Now we are Eight. Nice to see the editor for a change and a generally easyish puzzle to brighten an otherwise drab, damp and generally grotty day here in Suffolk.
Seemed to be a lot of anagrams here but that’s not a complaint on a blogging day.
Nina did you say? why yes, Eimi has been outed as a Spurs fan before and the Spurs player Erik LAMELA whose name appears on the top row can be seen scoring a rather cheeky RABONA goal here and as pointed out below its OUTRAGEOUSNESS and OUT OF THIS WORLD and OOH! down the middle.
OTICS appears near the middle across, this could just be a random selection of letters though. After today it’s going to be a busy week with my pyro hobby 🙂
Across
7 Somehow getting us to use oranges is extravagance (14)
OUTRAGEOUSNESS
[US TO USE ORANGES]* somehow
10 I am getting cooking vessel covered in titanium, and other things in the kitchen (7)
TIMPANI
I’m & PAN inside TI(tanium) This part of an orchestra is sometimes called the kitchen
11 Child scandal finally admitted some time back somewhere in Ireland (7)
KILDARE
(scanda)L inserted into KID (child) & ERA reversed
12 Mistakes made by early riser at parcel service (7)
COCKUPS
COCK(erel) & UPS a private courier company. Actually after master Cable sold the Royal Mail for peanuts they all are.
13 Running aground somewhere in Mexico (7)
DURANGO
AGROUND* running
14 Bowler might be discarded so on the smallest provocation (2,3,4,2,1,3)
AT THE DROP OF A HAT
Double cum cryptic def.
18 Bribes ordinary seamen in vessels (7)
SUBORNS
O(rdinary) & RN (Royal Navy, seamen) in SUBS (vessels)
20 Communist teams hidden in trading centre (7)
MARXIST
XIs several elevens – teams, inside MART
22 Mimeograph, for example, clients ordered (7)
STENCIL
CLIENTS* ordered
23 Sun always having awful darts coverage (7)
DAYSTAR
AY (always) has DARTS* awfully covering. I’ll have to take Eimi’s word for how bad the coverage is.
25 If sold out, worth getting reordered from another planet? (3,2,4,5)
OUT OF THIS WORLD
[IF SOLD OUT WORTH]* reordered
Down
1 Part of house that’s left frequently (4)
LOFT
L(eft) & OFT(en)
2 The first thirteen characters in charge of certain weapons (6)
ATOMIC
A TO M, first thirteen letters of the Alphabet & I(n) C(harge)
3 Dog escape initially unreported in China (8)
MALAMUTE
LAM (U.S. usage for escape or flee) & U(nreported) initially in MATE (china plate)
See them here
4 Fools English judge with appeal in drugs case (6)
EEJITS
E(nglish) J(udge) & IT (sex appeal) in Es (ecstacy)
5 Duly pick at random in this? (5,3)
LUCKY DIP
[DULY PICK]* at random. Does the “in this” need to be there? I’d have thought it works as an &lit without them.
6 Learnt about something seen in natural history programme (6)
ANTLER
Well as definitions go this is a tad broad ranging. LEARNT* about
8 Firm stem (7)
STAUNCH
Double def straight out of Rufus’s manual
9 Balloon modelling at a store (8)
AEROSTAT
[AT A STORE]* modelled
12 Bums showing in bed, which is most indelicate (8)
COARSEST
ARSES (bums) in COT (bed)
15 Letter from Greece about mostly cheerless dramatic scene (7)
TABLEAU
Mostly BLEA(k) in TAU (Greek letter)
16 Lost aria about a Spanish girl (8)
ROSALITA
[LOST ARIA]* about
17 A meaningful number getting first couple of parts of well-known song from No, No, Nanette confused in audition (5-3)
FORTY-TWO
The song being refered to is “Tea for two”, with a bit of jumbling and homphones this could be FOR TY TWO . The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything
19 University official siting sportsground on top of hill (6)
RECTOR
REC(reation ground) & TOR (hill)
20 Note avian creature that’s brought up a bit of foliage? (6)
MIDRIB
MI (note from the sol-fa scales) & BIRD reversed
21 American doctor put in prison (6)
INTERN
Double definition
24 Excellent American drama school (4)
RADA
RAD (ical, excellent) & A(merican)
*anagram
I noticed the use of ‘outrageousness’ and ‘out of this world’ to describe Mr Lamela’s effort but I searched in vain for the more accurate ‘totally one-footed’.
Thank you, flashling. Agree with you, always good to see an Eimi puzzle, and I liked this one. On the gentle side, but after a few difficult ones last week, that’s not unwelcome.
Clearly a recent construction, since the ‘wonder goal’ was only scored the other week. And for once, I did see the nina, which helped with my last one in, EEJITS. ANTLER did seem a bit random, but I liked TIMPANI for no other reason than having finally learned that ‘kitchen’ means that part of the orchestra, I was waiting for it to be clued again.
Good start to the Indy week. But as I keep saying, there’s far too much footie in it …
Didn’t see the Nina but don’t know anything about football anyway. Also didn’t know about LAM, but neither ignorance held me up. A nice easy start to the week from Eimi.
Thx both. Enjoy your pyros, flashling!
I enjoyed this, and it was nice to have a more straightforward puzzle after some of the recent difficult ones. For once I saw the nina and the related 7ac and 25a answers. SUBORNS and MALAMUTE were my last two in.
A nice start to the week, as we bask in the bright sunshine of the Peak District (cue clouds rolling in). My particular favourite was 12D, where I was glad to see the English spelling rather than the seemingly ubiquitous American one.
Didn’t get 4D as I’m too refined to know words like that, and didn’t see the nina as I like football. Not Strictly Come Dancing.
Thanks to Eimi and to flashling.
Thanks Eimi and flashling
Like almw3 @ 3 I don’t follow football at all, so the nina went a long way over my head. Assuming 7 & 25 refer to the football exploit (?), there’s also OOH down the centre.
Thanks Simon and hounddog, really should have twigged those too.
Nice easy start to the week; I even saw the nina but failed to connect it with 7 and 25 across. AEROSTAT was a new word to me, as was the use of ‘rad(ical)’ to mean ‘excellent’.
Thanks, Eimi and flashling.
Well, if there was more to it than first met the eye, then I’m surprised the setter, given the two sets of five unchecked letters across the middle, didn’t get FLUKE in there as part of the nina …
This is depressing. I finally spot a NINA and it turns out to be football-related – something I’d have happily let sail over my head into the top-right corner. Nice, gentle puzzle, although I did convince myself for a while that 4down must be dejits.
I nearly went for ‘foulups’ for 12a but realised there was no ‘audition’ word in the clue and foul/fowl put me right!
At last a nice sensible crossword.enjoyable with a few trickier clues.