A fairly straightforward Tuesday morning…
…or it would have been had my workplace IT not been a problem, which meant I couldn’t access the puzzle or the blog until about 15 minutes ago.
The puzzle itself is a bit anodyne, with a couple of unsatisfying clues, but 13ac, 23ac and 24dn rise above the blandness.
Sorry for the short blog and explanations, but I now have a backlog of “day job” tasks to carry out.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ASTROLOGER |
Sky pundit? (10)
Cryptic definition |
| 7 | SITE |
Internet location – something worth viewing, it’s said (4)
*(sight) |
| 9 | DUET |
Expected tenor to give performance (4)
DUE + T |
| 10 | NANOSECOND |
Grandma, old, back for short time (10)
NAN+O+SECOND |
| 11 | CAPONE |
US gangster’s headwear, unique (6)
CAP + ONE |
| 12 | WALKOVER |
Rule withdrawn by King on recovery from crushing defeat (8)
<+LAW + K + OVER |
| 13 | DECADENT |
Corrupt period – precursor to later books (8)
DECADE + NT |
| 15 | ROSE |
Girl got up (4)
Double definition |
| 17 | JUMP |
Spring leads to joy, universal, many proclaim (4)
First letters of Joy, Universal, Many Proclaim |
| 19 | THEORIST |
One reasoning believer accepts indication of alternative (8)
THE(OR)IST |
| 22 | BASELINE |
Murray’s limit? (8)
Cryptic definition |
| 23 | SISTER |
Nurse is coming back – rest ordered (6)
<=IS = *(rest) |
| 25 | FIRE ENGINE |
Road vehicle fee in Niger under review (4,6)
*(fee in Niger) |
| 26 | LOPE |
Solo performance has run (4)
hidden in soLO PErformance |
| 27 | FEAT |
Paper covers team’s core achievement (4)
FT covering (t)EA(m) |
| 28 | WIDE-SCREEN |
Somewhere to watch red wine (sec) in preparation (4-6)
*(red wine sec) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | SAUSAGE |
Showing sense eating Australian food (7)
S(AUS)AGE |
| 3 | RATIO |
Relationship from a time in port (5)
R(A T)IO |
| 4 | LINGERER |
German aboard vessel he’s reluctant to leave (8)
LIN(GER)ER |
| 5 | GONE WITH THE WIND |
Seeing film from book, blown away (4,4,3,4)
Double definition (kind of?) |
| 6 | RESULT |
Outcome affected Ulster (6)
*(Ulster) |
| 7 | SUCCOURER |
He helps gullible guy, we hear, with tips from elder (9)
homphone of SUCKER + E(lde)R |
| 8 | TANKERS |
Financial staff get new start in ships (7)
(b)(T)ANKERS |
| 14 | AT PRESENT |
Troubled teen beginning to regret past now (2,7)
*(teen r past) where R = “beginning to regret” |
| 16 | WELSHERS |
How loveless and lesser unfortunately, they fail to meet obligations (8)
*(hw lesser) where HW = “how loveless” = HOW-O |
| 18 | UNALIKE |
Be fond of female initially as different (7)
UNA + LIKE |
| 20 | STEEPLE |
Expensive – the French church feature (7)
STEEP + LE |
| 21 | MINNOW |
Minister won over tiddler (6)
MIN + <=WON |
| 24 | SOLAR |
Sun’s rise over lake (5)
SO(L)AR |
Thanks Gurney and loonapick. I had ‘TENDERS’ for 8d: (L)(T)ENDERS which still works I think.
Re Steve at #1, yes, that works, I think, though TANKERS as in the blog is the intended answer. Had I thought of that possibility, I would have rewritten the clue to avoid ambiguity.
Thanks Gurney and loonapick
A pleasant enough puzzle with no real standouts. Second time that I’ve seen that film in a crossword in the past week (but as I do a lot of backlog ones, it may have been set months ago). Never actually watched or read the real thing.
Finished with WALKOVER as the last one in.
Yes, brucew at #3, the film is worth a look and you don’t have to take it just from me…
Thanks loonapick for the blog and Gurney for the puzzle and your contributions above.
I agree with loonapick’s analysis. All very straightforward and it almost felt a bit Dante-ish.
It was all over too quickly for me.
However, we do need puzzles like this to help those new to this game and to help the more seasoned of us recover from maulings at the hands of the more vicious setters.
And with the exception of 8dn, this was a well clued so thanks again.