As expected, a good work-out from Radian today.
There were a number of smiles along the way, especially with the various references to ‘economy’ in its various senses. We would however welcome comments on 18d.
| Across | ||
| 9 | He exposes river in Ulster, say | |
| OUTERWEAR | OUTER (he exposes) WEAR (river) | |
| 10 | Hit, he departs, sulking | |
| THUMP | T |
|
| 11 | Fibres no good as fuel | |
| TOWN GAS | TOW (fibres) NG (no good) AS. We guessed the answer here but had to check that fibres = tow. | |
| 12 | A Frenchman and a German jointly guard boss | |
| MANAGER | When Joyce came to write up the blog she could not remember the parsing and had to ask Bert who solved it in the first place! ‘Guarding’ refers to the fact that it’s hidden in the clue. We think ‘jointly’ indicates that you omit ‘and’ putting frenchMAN A GERman together. | |
| 13 | Double over radius of membrane | |
| DURAL | DUAL (double) around or ‘over’ R (radius) | |
| 14 | Hard-nosed paper probes impact at sea | |
| PRAGMATIC | RAG (paper) inside or ‘probing’ an anagram of IMPACT (anagrind is ‘at sea’) | |
| 16 | Santa went to town, spreading advice on economy | |
| WASTE NOT WANT NOT | An anagram of SANTA WENT TO TOWN (anagrind is ‘spreading’) | |
| 19 | Bowl over, bringing sides in separately for tale-ender | |
| STRAGGLER | STAGGER (bowl over) around or ‘bringing in’ R and L (sides as in right and left). ‘Separately’ refers to the fact that the R and L are not kept together. | |
| 21 | Place ring round large dog | |
| PLUTO | PUT (place) + O (ring) around L (large) | |
| 22 | Police initially arrest head of garden for job he does | |
| PRUNING | P (initial letter of Police) RUN IN (arrest) G (first letter or ‘head’ of Garden). A ‘smiley’ moment for Joyce (a keen gardener) when she realised the parsing. | |
| 23 | Drunk lecturer guzzling whiskey fell | |
| CUT DOWN | CUT (drunk) DON (lecturer) around or ‘guzzling’ W (whiskey as used in the NATO phonetic alphabet) | |
| 24 | Riddle: divide 7 minus n by 1 | |
| SIEVE | SEVE |
|
| 25 | Husband split during row, more 3 | |
| THRIFTIER | H (husband) RIFT (split) inside or ‘during’ TIER (row). The 3 refers to 3d. | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Very posh urban areas cover extremely hard English hills | |
| SOUTH DOWNS | SO (very) U (posh) TOWNS (urban areas) around or ‘covering’ HarD ( first and last or ‘extreme’ letters of hard) | |
| 2 | Attendants in St Edward’s ignore first duke | |
| STEWARDS | Hidden in the clue ST E |
|
| 3 | Prudent father escorting girl around university | |
| FRUGAL | FR (father) GAL (girl) around U (university) | |
| 4 | Comparatively little or no working at end of class | |
| LESS | LESS |
|
| 5 | Sadat supported illegal act in conflict in ‘50s | |
| CRIMEAN WAR | ANWAR (as in Anwar Sadat, a former President of Egypt) under or ‘supporting’ CRIME (illegal act) | |
| 6 | Check crew for someone acting dangerously | |
| STUNTMAN | STUNT (check) MAN (crew) | |
| 7 | Cheap move by Tory leader | |
| BUDGET | BUDGE (move) T (first letter or ‘leader of’ Tory) | |
| 8 | Corner shop starts to save pennies and retrench | |
| SPAR | First letters or ‘starts’ of Save Pennies And Retrench | |
| 14 | It’s wasteful of girl shakily filling noggin | |
| PROFLIGATE | An anagram of OF GIRL (anagrind is ‘shakily’) around or ‘filling’ PATE (noggin) | |
| 15 | Cold returns anew, squeezing company to reduce quality | |
| CUT CORNERS | C (cold) + an anagram of RETURNS (anagrind is ‘anew’) around or ‘squeezing’ CO (company) | |
| 17 | Boy brought in moth in kitchen device that’s been pinched | |
| EGG TIMER | TIM (boy) in EGGER (moth). The pinching refers to the shape of an old-fashioned or non-digital egg timer. | |
| 18 | The North is investing Republic |
|
| NEUROSIS | Well…….. we’re not sure about this one. We think it is N (North) and IS around EUROS but we don’t know why ‘Republic |
|
