A nice puzzle with fine wordplay, mostly solved in ten minutes. But then I spent the next five trying to figure out 10 Across, 19 Across, and 24 Across, all of which I had in fact solved, but which seemed to involve words I did not know. In the end, I guessed the wrong answer for 19 Across, so a DNF for me.
Across
| 3 | East African 17 on the move (8) |
| ERITREAN – RETAINER (“17”, across) anagrammed (“on the move”) | |
| 7 | Writer, alternatively, with supply of ink? (6) |
| ORWELL – OR (“alternatively”) + (“with”) WELL (“supply of ink”, for example) | |
| 8 | Islands against return to trade (8) |
| ANTILLES – ANTI (“against”) + reversal of (“return to”) SELL (“trade”) | |
| 9 | Starts on the straight approach — right [for] leader (4) |
| TSAR – first letters of (“starts on”) THE STRAIGHT APPROACH RIGHT (“the straight approach right”) | |
| 10 | Routine / when male animals do it? (3) |
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RUT – double definition I did not know that ‘rut’ refers to the time of year when male animals are sexually active, which kept me from putting this in immediately. Sorta like a male ‘heat’. |
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| 11 | Verbal attack [from] small girl with a large family (8) |
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DIATRIBE – DI (“small girl”) + (“with”) A (“a”) + TRIBE (“large family”) Good wordplay here, since neither ‘small’ nor ‘large’ refer to the standard wordplay S and L, respectively. What’s more, ‘small’ refers to the size of the answer, while ‘large’ is part of the definition. |
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| 13 | Love god, cockney hero, succeeds ultimately (4) |
| EROS – losing the H (“cockney”), HERO (“hero”) + SUCCEEDS (“succeeds”) reduced to its last letter (“ultimately”) | |
| 15 | Tea refreshed when taken with fine cheese (4) |
| FETA – TEA (“tea”) anagrammed (“refreshed”), next to (“when taken with”) F (“fine”) | |
| 17 | Someone who keeps / long-time servant (8) |
| RETAINER – double definition | |
| 19 | Pair ending up with one letter from abroad (3) |
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PHI – P&H (“pair”) + (“ending up with”) I (“one”) This one got me. I knew it was PHI or PSI, and I went with PSI, since PS is an abbreviation I knew and PH was not. But it turned out the answer is PHI, and after ten minutes of Googling and checking dictionaries, this explanation is the best I can come up with. If PH = ‘postage and handling’ is indeed correct, then the clue uses the definition (“letter from abroad”) to help tell the reader which ‘pair’ we’re talking about. But couldn’t PS be a ‘pair in a letter’, too? Weird clue. I must be missing something. |
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| 22 | Swimmer [in] ocean and lake (4) |
| SEAL – SEA (“ocean”) + (“and”) L (“lake”) | |
| 23 | Trader planned to keep Roman Catholic happy at first (8) |
| MERCHANT – MEANT (“planned”) outside (“to keep”) RC (“Roman Catholic”) + HAPPY (“happy”) reduced to its first letter (“at first”) | |
| 24 | Please — that’s to be cooked as kipper! (6) |
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ASLEEP – PLEASE (“please”) anagrammed (“that’s to be cooked”) To kip is to nap or sleep. Did not know this, so the answer was a headscratcher. |
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| 25 | Frenchman about in dull vegetation (8) |
| GREENERY – RENE (“Frenchman”) reversed (“about”) inside (“in”) GREY (“dull”) |
Down
| 1 | Pinter, strangely, to accept one’s original (8) |
| PRISTINE – PINTER (“pinter”) anagrammed (“strangely”) outside (“to accept”) I’S (“one’s”) | |
| 2 | Search around, I hesitate to say, in worry (6) |
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FERRET – ER (“I hesitate to say”) inside (“in”) FRET (“worry”) Good wordplay. |
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| 3 | Northern beer served up [in] energy and style (4) |
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ELAN – N (“northern”) + ALE (“beer”) reversed (“served up”) ‘Elan’ was one of the first “crossword words” I learned, from US puzzles. (‘Eclat’ was the other.) |
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| 4 | Concern, [in] Bury, set for redevelopment (8) |
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INTEREST – INTER (“bury”) + SET (“set”) anagrammed (“for redevelopment”) More good wordplay. |
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| 5 | Bishop appears topless [in] link (6) |
| RELATE – PRELATE (“bishop”) without the first letter (“appears topless”) | |
| 6 | Response from congregation almost put right (4) |
| AMEN – nearly all the letters of (“almost”) AMEND (“put right”) | |
| 12 | Bug, furious, keeps slowing down (8) |
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IRRITATE – IRATE (“furious”) outside (“keeps”) RIT. (“slowing down”) ‘Rit.’ is an abbreviation for ‘ritardando’, in music. |
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| 14 | Poet read novel [and] worked (8) |
| OPERATED – POET READ (“poet read”) anagrammed (“novel”) | |
| 16 | Native American horse stopping quickly (6) |
| APACHE – H (“horse”) in (“stopping”) APACE (“quickly”) | |
| 18 | Stalin’s ultimatum contains abuse (6) |
| INSULT – STALIN’S ULTIMATUM (“Stalin’s ultimatum”) has the answer inside (“contains”) | |
| 20 | Stick close to concierge in block (4) |
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BEAR – last letter of (“close to”) CONCIERGE (“concierge”) inside (“in”) BAR (“block”) As in ‘bear left/right’. Tough definition, but easy wordplay. |
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| 21 | Postpone / visit (4) |
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STAY – double definition As in ‘stay of execution’, for example. |
treesparrow
Thanks to the blogger who tried to make sense of it and mostly succeeded