Aha. A rarish Saturday outing for Phi, no doubt due to being ousted from the Friday slot by Morph’s halloween puzzle.
In terms of difficulty, this one didn’t seem out of place for a Saturday. It took me most of the week, but I did get there in the end.
Is there a theme here? There may be: I see MARYLAND, MASSACHUSETTS and MAINE among the answers. At 17 down you might spot CAL or CALI, both common enough abbreviations for California. I wonder if I’ve missed others too.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BRAHMS | Composer supports involving the Queen (6) |
| HM in BRAS. | ||
| 4 | BECOME | Gathering includes company male in suit (6) |
| (CO + M) in BEE. “Bee” for “gathering” doesn’t seem to be all that common in the UK, at least these days, but will be familiar from things like spelling bees. | ||
| 8 | HAUL | Items stolen from country house reported on radio (4) |
| Homophone (“on the radio”) of “hall”. | ||
| 9 | REAL TENNIS | Tight linear nets? They sag slightly here (4,6) |
| (LINEAR NETS)*. I had to check the internet, but the net does indeed sag in so-called “real” tennis, which to the casual observer appears to be about the snootiest sport imaginable. | ||
| 10 | CONVALESCE | Recover glens captured by corps formerly (10) |
| VALES in (C + ONCE). | ||
| 11 | REEK | Classical study not having good odour (4) |
| [g]REEK. | ||
| 12 | VERONICA | Herb very subject to invading heather (8) |
| V + (ON in ERICA). | ||
| 13 | LOOM | Initially lie low, returning to tower (4) |
| L[ie] + MOO<. | ||
| 15 | RUTH | Regret hospital routine at first (4) |
| RUT + H. | ||
| 16 | SUPERMAN | Powerful guy’s style one observed in Apollonian guise? (8) |
| (PERM + A) in SUN. | ||
| 18 | CHAP | Bloke to crack jaw (4) |
| I think this is three definitions: bloke, to crack (as in chapped skin), and I guess perhaps a variant spelling of “chop”? | ||
| 19 | AMELIORATE | Meal sorted out before I speak? That’s better (10) |
| MEAL* + I ORATE. | ||
| 21 | FATALISTIC | Rich, celebrated, mostly chilled and philosophical (10) |
| FAT + A-LIST + IC[y]. | ||
| 22 | CUBA | Country team without left back at No. 2? (4) |
| C[l]UB + [b]A[ck]. | ||
| 23 | HETERO | Straight to here, after diversion (6) |
| (TO HERE)*. | ||
| 24 | HEANEY | Cry of joy about one Scottish or Irish poet (6) |
| ANE in HEY. Seamus of that ilk, of course. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BRAVO | It’s said to encourage villain (5) |
| Two definitions. I had to look it up, but “bravo” can indeed be a villain, in particular a hired assassin. | ||
| 20 | ALL OVER THE PLACE | Anagram indicator that’s easily found? (3,4,3,5) |
| Another two definitions. | ||
| 3 | MARYLAND | Fellow with daughter taking in a railway line in US state (8) |
| (A + RY + L) in (MAN + D). | ||
| 4 | BUTTER | Book’s complete flattery (6) |
| B + UTTER. | ||
| 5 | CENTRAL AMERICAN | Erratic canal men upset Panamanian? (7,8) |
| (ERRATIC CANAL MEN)*. Nice anagram. | ||
| 6 | MAINE COON | Unexpected income after possessing a working cat (5,4) |
| (A in INCOME*) + ON. | ||
| 7 | MASSACHUSETTS | Lots of people and children in US state, possibly this one? (13) |
| MASS + (CH in (US STATE)*). | ||
| 12 | VOUCHSAFE | Guarantee cut coupon will secure sugar and flour, primarily (9) |
| (S[ugar] A[nd] F[lour]) in VOUCHE[r]. | ||
| 14 | MEDIOCRE | Doctor about to accept nothing average (8) |
| 0 in (MEDIC + RE). | ||
| 17 | CALICO | Army boss imprisoning almost everyone over coarse material (6) |
| (AL[l] in CIC) + O. | ||
| 20 | TABBY | Silk fabric in reserve, underpinning theatre curtain (5) |
| TAB + BY. Readers of Samuel Pepy’s Diary will recently have come across a discussion of the etymology of the word “tabby”. It’s seemingly of Arabic origin, and the cat is named after the patterned material rather than vice versa. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
Nice puzzle, had trouble with TABBY. Had not heard of MAINE COON, but managed to work it out from the wordplay then check it by googling.
12A S[ugar] A[nd] F[lour] in VOUCHE[r].
Thanks to Phi and Simon Harris.
Thanks gwep, will amend.
And now I see there’s clearly some cat-related theme going on too. I know from his (always very interesting) blog that Phi is a cat lover, as all the best people are.
US states have state flowers, state trees…and three of them even have state cats, the Maine Coon being a bit of a shoo-in there. I can’t for the moment recall which of the other two has the tabby and which the calico.
>>as all the best people are
That’s me excluded then. The creatures lay siege to my garden birds and I wage war on them. Sorry.
Sorry, I don’t see the parsing of TABBY at all.
Ian SW3
It is BY (in reserve {as in put by}) underneath (underpinning) TAB (theatre curtain).
From Chambers under ‘tab’:
“A loop for drawing a stage curtain
Hence, a stage curtain”
Thanks, Gaufrid. I can see tab, but not by = reserve (put by, yes, but not by alone).
Sorry, of course it’s “in reserve,” as you said.