Izetti on relatively gentle form today.
1ac was my biggest hold-up in all of this, and prevented an otherwise clean sweep of the acrosses – I ultimately needed all but one of the down checkers to unravel it. I’m glad my anagram skills were on better form elsewhere in the grid as there were quite a few of them, and I came home with EMAIL my LOI in a fairly breezy 5:49.
Many thanks to Izetti!
| Across | |
| 1 | Celeb, a co-star being silly in fun run (8,4) |
| OBSTACLE RACE – anagram (being silly) of CELEB A CO-STAR. From brief research, I can’t see much diffference between an obstacle race and an assault course, so I’m going to claim the word “fun” threw me off the scent a bit. | |
| 8 | A Parisian on stone floor (4) |
| STUN – UN (“A”, in Parisian/French) on ST(one). As in to KO. | |
| 9 | Publicity material taped, broadcast and modified (7) |
| ADAPTED – AD (publicity material) and an anagram (broadcast) of TAPED. | |
| 11 | Walking without sure step in short grass and heather (7) |
| REELING – REEd (“short” grass) and LING (heather). Ling and erica crop up a fair bit for heather. | |
| 12 | Both sides welcoming time for drink (5) |
| LAGER – L and R (both sides) welcoming AGE (time) | |
| 14 | Instant support (6) |
| SECOND – double definition, the, er, second as in to back. | |
| 15 | Get by with awkward dame, OK? (4,2) |
| MAKE DO – anagram (awkward) of DAME OK | |
| 18 | Destroy final message at university (3,2) |
| RIP UP – R.I.P. (final message) UP (at university). UP for AT UNI also crops up a fair bit. | |
| 20 | Somehow I daren’t get on the platform? (7) |
| DETRAIN – anagram (somehow) of I DARENT | |
| 21 | Examiner’s task is difficult (7) |
| TESTING – double definition | |
| 23 | Arrest slow mover abandoning leader (4) |
| NAIL – sNAIL (slow mover) abandoning leader | |
| 24 | Sore I treated inappropriately gets worse (12) |
| DETERIORATES – anagram (inappropriately) of SORE I TREATED | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Plant beginning to beat, say, competition (9) |
| BUTTERCUP – B (“beginning” to Beat) UTTER (say) CUP (competition) | |
| 3 | Anxiety is seen in group of nine, all retreating (7) |
| TENSION – IS seen in NONET (group of nine) all retreating/reversing | |
| 4 | Price demanded is a burden (6) |
| CHARGE – double definition | |
| 5 | Communication, the reverse of feeble, engaging one (5) |
| EMAIL – the reverse of LAME (feeble) engaging I (one) | |
| 6 | Skill of political group expelling extremists (3) |
| ART – pARTy (political group) expelling the extreme letters. | |
| 7 | Bedroom items now desired in new style (10) |
| EIDERDOWNS – anagram (in new style) of NOW DESIRED | |
| 10 | Thwarted female told off after game on street (10) |
| FRUSTRATED – F(emale) RATED (told off) after RU (Rugby Union = game) on ST(reet) | |
| 13 | Reddish-orange fabric somehow engrained (9) |
| GRENADINE – anagram (somehow) of ENGRAINED | |
| 16 | A new singer on the radio received here? (7) |
| ANTENNA – A N(ew) TENNA = sounds like TENOR (singer) “on the radio” | |
| 17 | Slow movement initially affecting soldier in bustling activity (6) |
| ADAGIO – A (“initially” Affecting) GI (soldier) in ADO (bustling activity) | |
| 19 | Earlier leader of religious community (5) |
| PRIOR – double definition | |
| 22 | Rested bottom having expended energy (3) |
| SAT – SEAT (bottom) expending E(nergy) | |
18.46 Yay! Two days running out of the SCC. Yawn some may, however, for us that is cause for much merriment and mutual back patting. Today was my day…anagrams… though for reasons unknown, OBSTACLE was just that, and took a good many seconds to solve.
Very much enjoyed this – though the workings of FRUSTRATED were less familiar to us.
Quite smug adding LING (a word unknown to us prior to joining crossword world) to make REELING.
Am sure our lives have changed for the better. 😉
ANTENNA made us smile.
Thank you Izetti and RolyToly.
Lovely puzzle – reliable Izetti! He was kind today. Lovely misdirections. DNF with 22d sit/sat error. Never mind, it was good fun.
FOI 1a Obstacle Race
LOI 22d Sit/Sat
COD20a Detrain
Izetti is such a good setter that he can produce both Mephistos and also easy ones like this, without compromising on surfaces. Bravo.
I hate it when 1a is LOI but lo it came to pass today. Perfectly fair clue but I am so first-letter dependent. Like vinyl I therefore started with FRUSTRATED and worked around anti-clockwise.
All done in 06:45 for a Very Good Day. Many thanks Don and roly.
Another poor performance given the difficulty level.
22 minutes. Not good enough. Still no sign of improvement/enjoyment.
Thanks for the blog.