I think this is Gennaro’s second featured puzzle in MyCrossword; the previous one was well received so it’s good to see him again. The original puzzle is at https://www.mycrossword.co.uk/featured/23.
An enjoyable puzzle: a couple of the indicators were unfamiliar but I think it’s clear what our setter meant. There are also two one-letter abbreviations that don’t get much use in the real world, but both are backed by the dictionaries and have appeared in crosswords before. I liked 10a after I’d finally worked out that “boring” wasn’t an insertion indicator, and the clever anagram (and apt surface) of 8d.
I’m not convinced we need the “special instructions” today; the puzzle might have been better if we’d been left to discover the theme for ourselves. The unchecked letters around the edge of the grid read ERNEST SHACKLETON, who knew all about the THRILL and STRESS of ADVENTURING to the ENDS of the earth (specifically Antarctica). I’m sure more than one SLEIGH was involved, ORIENTATION was important, he needed some SPECIALISTs and ENGINEERs as well as the DREAMERS, and things got rather THORNY at times. There may be more topical entries I’ve missed but that seems quite a long list. Thanks to Gennaro for the challenge (though I’m glad I don’t have to travel to Antarctica to complete it).
Definitions are underlined; BOLD UPPERCASE indicates letters used in the wordplay; square brackets [ ] indicate omitted letters.
| ACROSS | ||
| 5 | TENDON |
Connective tissue tense with limit to extension ultimately (6)
|
| T (abbreviation for tense: I’m not sure how this might be used, but the dictionaries accept it) + END (limit) + last letters (ultimately) of [t]O [extensio]N. | ||
| 6 | POINTS |
Perhaps Dot and Barb love sharing beers (6)
|
| O (zero = love in tennis scoring) contained in (sharing?) PINTS (slang shortening for pints of beer).
Both “dot” (full stop in punctuation) and “barb” (sharp part of a weapon) are synonyms for “point”: definition by two examples, hence “points”. |
||
| 9 | NOTION |
Fancy new movement blowing money (6)
|
| N (abbreviation for new) + [m]OTION (movement), without the M (economists’ abbreviation for money).
Fancy = notion = an idea. |
||
| 10 | DREAMERS |
Idealists with 500 boring instruments (8)
|
| D (500 in Roman numerals) + REAMERS (tools for making holes = boring instruments). | ||
| 11 | ONCE |
In London centre long ago (4)
|
| Hidden answer (in . . .) from [lond]ON CE[ntre].
As in “Once upon a time . . .” |
||
| 12 | SPECIALIST |
Expert group of spies caught by absurd past lies trashing America (10)
|
| CIA (abbreviation for Central Intelligence Agency = group of spies), contained in an anagram (absurd) of P[a]ST LIES without the A (abbreviation for America). | ||
| 13 | ORIENTATION |
Settling in the East near leaderless country (11)
|
| ORIENT (archaic / poetic word for the East), next to [n]ATION (country) without the first letter (leaderless). | ||
| 18 | TRUTH SERUM |
Rough at intervals, mutters erratically with a disinhibiting agent possibly (5,5)
|
| Anagram (erratically) of R[o]U[g]H (at intervals = alternate letters) + MUTTERS.
In principle, a drug that makes the recipient tell the truth under questioning. In practice, no such drug has been conclusively proven to work reliably, not to mention the ethical questions involved. |
||
| 21 | ENDS |
Destroys targets (4)
|
| Double definition. End, as a verb = destroy = put a complete stop to; end, as a noun = target = objective. | ||
| 22 | EVERYMAN |
Ordinary person joining railway crew on the previous night (8)
|
| RY (abbreviation for railway) + MAN (crew, as a verb, as in the command “man the lifeboats!”), after EVE (the previous night, as in Christmas Eve). | ||
| 23 | SLEIGH |
Reportedly dispatch Inuit transport maybe (6)
|
| Sound-alike (reportedly) of SLAY (dispatch = to kill).
Transport for use in snow-covered regions such as those where the Inuit live. |
||
| 24 | ALLURE |
Draw a line against appalling rule (6)
|
| A (from clue text) + L (abbreviation for line) + anagram (appalling) of RULE.
