A nice gentle one from Rongo today, I think I’m safe in saying, providing a pleasant introduction to the world of cryptic crosswords, with clearly signposted cryptics and definitions. A bit of a biff-fest, then, for the more initiated – I was a languid eight minutes. It suited me well enough, as I’m off on holiday very shortly and have a number of things than might more sensibly be occupying my time… indeed, I think I’d better leave it there, and say thanks a lot to Rongo!
| Across | |
| 1 | Police burst out, seizing Conservative government business (6,6) |
| PUBLIC SECTOR – Anagram (out) of POLICE BURST, seizing C(onservative). | |
| 8 | Buried in Truro, a sister’s fertile patch (5) |
| OASIS – “Buried” in the letters of trurO A SISter | |
| 9 | Melissa wanders, lacking purpose (7) |
| AIMLESS – anagram (wanders) of MELISSA | |
| 10 | Kill grouse etc, when ultimate strategy comes into play (7) |
| ENDGAME – END (kill) GAME (grouse, etc.). Tactics should suffice as an endgame to beat me at chess. | |
| 11 | Shout approval of revolutionary meeting Queen (5) |
| CHEER – CHE (stock revolutionary, as in Guevara), meeting ER (stock queen) | |
| 12 | Dreadful pun — it’s making contributions (6) |
| INPUTS – anagram (dreadful) of PUN ITS | |
| 14 | Film shown in Bratislava: Tarzan (6) |
| AVATAR – “shown” in the letters of bratislAVA TARzan. | |
| 17 | Lincoln possibly admitting American ill-treatment (5) |
| ABUSE – ABE (Lincoln, possibly) admitting US (American) | |
| 19 | Insiders from party listen for performer (7) |
| ARTISTE – “Inside” letters of pARTy l ISTE n. | |
| 21 | Doing some housework, ignoring initial inclination (7) |
| LEANING – CLEANING (doing some housework, ignoring initial letter) | |
| 22 | Set of beliefs about marsh plant (5) |
| CREED – C (circa, about) REED (marsh plant) | |
| 23 | Severe punishment, unusual type halted around North America (5,7) |
| DEATH PENALTY – anagram (unusual) of TYPE HALTED going around N(orth) A(merica) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Ring up twitching colleague to see how words are pronounced? (12) |
| PHONETICALLY – PHONE (ring up) TIC (a tic = a twitching) ALLY (colleague) | |
| 2 | Located while in sleeping place (5) |
| BASED – AS (while) in BED | |
| 3 | Occupying street, perhaps a worker’s moment (7) |
| INSTANT – IN (occupying) ST(reet) ANT (a worker, perhaps) | |
| 4 | Tin contains insipid part of flower (6) |
| STAMEN – Sn (symbol for tin) contains TAME (insipid) | |
| 5 | Stand-up maybe needing company microphone (5) |
| COMIC – CO(mpany) MIC(rophone) | |
| 6 | How to put weight on each in public (7) |
| OVEREAT – EA (abbreviation for each) in OVERT (public) | |
| 7 | Easy to understand addict at pre-season match? (4-8) |
| USER-FRIENDLY – USER (addict) at FRIENDLY (pre-season match) | |
| 13 | Highly desirable era for feathers (7) |
| PLUMAGE – PLUM (highly desirable – as in a location, say) AGE (era) | |
| 15 | Vessel I’m able to show palace in Rome (7) |
| VATICAN – VAT (vessel) I CAN (I’m able to) | |
| 16 | Emotional problem to end conversation abruptly (4-2) |
| HANG-UP – double definition | |
| 18 | With a final twist, goes out live (5) |
| EXIST – EXITS (goes out – “twist” the last two letters) | |
| 20 | Drop bombs on second place of torment (5) |
| SHELL – S(econd) HELL (place of torment) | |
Edited at 2017-11-09 06:41 am (UTC)
Last few were public sector, phonetically, instant, exist, and LOI artiste. Artiste held up by having hung up for a while.
18d not parsed, I saw exit but not sure where the S was coming from.
Liked user friendly but COD 10a endgame.
16:42, so apart from 1A yesterday, all well under the target for the week.
NW corner hard to get started, could not unpick the anagram at 1A without multiple checkers.
Agree that there were quite a few biffs.
COD 4d for the rare Sn for tin.
An enjoyable solve particularly 10a and 18d. Completed in 14 minutes
Plumage was one of those which is so obvious afterwards -often the sign of a good clue. My COD to 19a. 20 minutes in the end which is about my average. David