Another quality puzzle from Poins, with lots of nice anagrams to work through. I managed this in one sitting in the pub, making for a very pleasant Sunday afternoon. I don’t seem to have made any particularly enlightening notes, so we can probably assume it was all pretty smooth sailing.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TRENCH COAT | Swimmer crossing river needs layer of protective cover (6,4) |
| (R in TENCH) + COAT. | ||
| 6 | BLUR | Obscure rock band (4) |
| Two definitions: obscure/these guys. | ||
| 10 | SPURN | Turn down odds on return game with Norway (5) |
| SP + RU< + N. | ||
| 11 | LIGHTEN UP | Not serious over acquiring space to relax (7,2) |
| EN in (LIGHT + UP). | ||
| 12 | SCATTERBRAINED | Absent-minded bishop caught in exotic dancer’s attire (14) |
| B in (DANCER’S ATTIRE)*. | ||
| 14 | QUARTET | Not quite three months to the opening of this film (7) |
| QUARTE[r] + T[his]. Apparently there is indeed a film named Quartet. Who knew. | ||
| 15 | AUGUSTA | City impressive after Aguero’s debut? Just the opposite (7) |
| AUGUST + A[guero]. | ||
| 17 | AVERTED | Turned away from Green Party leader following piece of advice (7) |
| A[dvice] + VERT + ED Miliband. | ||
| 19 | SITUATE | Quote said to contain bit of uneasiness about volunteers is put in context (7) |
| (U[neasiness] in TA) in homophone of “cite”. | ||
| 20 | DISCOUNTENANCE | Refuse to approve of unsanctioned dancing at church (14) |
| UNSANCTIONED* + CE. | ||
| 23 | RETRACTOR | Muscle in president’s back almost damaged by overstretching (9) |
| Jimmy CARTER< + TOR[n]. | ||
| 24 | KRILL | Rule introduced to do away with whale food (5) |
| R in KILL. | ||
| 25 | DONE | Robbed when working in the centre of Bordeaux (4) |
| ON in [bor]DE[aux]. | ||
| 26 | HEADSTONES | He notices many filled with earth as they’re put up at the end of the road (10) |
| HE + ADS + (E in TONS). The “end of the road” as in, well, death. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TEST | Deliberate over time of trial (4) |
| SET< + T. | ||
| 2 | ENUNCIATE | Utter devastation of aunt and niece (9) |
| (AUNT + NIECE)*. | ||
| 3 | CONSTITUTIONAL | It comes up during free consultation relating to one’s physical condition (14) |
| IT< in CONSULTATION*. | ||
| 4 | COLLECT | Come together for prayer (7) |
| Two definitions: come together/prayer. I hadn’t heard of the collect, but it seemed quite viable. | ||
| 5 | ALGEBRA | Starts to attend lectures giving extra support in this branch of learning (7) |
| A[ttend] + L[ectures] + G[iving] + E[xtra] + BRA. | ||
| 7 | LENIN | Revolutionary passage from Bakunin eloquently sent up (5) |
| [baku]NIN EL[oquently]. | ||
| 8 | REPUDIATES | Rejects general opinion about help being withdrawn by son (10) |
| (AID in REPUTE<) + S. | ||
| 9 | STRAIGHTJACKET | Sailor extremely earnest in support of conventional means of restraint (14) |
| STRAIGHT + JACK + E[arnes]T. | ||
| 13 | SQUANDERED | Nurse dead quiet at first about getting wasted (10) |
| (NURSE DEAD Q[uiet])*. | ||
| 16 | STANCHION | Support for China’s not affected (9) |
| (CHINA‘S NOT)*. | ||
| 18 | DINETTE | Stop working without overall in eating area (7) |
| NETT in DIE. | ||
| 19 | SEES RED | Becomes angry with witnesses getting embarrassed (4,3) |
| SEES + RED. | ||
| 21 | SIT-IN | Wrong to maintain it’s a form of protest (3-2) |
| IT in SIN. | ||
| 22 | ALMS | Somalia oddly sent back charitable donations (4) |
| S[o]M[a]L[i]A<. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
I really enjoyed this puzzle. I thought the “free consultation” and “unsanctioned dancing” elements of the clues for CONSTITUTIONAL and DISCOUNTENANCE were top notch. When I solved RETRACTOR I saw the last three letters as TOR(E) rather than TOR(N), and they both work. I finished back in the NW with the TEST/TRENCH COAT crossers.
Thanks for the blog, Simon. Although I completed the puzzle, I wasn’t sure of quite how the clues fitted the answers in a number of cases. I still don’t quite get LIGHTEN UP.
Hope you don’t mind, but I think the solution to STRAIGHTJACKET should be STRAIGHT + JACK +E[arnes]T
I think it’s
Not serious = light
Space = en (in printing)
Up = over
Some enjoyable long anagrams to tax my brain here.
Thx both
Btw I think 3d should be ‘enunciate’
Thanks for pointing out those two thinkos, chaps. I think that’s what I meant to type in both cases. Blog updated accordingly.
19A wordplay is a bit odd; I thought it was U + TA< in SITE, with the "about" meaning TA was about, or reversed.
It's a bit difficult to read "hint of uneasiness about volunteers" as meaning that volunteers is "about" hint of uneasiness.
Any takers?
Thanks to Poins and Simon Harris.
Is “straightjacket” for “straitjacket” okay? Chambers online doesn’t have it.
Hi quodlibet
Yes, it is fine. Chambers (12th edition) gives it as an alternative.
Another well balanced puzzle . Something for everyone. More of these please.
It’s ‘straitjacket’, as any fule kno.
One of those coincidences – I’d just come back from a Music Weekend where one of the talks was by John Georgiadis (“Bill” in the film Quartet) so 14ac was a write-in. All the rest was straigtforward too, except that the clue for 17ac could have done with updating for the 2018 reprint.