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) | |
10:17, with the last four minutes spent on LIKE, MORALE and DEAD, which gets my COD award for today.
Thanks to Pipsqueak and Kitty.
20:13
That was going so well until I came undone on the last few. DEAD and NAME held me up but the real troubles were MORALE and SCREAM, not a definition I would associate with comedian. Failed to parse LOI RECTOR.
So, for 3 down you all remembered that mishap of Pooh’s? Sadly I only remembered him getting stuck in Rabbit’s burrow and spent a while trying to trim that down to eight letters
FOI imam
LOI rector
COD populate, people as verb
9 minutes. A lot of biffing rather than solving.
Day ruined by 15 x 15. Blogger suggested it would be a good one for QC solvers looking to move up. I failed by 2 after an hour of toil. Snitch was only 64. Wouldn’t have got one of the missing answers if I’d given it 2 hours!
Super fast and fun, until I hit DEAD. Found it in an alpha trawl, but set it aside until I finished because I couldn’t see the literal as anything other than “very old”. Sheesh, I thought, I may be very old, but I’m not dead yet. Then I thought of “dead slow” for a ship and felt dead foolish. Great clue. 14:34 instead of a sub-10.
Thanks Pipsqueak and Kitty.