Good puzzle, less tricky than the past couple of days.
I had a bit of a slow start, drawing a blank on the first four acrosses, although 1ac and 8ac certainly look quite gettable in hindsight. But things picked up and I crossed the line (after quite a lot of biffing) in a snappy enough (for me) 5:23.
Quite a lot of anagrams (eight) and double definitions (seven), but all good fun – many thanks to Mara!
| Across | |
| 1 | PR created fancy VIP treatment (3,6) |
| RED CARPET – anagram (fancy) of PR CREATED. The OED says the practice of rolling out the red carpet is of great antiquity. And I see a red carpet is also a moth, hopefully never clued as such. | |
| 6 | Mark confined to bed, otherwise (3) |
| DOT – “confined” to beD OTherwise – well hidden! | |
| 8 | New record, free (7) |
| RELEASE – double definition | |
| 9 | Musical bloomer (5) |
| POPPY – double definition. I had never heard of the musical, of which there seem to be at least a couple so named – while solving I half-thought it might be “like pop (music)” = poppy = musical. | |
| 10 | Sometimes forty-one and seven not entirely wrong (5,2,5) |
| EVERY SO OFTEN – anagram (wrong) of FORTY ONE and SEVE |
|
| 12 | Network generating revenue in dictatorships, primarily (4) |
| GRID – “primary” letters of the previous four words | |
| 13 | Penned by Melville, a flawless page (4) |
| LEAF – “penned” by melvilLE A Flawless | |
| 17 | After refit, car presented in prominent position in magazine (6,6) |
| CENTRE SPREAD – anagram (after spread) of CAR PRESENTED | |
| 20 | Board expressing agreement from two countries? (5) |
| OUIJA – YES in French and German. Wiki informs me that I was incorrect in thinking that OUI and JA was the origin of the name: in fact, the name was given from a word spelled out on the board when a medium asked the board to name itself. When asked what the word meant, it responded “Good Luck”. | |
| 21 | Use polite moves, stealing kiss (7) |
| EXPLOIT – anagram (moves) of POLITE stealing/taking X (kiss) | |
| 23 | Open your mouth, for instance (3) |
| SAY – sort of a double definition &lit | |
| 24 | With a lack of enthusiasm, you listed works (9) |
| TEDIOUSLY – anagram (works) of YOU LISTED | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Unusual how steak is sometimes served? (4) |
| RARE – double definition | |
| 2 | Bring half of deer meat? (7) |
| DELIVER – DE |
|
| 3 | Muslim commander found in tea garden (3) |
| AGA – “found in” teA GArden | |
| 4 | Delight in magic word? (6) |
| PLEASE – double definition, the second as in “what’s the magic word?” | |
| 5 | First model, a rarity originally, very high price (3,6) |
| TOP DOLLAR – TOP (first) DOLL (model) A R (Rarity “originally”) | |
| 6 | Bus station opted out (5) |
| DEPOT – anagram (out) of OPTED | |
| 7 | Tiresome doing magistrate’s job (6) |
| TRYING – double definition | |
| 11 | Visitor to garden arrested, sneakily pocketing first of bulbs (9) |
| REDBREAST – anagram (sneakily) of ARRESTED, pocketing B (“first” of Bulbs | |
| 14 | Baffled when it comes to defeat? (2,1,4) |
| AT A LOSS – double-ish definition | |
| 15 | Type of clue, a hybrid (6) |
| ACROSS – A, CROSS (hybrid) | |
| 16 | Go up like climber, initially with purpose (6) |
| ASCEND – AS (like) C (Climber “initially”) with END (purpose) | |
| 18 | Loud comic is on telly, finally (5) |
| NOISY – anagram (comic) of IS ON, Y (tellY “finally”) | |
| 19 | Remain in street, annually drained (4) |
| STAY – ST(reet) A |
|
| 22 | Person regularly seen, expert (3) |
| PRO – P e R s O n (regularly seen”) | |
13 minutes
Pretty lousy when compared to other solvers I often compare myself with.
I am in awe of Tina and a great showing from Mr R. 👏👏👏
Almost completed big crossword but that is still a fail. Spent not far off 2 hours on it. Appalling performance. ☹️☹️
PS Now checked blog for big crossword. 2 errors. So near and yet so far.
An easier QC than yesterday’s. I’d NHO TOP DOLLAR but Mr J had. Neither of us knew POPPY as a musical despite enjoying musicals – so like others we wondered it it was for pop-py music.
FOI RARE;
LOI ASCEND;
COD TRYING for the groan.
Thanks to Rolytoly and Mara, and Jack for the info on POPPY.