary crossover of pop, jazz and funk. | |
| 14 | Happen to be employing? That’s funny (7) |
| AMUSING – happen to be (AM – as in I am/happen to be), employing (USING). | |
| 15 | Little monkey, almost tame, ran freely round one (7) |
| TAMARIN – almost tame (TAM)e, anagram (freely) of RAN around one (I). Small monkeys from South and Central American forests similar to marmosets. | |
| 19 | A lady looking up and down (5) |
| MADAM – read up or down for the same word. | |
| 20 | Scratch all points earned (5) |
| SCORE – double definition. | |
| 22 | At first find computer technology appropriate (3) |
| FIT – first letter of (F)ind, computer technology (IT). | |
Only missed four across clues on the first pass, then nailed all the down clues, before picking off the missing quartet straight away. It seemed easy, but reading the foregoing posts it clearly wasn’t !
FOI ABSTRACT
LOI GUYS
COD SILVERED
TIME 3:22
GUYS Revealed in a huff. Which then led to the LOI CROSSOVER.
I also was convinced it was TAMARIND, but I just learnt that is a plant.
Unlucky to the solver who had DIAS, looks like a solid answer.
COD SILVERED
Top half went in nicely in under 15-mins. The lower half took another two attempts for another 30-mins and a lot of thinking about it in the hammock to have GUYS, CROSSOVER, SILVERED left unsolved. Was thinking “mirrored” like others and I thought the “broadcast” anagrind for SILVERED indicates a homophone, feel dispirited by having to deal with this level of misdirection.
ICON – not sure why study = con?
NHO TAMARIN, CREMONA, prelate.
It’s a DD – con/study/trick/swindle/know/learn/study etc – see Chambers. We’ve seen con=den=study before. This was a DNF for me!
Finished but took a while to get Guys
Some fun cluing did like the turtle