A steady solve this morning, with some lovely surfaces from Jason.
… but also a couple of grumps. Take no notice of me, though, I’m in a bad mood with computers today. Double apologies for being late on parade and for the lack of highlighting in the explanations which I’ll try to amend later, all of it down to midnight problems with the site, a wasp, a cat and a glass of wine which came together to create a perfect digital storm. I still enjoyed the puzzle, in a perverse sort of way. Thanks to Jason.
F| Across | ||
| 1 | LOCUST | Copper enthralled by missing beast resulting in destruction (6) |
| CU (‘copper’) included in LOST (‘missing’). | ||
| 4 | FAR OFF | Distant port getting very loud (3-3) |
| FARO (Portuguese port) then FF (‘very loud’). | ||
| 8 | STOPGAP | This’ll do for now, end with opening (7) |
| STOP (‘end’) & GAP (‘opening’). | ||
| 9 | CABARET | Nude in new act here (7) |
| Whole clue charade and BARE in anagram (‘new’) of ACT. | ||
| 11 | DELIBERATE | Careful food shop getting censure (10) |
| DELI (‘food shop’) & BERATE | ||
| 12 | OOPS | The sound of stupidity? Fellow quitting review of satire (4) |
| SPOOF (‘satire’) reversed (‘reviewed’), but missing its F for ‘fellow’. | ||
| 13 | CONGA | Fiddle fun wanting me to dance (5) |
| CON (‘fiddle’) & GAME (‘fun’) minus ME. | ||
| 14 | TOWELLED | We let old dance having had a rub down (8) |
| Anagram (‘dance’) of WE LET OLD | ||
| 16 | BARBADOS | Island place to drink drop of bourbon and mixer looking west (8) |
| BAR (‘place to drink’) & B (‘drop of Bourbon’) then SODA reversed (‘looking west’) | ||
| 18 | GOWNS | Work with non-smoker making academic gear (5) |
| GO (‘work’) & W (‘with’) then NS (‘non-smoker’ in lonely-hearts-speak). | ||
| 20 | ANTI | Against worker getting one (4) |
| ANT (‘worker’) & 1. | ||
| 21 | PEDESTRIAN | Hiker with nothing much to write home about (10) |
| Double definition. Nice surface, and I played around a bit, hoping it to be cleverer than it was. PEN as ‘write’ looked as though it might surround something-or-other. The true parse was thus a bit of a disappointment. Ah, well. | ||
| 23 | PASTURE | A street surrounded by neat grass (7) |
| PURE (‘neat’, as in whisky) surrounds A ST (‘street’). Easy clue, lovely surface. No harm in taking time out to enjoy both, you know. | ||
| 24 | SAWMILL | Cutting workplace was about mass suffering (7) |
| WAS reversed (‘about’) then M (‘mass’) then ILL. My favourite today, for the sneaky cryptic def. | ||
| 25 | LARDER | Cool store in particular derision (6) |
| Inclusion in ‘particuLAR DERision’. | ||
| 26 | TENNIS | Court contest is flipping wrong – clear (6) |
| SIN (‘wrong’) & NET (‘clear’) all reversed (‘flipping’). | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | LATHE | Turner is behind schedule entering hotel (5) |
| H (for ‘hotel’ in Ordnance Survey maps) in LATE (‘behind schedule’). | ||
| 2 | CAPTION | Go one better than changing into a legend (7) |
| CAP (‘go one better than’, as in ‘I can cap that…’) then an anagram (‘changing’) of INTO A. Again, a readable surface which irritatingly leads one towards a non-existent cryptic def. Good setting, Jason. | ||
| 3 | STAGEHAND | Busy agents had to move flats perhaps (9) |
| And then you get a bit of a clunker… The anagram (‘busy’) of AGENTS HAD is fair enough and stagehands (plural) do indeed move ‘flats’ (painted scenery) around but what part of speech does the whole clue definition lead us to? The verb ‘to stagehand’ doesn’t exist in my word-world And that ‘perhaps’ doesn’t quite excuse things, IMHO. H’mm. |
||
| 5 | AMAZE | A jungle floor (5) |
| A & MAZE gives ‘floor’ (to ‘amaze’) | ||
| 6 | ON A ROLL | Enjoying good luck playing with a cycle (2,1,4) |
| ON (‘playing’ as in ‘which record is on?’) & A ROLL (‘cycle’). | ||
| 7 | FREE PRESS | Complimentary daily that says it as it is (4,5) |
| FREE (‘complimentary’) & PRESS (as in ‘daily paper’, just about). Once more, a bit woolly for my purist inclinations. | ||
| 10 | CAST ASIDE | Get rid of actors over stage whisper (4,5) |
| CAST (‘actors’) over – in this Down clue – ASIDE (a ‘stage whisper’). | ||
| 13 | CHAIN MAIL | Restrain chap we hear making trouble by post (5,4) |
| CHAIN (‘restrain’) & MAIL (homophone of ‘male’, or ‘chap’). Is pass-it-on chain mail still a problem in this digital age? | ||
| 15 | WAGE SLAVE | I can’t not work when gale and waves crash (4,5) |
| Anagram (‘crash’) of GALE & WAVES. | ||
| 17 | BLISTER | Second-rate celeb is a nuisance (7) |
| B-LISTER. ‘Blister’ is a nice, Wodehouse-ian word for a chap who’s pain in the neck. | ||
| 19 | WORKMAN | Female boxing right gear, it leaves employee (7) |
| WOMAN (‘female’) includes (‘boxing’) R (‘right’) & KIT (‘gear’) without its IT. | ||
| 21 | PURGE | Get rid of parking on drive (5) |
| P (‘parking’) & URGE (‘drive’). | ||
| 22 | ATLAS | One at sea with a mounting collection of charts (5) |
| SALT (a sailor, ‘one at sea’ – where would crosswords be without ABs, tars, OSs, RNs, Jacks, POs and other jolly crew members? -) then A, all reversed (‘mounting’ in this down clue). | ||
*anagram
Thanks Jason and Grant
I hadn’t attempted a Jason puzzle for a little while and found this one a tad harder than I was used to with his previous ones. Found that I had to double check quite a few of his definitions which all turned out to be good – ‘jungle’ for MAZE, ‘flat’ for a ‘a piece of scenery’ (more that I was unfamiliar with that term), and ‘blister’ as ‘an irritating person’. Hadn’t heard of the seaport city of FARO either.
Enjoyed the solve though, especially the B-LISTER and seeing through OOPS and CONGA eventually. Also enjoyed the laconic humour in the blog as well – and was intrigued with the components of your ‘perfect storm’.
Finished in the NE corner with CAPTION (another that I had to double check actually meant ‘legend’), STAGEHAND (which I initially took as a &lit definition, but it did need to be plural to be that) and the tricky CONGA as the last one in.
Thanks Jason and GB
I don’t recall tackling Jason before, and quite enjoyed this. Bit of a question mark over STAGEHAND here too, but my worst mistake was bunging in FREE SHEET (complimentary daily, eg Metro), then totally stymieing myself on OOPS & GOWNS. It took a long spell in the garden to create the necessary thought gap for things to become clearer.