Solving time: 15:55
Don’t take too much notice of my time – I was at least three-quarters asleep when solving this. Reasonably straightforward for Paul, I think.
I’m going to be unable to blog next week, so thanks in advance to whichever of the team steps in. I also won’t be able to respond to any comments on this puzzle, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes I’ve made.
* = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1/26 | ST(RING + THE)ORY – I spotted the possibility of THEORY early on but couldn’t think of a word meaning ‘article’ ending -ORY. |
| 4 | GYP + SUM |
| 9 | BLUB; rev. of BULB |
| 10 | PROPAGANDA; “PROPER GANDER” – ‘gander’ being slang for a look. |
| 11 | R.I. + MINI |
| 12 | PATHE + TIC[k] – the Pathé company used to produce news-reels. |
| 13 | FRANGLAIS; (A FAN + GIRLS)* – nice clue, with a well-connected anagram and definition (‘tongues entwining?’). |
| 15 | BRIE; B (= ‘Second-rate’) + RIE[sling] – I needed a dictionary after solving to fathom this one. |
| 16 | POSH; (SHOP)* – I think ‘her’ must refer to Victoria “Posh” Beckham. |
| 17 | BANK + I + MOON – I knew the person I was looking for straight away from the enumeration, but needed most of the letters to come up with the exact name. Ban Ki-Moon succeeded Kofi Annan as Secretary-General of the UN. It seems to be pretty much compulsory to have a wacky name to hold that office; Mr Moon (yes, ok, Ban is the family name) comes only third in the ‘silly names’ contest, just pipping Dag Hammarskjöld but behind U Thant and the clear winner Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whose real claim to fame was a leading role in The Fast Show in the 1990s – brilliant. Sorry, where were we? Oh yes, the crossword. ‘Show behind’ is very subtle for ‘moon’ here. |
| 21 | T + RAVERS + E |
| 22 | ACCORD; “A CHORD” |
| 24 | PILLOWSLIP; (LOW + S) in (rev. of LIP, + LIP) – difficult to unravel. |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | SOLD(I)ER |
| 2 | RAB + BI – as in Rab Butler, former Deputy Prime Minister amongst other cabinet jobs. |
| 3 | NUPTIAL; (PAUL IN T[ROUBLE])* – ‘without money’ indicating ‘remove ROUBLE’. |
| 5 | YEASTY – not a meaning I knew. |
| 6 | SNARE DRUM; rev. of MURDER + ANS[wer] – I like ‘very difficult’ for MURDER. |
| 7/27 | MIDLIFE CR + IS + IS – the second word was clear but the first eluded me until I had the initial M; ‘if (might one say)’ for MIDLIFE is very good and perfectly fair, I think – I’d accept that even in The Times. |
| 8 | COMPLICATEDLY; (MY TOPIC CALLED)* – unusual to have an anagram indicator from the same root as the answer; this clue pretty much told you the solution so I should have been much faster with the anagram. |
| 14 | NASH + VIL(L)E |
| 16 | PER(SIS)T |
| 18 | K + NAPPER – my last entry, and a guess, as I didn’t know (or couldn’t remember) KNAPPER, meaning someone who breaks stones, or NAPPER, slang for the head. |
| 20 | DRAWER; rev. of REWARD |
| 23 | CROSS (double definition) |