We found this puzzle difficult to get into. We filled in about half of the grid one evening and then picked it up afresh the next morning and were surprised at how many clues fell into place after a night’s sleep. We’d not come across 15d before so we resorted to some electronic assistance in an attempt to open up the SW corner.
We weren’t sure about 25a – does a bigot always have a phobia?
We are still stuck on 6d though. Any help will be much appreciated. We won’t be able to post any comments during most of Saturday as we will be attending the S&B event in Sheffield, helping John Henderson celebrate his 50th birthday along with many others. Maybe someone will tell us at lunchtime what we missed in this clue!
Thanks Nestor for your ‘topical’ clue at 8d which brought back memories of our teenage years!
| Across | ||
| 7 | Pretentious rot is cool, vacuous – fitting rebuke | |
| CLAPTRAP | C |
|
| 9 | Spiritual healer, not the genuine article? | |
| SHAMAN | SHAM (not genuine) + AN (article) | |
| 10 | One marks athlete’s vest with energy drink | |
| IMBIBE | I (one) + M (marks) + BIB (athlete’s vest) + E (energy) | |
| 11 | Attempt limits whenever appropriate, lacking a means of capital production | |
| SHIFT KEY | SHY (attempt) round or ‘limiting’ IF (whenever) T |
|
| 12 | Revolutionary group dealing with blows for current generation? | |
| WIND FARM | Cryptic definition – wind turbines revolve in the wind to generate current | |
| 13 | Volunteers on Nanny Cam | |
| GRANTA | TA (volunteers) after GRAN (Nanny). Apparently the River Cam in Cambridge was previously (and is still sometimes) known as the Granta | |
| 14 | Straining to see brawling around British convention city | |
| RUBBERNECKING | RUCKING (brawling) round B (British) BERNE (convention city) | |
| 18 | Absorbing song’s beginning with a hum | |
| SPONGY | S (first letter or ‘beginning’ of Song) + PONGY (with a hum, or smelly) | |
| 21 | Nile location within kilometres, finishes off difficult visit | |
| KHARTOUM | KM (kilometres) round HAR |
|
| 23 | Tart sent back earlier after cutting actor | |
| DICAPRIO | ACID (tart) reversed or ‘sent back’ + PRIO |
|
| 24 | Flattening interval’s lost on an Israeli or Palestinian, say | |
| SEMITE | SEMIT |
|
| 25 | Bigot’s ending with internalised hate, ultimately, for a ‘moony’ woman | |
| PHOEBE | PHOBE (suffix or ‘ending’ used to form a personal noun for someone who fears or hates something, who might perhaps(?) be described as a ‘bigot’) round or ‘internalising’ E (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of hatE) | |
| 26 | Craft with bows sound at high pitch put on a bit of speed | |
| KNOTTING | TING (sound at high pitch) after or ‘put on’ KNOT (a bit of speed) | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Some manure is mulched up with less finesse | |
| CLUMSIER | Hidden (‘some’) and reversed (‘up’) in manuRE IS MULChed | |
| 2 | University paid to keep success safe from unpleasant odour? | |
| UPWIND | U (university) + PD (paid) round or ‘keeping’ WIN (success) | |
| 3 | A small number are hedging about unpaid-for programming output | |
| FREEWARE | FEW (a small number) ARE round or ‘hedging’ RE (on) | |
| 4 | Inquiry in monarchic role? | |
| ASKING | In a monarchic role, one would be acting AS KING | |
| 5 | Proportion of actors to actresses perhaps under-represented some with high voices | |
| CASTRATI | CAST RATI |
|
| 6 | Conservative attack forcefully scraps hospital qualification | |
| CAVEAT | C (conservative)……… well that’s as far as we got! We looked at hAVE A GO AT losing the H for hospital and then thought about GOSH (Great Ormond Street) for the hospital but then what happens to the S? It was a bit like the famous Eric Morecambe quote – the letters may be there but not necessarily in the right order! DOH! Thanks Sidey@1 – C (Conservative) + |
|
| 8 | Mail strike that may lead to smacking? | |
| POSTMAN’S KNOCK | Cryptic definition – referring to the party game which involves kissing (‘smacking’) behind a closed door | |
| 15 | Spoiled injunction judge cancelled | |
| BANJAXED | BAN (injunction) + J (judge) + AXED (cancelled) | |
| 16 | Airing of gas from millinery eaten by dog | |
| CHAT SHOW | HATS (millinery) in or ‘eaten by’ CHOW (dog) | |
| 17 | Large in the stomach, a Soprano is bingeing | |
| GLUTTONY | L (large) in GUT (stomach) + TONY (the lead character in ‘The Sopranos’ American TV series) | |
| 19 | Soft, easily digested pickle | |
| PLIGHT | P (soft) + LIGHT (easily digested) | |
| 20 | Delivery coming down late, with civic leader and builder each ignoring mother….. | |
| YORKER | ||
| 22 | …..who, in toto, brings forth fruit | |
| TOMATO | MA (mother from the previous clue) in TOTO | |
6d (h)AVE AT! = attack forcefully
Funny puzzle, whizzed through half of it and never got another so thanks for the blog B&J
Thanks Sidey – that was our first thought but we’d never heard the expression. However, we cannot believe that we missed it in the dictionary – we spent ages thinking of other parsings! The blog is now correct.
Got most of this last Saturday but just couldn’t see 19dn and 25ac, which remained unsolved all week. (And someone else asked about those two this week.)
My first guess for 3dn was FREEVIEW but I then realised what 12ac was.
When I didn’t get any of the across clues on my first read through I thought it was going to be a stinker, but I got 1dn immediately and it just opened up from there.
I spent most time in the SW corner and 26ac, and PHOEBE was my LOI when I finally deciphered the wordplay. Very good clue.
Thanks for the blog and for parsing FREEWARE. I was in vain struggling with “Free” (unpaid) and “wee” backing.
I agree that many (most?) phobias are not bigotry and vice versa, so PHOEBE never occurred to me either.
Thanks to Nestor as well.