The usual nice Phi today: he seldom has any clues that shout their brilliance at you, but there are always many very satisfactory ones nevertheless. I’m bewildered by two of them and fully expect instant responses. Only the most basic general knowledge seems to be called for, as witness the fact that there are no links in this blog.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | WIND LASS |
| 6 | PUMA — (am up)rev. |
| 9 | O(FF C{hecks})UT |
| 10 | N(I(O B)I)UM |
| 11 | INTREPID — (Pinter)* {h}id |
| 12 | DROWSY — ‘day’ with ‘rows’ replacing the ‘a’ |
| 13 | BRASS {d}RUBBING |
| 16 | REPERCUSSION — RE (supersonic)* |
| 19 | JUMPER — ‘one in Spring’ leads to ‘one which springs’ |
| 20 | F{ascinating} REEF ALL |
| 22 | ST(R)INGS |
| 23 | AL(LEG)E |
| 24 | GRIN{d} |
| 25 | alLITERATIon |
| Down | |
| 2 | I(N FAN)TRY |
| 3 | DECOR — co in (red)rev. |
| 4 | ANTIPERSPIRANT I think, although I can’t parse this. There are two n’s in the answer, but only one n in ‘sprinter’ and I can’t see where the other n comes from. If the clue had been ‘Shattered sprinter with a tip about new toiletry item, it would have come close — a(n)tip (sprinter)*, but then there would have been no indication of the second ‘a’. |
| 5 | S and D AB |
| 6 | P{ervade} O{utlands} I SONG As |
| 7 | MIMOSA — (I’m (so)rev.) in Ma |
| 8 | LORD LIEUTENANT — (duel intolerant)* |
| 14 | SCRAP IRON, iron as in golf club |
| 15 | L(OWL)IGHT |
| 17 | RE(FUS{s})AL |
| 18 | QUASAR? PULSAR? — I can’t justify either of these, although they’re the only two astronomical objects I can think of; help please — perhaps ‘astronomical object’ isn’t the definition? |
| 21 | FILER — (re (lif{e})rev. |
4d *(SPRINTER A TIP) about AN (one)
18d QUASAR – ‘A hint of starlight’ gives A S in [s]QUAR[e] (the middle of boring)
4dn: isn’t it [SPRINTER A TIP AN {one}]*
Not arguing with you, Geoff – just beaten to it!
You won’t believe me when I say that the explanation for ANTIPERSPIRANT was there all along: I saw that when I did the puzzle, then forgot about it when doing the blog. ‘An’ for ‘one’ never comes to mind easily. Nice clue for QUASAR, very clever, perhaps should have got that. But thanks.
Thanks for explaining QUASAR – that was tough. Favourite clues, LITERATI, JUMPER, DROWSY.
Perhaps we should now ban ONE = AN as a subunit of SI in daily puzzles on the grounds that it does not easily come to mind.
Which setters might we blame for this travesty – and others!? Bunthorne? For very shurely, it sheems to me, though extraordinarily beautiful in jusht about every reshpect, thish famoush compilersh shubmissions often featured elementsh that did not come easily to mind.
5D = SANDy = speckled