Thanks Vulcan for today’s puzzle – I especially liked 21ac, 22ac, 5dn, and 19dn.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BYPASS |
Sort of surgery that’s built outside town (6)
|
| double definition: surgery e.g. so that blood can bypass an obstruction; or a traffic bypass around a town | ||
| 4 | PLANCK |
Physicist from college welcomed by board (6)
|
| definition: Max Planck the physicist
C (college) in PLANK=”board” |
||
| 9 | TRIPLE WORD SCORE |
In corridor we slept badly, but it’s a bonus to be on Red Square (6,4,5)
|
| definition refers to a Scrabble board, where using a red square grants a TRIPLE WORD SCORE bonus
anagram/”badly” of (corridor we slept)* |
||
| 10 | PUTSCH |
Revolutionary outbreak shut PC up (6)
|
| anagram/”up” of (shut PC)* | ||
| 11 | NUISANCE |
Inconvenience of one square being in the shade (8)
|
| I=”one” + S (square); both inside NUANCE=”shade” | ||
| 12 | CHESTNUT |
Horse box, large cask on back (8)
|
| definition: a horse of a chestnut colour
CHEST=”box” plus TUN=”large cask” reversed/”back” |
||
| 14 | SPIRIT |
Animation of Irish in light rain (6)
|
| definition as in ‘liveliness’
IR (Irish) in SPIT=”light rain” |
||
| 15 | YOGURT |
Dairy product finally baffling in your starter for ten (6)
|
| final letter of [bafflin]-G in YOUR (from surface), plus the starting letter of T-[en] | ||
| 18 | PERVERSE |
For a line of poetry, deliberately obscure (8)
|
| definition: perverse can mean deliberately counter to expectations, strange, unusual… close in meaning to “obscure”
PER (for each one, “For a”) + VERSE=”line of poetry” |
||
| 21 | SUPPLIER |
Caterer is purple with rage (8)
|
| anagram/”with rage” of (is purple)* | ||
| 22 | PISCES |
Go round church for a sign from heaven (6)
|
| definition: an astrological sign, one seen in the heavens
PISS=”Go”, around CE (Church of England) |
||
| 24 | FALKLAND ISLANDS |
Make landfall, and kiss ground in remote region (8,7)
|
| anagram/”ground” of (landfall and kiss)* | ||
| 25 | ERRORS |
Fears not starting boobs (6)
|
| [t]-ERRORS=”Fears” without its starting letter | ||
| 26 | BETTER |
Much recovered, I’ll wager (6)
|
| a BETTER, as in someone who makes bets, is someone who “[will] wager” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BOROUGH |
Town’s nasty smell unhealthy (7)
|
| BO (Body Odour, “nasty smell”) + ROUGH=”unhealthy” | ||
| 2 | PEPYS |
Diarist looks furtively for audience (5)
|
| definition: Samuel Pepys the diarist
sounds like (for audience): ‘peeps’=”looks furtively” |
||
| 3 | STEPHEN |
He spent wildly for an old king (7)
|
| definition: King Stephen, an early king of England
anagram/”wildly” of (He spent)* |
||
| 5 | LADDIES |
Women protecting daughters and sons maybe (7)
|
| LADIES=”Women” around D (daughters, in genealogy) | ||
| 6 | NECTARINE |
Fruit, entire can demolished (9)
|
| anagram/”demolished’ of (entire can)* | ||
| 7 | KARACHI |
Dakar, a Chinese controlled city (7)
|
| found inside (controlled within): [Da]-KAR A CHI-[nese] | ||
| 8 | BONNET |
Headgear of good French fabric (6)
|
| BON=”good” in French + NET=”fabric” | ||
| 13 | STUD POKER |
A game to stir up the boss? (4,5)
|
| definition: a card game
a POKER is a tool used to stir, and STUD can mean “boss” as in a protuberance, a knob |
||
| 16 | OVULATE |
Produce eggs to value specially (7)
|
| anagram/”specially” of (to value)* | ||
| 17 | THIN AIR |
Into which to disappear up Everest? (4,3)
|
| reference to the phrase ‘to disappear into thin air’
and reference to the thin air at high altitudes, e.g. “up Everest” |
||
| 18 | PARADE |
Show off row of shops (6)
|
| double definition: to display or show off, or a row of shops | ||
| 19 | RIPOSTE |
I contribute online in extremely rude retort (7)
|
| I (from surface) + POST (to post on a website/app is to “contribute online”); both inside the extreme outer letters of R-[ud]-E | ||
| 20 | SLENDER |
Slim line in transmitter (7)
|
| L (line) in SENDER=”transmitter” | ||
| 23 | SMART |
Domestic equipment now may be so fashionable (5)
|
| double definition: the first definition refers to e.g. smart TVs, smart fridges, etc |
Good fun; SMART was the only one I didn’t get — which wasn’t very. Haven’t heard of PEPYS.
SMART defeated me, too. Thanks for the explanation! Everything else was fine.
Into Thin Air was a 1997 book about a disastrous Everest exprdition that led to the death of 8 climbers
I thought SMART was just a cryptic definition rather than a double def, but I can see manehi’s reasoning. Took me a littel while to get started on this, with YOGURT being my first (grateful) one in, but as I often find, once the down clues started falling the rest came together. Needed the ‘k’ to get PLANCK, for example. Liked TRIPLE WORD SCORE and FALKLANd ISLANDS, and PISCES raised a smile. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi
I missed the first definition of SMART too. Smiled at the definition for TRIPLE WORD SCORE, but it wouldn’t make sense to anyone who hadn’t played Scrabble (though I don’t suppose that includes many crossword solvers).
Thanks Vulcan and manehi.
Easier fare from Vulcan on a Monday. I bunged in SMART following manehi’s logic but was’t entirely happy with it. Nice to see a reference to Scrabble and no cricket.
Liked PISCES and STUD POKER.
Thanks Vulcan and manehi
FALKLAND ISLANDS is a cracking clue.
PM @8
I felt it was slightly marred by LAND appearing in both fodder and solution.
Thanks both.
In the FALKLAND ISLANDS clue, I wondered what Make was doing if ground was the anagrind.
Very enjoyable, thanks both. Just a query though on 5d – in genealogy, can D represents ‘daughters’ i.e. plural? If not, shouldn’t it be ‘daughter’ in the clue?