9 minutes. How did you do?
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Bosses to lead American fools (3,7) |
| TOP BANANAS | |
| TOP (lead), BANANAS (American fools). I’m not sure why ‘American’ as we’ve had this meaning for decades. Edit: Thanks to Mattkor for providing the intended parsing: TO + PB (chemical symbol for lead) + A (American) + NANAS. | |
| 7 | Returned books are an inspiration (5) |
| ERATO | |
| OT (books) + ARE reversed [returned] | |
| 8 | Alluring charm Olga ruined with rum (7) |
| GLAMOUR | |
| Anagram [ruined] of OLGA RUM | |
| 10 | Pundit ran amok in cricket game (3-3-3) |
| TIP-AND-RUN | |
| Anagram [amok] of PUNDIT RAN | |
| 12 | Yank in powerful boat (3) |
| TUG | |
| Two meanings | |
| 13 | Mischievous Zulu band quiet (6) |
| IMPISH | |
| IMPI (Zulu band), SH (quiet) | |
| 15 | Influence two females echo in performance (6) |
| AFFECT | |
| F + F (two) females + E (echo – phonetic alphabet) contained by [in] A~CT (performance) | |
| 16 | Swimmer in Ghasri periodically (3) |
| GAR | |
| G{h}A{s}R{i} [periodically] | |
| 17 | Devil about to damage one do-gooder (9) |
| SAMARITAN | |
| SA~TAN (devil) containing [about] MAR (damage) + I (one) | |
| 20 | Was monarch pelted reportedly? (7) |
| REIGNED | |
| Aural wordplay [reportedly] “rained” (pelted) | |
| 22 | Current arrangement just right (5) |
| IDEAL | |
| I (current), DEAL (arrangement) | |
| 23 | Basic reality in Milton to be changed (6,4) |
| BOTTOM LINE | |
| Anagram [to be changed] of MILTON TO BE | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Walk far from streetcar with parking (5) |
| TRAMP | |
| TRAM (streetcar), P (parking) | |
| 2 | Stormy signs poor in forecast (9) |
| PROGNOSIS | |
| Anagram [stormy] of SIGNS POOR | |
| 3 | Park keeper losing head in fury (5) |
| ANGER | |
| {r}ANGER (park keeper) [losing head] | |
| 4 | Ottoman officer edges away from infidel (3) |
| AGA | |
| {p}AGA{n} (infidel) [edges away] | |
| 5 | A person from eastern Europe protecting Saint Augustine? (7) |
| APOSTLE | |
| A, POLE (person from eastern Europe) containing [protecting] ST (saint). Augustine was a saint, but we have to leave that out of the definition in order to avoid double duty. | |
| 6 | Footballer in red? (4-6) |
| LEFT WINGER | |
| Two meanings. I’m tempted to have it as a cryptic definition. | |
| 9 | Corner at 90? (5,5) |
| RIGHT ANGLE | |
| This one is cryptic with reference to the 90 degrees in a right angle | |
| 11 | Tent fire disturbed India’s ancient queen (9) |
| NEFERTITI | |
| Anagram [disturbed] of TENT FIRE, then I (India) [phonetic alphabet] | |
| 14 | One Charlie blocking Iberian city entrance (7) |
| PORTICO | |
| I (one) + C (Charlie) contained by [blocking] PORTO (Iberian city) | |
| 18 | Brothel-keeper married first man (5) |
| MADAM | |
| M (married), ADAM (first man) | |
| 19 | Idea from Met about to seize heroin and ecstasy (5) |
| THEME | |
| ME~T reversed (about) containing [to seize] H (heroin), then E (ecstasy) | |
| 21 | Head in large cask turned up (3) |
| NUT | |
| TUN (large cask – often associated with beer) reversed [turned up] | |
9:22 for the solve. Seven answers going in during the last minute or so once I saw TOP-BANANAS and got LEFT-WINGER from that and then had the checkers for the Across clues over there. Nice little puzzle and as someone said above, much easier if you know your AGAs, NEFERTITI etc.
Thanks to Jackkt and Wurm
Struggled a bit and simply do not get Augustine. There is no definition of this word meaning apostle as far as I can see, and he was not an apostle. Dis not understand the reasoning in the blog. I may be missing something but strikes me as a really poor clue. But then I did struggle with the puzzle.
St. Augustine of Canterbury (d. 604 AD) was a missionary sent by the Pope to England and is known as the “Apostle to the English” for his role in re-establishing Christianity in southern England. While he is called an “apostle” in this sense—meaning a pioneering missionary—he was not one of the original twelve.
10 mins. Should have been under this today but wasted time on APOSTLE.
Day ruined by an appalling performance on 15 x 15. Nine errors or incomplete clues. Utterly useless! I just cannot read clues in the right way. Demoralising when the blogger recommended it as a good one for QC solvers to try.
Gosh, what a lot of NHO or HHO and one I disagree with! GAR, IMPI, AGA and ERATO which are not part of regular GK.
And Augustine doesn’t come in the usual list of apostles (Peter, James, John, Paul etc).
Bad start to the week.
Fine apart from aga/top bananas. Aga, could we not have gone with the cooking appliance here, not a word for an Ottoman officer? Needlessly obscure. Having revealed that clue I guessed top bananas because there was nothing else that fitted. Am I the only one who’s always known top banana to just be a phrase meaning well done? Never heard it mean a boss. To-pb-a-nanas was very hard wordplay as well.