| 20 | Again employed trick, taking in Spain and Germany | |
| REUSED | RUSE (trick) around or ‘taking in’ E (Spain) + D (Germany) | |
| 21 | Drag over to table in Washington | |
| PUT OFF | PUFF (drag, as in smoking) around or ‘over’ TO. We had to check this one. Chambers has a definition of ‘table’ as “to postpone discussion (N. American)” | |
| 22 | I have no idea how to succeed in exam | |
| PASS | Joyce is writing the blog up today and this is her COD. It is a double definition – a play on what contestants say in Mastermind when they don’t know the answer. | |
| 23 | Restrain rookie trapping rook | |
| CURB | CUB (rookie) around or ‘trapping’ R (rook) | |
Oh no, I’d hoped you were going to explain 18D Neurosis, Bertandjoyce! At least you helped with 17D Egg Timer and 11A Town Gas and 12A Manager, none of which I understood completely. 9A Outerwear was my last answer. This puzzle needed a good solid effort to solve, thanks, Radian. My favourite was 22A Pruning with its amusing construction. Thanks, Bertandjoyce!
Hi
In the paper it is Republic’s money. That would be ok for Euros as it’s the currency of Eire. I think The is redundant.
Thanks, B and J.
I, too, couldn’t see how EGG TIMER worked, not knowing the moth, nor PUT OFF, not knowing that meaning of ‘table’ – it means the opposite here!
Like you, I liked PRUNING – and the anagram of SANTA WENT TO TOWN was a real find and made me smile, as did 23ac. 24ac is very clever, too.
My take on 18dn: ‘the’ is needed for the surface, referring to Northern Ireland, as opposed to Eire, where they use euros, as Djawhufc says. I really liked that one, too.
Many thanks, as ever, to Radian, for getting the brain in gear so entertainingly.
Just a couple of thoughts:
I think ‘The’ North in 18dn becomes explicable if you enter it as ‘The North is’ = NI’S (as in “Northern Ireland is”), rather than just N + IS. ‘The North’ being NI in a clue about Ireland is more satisfactory.
Also I think MANAGER makes more sense as ‘A’ (the first word of the clue) = AN, being guarded by the ‘Frenchman’ M and ‘a German’ A GER. So you get M AN A GER.
..maybe.
Sorry…my last post was a bit terse – I thought I had to dash out, but I don’t!
Thank you Radian for an impressive and enjoyable crossword. My COTDs were exactly the same as Eileen’s – SANTA, SIEVE and the unstable Don.
And thank you B&J for a pleasingly conversational blog (and for explaining PUT OFF for me).
Puzzled for a while by 23ac, thinking of ‘fell’ as the past tense of ‘fall’. Thought it might be LIT DOWN if one fell while lighting down (alighting) from a vehicle but it was stretching things a bit. A facepalm moment when I realised it was ‘fell’ as in tree felling.
Thanks, B&J et al, for explaining 18dn. And thanks to Radian as well.
Hi allan_c @6
Ah, yes, this took me a minute or two, too. ‘Fell’ comes in many different guises. In the surface it’s the past tense of ‘fall’, of course, but Chambers lists six [!] different definitions, including the unknown, to me, ‘a skin, a membrane, a covering of hair’, and ‘Spenser – gall or bitterness’.
What first sprang to my mind was fell = hill – useless – then fell as in ‘fell deed’ – equally useless – and it turned out to be the most obvious interpretation of all, which makes it, to mind, a brilliant clue, which is why I nominated it as one of my favourite clues – because it has a brilliant surface, too.
[Sheer self-indulgence here – this also sprang to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_do_not_like_thee,_Doctor_Fell ]
Thanks, both.
Quite chuffed with myself, because I finished this one without recourse to e-help, which isn’t always the case with Radian (or indeed with the Indy Tuesday puzzles in general).
I liked PRUNING and – like you – SIEVE. I was struggling with CRIMEAN WAR until I realised that of course the 50s bit actually refers to the 1850s. Clever stuff from Radian, to whom thanks.