Apart from the hard nuts (Anax and Nimrod) evidence is accumulating that since the Saturday puzzle stopped being a Prize puzzle the level of difficulty has gone down a bit.
Which is fine by me as my life seems to get busier and busier (and the lawn gets longer). Especially when the puzzles remain interesting and entertaining like this one.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SETTLE OLD SCORES | In amazingly close Lord’s Test, English avenge grudges (6,3,6) (CLOSE LORD’S TEST E[nglish])* AInd: amazingly. First read, first solved – after pencil and paper fiddling with the anagram fodder. It was a relatively straightforward clue to get going with a long answer and lots of first letters, and what a lovely clue surface reading, especially for the answer. |
| 9 | BLUEGRASS | Country singer joins navy? (9) Definition: Country as in music, GRASS (singer, as in informant) is BLUE (in the navy) |
| 10 | NABOB | Magnate wants a cracking new haircut (5) A between (cracking) N[ew] and BOB (haircut) |
| 11 | INSURE | Make certain snipe, for a start, is in season (6) S[nipe] inside INURE (season). Do snipe have a season? <checks> Oh dear – I thought they were a protected species |
| 12 | BRUCKNER | Fight opponents blocking British composer (8) RUCK (fight) NE (opponents – in bridge) inside BR (British) |
| 13 | GAMBOL | Frolic and play to the audience (6) Homophone “Gamble” |
| 15 | FAST FOOD | Fellow, when having to cook frequently, brought back burgers etc (4,4) F[ellow] AS (when) then DO (cook) OFT (frequently) reversed |
| 18 | COCKTAIL | Strutting leader related story for Cosmopolitan? (8) COCK (strutting leader) TAIL homophone “tale” (story). Definition by example so “?”. Cosmopolitan is a recipe having a resurgence due to “Sex in the City”, apparently. |
| 19 | HOLD-UP | In hiding after pulling fourth robbery (4-2) HOL[e]D UP. One of the last in – which now seems silly. |
| 21 | REDEEMER | One delivers cash in euro, oddly (8) REDEEM (cash in) E[u]R[o]. Coming back from hols? Hang on to your Euros – they’ll be worth a damn site more than Sterling. |
| 23 | WHISKY | Yankee’s after a mixer for drink (6) Y[ankee] after WHISK (mixer). With -H—Y in place I saw SHERRT and could not shift it from my mind |
| 26 | IAMBI | Admission of one fancying male and female feet? (5) “I AM BI” – Bit of deja vu here – We had an almost identical clue in last Saturday’s Tyrus – Great minds etc. |
| 27 | THEREFORE | So those people are ignoring bobby’s final warning (9) THEY’RE – Y (those people – [bobb]Y) FORE (warning). Terse definition |
| 28 | FEATHER ONES NEST | Exploit others possibly with position, ultimately seen rolling in it? (7,4,4) (FEAT (exploit) OTHERS [positio]N SEEN)* AInd: possibly, and maybe also rolling or rolling in it. As the whole clue provides an extended definition I will categorise this as an &Lit |
| Down | ||
| 1 | SIBLING | Shocking extremes of lewdness in Big Brother? (7) (L[ewdnes]S IN BIG)* AInd: Shocking. Tricky wordplay hidden in great clue surface |
| 2 | TOURS | Go around small French city (5) TOUR (go round) S[mall] |
| 3 | LAGER LOUT | Antisocial sort having gall to rue getting sloshed (5,4) (GALL TO RUE)* AInd: getting sloshed |
| 4 | OPAL | One gem or another uncovered by lake (4) [t]OPA[z], L[ake]. Interesting wordplay |
| 5 | DISARRAY | Home improvement involving mounting tapestry creates confusion (8) ARRAS< (tapestry, mounting) inside DIY (home improvement) |
| 6 | CYNIC | “Despondency” nicely encapsulates pessimist (5) Hidden in: despondenCY NICely |
| 7 | ROBIN HOOD | Outlaw short clothing? That’s criminal! (5,4) ROBIN[g] (short clothing) HOOD (criminal) |
| 8 | SOBERED | Finally did thus having swilled beer previously? (7) [di]D after SO (thus) BEER* AInd: swilled. Another extended definition &Lit clue. |
| 14 | MACADAMIA | A bounder gets into vacuous Mamma Mia! – it makes you nuts (9) A CAD (a bounder) inside M[amm]A (vacuous Mamma) MIA |
| 16 | TOOTHLESS | Ineffective way to settle dispute about poor hotel (9) TOSS (way to settle dispute – toss for it) around HOTEL* AInd: poor |
| 17 | DIRECTOR | Lynch, perhaps, dreadful topless performer (8) DIRE (dreadful) [a]CTOR (topless performer). Def. Ref: Film Director David Lynch (Eraserhead etc.) |
| 18 | CARDIFF | Transport one pair of fellows around Dutch city (7) CAR (transport) I (one) FF (pair of fellows) around D[utch]. I soon gave up trying to think of a Dutch city surrounded in Fs meaning transport |
| 20 | PAYMENT | Indeed, people in training will get recompense (7) AY (indeed) MEN (people) inside PT (training) |
| 22 | EDITH | Correct husband for her (5) EDIT (correct) H[usband] |
| 24 | SLOPE | Pitch and run succeeded at first (5) S[ucceeded] LOPE (run). LOI soon solved after getting the S from Whisky but was baffled till then |
| 25 | FERN | River feeds bog plant (4) R[iver] inside (feeds) FEN (bog) |
It may have been done before but I love bluegrass.Nice puzzle and blog.Thanks.
Thanks. I could not parse SIBLING any way I looked at it.
Favourite was HOLD-UP.
Thanks Klingsor and beermagnet
28ac: I think this works as FEAT (Exploit) plus [anagram (possibly) of OTHERS containing (with … in it) anagram (rolling) of (position)N SEEN].
Made me think without being too much of a struggle. Tricked by ‘…Big Brother’ for quite a while and even the anagram at 1a took longer than it should have. I liked BRUCKNER and BLUEGRASS – not sure that the former composed any examples of the latter though.
Thanks to Klingsor and beermagnet.
Lovely puzzle (as usual with this setter). Much to admire but I think SIBLING is my favourite: brilliant!
Neil
Great blog too, sorry beermagmet
As it happens, the recycled Indy in yesterday’s i was a Saturday prize puzzle from Klingsor. It was blogged back in 2011 by Simon Harding who said of one clue, “Something Klingsor does very well is to mislead the solver into parsing the clue wrongly.” Which comment might very well be applied to today’s 1dn among others.
The difficulty of Saturday puzzles may have gone down a bit, but I still found this quite a challenge, especially the SW corner and needed a bit of wordfinder help.
Thanks, Klingsor and beermagnet.