Hello all. The every-reliable Pipsqueak has provided another entertaining Monday puzzle, in which my favourite clues are 12a for its boozy surface plus 4d and 5d for their well-disguised definitions. Thanks Pipsqueak!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, I generally italicise indicators unless it seems clearer not to. Where the removed part is specified, [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. I sometimes omit link words and juxtaposition indicators if it doesn’t feel necessary to explain them. If you have any questions, please ask in the comments section.
| Across | |
| 7a | Religious figure I married in the morning (4) |
| IMAM — I + M (married) + AM (in the morning) | |
| 8a | Reportedly supervises abroad (8) |
| OVERSEAS — Sounds like (reportedly) OVERSEES (supervises) | |
| 9a | Place limit on a certain US gangster (6) |
| CAPONE — Put CAP (limit) by ONE (a certain) | |
| 10a | Nearly all underwear kept here? (6) |
| DRAWER — All but the last letter of (nearly all) DRAWERs (underwear) | |
| 11a | Only fair (4) |
| JUST — A double definition | |
| 12a | People drunkenly top up ale (8) |
| POPULATE — An anagram of (drunkenly) TOP UP ALE | |
| 15a | Extremely reliable chap carrying bags for correspondent (8) |
| REPORTER — Outer letters of (extremely) ReliablE + PORTER (chap carrying bags) | |
| 17a | Venomous snake killing British mum (4) |
| MAMA — MAM[b]A (venomous snake) eliminating (killing) B (British) | |
| 18a | Priest’s power provider having no answer (6) |
| RECTOR — RE[a]CTOR (power provider) without A (having no answer) | |
| 21a | Comedian’s cry of terror (6) |
| SCREAM — Two definitions | |
| 22a | Asia trip calamitous for beekeeper (8) |
| APIARIST — An anagram of (… calamitous) ASIA TRIP | |
| 23a | Enjoy involving king in deception (4) |
| LIKE — We are inserting (involving) K (king) in LIE (deception) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Irate mum unusually inexperienced (8) |
| IMMATURE — IRATE MUM anagrammed (unusually) | |
| 2d | Bring in one MP or two initially (6) |
| IMPORT — I (one) + MP + OR + Two initially | |
| 3d | Attractive place in which Winnie-the-Pooh gets stuck? (8) |
| HONEYPOT — Two definitions | |
| 4d | Very old man taking ecstasy (4) |
| DEAD — DAD (old man) taking E (ecstasy) | |
| 5d | Go for a boat trip round south (6) |
| ASSAIL — A SAIL (a boat trip) round S (south) | |
| 6d | Somebody in Latin America (4) |
| NAME — Hidden in LatiN AMErica | |
| 13d | Scrounger in Paris ate badly (8) |
| PARASITE — PARIS ATE anagrammed (badly) | |
| 14d | Film star cheers, receiving Order of Merit (3,5) |
| TOM HANKS — THANKS (cheers) taking in (receiving) OM (Order of Merit) | |
| 16d | Expose LA wife as criminal (6) |
| OUTLAW — OUT (expose) + LA + W (wife) | |
| 17d | Degree of confidence in principled European (6) |
| MORALE — MORAL (principled) + E (European) | |
| 19d | Catch sight of English agent (4) |
| ESPY — E (English) + SPY (agent) | |
| 20d | Raced round island in wet weather (4) |
| RAIN — RAN (raced) round I (island) | |
11:44. Nice and quick until I hit the southeast corner where I struggled with TOM HANKS, MAMA and LOI MORALE. I liked REPORTER.
Thanks to Pipsqueak for a nice Monday puzzle and thank you Kitty for the blog
10.02, also held up by TOM HANKS and finishing with the MAMA/MORALE crossing. Thanks Kitty and Pipsqueak.
DNF, as I did not see MORALE as a synonym for degree of confidence (and still don’t, for that matter). Misparsed DEAD too, as I thought the definition was “very old”, which doesn’t work as well as “very”. Until those two it was a fast enough solve, and I was pleased to get MAMA (thus proving there are other snakes than adders and asps in Crosswordland) but no prize today.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog.
Collins: morale – the degree of mental or moral confidence of a person or group; spirit of optimism
A very nice puzzle.
Started with IMAM and finished with DEAD in 5.46.
Thanks to Kitty and Pipsqueak.
18:35 Mama Morale and Dead Drawer did it for me.
Ta KAP
7:28. A QC from Pipsqueak which was definitely better than ‘Only fair’. Most answers went in without much delay, with MORALE for ‘degree of confidence’ (I see I’m in good company with Cedric) the only one to slow the flow – no, hardly a torrent. I felt sorry for poor old mum / MAMA at 1d, IMMATURE or not, and liked our two bee-related clues.
Thanks to Kitty and Pipsqueak
You deserve a cigar from a small village after that comment.
Bifd RECTOR as I missed the Answer. Thanks Kitty. Took an extra 5 mins to get MORALE. COD HONEYPOT. 25mins. Ta Pipsqueak.
Whizzbang fun on a Monday loosener. COD RECTOR. All green in 04:29 for a Triffic Day.
Many thanks Pip and Kitster.
21 failing on rector, mama and morale.
Revealing the M lead to mama and the R to rector but I couldn’t parse morale even with the three crossers.
Thanks P and K
Thanks to Pipsqueak for a very good QC to start the week. 14.40 (all parsed but slower than my most recent Pipsqueaks) with RECTOR my LOI.
My COD was TOM HANKS.
Also thanks to Kitty.
Lovely Monday morning puzzle (h/t Pipsqueak) – whizzed through until I hit RECTOR, which for some reason eluded me (even though I had the definition, wordplay, and all the checking letters by that point). Ground to a halt and ended up Googling words for priest.
SCREAM seemed a stretch for Comedian – I would never have got that without checking letters.
Thanks Kitty.
10 minutes. I wasn’t happy with ‘very / DEAD’ when solving and lost a bit of time in writing it in, but I’ve absolutely no idea now what was going through my mind.
14 minutes – a strong start, then bogged down in the SE corner. I hesitated over POPULATE at first but couldn’t make anything else fit, reasoning that ‘people’ could work as a verb, which I later confirmed.
Couldn’t parse RECTOR or SCREAM (comedian?), but easily biffed, and otherwise steadily solved, leading to a decent time of 17:36.
Gentle start for the week – all green in 6:11 – one or two not fully parsed so thanks Kitty.
LOI for me was ASSAIL.
Flew round the grid until … I didn’t. DEAD was lovely if naughty (and difficult), but the last three stumped me totally. Power provider didn’t mean anything to me, couldn’t equate lie and deception, and put off by “degree” of confidence. But no complaints, all my fault really. Thanks, Kitty.
I dont understand how SCREAM = comedian?
Still though, it didnt slow me down much, all green in 6:24
TYTBAS
Very dated slang. “You should hear my uncle Reginald, he’s a real scream”. Same era as Tight=drunk, rum=odd, sex=IT etc.
10:52
Only query was REPORTER which I overthought, with “man carrying bags” as a containment indicator.
Also considered CORA for the Mum.
4:41
Blasted through this until the final two – MORALE, which had to be shoehorned into place, and RECTOR which might have been easier if the unchecked letters had been the checked letters.
Thanks Kitty and Pipsqueak