I found this quite tricky and finished just outside target of 10 minutes. There’s a rash of double definitions and anagrams to enjoy.
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 1 | Hit second vehicle (6) |
| STRUCK – second (S), vehicle (TRUCK). I toyed with strike for a while – present tense of hit – but trike for vehicle seemed a bit of a stretch. | |
| 4 | One is grabbed by deranged girl (4) |
| MAID – one (I) is grabbed by deranged (MAD). Three little maids from school tra la. | |
| 9 | Very big chaps breaking into dilapidated semi (7) |
| IMMENSE – chaps (MEN) breaking into an anagram (dilapidated) of SEMI. Very big – like space – you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s but that’s just peanuts compared to space. | |
| 10 | Father has new attractive female (5) |
| SIREN – father (SIRE), new (N), | |
| 11 | Run in a northern strategy from southern Region? (9) |
| ANTARCTIC – run (R) inside a (A), northern (N), strategy (TACTIC). | |
| 12 | Little child wanting a black horse (3) |
| BAY – little child (BA)b(Y) – wanting (lacking) a (one) black (B). | |
| 13 | Destroying Hydra around lake only with great difficulty (6) |
| HARDLY – anagram (destroying) of HYDRA around lake (L). | |
| 15 | Weaver finding support (6) |
| BOTTOM – double definition. The first the weaver in Midsummer Night’s Dream, the second what someone or something sits on – I’m minded to include ‘finding’ as part of the second definition but can’t quite justiy it. | |
| 17 | Author lifting a piece of Spenser (3) |
| PEN – lifting (pinching) a bit of S(PEN)ser. | |
| 18 | Actuary upset about company reversing very firm rule (9) |
| AUTOCRACY – anagram (upset) of ACTUARY and company – co – reversed (OC). | |
| 21 | Earth holds power to go bad (5) |
| SPOIL – Earth (SOIL) holds power (P). | |
| 22 | Trimmer sailing vessel that goes quickly (7) |
| CLIPPER – double definition, the first what many people have been using to get an amateur haircut of late (and, chaps, it really isn’t hard at all), the second a sailing ship once used for tea freight. | |
| 23 | Hindu queen managed India (4) |
| RANI – managed (RAN) + India (I). | |
| 24 | Something for breakfast? It’s nice, really — in part (6) |
| CEREAL – in part of ni(CE REAL)ly. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | What starts Popeye in breaking chains? (7) |
|
SPINACH – |
|
| 2 | Right to give out terms of reference (5) |
| REMIT – right (R), to give out (EMIT). | |
| 3 | Broken bolt on cellar is open for management (12) |
| CONTROLLABLE – anagram (broken) of BOLT ON CELLAR. | |
| 5 | A moggy about to steal tumbler (7) |
| ACROBAT – a moggy (A CAT) about to steal (ROB). | |
| 6 | Excellent American man who is well dressed (5) |
| DANDY – double definition. The first usually comes with ‘fine and’ (well, that’s what some Brits think – let us know if that’s not reality), the second someone who may well use a trimmer. | |
| 7 | Son is into black example of humour (4) |
| JEST – son (S) is (put) into black (JET). | |
| 8 | Mentally affecting Hitchcock film running (12) |
| PSYCHOACTIVE – Hitchcock film (PSYCHO), running (ACTIVE). | |
| 14 | Shabby to cancel whiskey in Royal Navy (3-4) |
| RUN-DOWN – cancel (UNDO) and whiskey (W – NATO phonetic alphabet – first time I’ve noticed the Irish/American spelling) inside Royal Navy (RN). | |
| 16 | Mother and Yankee have spoken of local dignitary (7) |
| MAYORAL – Mother (MA) and Yankee (Y) spoken (ORAL). | |
| 17 | Puzzle show-off (5) |
| POSER – double definition. | |
| 19 | Time to do something in diplomacy (4) |
| TACT – time (T), to do something about (ACT). | |
| 20 | Fruit beer — keeping very quiet (5) |
| APPLE – beer (ALE) keeping very quiet (PP). An excellent note to finish on – I throughly enjoyed a walk to a sunny country beer garden yesterday – where there were some trees – whether apple or not I didn’t really mind as the ale was great – Cheers! | |
PSYCHO went in quickly but the — ACTIVE part stumped me. Not a word I use, except when thinking of drugs like LSD (which I don’t often think of!)
17D POSER : is the reference to a ‘Puzzle’ that it poses questions ? Bit obscure for me.
I also tried the 15×15 yesterday and was encouraged by how much I completed.
A fun QC today, and thanks for explanations, which are always welcome.
FOI “STRIKE” (correctly SPINACH)
LOI CONTROLLABLE (after I was STRUCK by a truck)
COD SPINACH
TIME 4:35
A new sort of puzzle? I’m sure everyone else is being too polite to mention it.
I’ve been snapping at Mrs Random’s heels in the past few days, but normality resumed today. My FOI was IMMENSE and I reached just three clues to go by 22 minutes (excellent progress for me). At that point, however, I became “mentally affected” and it took me a further 30 minutes to get PSYCHOACTIVE, SIREN and BOTTOM. To start with, I could only think of The Birds for the film, but I got PSYCHO_C_I_E and then Siren fairly early in the half-hour. 20-25 minutes of meticulous alphabet trawling were required to find ACTIVE and BOTTOM (the Shakespeare link was completely lost on me).
Mrs Random started the puzzle after me, finished it in 17 minutes, went off and decorated a birthday cake (not mine, unfortunately), and then made the pastry cases for two quiches. She came back to find me still stuck. That’s how it goes here.
Many thanks to Joker and to chrisw91