A puzzle full of intricate clues, but also some humour.
The 7/8 combination was inspired. My only question mark was over 25 across, where I’m struggling to correlate the definition with the answer.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DOUBLE VISION | Seeing somebody more than once perhaps, one is bound to go dizzy with love (6,6) |
| (I is bound + love)* | ||
| 7 | PIANIST | Unfinished track cut by a popular backing musician … (7) |
| Pist[e]a round a in< | ||
| 8 | TINKLER | … who has a number one? (7) |
| DD (as in tinkling the ivories and having a pee). | ||
| 10 | EMMYS | Attempt to avoid correspondence about awards (5) |
| Symme[try]< | ||
| 11 | EMACIATED | I reached over and devoured a little bit of duck without much meat on the bone (9) |
| (I came)< + ate + d[uck] | ||
| 12 | AMALTHEA | Legendary nurse in a bad French hospital starts to earn accolades – about time! (8) |
| (A + mal + h(ospital) + initial letters of e[arn] a[ccolades]) around t(ime) | ||
| 14 | DEBRIS | Bread baked without yeast in the middle is rubbish (6) |
| (Bre[a]d)* (remove middle letter of yeast) + is | ||
| 17 | ATAXIA | Cab drivers admit an inability to coordinate (6) |
| Taxi in AA | ||
| 18 | NINTENDO | Japanese company‘s refusal to accept plan (8) |
| No around intend | ||
| 20 | GLAMORISE | Make pretty amateur blunders with some girl (9) |
| (A(mateur) + some girl)* | ||
| 22 | THONG | Lots of people taking off the last bit of their underwear (5) |
| Throng minus [thei]r | ||
| 23 | RIGHT ON | Trendy coastal resort that’s in England, not Belgium (5,2) |
| [B]righton | ||
| 24 | BITCOIN | Piece of data fraud involving international cryptocurrency (7) |
| Bit(=piece of data) + con around i(nternational) | ||
| 25 | PREPAREDNESS | Willing crazy spenders to cut parts (12) |
| Pare in (=parts) spenders*, although I’m lost on the context in which willing=preparedness | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DHARMSALA | Traveller may be found here dead, having unfortunately capsized with the top of her arm trapped (9) |
| (D(ead) + alas<) around (h[er] arm) – the normal spelling seems to be Dharamsala | ||
| 2 | UNITS | Educational establishment’s head of teaching introduced modules (5) |
| Uni’s with t[eaching] inside | ||
| 3 | LET ME SEE | I’m thinking you should stop blocking the view! (3,2,3) |
| DD | ||
| 4 | VATMAN | Tubby guy employed as a tax inspector? (6) |
| DD/CD (vat=tub) | ||
| 5 | SENTIMENT | Thrilled to embrace New Age feeling (9) |
| Sent around n(ew) time | ||
| 6 | OWLET | A little bird heading north without hindrance (5) |
| WO (abbrev for without)< + let (hindrance in tennis) | ||
| 7 | PRET A MANGER | Arrange temp repairs for a sandwich shop (4,1,6) |
| (Arrange temp)* | ||
| 9 | RIDE SHOTGUN | Messy diners ought to sit up front (4,7) |
| (Diners ought)* | ||
| 13 | THIN ON TOP | This endless, endless sportscast initially excluded Balding (4,2,3) |
| Thi[s] + non [s]top | ||
| 15 | RANCOROUS | Spiteful wartime general striking France, Romania and America (9) |
| [F]ranco + Ro(mania) + US | ||
| 16 | RIVER BED | Lower part of the Congo possibly was passed over by migrating weaver birds (5,3) |
| ([W]e[a]ver bird[s])* | ||
| 19 | DINNER | Meal deal (75% off) at the place next to The Bull (6) |
| D[eal] (75% of the letters removed) + inner (part of a target next to the bull’s eye) | ||
| 21 | ANGER | Irritation displayed by Hazard when missing header (5) |
| [D]anger – no reference to the footballer | ||
| 22 | TUTEE | One learning up front that university’s typically extremely expensive (5) |
| Initial letters of That University’s Typically Extremely Expensive | ||
*anagram
Thanks Gila and NealH
Re 25, it’s not exactly graceful phrasing, but I think you can equate ‘show willing’ with ‘show preparedness’ – the meaning seems pretty much the same.
I think he phrase ‘to show willing’ gives us an adjectival noun we could live with as a def. of ‘preparedness’.
I liked 1 down for the rather bloodthirsty surface and AMALTHEA which I sitill haven’t looked up. Otherwise tough-but-fair, I thought.
Thanks to Neal and Gila.
Oops, crossed in the post with Simon. We have a consensus, evidently. And I now that Amalthea was Zeus’s foster-mum.
I liked this a lot. A very good word- wizard indeed would be required for 1d but the cluing and Chambers sorted it (finally)
In my opinion, this was/is the best Gila so far.
It took me a lot longer than a ‘normal’ Monday puzzle, so it must have been relatively tough.
Last Saturday, Maize got huge credits for his crossword (which was mainly because he managed to produce a quadruple pangram).
Gila’s cluing is every bit as good as in that puzzle.
Perhaps, I liked today’s even more.
A quality crossword.
(even if I am not keen on using brand names for a solution [7d])
Many thanks to Neal for the blog, and to Gila for the fun.
too tough for me. There were half a dozen I couldn’t get. I thought 1dn particularly obscure. Didn’t know the name and the word play was too convoluted.
Many thanks to Neal for the blog and to all for the comments. High praise indeed there, Sil, thank you. This is a million miles away from Maize’s multi pangram if you ask me, but glad to see I seem to be improving.
Truth be told, I wasn’t completely blown away with 25A either and struggled with it (twice in fact, as it was re-clued). It certainly wasn’t a word I expressly chose for the puzzle, unlike DHARMSALA of course. Ahem.
Thanks again
Ali/Gila