We haven’t had many puzzles from Juji, who appears in the “gentle/medium” bracket of the setters’ difficulty league. I found this one a stiffish test, though, and it pushed me well over average at 12:35. A couple of cracking hiddens, quite a few “remove the [first/last] [central] letters” devices, and some ingenious definitions made this a thoroughly enjoyable work-out; hope you enjoyed it too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Not very great shopping centre is in outskirts of Slough (8) |
| SMALLISH – MALL [shopping centre] + IS [is] inside [in] SH [outskirts of Slough]. I didn’t find that easy at all, thinking that “shopping centre” was going to be PP or OPPI, and needed checkers. | |
| 5 | Develop good argument (4) |
| GROW – G [good] + ROW [argument]. | |
| 8 | Run no further, regularly missing path (5) |
| ROUTE – R [run] + every other letter [regularly missing] of “no further”. | |
| 9 | Tight-fitting garment was first donned by old sailor (7) |
| LEOTARD – LED [was first] going outside [donned by] O [old] TAR [sailor]. Easier to solve than parse! | |
| 11 | Finally restore the ancient organ (3) |
| EYE – E [finally restore] + YE [the ancient, i.e. an outdated form of “the”]. | |
| 12 | So entertained by act here for evening (9) |
| THEREFORE – this is the first of two very good hiddens, inside [entertained by] “act here for evening”. Bravo! | |
| 13 | Cheers monarch is receiving (6) |
| TAKING – TA [cheers] + KING [monarch]. Not the most obvious of synonyms but well supported by the usual sources – Collins e.g. gives for “take” the following: “to receive or accept into a relationship with oneself”; “to receive or obtain by regular payment”; “to receive or react to in a specified way”; “to receive into the body” and others. | |
| 15 | Had success in test — that’s given (6) |
| PASSED – double definition. I suppose something that’s “passed” is “given”. | |
| 18 | Noted date suspect set off (9) |
| DETONATED – anagram [suspect] of “noted date”. | |
| 19 | Strike old boy back with power (3) |
| BOP – “old boy” is OB, reverse it [back] and add P for “power”. | |
| 20 | I’m surprised, overwhelmed by expenditure for presenting duo (2-5) |
| CO-HOSTS – OH [I’m surprised] inside [overwhelmed by] COSTS [expenditure]. There are lots of little phrases for “I’m surprised” (my, gosh, gee, coo, wow, OMG etc) and I couldn’t conjure up “costs” either, so I waited for checkers. | |
| 21 | One dodging certain fare, say, aboard transport (5) |
| VEGAN -EG [say] inside [aboard] VAN [transport]. Very good definition, COD from me! But no cod for the vegan, natch. | |
| 22 | Go astray by end of corporate function (4) |
| SINE – SIN [go astray] + E [end of corporate]. “A function that in a circle centred at the origin of a Cartesian coordinate system is the ratio of the ordinate of a point on the circumference to the radius of the circle”. In case you’d forgotten. I just used to press the button on my calculator. | |
| 23 | Cook reposes with second coffee (8) |
| ESPRESSO – anagram [cook] of “reposes” + S [second]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Snake enters dilapidated housing quietly (7) |
| SERPENT – anagram [dilapidated] of “enters” containing [housing] P [quietly, musical notation]. | |
| 2 | Delight American showed in games boundlessly (5) |
| AMUSE – American is A, obviously, following our debate last week. Except today it isn’t – it’s US, going inside [showed in] AME [games boundlessly, i.e. “games” without its first and last letters]. | |
| 3 | Officers fib, you said, before number of soldiers (11) |
| LIEUTENANTS – LIE [fib] + U [you said] in front of [before] TEN ANTS [number of soldiers]. Excellent. | |
| 4 | I must replace area of tray made of metal (6) |
| SILVER – my LOI. I could see that we were supposed to substitute an I for an A [I must replace area] in a word meaning “tray” but I couldn’t think of “salver” until I had the checkers. | |
| 6 | Concerned about a child’s motives (7) |
| REASONS – RE [about] + A [a] + SONS [child’s, silent apostrophe]. | |
| 7 | Unite opposing sides in graduate club (5) |
| WEDGE – WED [unite] + GE [opposing sides in graduate]. “Golf: a club with a face angle of more than 50°, used for bunker shots (sand wedge) or pitch shots (pitching wedge)”. This gave me no end of trouble because I had the definition at the wrong end and was working on the basis of some combination of bridge opponents/the usual abbreviations for “graduate”/C for club. An impressive forest of the wrong trees to bark up. | |
| 10 | Six deliveries a vendor arranged repeatedly (4,3,4) |
| OVER AND OVER – OVER [six deliveries, cricket] + an anagram [arranged] of “a vendor”. | |
| 14 | Equipment that man installed in empty common room (7) |
| KITCHEN – KIT [equipment] + HE [that man] going inside [installed in] CN [empty common, i.e. C |
|
| 16 | Cursorily read old papers in retirement, consuming some beer (3,4) |
| DIP INTO – “old” is O; “papers” is ID (worth remembering that one, because it comes up quite a bit). Reverse those elements [in retirement] and you have DIO. Then insert [consuming] PINT [some beer]. | |
| 17 | Equilibrium not entirely lost as I swerved (6) |
| STASIS – our second excellent hidden, inside “lost as I swerved”. I was fooled into thinking that this was an anagram [swerved] of “los” [not entirely lost] and “as I”. Done like a kipper! | |
| 18 | Stink after gutting fish all around harbourside (5) |
| DOCKS – talking of kippers … SK = “stink after gutting”, i.e. S |
|
| 19 | Upset, cry about conclusions of you being fake (5) |
| BOGUS – another reversal clue, indicated by “upset” (this being down clue). SOB [cry] goes around [about] U and G [conclusions of you being], all reversed. | |
Very late but just had to say how enjoyable this was – ingenious and clever.