Big fat DNF OWL for me, failing on the (NHO, he whines bitterly) word at 12a. Would have been just under 6 minutes, so otherwise straightforward.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Novelist means to track man with Chinese porcelain (9) |
| HEMINGWAY – WAY [means – Collins sense 1 “a manner, method, or means”] comes after [to track] HE [man] + MING [Chinese porcelain]. A somewhat jumbled IKEA. | |
| 6 | Modest attempt (3) |
| SHY – double definition. | |
| 8 | Cocktail Ronnie mixed with a drop of gin (7) |
| NEGRONI – anagram [mixed] of “Ronnie” and G [a drop of gin]. | |
| 9 | American university lecturer initially following a routine (5) |
| USUAL – US [American] + U [university] + L [lecturer initially] after [following] A [a]. Another mixed-up IKEA. | |
| 10 | Encountered army corps just beyond the yard (5) |
| METRE – MET [encountered] + RE [Royal Engineers – army corps]. A METRE is 1.09361 yards, hence “just beyond”. | |
| 12 | Dog doctor on the radio (6) |
| HEELER – I failed on this and was irritated by it. It’s in the dictionaries as a piece of Antipodean slang (e.g. Collins “3. (Australian and New Zealand) a dog that herds cattle by biting at their heels”). Obscure, I would suggest. But more to the point, when you’re looking at H*E*E* and looking for a homophone [on the radio] of “doctor” (pretty obviously “healer”), you’ve got two choices: “heeler” or “hieler” (given that “ie” is generally “ee” in the usual patterns of English vowel digraph pronunciation). I thought of both but plumped for “hieler”, on the basis that it looked a bit more like a dog breed I didn’t know than “heeler”. There was no way of telling which was right and given the obscurity of the word I felt aggrieved.
On edit: it turns out that there’s a cartoon series called Bluey about a Blue Heeler puppy, so if you have children or grandchildren the right age then this is well-known! |
|
| 14 | Aristocrat somewhere in New Zealand leaving wife for jazz musician (4,9) |
| DUKE ELLINGTON – DUKE [aristocrat] + {w}ELLINGTON [somewhere in New Zealand “leaving wife”, i.e. omitting the W]. Bit of a gimme but a lovely surface. | |
| 16 | Sack amateur belonging to force (3,3) |
| LAY OFF – LAY [amateur] + OF [belonging to] + F [force]. | |
| 17 | Paddy left son going back (5) |
| STROP – PORT [left] + S [son] all reversed [going back]. A paddy is “a fit of temper, a rage; a hot temper” per OED, dating first from 1894. | |
| 19 | African animal fine alongside a Greek character (5) |
| OKAPI – OK [fine] followed by [alongside] A [a] + PI [Greek character]. | |
| 20 | Furious with a kid in middle of diner (2,1,4) |
| IN A RAGE – this took me a while. I could see that “middle of diner” = INE and that “a” = A. So I now had IN A ***E, and the *** had to be a word meaning “kid”, with the whole thing meaning “furious”. But I couldn’t decide whether it was “in a rage” or “in a bate”, since neither “rag” nor “bat” obviously seemed to mean “kid”. In the end I decided that since “rag” means “tease”, that was probably close enough to “kid”. But I didn’t think “kid” for “rag” was great, to be honest. | |
| 22 | Stuart regularly avoided tasteless stuff (3) |
| TAT – every other letter [regularly avoided”] of “Stuart“. | |
| 23 | Dark horse’s dreadful experience (9) |
| NIGHTMARE – NIGHT [dark] + MARE [horse]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Had me and cast developed using manual skills? (8) |
| HANDMADE – anagram [cast] of “had me and”. | |
| 2 | Pot noodle (3) |
| MUG – double definition. MUG and “noodle” both mean silly or foolish person. | |
| 3 | Circle filling part of body? Hangman uses this (5) |
| NOOSE – O [circle] going inside [filling] NOSE [part of body]. | |
| 4 | Women’s rowing team boosting sport (13) |
| WEIGHTLIFTING – W [women’s] + EIGHT [rowing team] + LIFTING [boosting]. | |
| 5 | I accept that our time will come after year (5,2) |
| YOU’RE ON – OUR [our] + EON [time] after [come after] Y [year]. | |
| 6 | Dodgy sweet and sour producing wind (9) |
| SOU’WESTER – anagram [dodgy] of “sweet” and “sour”. SOU’WESTER is an alternative for south-wester, “a wind or gale blowing from the south-west”. It also means the sort of wide-brimmed oilskin hat beloved of Captain Birdseye, worn to protect against the rain often brought by sou’westers. | |
| 7 | Cry, lacking courage, emitting “ow” (4) |
| YELL – YELL{ow}. | |
| 11 | Severely criticise Kate changing a role (4,5) |
| TAKE APART – anagram [changing] of “Kate” + A [a] + PART [role]. | |
| 13 | Old relative keeps recording style of garment (3-5) |
| ONE-PIECE – O [old] + NIECE [relative] including [keeps] EP [recording – see here]. | |
| 15 | College pupil from north European country, not south (7) |
| ETONIAN – Breadman leans closer to Merlin and whispers “Darling … they’re playing our song.” E{s}TONIAN. Bonus point to Breaders for remembering that it’s a college. | |
| 17 | Begin small pastry dish (5) |
| START – S [small] + TART [pastry dish]. | |
| 18 | Commanding Officer visiting Afghan maybe (4) |
| COAT – CO [Commanding Officer] + AT [visiting]. Those sheepskin coats with fur trim, once beloved by hippies. | |
| 21 | Turkish officer appearing in gangway at regular intervals (3) |
| AGA – every other letter [appearing … at regular intervals] of “gangway”. “In Muslim countries (esp. under the Ottoman Empire): (originally) a military commander or senior officer; (subsequently also) a civil officer or tribal chieftain. Frequently as a title of distinction (e.g. in Turkey for a powerful landowner).” (OED). | |
I remember seeing the late Queen referring to her corgis as heelers. They were biting ankles. I imagine it was only Prince Philip that dared tell them to f@ck off. J