The usual excellent crossword from Dac, hard enough (it took a while to get started), but not too hard. Everything, apart from one answer, went in slowly but regularly.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | MALAGA — (a gala m)rev. |
| 4 | PRESSING – 2 defs, a mental comma after ‘urgent’ |
| 9 | TAB O O |
| 10 | IN CRE(MEN)T(e) |
| 11 | TANGENTIAL — (In Natal get)* |
| 12 | (f)OR A L — I think that’s right, although ‘shortened’ perhaps doesn’t suggest shortening from the front |
| 14 | GE(R)T RUDEST EIN — r for radical isn’t apparently in Chambers, but it’s in Collins and the COD |
| 16 | ORNITHOLOGIST — (irons too light)* |
| 18 | TEA L |
| 19 | PAR(LIAM)ENT — Liam Gallagher of Oasis |
| 22 | SCARIFIER — scar I (fire)* |
| 23 | IDI OM |
| 24 | A BER(DEE)N |
| 25 | SNEEZY — of Snow White and the Seven … |
| Down | |
| 1 | M(OT)ET’S |
| 2 | LEB(an)ON |
| 3 | GLOBETROTS — g((channe)l)o ((to Brest)* |
| 5 | ROCK AND ROLLER — 2 defs |
| 6 | SLEW — 2 defs — for a while was hopelessly trying to justify ‘skew’ |
| 7 | I NEAR NEST |
| 8 | GET ALONG — 2 defs |
| 10 | INTERROGATIVE — very nice clue — def. ‘maybe how’, (I’ve got trainer)* |
| 13 | E ST(I’M)ATION — channel as in the station you tune your radio to — excellent misdirection |
| 14 | GI N PAL ACE |
| 15 | CON TESSA — the TESSA was the Conservatives’ predecessor to the ISA |
| 17 | STUMPY — 2 defs, although I couldn’t quite see why there was a hyphen in ‘foxy’. Surely the question mark was enough? |
| 20 | EMILE — (lime)rev. (voyag)e |
| 21 | HIND — 2 defs |
Though shortened forms of words usually have their tails cut off, there are some examples where they have their heads cut off. ‘Bus’ from ‘omnibus’ comes to my mind. And there is ‘tec’, which I think is ‘detective’ with both head and tail cut off!
Rishi
in Madras that is Chennai, India
I thought ‘shortened’ meant fOR A Learner i.e. effectively hidden.
Excellent puzzle with great variety.
In 17D ‘foxy’ is not a second definition, it’s fox + y, so I think the hyphen is necessary here.
Very enjoyable. 15A was a brilliant standout for me, and I enjoyed the construction of 19A.
I was only stumped by 6D (having never heard of “to slew” = “to twist” … new one on me) and 22, which annoys me, as I kept thinking “scar…i…fier” but never actually believed it was a word enough to bother looking it up. Dammit.