A nice variety of clues from Jason today
I am not entirely certain about the parsing for 17D.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | THRUST |
Force husband into faith (6)
|
| H (husband) inside (into) TRUST (faith) | ||
| 4 | FEARLESS |
Brave force before noble mix-up ousting master (8)
|
| F (force) + EARL (noble) + [M]ESS (mix-up) minus (ousting) M (master) | ||
| 9 | ENCAMP |
Make base answer with commoner behind enclosure (6)
|
| ENC. (enclosure) + A (answer) + MP (commoner), with “behind” indicating the order of the wordplay | ||
| 10 | PASTORAL |
Bygone test is evocative of the country (8)
|
| PAST (bygone) + ORAL (test) | ||
| 12 | SINISTER |
Unlucky nun pocketing nickel (8)
|
| SISTER (nun) around (pocketing) NI (nickel) | ||
| 13 | PIERCE |
Go through support in front of church (6)
|
| PIER (support) + CE (church) | ||
| 15 | NEED |
Require energy in spinning dive (4)
|
| E (energy) inside (in) DEN (dive) reversed (spinning) | ||
| 16 | IRREVERENT |
Cheeky retriever running around lawn finally (10)
|
| Anagram of (running) RETRIEVER around last letter of (finally) [LAW]N | ||
| 19 | STREET CRED |
Way Conservative, being embarrassed, gets trust (6,4)
|
| STREET (way) + C (Conservative) + RED (being embarrassed) | ||
| 20 | EPIC |
Odyssey perhaps is some impressive picture (4)
|
| Hidden in (some) [IMPRESSIV]E PIC[TURE] | ||
| 23 | INSURE |
Cover at home? Certainly (6)
|
| IN (at home) + SURE (certainly) | ||
| 25 | TAP DANCE |
Get money from Fred finally twirling cane? It’s a performance (3,5)
|
| TAP (get money from) + last letter of (finally) [FRE]D + anagram of (twirling) CANE | ||
| 27 | PRESERVE |
Maybe kipper is punter’s first order (8)
|
| First [letter of] P[UNTER] + RESERVE (order) | ||
| 28 | MEDICI |
Old Italian family? One objectively died here in France (6)
|
| ME (one objectively, i.e., objective case of “I”) + D (died) + ICI (here in France, i.e., in French) | ||
| 29 | TAPESTRY |
Head of Theology takes off to judge wall hanging? (8)
|
| First letter of (head of) T[HEOLOGY] + APES (takes off) + TRY (to judge) | ||
| 30 | ATTEST |
Declare a ton before international (6)
|
| A + T (ton) + TEST (international, referring to cricket) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TREASON |
Traitor’s prime motive? (7)
|
| &lit and first letter of (prime [of]) T[RAITOR] + REASON (motive) | ||
| 2 | RACONTEUR |
Storyteller near court in full flow (9)
|
| Anagram of (in full flow) NEAR COURT | ||
| 3 | SAMOSA |
Succeeded tucking into Pacific state’s fried pastry (6)
|
| S (succeeded) inside (tucking into) SAMOA (Pacific state) | ||
| 5 | ÉLAN |
Uncomfortably lean style (4)
|
| Anagram of (uncomfortably) LEAN | ||
| 6 | RETAILER |
Shopkeeper retired, one to lament losing cover (8)
|
| RET. (retired) + [W]AILER (one to lament) minus first letter (losing cover) | ||
| 7 | ERROR |
Starting off panic is a mistake (5)
|
| [T]ERROR (panic) minus first letter (starting off) | ||
| 8 | SALIENT |
Prominent foreigner needling saint (7)
|
| ALIEN (foreigner) inside (needling) ST (saint) | ||
| 11 | DERRICK |
Chap that lifts (7)
|
| Double definition, the first being a man’s name | ||
| 14 | VETERAN |
One who served review – critique ultimately managed (7)
|
| VET (review) + last letter of (ultimately) [CRITIQU]E + RAN (managed) | ||
| 17 | EXPENSIVE |
Lavish one left pondering (9)
|
| I think this parses as: EX (one [who] left) + PENSIVE (pondering) | ||
| 18 | HEARTENS |
Cheers from females taking in English painting, perhaps (8)
|
| HENS (females) around (taking in) {E (English) + ART (painting, perhaps)} | ||
| 19 | SNIPPET |
Bit of news, say, fixes up attack of the sulks (7)
|
| PINS (fixes) inverted (up) + PET (attack of the sulks) | ||
| 21 | CHEMIST |
I am up in box being a seller of drugs (7)
|
| I’M (I am) inverted (up) and inside (in) CHEST (box) | ||
| 22 | ADVERT |
Commercial diamonds head off outside (6)
|
| AVERT (head off) around (outside) D (diamonds) | ||
| 24 | STEEP |
Exorbitant starting price gathering support (5)
|
| SP (starting price) around (gathering) TEE (support) | ||
| 26 | OVER |
Surplus old cleric turned up (4)
|
| O (old) + REV. (cleric) inverted (turned up) |
Lovely puzzle from Jason. My favourites were DERRICK and TAP DANCE for the neat surface.
