The usual pleasant solve from Phi today. I found it all fairly straightforward and have no major questions, except that the unchecked letters round the sides suggest that there is a Nina here, which I cannot see.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | LOCO — 2 defs |
| 8 | HEAR T(BR)EAK — def simply ‘a sad state’ |
| 10 | TALLI{{piec}e}S — Thomas Tallis — play this at full volume |
| 11 | PYRENEES — pyre (seen)rev. |
| 12 | CHAR(IS)M A |
| 14 | ON(TIM)E |
| 15 | PASS THE PARCEL — (search applets)* |
| 18 | S TANZ{an I}A |
| 20 | TH(U MB)ING |
| 22 | BE (AU) LIE U |
| 23 | T(1)RADE |
| 25 | TIN SOLDIER — (solid inert)* |
| 26 | {t}OUCH |
| Down | |
| 1 | S(OD)A — it = SA (sex appeal) lives on in crossword land, even though it may have just about died out in real life |
| 2 | PO(P{ine})LAR |
| 3 | CHESS SET — a CD I think, although perhaps there is something more going on — I can’t really explain ‘immediate’ or ‘your’ except that if there is a checkmate one is not going to continue the game; but one might start another one immediately? [Its immediate use is curtailed by your mate] |
| 4 | STEREO — (R Tees)* o — an ‘o’ is a round |
| 5 | FRE(N)E TIC |
| 6 | W(A TERM)E L ON — where term = closing — term = termination or end, not something that immediately occurs but it is often used successfully in Azed clue-setting competitions and one can’t object: the first sense given in Chambers is ‘an end’ |
| 9 | ALPHA CENTAURI — (l{eap} in a parachute)* |
| 13 | HYPOTHESIS — (pish theory’s – r)* |
| 16 | SUN BU({lawye}R)ST |
| 17 | ADUL{t} T({marriag}E)RY |
| 19 | A V IDLY |
| 21 | BAR DOT — a bit aged now, but she was a sex symbol in her time |
| 24 | DUCK — 2 defs, one of them referring to cricket |
No obvious nina that I can see, John. Nothing too obscure in the puzzle, either, although one or two answers took a while to figure out. As you say, it’s some time since BARDOT was a sex symbol; I guess it’s also some time since many of us played PASS THE PARCEL or played with TIN SOLDIERs.
Thanks, Phi and John.
Pleasing puzzle with NW the trickiest part. Thanks, Phi and John.
Very nicely written I think. Thank you Phi for a lovelt set of clues, and to John for the blog.
Cheers to all, and a good Bank Holiday,
Rowly.
Yes, fine set of clues, with the almost obligatory astronomy and music references (I thought ALPHA CENTAURI was very clever).
Thanks to Phi and John.
Thanks Phi for the puzzle, John for the blog and (in particular) for your Tallis link which introduced me to Spem in Alium. Stunning.
Started this on the train from Birmingham this morning (I was at a performance of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch yesterday) and didn’t do too badly but had three or four clues left so I put it to one side for the rest of the journey.
Looked at again when I got home and it took me ages to get anything more. Then I suddenly “saw” 3dn (although I can’t work out all the word play, either) and the rest fell into place.
So, nothing too obscure or difficult after 6 hours of Stockhausen. Thanks to all.
Nice stuff, but I can’t see any reason for the grid or themes either.Got misled by Stanza thinking ZA was South Africa and then missing the rest.
The iTees in the i was remarkably easy today for me.