Klingsor was excellent company on a train ride up to The North at the weekend.
The grid seemed to fill up from right to left for me, at one point having one half completed and basically nothing written in on the other.
There was a certain amount of getting the answer first and then reverse-engineering the explanation: 24 across, 1 down and 14 down spring to mind. It all became clear in the end though.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HAVE THE JITTERS | Flying jet that’s extremely huge, I’ve right to be nervous (4,3,7) |
| (JET THAT‘S + H[ug]E + I‘VE + R)*. | ||
| 8 | AILMENT | Illness caused by food that’s left a bit late? (7) |
| From ALIMENT, but with the L running a bit late. | ||
| 9 | PRAGUE | Capital German company invested in Leith? (6) |
| AG in PRUE Leith. Reference to this lady. | ||
| 11 | MINCEMEAT | Filling that’s nice – mm! – in pie snack? (9) |
| (NICE MM)* + EAT. | ||
| 12 | SHEEN | Radiance observed when one’s lit up? (5) |
| Complicated one to explain. It’s SEEN with H in it. “Lit up” is in Chambers meaning “drunk”, but I’m guessing it can also be a drugs reference. | ||
| 13 | SWINDLE | It could be scoundrel taking in damsel heartlessly (7) |
| D[amse]L in SWINE and also &lit. | ||
| 15 | SCANNER | Scruple restraining Queen’s image-maker (7) |
| Queen ANNE in SCR. The Scruple is apparently a unit of weight in the Apothecaries’ system. That was very much news to me, but I think the clue was clear enough even without that specific knowledge. | ||
| 17 | RIOTERS | They give resistance to Tories violently? (7) |
| R in TORIES* and it’s &lit too. | ||
| 19 | CLEAN-UP | Removal of corruption‘s unproductive in football tournament? (5-2) |
| LEAN in CUP. | ||
| 20 | SPASM | Resort’s minute, for a start (5) |
| SPA‘S + M. | ||
| 22 | ANNOYANCE | Put crudely, can anyone bother? (9) |
| (CAN ANYONE)*. | ||
| 24 | COVERT | Charlie’s open secret (6) |
| C + OVERT. | ||
| 25 | CALCITE | Two names (the first abbreviated) for mineral (7) |
| CAL[l] + CITE. | ||
| 26 | CRIMINAL LAWYER | Brief visit involves run then I’m at home, awfully weary (8,6) |
| ((R + I‘M IN) in CALL) + WEARY*. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HEADMISTRESS | Dismiss teacher, one caught out misbehaving? She may want to (12) |
| (DISM[i]SS TEA[c]HER)* and another &lit I think. | ||
| 2 | VALENTINO | Old film star from Depression any number can love (9) |
| VALE + N + TIN + 0. Rudolph of that ilk, of course. | ||
| 3 | THEME | Melody Maker originally penned by old solver? (5) |
| M[aker] in THEE. One of Klingsor’s signature well-hidden definitions. | ||
| 4 | EXTREME | Former partner’s on box, maybe pocketing millions? That’s excessive (7) |
| EX + (M in TREE). Reference to this tree. | ||
| 5 | IMPETUS | Klingsor’s favourite nurse regularly provides motivation (7) |
| I‘M + PET + [n]U[r]S[e]. | ||
| 6 | TRANSLATE | Explain why I won’t reach Euston on time? Not I (9) |
| TRA[i]N‘S LATE. Nice one. | ||
| 7 | ROUGE | In Don Juan’s embrace, girl’s beginning to blush (5) |
| G[irl] in ROUÉ. | ||
| 10 | ENTREPRENEUR | Course tackling image building given by North European businessman (12) |
| (PR in ENTRÉE) + N + EUR. | ||
| 14 | DREAM TEAM | Drink leaves Mark full of energy – for workforce that’s ideal (5,4) |
| E in (DRAM + TEA + M). | ||
| 16 | NONENTITY | Nobody of note, tiny person ultimately? Possibly (9) |
| (NOTE TINY [perso]N. | ||
| 18 | SPARTAN | Fight and beat tough character (7) |
| SPAR + TAN. | ||
| 19 | CYNICAL | Lacy clothes fashionable with clubs? On reflection that’s doubtful (7) |
| ((IN in LACY) + C)<. | ||
| 21 | AMOUR | A not half sad affair (5) |
| A + MOUR[nful]. | ||
| 23 | YALTA | Yen for maiden in island port (5) |
| From MALTA, with Y instead of M. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
A good work-out without being frustratingly difficult. I couldn’t parse SHEEN but was thinking it must be SEEN + H, without ever having heard of H for ‘lit up’. SCR as an abbreviation for the unit of weight ‘scruple’ was also new to me – another one of those obsolete, or almost obsolete, measures like ‘peck’ and ‘ephah’ which occasionally appear and which I find very interesting in a quaint sort of way. When I saw 3d, I thought there was going to be a theme, but if there is one it’s gone over my head. I liked CRIMINAL LAWYER in particular.
Thanks to Klingsor and Simon.
Re 12 across. If you’ve had one too many you might well say ‘sheen’ instead of ‘seen’. In fact, I’m sure I have.
Thanks for explanations of PRAGUE and SHEEN. I always feel I haven’t properly finished the puzzle if I know the answers but don’t understand the clues.
“Reverse-engineering the explanation” – what a nice turn of phrase! I, too, had to do some of that.
PRAGUE took longer than it should have done as all I could think of for a while for ‘German company’ was gmbh. Should have twigged it earlier, knowing where Klingsor is based.
Favourite today was MINCEMEAT with ‘pie’ (Chambers has ‘mixed state, confusion’) both as the anagrind and giving a bit of &lit-ishness to the clue.
Thanks, Klingsor and Simon
Sorry if this is blindingly obvious to everyone else, but 5D: how do you get “I’m” from “Klingsor’s”?
“Klingsor’s” is an abbreviation of “Klingsor is”, and Klingsor is the setter, so it’s equivalent to him saying “I am” or “I’m”. A setter will quite often use his/her own name in a clue to indicate “I”.
Thanks for the explanation Allan. My reading of the apostrophe was more as a possessive, hence ‘my’ or ‘mine’ was closer to my reading of “Klingsor’s”. The clue doesn’t really work otherwise. At least not for me…