Draw, as a noun = allure = attraction. |
||
| 25 | HIATUS |
Opening with greeting about Truss oddly (6)
|
| HI (a casual greeting) + A (the dictionaries claim it can be an abbreviation for “about”, though I’ve never seen that in use) + odd-numbered letters of T[r]U[s]S. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ENGINEER |
DC train driver from abysmal Green Line starting late (8)
|
| Anagram (abysmal) of GREEN + [l]INE (starting late = not including the first letter).
In US English (for example in Washington DC), “engineer” can mean a train driver. |
||
| 2 | ROUNDS |
Patrols area around building eliminating hooliganism essentially (6)
|
| [g]ROUNDS (the surrounding area associated with a building), without the G which is the middle letter (essentially) of [hooli]G[anism].
As in “doing the rounds” = making regular patrols of an area you are responsible for. |
||
| 3 | NOVELIST |
Writer not defending atrocious vile son (8)
|
| NOT containing an anagram (atrocious) of VILE + S (abbreviation for son). | ||
| 4 | ENAMEL |
Coat carried by miserable man emigrating from the South (6)
|
| Hidden answer (carried by . . .), reversed (from the South = upwards in a down clue), in [miserab]LE MAN E[migrating].
A hard shiny coating on a surface. |
||
| 5 | THORNY |
Troublesome tenor lecherous (6)
|
| T (abbreviation for tenor) + HORNY (lecherous).
As in a thorny problem = difficult to resolve. |
||
| 7 | STRESS |
Insists upon retreating without advance force (6)
|
| [a]SSERTS (insists upon), reversed (retreating), without the A (abbreviation for advance).
To an engineer, force and stress aren’t the same thing (stress is force per unit area), but in common usage they’re equivalent. |
||
| 8 | ADVENTURING |
Regularly oversee daunting manoeuvres with risk-taking perhaps (11)
|
| Anagram (manoeuvres) of alternate letters (regularly) from [o]V[e]R[s]E[e] + DAUNTING. | ||
| 14 | EASY MARK |
One readily fooled and confused, say, breaking electronic sign (4,4)
|
| Anagram (confused) of SAY, inserted into E (prefix meaning electronic) + MARK (a sign).
Easy mark = a gullible person who is easily deceived. |
||
| 15 | OPERETTA |
Light entertainment and limitless dope before races, the focus of Man (8)
|
| [d]OP[e] (limitless = outer letters removed) + ERE (archaic word for before) + TT (abbreviation for time-trial races) + middle letter (focus) of [m]A[n]. | ||
| 16 | TRIVIA |
Petty details coming from four involved in endless experiment (6)
|
| IV (four in Roman numerals) contained in TRIA[l] (experiment) without the last letter (endless). | ||
| 17 | ADAGES |
More than one motto from promotion grows old (6)
|
| AD (short for advertisement = promotion) + AGES (grows old). | ||
| 19 | THRILL |
Troy with piercing headed for excitement (6)
|
| T (abbreviation for troy, indicating an alternative system of weights and measures commonly used for precious metals), then [s]HRILL (piercing = high-pitched) without the first letter (headed = beheaded?). | ||
| 20 | MYSTIC |
Some tacit symbolism around spiritualist (6)
|
| Hidden answer (some . . .), reversed (around), in [ta]CIT SYM[bolism]. |
Favourites DREAMERS and EVERYMAN. I was held up by putting DURESS in 7d, lazily thinking I had reversed [a]SSURED. Oops. And then assisted by remembering to look at the perimeter. Thanks Quirister and Gennaro.
I, too, liked DREAMERS. POINTS was clever as well. I enjoy Gennaro’s perimeter Ninjas, even if they are sometimes a little too helpful. [I wonder if he was tempted to define EASY MARK as “a write in from Stamp”?]
I don’t quite share the enthusiasm of others for POINTS. I can let the use of BARB = POINT go (OK, but it seems to me it is much more specific than that and more than just a point) but I just don’t get sharing as a containicator. 14d is a NHO expression for me, though not overly taxing. Other than that I really enjoyed this. Faves were 21a, 22a, 2d, 16d, 20d. Thanks Gennaro & Quirister