Extremely enjoyable puzzle from Nestor, not too difficult, with the 4 14-letter entries yielding reasonably quickly. Solving time, 21 mins. And as always I find with Nestor, fresh approaches to clueing.
* = anagram < = reversed
ACROSS
6 A SH RO (PSHIRE L) AD By AE Housman ASH (remains) ((perish)*L) in ROAD
9 DUFF EurotunneL
10 JA LAP ENO Ja = yes in German (Dieter a typical German name) (one pal)< Chilli pepper
11 BRAS S TACKS bras = women’s supporters: stacks = masses
13 ARGO Hidden Jason and the Golden Fleece from Greek mythology (his ship)
14 EXPECT “eggs pecked” Not entirely sure but I think the “a bit stronger” refers to EX in expect not sounding exactly like ‘eggs’. Clue is “Look forward to nest contents, attacked by birds, sounding a bit stronger?”
16 MAG GOT
18 I GO (shot = attempt) R Prince Igor = unfinished opera by Russian composer Borodin.
19 LEA (DI (NG) ME) N British director = Sir David Lean ng = no good dime = US money
21 TIME ZONE With hexadecimal numbers referred to in one recent Nestor puzzle, I wonder if he has a maths background. This was my last answer – definition (function of longitude generally). “multiplied invariantly”, means TIMES ONE (as in multiplication tables) so it’s ‘invariantly’ ie it does not change. Then the variable z (as in x,y) replaces the fifth term (ie letter) S making TIMES ONE = TIME ZONE. I think that is what it is, anyway.
23 G ENTRY Easier to explain…
24 HEAV (Y BREATH) ING Y = variable (breath)* in heaving = very cramped. Definition: pants
DOWN
1 ESTUARY ENGLISH Cryptic definition, and an early breakthrough to see it.
2 CRUFTS Hidden reversal, very well disguised
3 A POL (ITICA)L An excellent & lit An election’s voting = a poll ‘chiefly’ in the cryptic reading indicates the first letters of the five words that follow it giving I T I C A.
4 Jacques B (RE) L Belgian singer, songwriter
5 SL(AP B)ANG Definition: suddenly. order to “bust perp (ie perpetrator of crime – US)” = APB = all-points bulletin (US – instruction to police to order arrest). slang = vernacular
7 HIJA(b) CassocK
8 DON’T GET ME WRONG (Motown trend eg G)*
12 STALING RAD
15 PARMESAN (Spam near)*
17 CAR (E) ER Nurse often = carer
20 GANDHI (I’d hang)*
22 O (NY) X
Thanks nms,
I enjoyed this, but 21ac. needed explaining.
My favourite clue was 24ac. Great surface…
Yes, although of course heaving is from heavy, ‘very cramped’ goes for a different interp, I suppose.
Can someone explain 12D ?
I suppose the definition is Communist port once, although Volgograd is rather far inland to be described as a port. I see RAD but where does STALING come from ?
STALING = getting old, I read it as.
Collins and Britannica both describe Volgograd as a port.
walruss,
I don’t think “heaving” IS from “heavy”…
What would it be then? Glad to be corrected, but currently all meaning roots are looking the same to me!
Heaving = very cramped, as in ‘the pub was heaving’.
I relly enjoyed this but found it tough going. Needed every one of the 45 minutes I was on the bus.
Some really good clues here, CRUFTS being my fave.
Re point made by sidey at 8 above, that is how I saw it when blogging. COED has heaving = very crowded.
Yes, but the root is what our walruss is tugging at. I think.
I did most of this but only got slap- bang from crossing letters: getting to APB seems a bit of a leap and i’d never heard of it; or maybe I don’t watch enough cop shows
Lovely puzzle, full of the original touches we’ve come to expect of this setter. I loved “Dieter’s agreement” for JA – no-one takes better advantage of the initial capital letter than Nestor.