Solving time: Gave up on 10ac and 7dn after 18 mins, with 9dn also wrong.
A horsey theme this week, with THE SPORT OF KINGS and HUNTING WITH DOGS forming the outer columns. I really should have got 7dn, but don’t think much to the clue to 10ac.
Music (8dn) – Hunter by Dido.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 9 | HOR[s]E + HOUND – not knowing the word, I guessed the other possibility, ‘horshound’. On reflection, this was a curious decision. |
| 10 | UL + UR + U – very Araucarian (‘Turn both ways’ for ULUR). Apparently this is the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock. |
| 11 | SUR + TEES – a pretty obscure writer, included here because of his works relating to both horses and hounds. Luckily ‘Tees’ was the only river I could think of to fit ?E?S. |
| 13 | [p]ORGY |
| 14 | PERRY + MASON – ‘perry’ is apparently fermented pear juice. |
| 16 | THE + R + MAL – ‘to start with’ indicating that ‘mal-‘ is a prefix. Well-hidden definition (“It raises…”). |
| 17 | GANG + SAW |
| 19 | FAC(I + LIT + AT)E |
| 25 | LEOPARD; rev. of POE in LARD |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | THE SPORT OF KINGS; (TO + F-KIN)* in THESP[ian] ORGS |
| 2 | PRO + ROGUE |
| 3 | S(HE)ET |
| 4 | NUTS + HELL |
| 5 | EDITOR (hidden) |
| 6 | QUER(I + MON)Y |
| 7 | QUEENS (two definitions, one cryptic) – a bad miss on my part. I even wrote ‘Queens’ next to the clue, knowing there was a tennis connection, but dismissed it as I thought I was thinking of Queen’s Club (where the pre-Wimbledon Stella Artois tournament takes place). In fact Flushing Meadows (home of the US Open) is in the Queens borough of New York. The complex is actually called the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre, but I don’t think there’s any reference intended. |
| 8 | HUNTING WITH DOGS; (NIGHT WIND TO)* in HUGS |
| 15 | SMALL ARMS; MALLERM[é] in SS |
| 17 | GET A LIFE; (A TAL[e] + IF) in GEE |
| 18 | SOCRATIC; (ACROSTIC)* |
| 20 | COTTON (double definition) – Henry Cotton won the British Open three times in the 1930s/40s. |
| 21 | TENNIS [court] |
| 23/22 | ROYAL [a]SCOT |
10ac – Turn both ways and turn to rock. U is a turn so U left U right and U = ULURU = Ayers Rock.
“Apparently this is the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock.”
Actually, Ayers Rock is the European name for Uluru