[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
Greetings from Copenhagen!! A pleasurable challenge from Magwitch today. Needed perseverance on a few clues to parse right but nothing to really bother. Thanks Magwitch for yet another treat !!
FF: 9 DD : 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOTIVATION |
Incentive for proposal introducing international tax (10)
MOTION (proposal) introducing [ I (international) VAT (tax) ] |
| 6 | ICED |
I returned last month chilled to the bone (4)
I CED (last month = DEC, reversed) |
| 10 | RULER |
Person in charge of government measure (5)
Double def? |
| 11 | RAISE HELL |
Her allies unexpectedly make a lot of trouble (5,4)
Anagram of HER ALLIES |
| 12 | COHERENT |
Understandable being firm at this point with conservationists (8)
CO (firm) HERE (at this point) NT (conservationists, National Trust) |
| 13 | CAROB |
Like chocolate bar blended with 40% cocoa (5)
Anagram of BAR with CO (40% of COcoa) |
| 15 | BED REST |
Enforced idleness in middle of the day trapped in French port (3,4)
ED (middle of thE Day) in BREST (french port) |
| 17 | DEMURER |
Objector drops resistance and becomes more modest (7)
DEMURrER (objector, drops ‘R’- resistance) |
| 19 | MIRACLE |
Wonder at the Spanish vehicle reversing on motorway (7)
[ CAR (vehicle) EL (the, in spanish) ] all reversed, on MI (motorway) |
| 21 | FUSSPOT |
Stickler about full stops left out altogether (7)
Anagram of FUllSTOPS (‘LL’ – left out, altogether) |
| 22 | NOVEL |
Book would get a prize if central character were changed (5)
Cryptic clue; If V (central character) changed to B, it would spell a much coveted prize. |
| 24 | DOUBTFUL |
Party turn initially booked through friends unfortunately looks uncertain (8)
DO (party) U (turn) followed by initial characters of “..Booked Through Friends Unfortunately Looks..” |
| 27 | BLUSTERED |
“Be without covetousness!” leftie ranted (9)
[ BE around (without) LUST (covetousness) ] RED (leftie, communist) |
| 28 | AVOID |
Shun old and extremely ill- conceived electoral system at first (5)
O (old) ID (extremely Ill-conceiveD) after AV (electoral system, Alternative Vote) |
| 29 | EATS |
Takes in inside knowledge at school (4)
Hidden in “..knowledgE AT School”. |
| 30 | FEARLESSLY |
Woman with no means of hearing regularly plays without anxiety (10)
F (woman) EARLESS (with no means of hearing) LY (regularly pLaYs) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | MURK |
Described car as dark (4)
Sounds like MERC (mercedes, colloquial) |
| 2 | TALL ORDER |
A lot to expect of high command (4,5)
TALL (high) ORDER (command) |
| 3 | VERSE |
Poem is not about defeat (5)
reVERSE (defeat, without ‘RE’- about)
|
| 4 | TORMENT |
Wrong to imprison those of one sex for harassment (7)
TORT (wrong) imprisoning MEN (those of one sex) |
| 5 | OMITTED |
Times journalist goes after award I failed (7)
TT (Time = T, plural) ED (journalist) after [OM (Order of Merit, award) I ] |
| 7 | CLEAR |
King to succeed Charlie? It’s obvious (5)
LEAR (king) succeeding C (Charlie) |
| 8 | DELIBERATE |
Planned to berate idle drunk (10)
Anagram of BERATE IDLE – Unless I have got this wrong, not the crispest clue in the puzzle, with BERATE falling in place without change |
| 9 | WELCOMES |
Gladly accepts that we’ll mostly arrive by bus in the end (8)
WEL ( WE’Ll mostly) COME (arrive) S (buS in the end) |
| 14 | ABOMINABLE |
Disgusting that an explosive device is reported in Aberfoyle’s suburbs (10)
Sounds like A BOMB (an explosive device) IN ABLE (ABerfoyLE’s suburbs) |
| 16 | ESCALATE |
Mushroom escalope more than half consumed (8)
ESCALope (more than half) ATE (consumed) |
| 18 | RAPTUROUS |
Delighted to criticise America over shambolic rout (9)
[RAP (criticise) US (America)] over TURO (anagram of ROUT) |
| 20 | ENDORSE |
Wind up more ill without a wife to give support (7)
END (wind up) wORSE (more ill, without ‘W’ – wife) |
| 21 | FOUNDER |
Father’s collapse (7)
Double def |
| 23 | VAUNT |
Unionist engaged in heartless empty boast (5)
U (unionist) in VAcaNT (empty, heartless) |
| 25 | TRACE |
A hint of tense competition (5)
T (hint of Tense) RACE (competition) – hint doing double duty. |
| 26 | EDGY |
Sentry guarding crowded conference ends up irritable (4)
last letters of “sentrY guardinG crowdeD conferencE”, reversed. |
Lots to admire here and quite a challenge in the bottom half especially.
Re 8 down – if something is ‘planned’ it may be said to be ‘deliberate’
Hi Steven@1, what you are saying makes sense. My comment needs a retraction. 🙂
Cheers
TL
Thanks Magwitch and Turbolegs
Very enjoyable and quite straightforward I thought.
I agree with Steven about 8dn.
Using a homophone clue in 1dn was rather unfair: the answer could be MURK or MIRK.
In 21ac, I’m sure you meant ‘Anagram of FUll STOPS’ (left out altogether.)
Thanks Mike@3. Made the edit for 21ac.
Regards,
TL
Dross. I shall avoid this setter in future.
Re comment 5:
Dross. I shall avoid this poster in future.
Hear, hear, VeraJ, I was just going to contact admin. but now it is not necessary…
Thanks Magwitch abd Turbolegs
Half your luck TL … and enjoy.
Actually did this one last Friday and haven’t had time to check it until now. Could only get to it in short snatches of time throughout the day too, from memory.
Found it pretty straightforward for most part and finished down in the SW corner with BLUSTERED, ENDORSE and VAUNT (which I see that I’ve parsed wrongly) the last few in.
Noticed an unusually large number of abbreviations used throughout !
Thanks Magwitch and Turbolegs.
Needs your help to parse 3dn and a bit disappointed to find that was it.
I’ve never seen ‘suburbs’ for the first and last two letters of a word before. Made perfect sense when I solved it so that must be OK.
Hope you had a nice break TL.