- () = abbreviation e.g. a(mpere)
- hom = homophone
- [] = letters removed
I found the parsing of a few of these a bit of a struggle, but on reflection they are mostly reasonable (apart from 18, which I still hate). There were some very neat clues, 10D being my favourite.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Pitiful mewl – cat’s outside house, scratching front covering on threshold (7,3) | ||
| Welcome Mat | [H]ome in (cat mewl)* | ||
| 6. | Places to stay in county (4) | ||
| Beds | DD | ||
| 9. | Perhaps left and right eliminate casual criticism (9) | ||
| Sideswipe | Sides + wipe | ||
| 10. | New Zealander‘s rejected account of travels? (5) | ||
| Maori | (I roam)< | ||
| 11. | What’ll stop things getting overheated in zone around stage door? (3,4) | ||
| Fan Belt | Seems to be a sort of CD/DD – fan belt for something that stops things getting overheated and also the area where fans might congregate. | ||
| 12. | March perhaps failing to start, say – none getting active (2,3,2) | ||
| On the go | [M]onth + EG + O | ||
| 13. | One tucking into meal has animal’s foot and rocket starter (6,3) | ||
| Launch Pad | A in lunch + pad | ||
| 16. | I’ll wear singular underwear and make-up (5) | ||
| Paint | I in pant | ||
| 17. | Core of planet revolving (5) | ||
| Heart | Earth cycling i.e. H moving to the front | ||
| 18. | Anyone taking part in this will be given some stick (5-4) | ||
| Relay race | CD – not my favourite clue since it could have been any sport which involves a stick and isn’t the object actually called a baton? | ||
| 19. | City suppressing anything bad (7) | ||
| Naughty | Aught in N(ew) Y(ork) | ||
| 20. | Neoclassical school of economics introducing element of value to Marx (7) | ||
| Chicago | AG (silver) in Chico, one of the Marx brothers. | ||
| 22. | She’s in my sights, you ‘ear, but extremely distant (5) | ||
| Icier | Hom of I see ‘er | ||
| 23. | Making note of my number? (9) | ||
| Itemising | DD – “item I sing” would be the number I would sing. | ||
| 24. | Muzzle American lady singer (4) | ||
| Gaga | Gag + A(merican), referring to Lady Gaga | ||
| 25. | Separating poles always withstood local surge (6,4) | ||
| Severn Bore | Ever between S and N + bore (withstood) | ||
Down |
|||
| 1. | Wife pregnant, finally going to bear issue – unlike Henry VIII, ruler shows optimism (7,8) | ||
| Wishful thinking | Seems to be w(ife) + ful[l](=pregnant?) around ish(=issue) + thin (what Henry wasn’t, at least in later life) + King. | ||
| 2. | Article from Sorbonne academic deceived (3,2) | ||
| Led on | Le (French definite article) + Don | ||
| 3. | Regularly heard next to rocky coast, the cry of this? (13) | ||
| Oystercatcher | &lit – (coast the cry)* + even letters of hEaRd | ||
| 4. | Chuck out smelly creature coming up with tail held down (5) | ||
| Evict | Civet with all but the T reversed | ||
| 5. | Funny-sounding US lawyer getting into Arab port’s source of mineral wealth (9) | ||
| Adenoidal | DA in Aden oil. Adenoidal can mean speaking strangely as a result of some sort of adenoidal problem. | ||
| 7. | Mysterious things I create, so bizarre (9) | ||
| Esoterica | (I create so)* | ||
| 8. | Error committed when one’s badly licked? (4,2,3,6) | ||
| Slip of the tongue | CD | ||
| 10. | What Stanley famously did for a philosopher (13) | ||
| Metaphysician | He met a physician (i.e. Dr David Livingstone) | ||
| 14. | Premier League club put up with drug-taking – it’s not funny (9) | ||
| Unamusing | (Man U)< + using | ||
| 15. | Instructions from HQ: do some coke (5,4) | ||
| Party Line | One I struggled to parse, being convinced that it must be a DD, but it’s actually Do(=party) + line(=some coke i.e. line thereof) | ||
| 20. | Stuff clogging up coffee percolator(5) | ||
| Crepe | Hidden, rev in coffeE PERColator | ||
| 21. | A fighter with love for friend (5) | ||
| Amigo | A + MIG (Russian jet fighter) + O | ||
A nice one from Morph today, though one or two answers took a bit of teasing out. For instance I only got CHICAGO from the wordplay; I have to confess ignorance of the said establishment, but you can find out about it here.
Favourite today has to be OYSTERCATCHER, simply from having seen and heard a great flock of them on a rocky coast.
18ac might be a bit vague but I don’t really have a problem with ‘baton’ = ‘stick’. In the music world, at any rate, conductors (and others) often refer to a baton as a stick and to ‘stick technique’ as the way they use it.
Thanks, Morph and NealH
Really enjoyed this, so thanks Morph and NealH.
Regarding baton: I once had a student (actually half French) who asked me, having read that a conductor used ‘une baguette’ what he was doing waving a loaf of bread around in front of an orchestra.
Good crossword today I thought, although I do have some reservations: to revolve isn’t to cycle (17ac); 18ac is a very weak CD in my opinion, which in any case is opposed to CDs at the best of times; in 22ac extremely distant should be iciest, surely (icier is comparatively distant). But 3dn goes some way towards making up for this.
Better late than never, or perhaps not. Easy for a start, but then hit the wall for the last 10 or so. All very well to say, as I got the clue pretty quickly, but I thought 18 was OK – yes ‘baton’ and ‘stick’ can be interchangeable. I agree with Wil Ransome @3 about icier/iciest. I’d not heard of ‘ish’ for ‘issue’ before. Liked 5 and 10d in particular.
Thanks to Morph and NealH.