Hi everyone. Thanks to Alex for a typically enjoyable puzzle in which my picks are 17a plus the simple but perfect anagrams at 2d and 4d. For me it was a medium on the QC difficulty scale, but it’s your collective experience which will tell.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most 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 | Detectives starting to bend and break up (7) |
| DISBAND — DIS (detectives) + the beginning of (starting to) Bend + AND | |
| 5a | Look — live part of brain (4) |
| LOBE — LO (look) + BE (live) | |
| 7a | Names school divisions (5) |
| TERMS — Two definitions | |
| 8a | Tears around with Italian’s drinks (7) |
| SPIRITS — RIPS (tears) backwards (around) + IT’S (Italian’s) | |
| 10a | Friend’s regularly embarrassed (3) |
| RED — Regular letters of (… regularly) fRiEnD’s | |
| 11a | A wish to meet team close by (9) |
| ALONGSIDE — A + LONG (wish) + SIDE (team) | |
| 13a | Greedily eying flipping game fish (6) |
| OGLING — Reversed (flipping) GO (game) + LING (fish) | |
| 14a | Fight most heartlessly with husband for affection (6) |
| WARMTH — WAR (fight) + MosT without inner letters (heartlessly) + H (husband) | |
| 17a | Plenty of hair coiled round into a twist? (9) |
| ABUNDANCE — BUN (hair coiled round) goes into A + DANCE (twist?) | |
| 19a | Note is almost exclusive (3) |
| SOL — All but the last letter of (almost) SOLe (exclusive) | |
| 20a | Former partner called in high spirits (7) |
| EXCITED — EX (ormer partner) + CITED (called) | |
| 22a | I confess on radio to mobster’s killing (5) |
| ICING — I + CING, which sounds like (… on radio) SING (confess) | |
| 23a | Band strike (4) |
| BELT — A double definition | |
| 24a | European agreement with passionate breadth of vision (7) |
| EYESHOT — E (European) + YES (agreement) with HOT (passionate) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Degenerate put off current lecture (11) |
| DETERIORATE — DETER (put off) + I (current) + ORATE (lecture) | |
| 2d | Rustled up dish (7) |
| STRUDEL — RUSTLED anagrammed (up) | |
| 3d | Mark, in a part of the garden, shunned drink (9) |
| ABSTAINED — STAIN (mark) in A BED (a part of the garden) | |
| 4d | Tyrant posted abroad (6) |
| DESPOT — POSTED anagrammed (abroad) | |
| 5d | Garland made from tips of leafy evergreen initially (3) |
| LEI — Initial letters of (tips of) Leafy Evergreen Initially | |
| 6d | Pancake left in rubbish container on island (5) |
| BLINI — L (left) in BIN (rubbish container) on I (island) | |
| 9d | Repent day after rage (3,3,5) |
| SEE THE LIGHT — LIGHT (day) after SEETHE (rage) | |
| 12d | Gossip given pear that’s been pureed (9) |
| GRAPEVINE — GIVEN PEAR that’s been anagrammed (pureed) | |
| 15d | Deliverer in food hall with one nacho regularly missing (7) |
| MESSIAH — MESS (food hall) + I (one) + nAcHo without alternate letters (regularly missing) | |
| 16d | For example study love turning tense (2,4) |
| ON EDGE — EG (for example), DEN (study) and O (love) all reversed (turning) | |
| 18d | Relative is vague missing last two characters (5) |
| UNCLE — UNCLEar (vague) missing last two characters | |
| 21d | Add up either way (3) |
| TOT — “Either way” indicates the answer is a palindrome | |
Difficult to impossible for us. Though we did get Abundance.. v clever clue. And I have NOT already said that. Or do you only accept praise?
Have never heard of eyeshot or icing in this context + why does I mean current? Mysterious and frustrating
Symbol for current. Worth remembering – it comes up regularly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_current
15:04. Enjoyable puzzle, quite tricky compared to some QCs. Favourite was OGLING. thanks both.
29 minutes.
Another awful day after the misery of last week.
Well over an hour on 15 x 15 and still 2 clues not completed. Blogger called it easy!
Just 1 clue solved on Quintagram.
I can’t make any progress with cryptic puzzles, despite all the effort I have put in. I find that very frustrating. Just reading the comments of the 15 x 15 solvers makes me feel out of my depth.