Hello everybody. I completed this in a normal kind of time, with a normal level of enjoyment … and as normal I can’t choose a favourite! I mean, I could be predictable and go with 7d, certainly my pet answer, but I also like the story hinted at in 22a and plenty more. I expect to see a variety of nominations for Clue of the Day. Thanks Pedro!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Being noisy is possibly vice of ours (10) |
| VOCIFEROUS — An anagram of (possibly) VICE OF OURS. I think this also works if the definition is just “noisy”, with “being” a kind of link word | |
| 8a | I put on a different description of ideal world (7) |
| UTOPIAN — An anagram of (… different) I PUT ON A | |
| 9a | Disney character in book with reduced scope (5) |
| BAMBI — B (book) + AMBIt (scope) without the last letter (reduced …) | |
| 10a | Steal post, disposing of first letter (4) |
| TAKE — sTAKE (post), removing (disposing of) its first letter | |
| 11a | Particular group bridging river in Southwestern county (8) |
| SOMERSET — SOME SET (particular group) going across (bridging) R (river) | |
| 13a | Force and pressure producing pain in muscle? (5) |
| CRAMP — CRAM (force) and P (pressure) | |
| 14a | Study not productive involving reading primarily (5) |
| LEARN — LEAN (not productive) including (involving) the first letter of (… primarily) Reading | |
| 16a | A lot of sin and passion seen around a religious dwelling (8) |
| VICARAGE — All but the last letter of (a lot of) VICe (sin) and RAGE (passion) seen around A | |
| 17a | Plan One not working? Not quite (4) |
| IDEA — I (one) + DEAd (not working) without the last letter (not quite) | |
| 20a | Greek character and article coming with thanks (5) |
| THETA — THE (article – a grammatical article) + TA (thanks) | |
| 21a | Orchestra and artist interrupting an unimpressive performer (4-3) |
| ALSO-RAN — LSO (orchestra – the London Symphony Orchestra) and RA (Royal Academician: artist) entering (interrupting) AN | |
| 22a | Countess’s foremost milliner linked to TV gossip (10) |
| CHATTERBOX — Countess’s first or foremost letter + HATTER (milliner) + BOX (TV) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Very grown-up to avoid opening of dark cellar (5) |
| VAULT — V (very) + A[d]ULT (grown-up) removing (to avoid) the first letter (opening) of Dark | |
| 2d | I obsess over timepiece, timepiece found in opening of college cupboard (5-7) |
| CLOCK-WATCHER — WATCH (timepiece) found in the initial letter (opening) of College plus LOCKER (cupboard) | |
| 3d | Market offering equal opportunities? (4) |
| FAIR — Double definition | |
| 4d | Organised party with Mike on an irregular basis (6) |
| RANDOM — RAN (organised) + DO (party) + M (Mike, radio codeword) | |
| 5d | Unusual rum label covering a lot of things (8) |
| UMBRELLA — An anagram of (unusual) RUM LABEL | |
| 6d | Criminal activity? Son with mother’s handbag possibly about right (5-3-4) |
| SMASH-AND-GRAB — S (son) with MA’S mother’s + an anagram of (… possibly) HANDBAG around (about) R (right) | |
| 7d | Equipment to look after tailless pet (6) |
| KITTEN — KIT (equipment) + TENd (to look after) without its last letter (tailless) | |
| 12d | Native American mostly adopting expert methodology (8) |
| APPROACH — APACHe (Native American) mostly taking in (adopting) PRO (expert) | |
| 13d | Birmingham maybe securing a victory, initially hollow (6) |
| CAVITY — CITY (Birmingham maybe) around (securing) A and Victory initially | |
| 15d | Shocked a leader in Guardian has to appear before leader in Times (6) |
| AGHAST — A + the first letter of (leader in) Guardian + HAS preceding (to appear before) the leader in Times | |
| 18d | Additional building has former Queen cross (5) |
| ANNEX — ANNE (former Queen) + X (cross) | |
| 19d | One auction disposing of a piece of land (4) |
| ISLE — I (one) + S[a]LE (auction) removing (disposing of) A | |
A well pitched puzzzle. Most went in fairly readily, but APPROACH took a while and the spelling of ANNEX seemed odd.
Fast (for me) start to the week. All Green in 45mins. Thanks Kitty for help in fully understanding CHATTERBOX and ALSO RAN.
17:08, but with a careless typo on AMASH AND GRAB. Grr. Took a long time to see my LOI, IDEA.
Thanks to Kitty & Pedro.