Guy has set this morning’s puzzle.
Some unusual definitions held me up a bit, but I got there in the end. A fun puzzle with some clues where the parsing was not immediately obvious, but nothing terribly obscure in the final reckoning. Unusually for me, solving the longer entries didn’t help as much as they sometimes do.
Thanks, Guy
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MOTHERS-IN-LAW |
The king’s visiting LA, cutting short time with least favourite relatives? (7-2-3)
|
| THE + R’s (R= Rex, so “king”) + IN (“visiting”) + LA, cutting MO (“short time”) + W (with)
Mothers-in-law were often the butt of comedian’s jokes. |
||
| 9 | NONSLIP |
Unopened anonymous note certain to cause friction (7)
|
| [unopened] (a)NON (anonymous) + SLIP (“note”) | ||
| 10 | CUT-RATE |
Priest taking test initially marked down (3-4)
|
| CURATE (“priest”) taking T(est) [initially] | ||
| 11 | TAROT |
Sailor returned to deck for the forecast (5)
|
| TAR (“sailor”) + [returned] <=TO | ||
| 12 | RESTRAINT |
Check Romeo isn’t on holiday (9)
|
| R (Romeo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + AIN’T (“isn’t”) on REST (“holiday”) | ||
| 13 | SIDE ROAD |
Team went by boat, you’d say a slower way to go (4,4)
|
| SIDE (“team”) + homophone/pun/aural wordplay [you’d say] of RODE (“went by boat”) | ||
| 15 | CASH IN |
Profit by removing middle of sandwich and repackaging it (4,2)
|
| *(sanich) [anag: repackaging] where SANICH is SAN(dw)ICH with its middle removed | ||
| 17 | GREEDY |
Demanding a larger allotment, garden’s left with long grass (6)
|
| G(arden) [‘s left] + REEDY (“with long grass”) | ||
| 18 | TIBETANS |
People in yeti country live among giants (8)
|
| BE (“live”) among TITANS (“giants”) | ||
| 21 | BLEACHING |
Sore behind starts to burn literally every beauty treatment (9)
|
| ACHING (“sore”) behind [starts to] B(urn) L(iterally) E(very) | ||
| 22 | BRAGS |
Black tatty things, crows (5)
|
| B (black) + RAGS (“tatty things”) | ||
| 23 | SOLDIER |
Private OAP unpacked summer clothes (7)
|
| [unpacked] S(umme)R clothes OLDIE | ||
| 24 | RESPITE |
Downtime editor’s beginning after dealing with drivel (7)
|
| E(ditor) [‘s beginning] after RE (“dealing with”) + SPIT (“drivel”) | ||
| 25 | INCANDESCENT |
Very hot coming down from Machu Picchu? (12)
|
| INCAN (“from Machu Picchu?”) + DESCENT (“coming down”) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MINUTES |
Itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny record? (7)
|
| Two meanings of MINUTE (“its-bitsy” and “teeny-weeny”) | ||
| 2 | TUNBRIDGE WELLS |
New girl bustled about town (9,5)
|
| *(new girl busted) [anag:about]
Tunbridge Wells (proper name – Royal Tunbridge Wells) is a town in Kent. |
||
| 3 | ECLAT |
Powder end of nose in mirror for striking effect (5)
|
| <=(TALC (“powder”) + [end of] (nos)E, in mirror (i.e. reflected)) | ||
| 4 | SUPERMAN |
Masculine ideal according to mother wears blazer (8)
|
| PER (“according to”) + MA (mother) wears SUN (“blazer”) | ||
| 5 | NICISH |
Wobbly chin is kind of sweet (6)
|
| *(chin is) [anag:wobbly] | ||
| 6 | ALTERCATE |
“Photoshop?” Ms Blanchett spat (9)
|
| ALTER (“photoshop”) + CATE (Blanchett) (American actress) | ||
| 7 | PARISH MAGAZINE |
Doctor in Gaza has Prime, local reports (6,8)
|
| *(in gaza has prime) [anag:doctor] | ||
| 8 | SEXTON |
Church attendant cross with radio playing outside (6)
|
| X (cross) with SET ON (“radio playing”) outside | ||
| 14 | REDACTION |
Censorship something Communists do? (9)
|
| RED ACTION might be “something Communists do” | ||
| 16 | LINGERED |
One put off by underwear daughter didn’t clear up (8)
|
| I (one) put off by LINGER(i)E (“underwear”) + D (daughter) | ||
| 17 | GO BUST |
Smash mug, getting oddly upset (2,4)
|
| GOB (“mug”) getting [oddly] U(p)S(e)T | ||
| 19 | SUSPECT |
Dodgy feature that makes one buy into cult (7)
|
| USP (unique selling point, so “feature that makes one buy”) into SECT | ||
| 20 | SIERRA |
Range hosier rarely stocks (6)
|
| Hidden in [stocks] “hoSIER RArely” | ||
| 22 | BASIS |
Foundation degree requiring intelligence (5)
|
| BA (Bachelor of Arts, so “degree”) requiring SIS (Special “Intelligence” Service) |
Thanks Guy and loonapick. I agree that it was fun with lots to like. I parsed 13ac with ROWED as the homophone.
