Quality puzzle, quite tricky.
At 9:20, this took me a full five minutes longer than yesterday’s done just beforehand. I followed a bit of a slow-quick-slow rhythm, only getting five on the first pass of the acrosses, and finally grinding to a bit of a halt with my last four on the LHS: SMOOTHIE and GENTLE are both quite tough; SAGA and LAZINESS seem less so in retrospect.
Top notch puzzle, with good clues aplenty, my favourite being that devious, neatly worded and smooth-surfaced 11d smoothie. Lovely stuff – many thanks to Joker!
| Across | |
| 4 | Record major returning congestion (3,3) |
| LOG JAM – LOG (record) MAJ. (major) “returning” | |
| 7 | It’s cheap circulating something drawing on a number of sources (8) |
| PASTICHE – anagram (circulating) of ITS CHEAP | |
| 8 | Avoid losing head? Run in that predicament (6) |
| SCRAPE – eSCAPE (avoid), losing head = missing first letter, insert R for a run in cricket | |
| 9 | Reluctance to work of girl carrying fan mag (8) |
| LAZINESS – LASS (girl) carrying ZINE (fan mag) | |
| 10 | What’s in water regularly dissolves (4) |
| ISLE – d I s S o L v E s “regularly” | |
| 12 | Chap challenging endless Chinese speech (8) |
| MANDARIN – MAN (chap) DARINg (challenging) “endless” | |
| 15 | Scorn politician replacing second in dispute (8) |
| CONTEMPT – MP (politician) replacing the S(econd) in CONTEST (dispute) | |
| 18 | Highland dance with drum (4) |
| REEL – double definition. I assumed the latter to be some noisy instrument I was unaware of, but no, Chambers defines it as a “cylinder, drum, spool, bobbin or frame on which thread, fishing-line, wire, cables, photographic film, etc may be wound.” Aah yes, duh! That makes more sense. | |
| 20 | Frank sat right strangely (8) |
| STRAIGHT – anagram (strangely) of SAT RIGHT | |
| 22 | Having an irrational fear of mischievous imp in picture (6) |
| PHOBIC – HOB (mischievous imp) in PIC(ture). Wiki tells me that HOB is a diminutive of Robin, itself a diminutive of Robert: apparently hobs (and their related hobgoblins) were mischievous household sprites that would do bits and bobs around the house at night, and were quick to take offence. To make them seem less frightening, they were given breezy little nicknames, and the name that happened to stick was Hob. | |
| 23 | Lacking enthusiasm? Not the best way to go shopping (8) |
| LISTLESS – double definition, the second being somewhere between whimsical and good advice | |
| 24 | Spy traditional beer? Never a mild (6) |
| GENTLE – AGENT (spy) ALE (traditional beer), remove the A’s (“never a”) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Long story is something exciting when written up (4) |
| SAGA – A GAS is indeed something exciting, and when written “up” gives the answer | |
| 2 | Small ballistic missile having a harsh sound (8) |
| STRIDENT – S(mall) TRIDENT (ballistic missile) | |
| 3 | Loud cry “leave quickly” — put energy into it (6) |
| SCREAM – SCRAM (leave quickly) – put E(nergy) into it | |
| 4 | Boy following the French example (6) |
| LESSON -SON (boy) following LES (the, French) | |
| 5 | Clothing that’s rubbish, lacking maturity (4) |
| GARB – GARBage (rubbish) lacking AGE (maturity) | |
| 6 | Very suitable program round web location (8) |
| APPOSITE – APP (program) O (round) SITE (web location) | |
| 11 | Drunk is home to drink (8) |
| SMOOTHIE – anagram (drunk) of IS HOME TO | |
| 13 | Snake of a short species (3) |
| ASP – A and SP. (an abbrev. for species) | |
| 14 | A flier I’d seen going round here? (8) |
| AIRFIELD – anagram (seen going round) of A FLIER ID. A semi-&lit clue: an &lit clue is where the whole clue is both cryptic wordplay and a literal definition; a semi-&lit clue is where the whole clue provides a literal definition, but not all of it is cryptic wordplay, which in this case is the word “here”. | |
| 16 | Reported bivalve’s strength (6) |
| MUSCLE – sounds like (“reported”) MUSSEL (bivalve) | |
| 17 | Beat time, hard and over-hasty (6) |
| THRASH – T(ime) H(ard) and RASH (over-hasty) | |
| 19 | Go up against an objection (4) |
| ABUT – A BUT = an objection | |
| 21 | Mix-up is severe when king goes missing (4) |
| HASH – HArSH (severe) when R (Rex = king) goes missing | |
26:49 – just adding to get it to register on Quitch