A tricky challenge from ARRIETY
FF: 8 DD:9
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PEDESTRIAN |
New American president lacking inspiration (10)
|
| [ A ( american ) PRESIDENT ]* | ||
| 6 | EDIT |
To some extent, antidepressant brought about change (4)
|
| hidden, reversed in “..anTIDEpressant..” | ||
| 9 | INCONSTANT |
Volatile criminal caught in very short time (10)
|
| CON ( crimnal ) in INSTANT ( very short time ) | ||
| 10 | SWAY |
Rock and roll’s influence (4)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 12 | CHERRY TOMATO |
Small fruit in middle of pharynx — tracheotomy ordered (6,6)
|
| [ R ( phaRynx, middle letter ) TRACHEOTOMY ]* | ||
| 15 | OBVIOUS |
Patent element of odometer, instrument clipped inside vehicle (7)
|
| O ( Odometer, element of i.e. first letter ) [ VIOla ( instrument, clipped ) in BUS ( vehicle ) ] | ||
| 16 | DENUDED |
Bare earth, muddier at intervals by delta (7)
|
| DEN ( earth ) UDE ( mUdDiEr, at intervals ) D ( delta ) | ||
| 17 | FERMIUM |
Heavy metal from Iron Maiden covering Queen, mixing it up at first (7)
|
| [ FE ( iron ) M ( maiden ) ] covering { R ( queen ) MIU ( “..Mixing It Up..”, first letters of ) } | ||
| 19 | TONSURE |
Doctor to nurse: “Close shave!” (7)
|
| [ TO NURSE ]* | ||
| 20 | CORN EXCHANGE |
Almost trap ten coppers in former place of business (4,8)
|
| CORNEr ( trap, almost ) X ( ten ) CHANGE ( coppers ) | ||
| 23 | INCH |
Creep among penguin chicks (4)
|
| hidden in “..penguIN CHicks” | ||
| 24 | TAKE TO TASK |
Child, when beginning to kick, faced with appropriate rebuke (4,2,4)
|
| TAKE ( appropriate ) TOT ( child ) AS ( when ) K ( Kick, first letter ) | ||
| 25 | NODE |
Central point of European lecturer, looking back (4)
|
| reverse of E ( european ) DON ( lecturer ) | ||
| 26 | COUNTY TOWN |
Reading perhaps when Riley and Dent finally come in for day of Countdown (6,4)
|
| YT ( rileY, denT, final letters of ) replacing D ( day ) in COUNTdOWN | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PAIL |
Picked up light bucket (4)
|
| sounds like PALE ( light ) | ||
| 2 | DECK |
Knock over ornament (4)
|
| double def | ||
| 3 | SYNCHRONISED |
Coordinated cooking cosy hot dinners (12)
|
| [ COSY H ( hot ) DINNERS ]* | ||
| 4 | RETORTS |
Counters in section of bistro terrace rotated (7)
|
| hidden, reversed in “..biSTRO TERrace..” | ||
| 5 | ANNOYED |
Goaded some bears no end, withholding last of salmon (7)
|
| [ ANY ( some ) containing NO ] EnD ( without N – salmoN, last letter ) | ||
| 7 | DOWN-AND-OUT |
Sad a cake Nigella initially promoted is ruined (4-3-3)
|
| DOWN ( sad ) A [ NDOUT ( cake = DONUT, with N- Nigella, first letter, moving up ) ] | ||
| 8 | TOY SOLDIER |
Yeti’s drool spoiled child’s figurine (3,7)
|
| [ YETI’S DROOL ]* | ||
| 11 | MORNING GLORY |
Heard lamenting nip from grey parrot climbing plant (7,5)
|
| sounds like MOANING ( lamenting ) G ( grey, a nip of ) LORY ( parrot ) | ||
| 13 | NON-FICTION |
Type of book that’s left lying to one side? (3-7)
|
| cryptic def; lie = fiction | ||
| 14 | OVERPRICED |
EC provider wasted too much? (10)
|
| [ EC PROVIDER ]* | ||
| 18 | MECCANO |
Two cents jamming cheap old plaything (7)
|
| [ CC ( two cents ) in MEAN ( cheap ) ] O ( old ) | ||
| 19 | TRADE-IN |
Something given up for good? (5-2)
|
| cryptic def | ||
| 21 | DADO |
Even bits of woodland taken up to make trench (4)
|
| reverse of even letters of wOoDlAnD | ||
| 22 | SKIN |
Strip, posing naked (4)
|
| aSKINg ( posing, naked i.e. without end characters ) |
11D: I had MOURNING. Good blog on a challenging puzzle.
Good fun. Nothing too taxing.
I had trouble equating den and earth, and Collins dictionary could shed no light.
FERMIUM, DADO & CORN EXCHANGE were new to me. Also lory, despite their being native to Australia apparently. And I couldn’t parse SKIN, which I initially thought might have been OSIN!
(I concur with Cineraria, above.)
GDU, I think it’s foxes that have dens called earths.