Also ROWED. Only seen SIS as secret intelligence service.
Spat as a verb was new to me, but the wordplay was convincing. I imagine INCANDESCENT has been done before, but it made me smile. Excellent puzzle.
Also had rowed.
And Cate Blanchett is Australian.
My experience today was not unlike Loonapick’s. I chipped away at the grid until it was complete and couldn’t really see, by the end, why I had found it so slow-going. Must have been a wavelength thing as I’m embarrassed to admit that my last entry was SIERRA, not the most fiendish of hidden answers.
I nominate TAROT as my favourite for the neat surface.
Thanks to Guy and Loonapick.
In the back of my mind, I thought Ms Blanchett wasn’t American, but due to time constraints, I forgot to check. And ROWED makes much more sense. Less haste, more speed!!!
Chugged along with this. Wasn’t sure about ALTERCATE but well ok. SUPERMAN and SUPERWOMAN on the same day! Liked MINUTES and RESTRAINT.
Loonapick @5,
It’s probably because she’s such a chameleon and is a whiz at different accents.
Thanks Guy and Loonapick
13ac: I certainly thought of ROWED when solving, but, on reflection, I am prepared to argue that “went by boat” fits more naturally to a passenger and possibly on a motor boat, in which case RODE would be more appropriate. Of course, it works either way.
22dn: Chambers 2016 p 1457 and Collins 2023 p 1856 both give SIS as Secret Intelligence Service, but also as Security Intelligence Service in New Zealand.
I did not find this too difficult, although some answers took time to reveal themselves. NW corner was the first to fall, and the SE corner the last.
I thought clues that had OK surfaces were SIDE ROAD, PARISH MAGAZINE, SIERRA and ALTERCATE. I could not parse SOLDIER and did not bother to try parsing 1ac.
Thanks Guy and loonapick
As is often the case with @GUY this took me a little longer than usual to solve. Just a couple of nitpicks:
16d “didn’t clear up”=“linger”? “Didn’t clear off” would be better.
17d: “mug”=“gob”? Gob is mouth, surely, not “face” which would be “mug”.
But otherwise all very fair.
16dn: Think in terms of a blemish on the skin, which clears up, not off, and lingers until it has done so.
17dn: Chambers 2016 p 1008 mug² (inf) n the face; the mouth.
Thanks for the blog , very good set of clues with some clever wordplay .
I think 1Ac is a specific dig but now seems a little out of date .
LINGERED I thought of the common cold , the most obvious and annoying example .
Roz@12: Your example for 16dn LINGERED is certainly better than mine.
Thanks @Pelham Barton & @Roz. I need to get myself a copy of Chambers…
We struggled with this too much to enjoy it. RESPITE was our LOI, we’ve always thought of ‘drivel’ as nonsense (as in ‘he’s talking utter drivel’) and were quite surprised to see it given as ‘slaver’ etc in Chambers.
Thanks, though, to Guy and especially to loonapick.