Another eminently doable puzzle today, with only one word to be found nowhere but in cryptic crosswords (19dn) and usually clued as ‘sash’ or similar.
Definitions underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Exercise before heading for something to drink (5-2) |
| PRESS-UP – PRE (before), first letter of (heading to) Something, then SUP (drink). | |
| 5 | Primate guarding small part of church (4) |
| APSE – APE (primate) containing (guarding) S (small). | |
| 7 | Botched raid when entering house in style (6) |
| HAIRDO – anagram of (botched) RAID, contained by (entering) HO (house). | |
| 8 | Persevere with a new motto (6) |
| SLOGAN – SLOG (persevere) and A N (new). | |
| 9 | Career sites designed for office workers (11) |
| SECRETARIES – anagram of (designed) CAREER SITES. Maybe needed a question mark here? | |
| 10 | Ruffles feathers in Scottish team, dismissing leader (6) |
| ANGERS – rANGERS (Scottish team, football), minus (dismissing) its first letter (leader). | |
| 12 | Signal over top mathematician (6) |
| EUCLID – reversal of (over) CUE (signal), then LID (top). | |
| 14 | Nasty individual chore? (5,2,4) |
| PIECE OF WORK – double definition. | |
| 17 | Season well (6) |
| SPRING – double definition. | |
| 18 | An allowance no single sailor rejected (6) |
| RATION – NO, I (single), and TAR (sailor) all reversed (rejected). | |
| 20 | Complimentary cover ultimately incorporated into cost (4) |
| FREE – last letter of (ultimately) coveR contained by (incorporated into) FEE (cost). | |
| 21 | Section of orchestra in main pit, possibly (7) |
| TIMPANI – anagram of (possibly) MAIN PIT. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Veg and fruit, chopped (3) |
| PEA – PEAr (fruit) missing the last letter (chopped). | |
| 2 | Some fear a chest infection? (7) |
| EARACHE – hidden in (some) fEAR A CHEst. | |
| 3 | Cake is solid on top once cooked (5) |
| SCONE – first letter of (on top) Solid, then an anagram of (cooked) ONCE. | |
| 4 | Course requiring permit to be getting on (7) |
| PASSAGE – PASS (permit) and AGE (be getting on). | |
| 5 | Excellent oil beaten to make mayonnaise (5) |
| AIOLI – AI (‘A-one’, excellent) with an anagram of (beaten) OIL. | |
| 6 | Friends put up with criticism for comedy (9) |
| SLAPSTICK – PALS (friends) reversed (put up) then STICK (criticism). | |
| 9 | Abrasive material also seen in Society publication (9) |
| SANDPAPER – AND (also) contained by (seen in) S (society) and PAPER (publication). | |
| 11 | Cunning tips from several rowers (7) |
| SLEIGHT – first and last letters (tips) from SeveraL, then EIGHT (rowers). | |
| 13 | Actor flying over India and a country in Europe (7) |
| CROATIA – anagram of (flying) ACTOR, then I (India) and A. | |
| 15 | Every other piece of jelly in the cream (5) |
| ELITE – every other letter from (every other piece of) jElLy In ThE. | |
| 16 | Etiquette surrounding university discussion group (5) |
| FORUM – FORM (etiquette) containing (surrounding) U (university). | |
| 19 | Charm shown during job interview (3) |
| OBI – hidden in (shown during) jOB Interview. | |
Thrown off by putting “Knees Up” for “Exercise before heading for something to drink (5-2)”… I think it works as exercise and heading out for a good ol’ knees up !
Held up for a while by getting HEARTS as the Scottish team (fEATHERS*, not seeing there’s an extra E) but then finished wth an overlooked typo.
Another tricky but v enjoyable QC. A steady solve.
Thanks for the excellent blog to help with the parsing.
Did it in two parts today as had to go out. Only got just over half at first, but the rest slipped in easily when I came back – the brain must have working on the clues! DNK OBI, but guessed from clue and could not parse EUCLID – thanks, William, but he’s the only mathematician I know in 6 letters!
Newton, Pascal, Thales, Fermat, Cantor, Napier and Turing as well as Euclid.