I had the same parsing for 17d.
Thanks to him and Cineraria.
Good fun. I was unaware that a pet is an attack of the sulks. I didn’t like SP for special price.
Geoff,
SP is used is racing circles (not that I frequent the bookies).
Yes, SP is starting price per the blog. In Australia there were plenty of SP bookies despite being illegal (not sure about now)
I agree there was a lot of variety to enjoy. I best liked RACONTEUR, EPIC, INSURE, and TAPESTRY
All parsed and I too interpreted 17 the same way as the blog. PET for sulk is new to me too, and I was not familiar with 11’s spelling of Derek. I confess I did not like “uncomfortably” as an anagram indicator.
Thanks Jason and Cineraria
Anybody know why the download button no longer produces a file format that’s printable?
I prefer to do that rather than the use the online version on a tiny phone screen.
Most annoying :-/
I’ve the vaguest memory of sinister as unlucky being discussed before. Still feels a bit strange. Nice cruisy puzzle tho, thx J and C.
I was surprised by unlucky = sinister also. But I managed to find it in my dictionary, so all good.
Lots of fun albeit, as ever, I came up short on a few.
Thanks to Jason and Cineraria.
Thanks for the blog , good set of clues . MEDICI and TREASON very neat .
What’s the SP ? is a common UK phrase , asking for information but has obviously come over from betting .
Roz@9
I am familiar with starting price having enjoyed racing in my youth. I think it also means specific point but no idea if that has any links with starting price.
We had MEDICI as part of an answer recently.
Thanks for a good puzzle and clear blog.
SM@10 , What’s the SP ? is just a slang phrase now meaning tell me the news/background etc and the SP has no actual meaning . I suspect it has mutated from horse-racing where it was used to ask for the Starting Price .
Thanks Jason and Cineraria.
Further to earlier comments, Brewer 2018 p 1298 has the following:
SP, The In racing terminology, the STARTING PRICE, meaning the final odds at the start of a horse race. Hence from the 1950s the more general sense ‘information’, ‘facts’.
(The words STARTING PRICE actually appear in small capitals, indicating a reference to the entry on that phrase.)
Mark A @5: No idea why, but we hope it’s just an occasional glitch. Some time ago there was one day when it wouldn’t download at all. We got round today’s problem on our PC by taking a screenshot and printing that.
I suppose an Ex can be either one who is left or one who has left (or neither in the case of a mutually agreed separation. The first seems to fit the wording of the clue best. Is the blog suggesting the second?
Petert@14: I did read it as the second interpretation, as at least a plausible explanation, with my interpolated “who,” but I am not sure that this clue admits of a definitive reading.
In the clue for SALIENT, I misread “needling” as “needing,” and I wondered (once I finally got the answer) how the latter could ever be an insertion indicator. This is another sign that I finally need reading glasses…
17dn: I read EX the same way as Petert@14, but I agree with Cineraria@15 that the alternaive is plausible.
Thanks Jason for a nice set of clues with IRREVERENT, TAP DANCE, and DERRICK as my top picks. SP as starting price is in Chambers, that’s all one needs to know. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Quite the spree. I liked FEARLESS, SINISTER, TAPESTRY and STEEP.
Thanks Jason and Cineraria.