Introduction
I was putting my older son to bed while trying this one, so I guess I can blame my poor performance on that, but the truth is that this puzzle really stumped me. I was only able to finish by looking up the definition of ‘bulwark’. (I should have remembered it from Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott.)
Solutions
Across
| 1 | Slander American woman keeping keys (6) |
| DEFAME – DAME (American woman) around (keeping) EF (keys, from the musical scale) | |
| 4 | School class cheers about layout of publication (6) |
|
FORMAT – FORM (school class) + TA (cheers) reversed (about) Wasn’t aware of this definition of ‘form’. |
|
| 8 | Girl detailed to receive plea [for] textile fibre (7) |
|
ACRYLIC – ALICE (girl) without the last letter (de-tailed) around (to receive) CRY (plea) This one really held me up. I guessed the answer but couldn’t see how the wordplay worked. |
|
| 10 | Lazy type this writer would ultimately enrol with hesitation (5) |
| IDLER – I’D (this writer would) + last letter of (ultimately) ENROL (enrol) + (with) ER (hesitation) | |
| 11 | One of two writers [having] material rejected (5) |
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ELIOT – TOILE (material) reversed (rejected) T.S. Eliot and George Eliot. |
|
| 12 | Poor unfortunate me, serving drink in inappropriate vessels! (7) |
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MUGGINS – putting (serving) GIN (drink) in (in) MUGS (inappropriate vessels) Mugs, of course, being more appropriate for beer, rather than gin. |
|
| 13 | Trendy model? The opposite (9) |
| INVERSION – IN (trendy) + VERSION (model) | |
| 17 | Starting-point for train-spotting, for example? (7) |
|
ANAGRAM – cryptic definition STARTING-POINT and TRAIN-SPOTTING are anagrams. |
|
| 19 | Brother — one who works in chippy, do we hear? (5) |
| FRIAR – fryer (one who works in chippy) replaced by a homophone (do we hear) | |
| 20 | Greek poem, one backing Irish parliament (5) |
| ILIAD – I (one) + reverse of (backing) DAIL (Irish parliament) | |
| 21 | Kids’ day centre user crossing river in New York (7) |
| NURSERY – USER (user) around (crossing) R (river) in (in) NY (New York) | |
| 22 | Well-proportioned-sounding old cab (6) |
|
HANSOM – HANDSOME (well-proportioned) replaced by a homophone (sounding) A horse-drawn carriage. We have these in Central Park. |
|
| 23 | Money used to accommodate American relative (6) |
| COUSIN – COIN (money) around (used to accommodate) US (American) |
Down
| 1 | Storage compartment [for] draughtsman (6) |
|
DRAWER – double definition This one threw me because we’d probably write it as ‘draftsman’ and I thought something different was meant. |
|
| 2 | A certain number reportedly lie about a bulwark, say (13) |
| FORTIFICATION – FORTY (a certain number) replaced by homophone (reportedly) + FICTION (lie) around (about) A (a) | |
| 3 | Soviet statesman[’s] action mostly restricting leader of our bunch (7) |
|
MOLOTOV – MOVE (action) without the last letter (mostly) around (restriction) first letter of (leader of) OUR (our) + LOT (bunch) Vyacheslav Molotov, that is. |
|
| 5 | Outstanding old part of building (5) |
| OWING – O (old) + WING (part of building) | |
| 6 | Rich woman in Limassol somehow restraining anger (13) |
| MILLIONAIRESS – IN LIMASSOL (in Limassol) anagrammed (somehow) around (restraining) IRE (anger) | |
| 7 | Drive [of] husband engaged by board of directors (6) |
| THRUST – H (husband) in (engaged by) TRUST (board of directors) | |
| 9 | TV employee arrived with painter on island (9) |
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CAMERAMAN – CAME (arrived) + (with) RA (painter) + (on) MAN (island) Isle of Man. |
|
| 14 | Big fire in centre of Toronto consuming plant (7) |
| INFERNO – IN (in) + middle letter of (center of) TORONTO (Toronto) around (consuming) FERN (plant) | |
| 15 | Disappear, / rather like a commercial vehicle? (6) |
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VANISH – double definition The latter humorous: something that is like a van could be called ‘van-ish’. |
|
| 16 | Chap involved in scam, a colourful writer (6) |
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CRAYON – RAY (chap) in (involved in) CON (scam) This is probably a chestnut but I loved it! |
|
| 18 | Travelled on horseback finally to cattle round-up (5) |
| RODEO – RODE (travelled on horseback) + last letter of (finally) TO (to) |
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