I can’t remember the last time I crept in under the 5 minute mark so I’d put this right at the gentle end of things. I don’t really keep track of the setters’ various difficulty levels but this certainly tallies with Jack’s table the other day – there was a range of views regarding the tougher puzzles, so I’ll be interested to see if there’s more of a consensus when it comes to an easier one. Anyway, if I have a general stumbling block it’s a tendency to sit staring blankly at the last clue, but I was spared that possibility by my LOI (15d) being almost the same as a clue yesterday. Many thanks to Trelawney!
| Across | |
| 1 | A desire to burn borders of pretty country (9) |
| PYROMANIA – PY (“borders” of PrettY) ROMANIA (country) | |
| 6 | Style of music found in Saskatchewan (3) |
| SKA – “found in” saSKAtchewan | |
| 8 | Deduce nitric oxide produces large fire (7) |
| INFERNO – INFER (deduce) NO (Nitric Oxide) | |
| 9 | Stealing a broadsheet newspaper? (5) |
| THEFT – The FT (broadsheet newspaper) | |
| 10 | Agitator beginning to tire Russian coin producer? (12) |
| TROUBLEMAKER – T (“beginning” to Tire) ROUBLE (Russian coin) MAKER (producer) | |
| 12 | Crazy to consume energy drink made from honey (4) |
| MEAD – MAD (crazy) to consume E(nergy) | |
| 13 | Course change is reversed (4) |
| TIDE – EDIT (change) reversed | |
| 17 | Can’t Tenerife change surfing destination? (8,4) |
| INTERNET CAFE – anagram (change) of CANT TENERIFE – as in surfing the web. A few years ago I had the joy of wandering around central Madrid looking in vain for an internet cafe. It was after a wedding all-nighter, my phone was dead and I couldn’t remember the name of my hotel, much less where it was. I also found it a surprisingly hard concept to mime the few times I tried to ask someone if they knew of one. A couple of passing fellow guests saw me sitting in a square in the midday sun and came to say hello, otherwise I’m not quite sure what I’d have done. | |
| 20 | Cockney friend‘s crockery (5) |
| CHINA – double definition: CHINA PLATE = rhyming slang for MATE (friend) | |
| 21 | Predate horribly tedious bureaucracy (3,4) |
| RED TAPE – anagram (horribly) of PREDATE | |
| 23 | Lady‘s petition (3) |
| SUE – double definition | |
| 24 | Drink with dark beer fan (9) |
| SUPPORTER – SUP (drink) with PORTER (dark beer) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Self-righteous person parking oddly (4) |
| PRIG – P a R k I n G “oddly” | |
| 2 | Official character witness (7) |
| REFEREE – double definition | |
| 3 | Spoil sheep that’s upset (3) |
| MAR – RAM (sheep) upset = reverse. | |
| 4 | Improvise a bit of food (6) |
| NOODLE – double definition. I wasn’t aware of the first: originally a jazz term for improvising, now used more broadly. | |
| 5 | Gold cat with a twitch that’s involuntary (9) |
| AUTOMATIC – Au (gold) TOM (cat) with A TIC (a twitch) | |
| 6 | Smooth top of scaly vegetable (5) |
| SLEEK – S (“top” of Scaly) LEEK (vegetable) | |
| 7 | A second bird at the back of the ship (6) |
| ASTERN – A S(econd) TERN (bird) | |
| 11 | Dress up an untidy tunnel (9) |
| UNDERPASS – anagram (untidy) of DRESS UP AN | |
| 14 | Obstinate doctor fainted (7) |
| DEFIANT – anagram (doctor) of FAINTED | |
| 15 | Talk about unfinished piece of sports equipment (6) |
| DISCUS – DISCUSS (talk about), unfinished = dock the last letter. | |
| 16 | Go off on one extremely large excursion (3,3) |
| LET RIP – LE (“extremely” LeT) TRIP (excursion) | |
| 18 | Stumble on last bit of vile rubbish (5) |
| TRIPE – TRIP (stumble) on E (last bit of vilE) | |
| 19 | Tolerate ecstasy in drinking establishment (4) |
| BEAR – E(cstasy) in BAR (drinking establishment) | |
| 22 | Somewhat assiduous pair of people (3) |
| DUO – “somewhat” assiDUOus | |
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