A nice Monday morning workout from Morph to cheer a chilly day.
This appears to be a plain crossword, can’t see any Ninas or themes – not that this a complaint, it’s just a tad embarrasing when I miss them. Not convinced by my answer to NARRATIVE so corrections welcome.
I see Sil has posted a notification about our S&B in Cambridge in April, hope to see a few of you there.
Phil aka flashling
| Across | ||
| 1 | THUNDERSTRUCK |
Amazed as lorry speeds to overtake (13)
THUNDERS (speeds) overtakes TRUCK (lorry)
|
| 8 | LETHAL |
Service delivery hampered by 2001 computer terminal (6)
LET (replayed tennis service) by H.A.L. (the computer in 2001). Nice one Morph
|
| 9 | VOICE BOX |
Something gripping on TV? Nothing in it for spoken word producer (5,3)
0 (Nothing) in VICE (something gripping) & BOX (TV). Something Gary Lineker appeared not to have last night on TV.
|
| 10 | BOW TIE |
Dicky heart’s terminal in singer (3,3)
(hear)T in (david) BOWIE
|
| 11 | ODALISKS |
Harem women in love with retiring boy kiss frantically (8)
Female slaves in especially a Turking harem, 0 (love) & LAD retiring & KISS* frantically
|
| 12 | PREHENSILE |
Grasping where eggs come in sequence? That is grasping first element of logic (10)
Which came first the chicken or the egg? Morph appears to have decided eggs come before, so PRE-HEN & S(equence) & L(ogic) in I.E. Nicely linking logic with prehensile
|
| 14 | WONK |
Get over studious type (4)
KNOW (get) reversed
|
| 15 | THUD |
No-good ruffian’s dead body falling might (4)
Nice onomatopaeic word that, G(ood) removed from THU(g) & D(ead)
|
| 16 | RECREATION |
Scripture’s original story is fun (10)
R(eligious) E(ducation) & CREATION (the original story in R.E.)
|
| 18 | ESCAPADE |
Energy sector’s third to embrace limit on commercial caper (8)
E(nergy) & [CAP limit) & AD (commercial)] in a third of SE(ctor)
|
| 20 | BEREFT |
Inherit, but on the other hand suffering loss (6)
R replacing L in BE LEFT (inherit)
|
| 21 | FAMILIAR |
It’s well-known in bar – I’m a female when performing a turn! (8)
RAIL (bar) & I’M A F(emale) all reversed performing a turn
|
| 22 | STUPID |
Cryptically replaces document possessing inadequate intelligence (6)
STUP is PUTS BACK so stupid could be “puts back I.D. (document)”
|
| 23 | EAU DE TOILETTE |
I.e. due to late running time, head of entertainment supplies alcoholic liquid (3,2,8)
Not an alcoholic liquid I’d recommend you’d drink even if you were a member of certain international Rugby teams back in the day. Yes they did. [IE DUE TO LATE]* running & T(ime) & head of E(ntertainment)
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | THE FOURTH ESTATE |
A quarter among you say it’s the media (3,6,6)
a FOURTH (quarter) in THEE (you) STATE (say)
|
| 2 | UNHITCHED |
Formed group, dropping flipside and having best-selling record released (9)
(b)UNCHED (formed group) losing the B-SIDE (flipside) & HIT inserted
Took me a while to get this I kept trying to make UNITED as the formed group bit.
|
| 3 | DELVE |
The King is lost in middle of Philadelphia, requiring search (5)
ELV(is) (the King) (is lost) in middle of (phila)DE(lphia)
|
| 4 | RAVIOLI |
Almost half starving, I prepared oil for food parcels (7)
Almost half of RAV(eous) & I & OIL* prepared
|
| 5 | TAIWANESE |
Asian Democrats abandoning disastrous ‘Wait and See’ (9)
D(emocrats) removed from disastrous [WAIT AN(d) SEE]*
|
| 6 | UTERI |
Partially computerised incubators (5)
Hidden in compUTERIsed
|
| 7 | KNOCKING-OFF TIME |
Theft followed by jail sentence – better call it a day now (8-3,4)
KNOCKING OFF (theft) & TIME (jail sentence)
|
| 13 | NARRATIVE |
Tale of Samuel Whiskers, say, including Potter’s ending, outwardly simple (9)
Not utterly convinced here. Whiskers appears to be the name of several artists, so an R.A. with (potte)R inserted, all inside NATIVE (simple). Perhaps someone can come up with a better solution.
|
| 14 | WATER BUTT |
Moisturise backside – that may be useful after shower! (5,4)
WATER (moisturise) & BUTT (backside)
|
| 17 | CHEERIO |
Revolutionary dominated eastern city so long… (7)
CHE (setter’s favourite revoltionary) with E(astern) inserted or dominated & RIO (city)
|
| 19 | ADIEU |
…that end is gilded? (5)
following on from CHEERIO, DIE (end) in AU (gold, hence lined with gold)
|
| 20 | BASAL |
Almost rock bottom-ish (5)
Like a BASE. Almost BASAL(t)
|
*anagram
Re. 13d – No artists called Whiskers needed! Samuel Whiskers is a rat; it’s R in RAT, all in NAIVE (simple).
D’oh thanks Herb.
Glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t have a clue what type of creature Samuel Whiskers was. If he existed at all, I was assuming he was a cat, although I was more inclined to go down the same route as Flashling and think the definition was “tale of Samuel” (possibly something biblical).
I found this reasonably tough and was quite pleased to finish it, although the fact that the 4 long clues weren’t the most difficult made it easier.
Thanks, flashling.
I knew that Samuel Whiskers was a Beatrix Potter creation, but I convinced myself that he was a cat, which didn’t help. Just the last few that held me up, so a good choice for the ‘easy’ Monday puzzle.
Plenty to enjoy today: my favourites were WONK, WATER BUTT and UTERI. Thanks to Morph too.
Thanks to both! I especially liked 20a: a very neat clue!
Nice puzzle and blog. I liked UNHITCHED and PREHENSILE very much. I parsed the latter very slightly differently, without using “sequence” as the source of the “s” in the answer: I just that “eggs” must come before “hens”, plural. The rest of it was identically derived.
Good point about Gary Lineker. He sounded terrible. Wonder if they dock his pay when he’s rough like that?
Tricky for a Monday we thought but very enjoyable. Thanks to Morph.
Thanks flashling – we noticed the posting about the S&B earlier. It’s in the calendar.