No themes or clever tricks, just a good old-fashioned puzzle. Thanks Brummie.
| Across | ||
| 7 | INFERNAL | Conclude with army’s opening invasion of Holland — hellish (8) |
| INFER (conclude) with Army (opening, first letter of) in NL (Nederlands, Holland to the English) | ||
| 9 | AURORA | Atmospheric phenomenon or boomer sound? (6) |
| sounds like (sound) “or roarer” | ||
| 10 | See 22 | |
| 11 | WAVELENGTH | Given the law about dropping electric current, it might span two peaks (10) |
| anagram (about) of GIVEN THE LAW missing I (symbol for electric current) | ||
| 12 | BLOWER | Phone a spendthrift (6) |
| double definition – slang for telephone and one who blows money | ||
| 14 | NUTHATCH | Bird from Brazil? Mark with fine lines (8) |
| NUT (Brazil perhaps) then HATCH (mark with fine lines) | ||
| 15 | DENIAL | Sort of dash into Ring dismissal (6) |
| EN (sort of dash, printing) in DIAL (ring, on the phone) | ||
| 17 | SCRIMP | Small creature has cold, rather than hot, stint (6) |
| ShRIMP (small creature) with C (cold) replacing H (hot) | ||
| 20 | UNCOUPLE | United, Poulenc incited divorce (8) |
| U (united) then anagram (incited) of POULENC | ||
| 22, 10 | BANANA BOAT | Bar with two articles by tramp? It bears fruit (6,4) |
| BAN (bar) with AN and A (two articles) then TRAMP (tramp steamer, a boat) | ||
| 23 | CRYPTOGRAM | Agent’s message, maybe: “Try to come back between chapel and drive” (10) |
| GO reversed (to come back) between CRYPT (chapel) and RAM (RAM drive computing or to impel) | ||
| 24 | See 2 | |
| 25 | STANZA | Laurel’s sound, having a few lines? (6) |
| STANZ sounds like Stan’s (Stan Laurel’s) with A | ||
| 26 | SERAGLIO | Supervise “rag lion” housing for Muslim quarters (8) |
| found inside (housed by) superviSE RAG LIOn | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ENNOBLED | Dignified death, hoarding old money (8) |
| END (death) contains NOBLE (old coin) | ||
| 2, 24 across | MEET WITH APPROVAL | Junk TV harm: people wait to gain acceptance (4,4,8) |
| anagram (junk) of TV HARM PEOPLE WAIT | ||
| 3 | ANSWER | Solution offered by Australian state: cutting a rate of interest (6) |
| NSW (Australian state) inside (cutting) AER (Annual Equivalent Rate) | ||
| 4 | BALLETIC | Writer takes every blockbuster film as movingly graceful (8) |
| BIC (writer, ballpoint pen) contains (takes) ALL (every) ET (a blockbuster film) | ||
| 5 | TRUNCATION | Shortening time before work on ground action (10) |
| T (time) then RUN (work) on anagram (ground) of ACTION | ||
| 6 | ARCTIC | “Extremely cold chest”, Mark said (6) |
| ARC TIC sounds like (said) “ark” (chest) and “tick” (mark) | ||
| 8, 24 | LIVING WAGE | Which should keep a worker from leaving wig off (6,4) |
| anagram (off) of LEAVING WIG | ||
| 13 | WINDOWPANE | Light weapon exploded after blast (10) |
| anagram (exploded) of WEAPON following WIND (blast) | ||
| 16 | See 2 | |
| 18 | PONYTAIL | £25 tip that could go to one’s head (8) |
| PONY (£25, slang) and TAIL (tip) | ||
| 19 | DEBRIS | Teacher Patch turned over remains (6) |
| SIR (teacher) and BED (patch, in garden all reversed (turned over)) | ||
| 21 | NERITA | Retina mistaken for group of sea snails (6) |
| anagram (mistaken) of RETINA | ||
| 22 | BEMIRE | Insect straddling overturned border soil (6) |
| BEE (insect) contains (straddling RIM (border) reversed (overturned) | ||
| 24 | See 8 | |
*anagram
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand feel to ask questions; chances are there are others wondering the same things.
Thanks PeeDee. I agree, a welcome straightforward puzzle. Rather too many anagrams perhaps (7) but some good clues too. I struggled for a while to explain 23a looking for an anagram of TRY in there somewhere and was slow to see ‘crypt’ = ‘chapel’.
Thanks to Brummie and PeeDee. Easier for me than many prize puzzles. I got ANSWER but had to look up AER to be certain. Last in were TRUNCATION (even with all the crossers I had trouble seeing it) and NERITA (new to me). Very enjoyable.
Thanks PeeDee. Apart from messing up the vowel-order for the sea snails in 21D my only hold-up was the likeable 9A which seemed to demand an air- opening.
Thanks to Brummie for an enjoyable solve.
21d was a guess, as like ACD@2, I had not heard of NERITA, the sea snails.
Similarly EN as a printer’s dash providing the fodder for 15a DENIAL was new to me, even though I am very familiar with EL, the printer’s measure, from other crosswords.
I also failed to see that RAM in 21a CRYPTOGRAM might refer to a computer drive; I just thought it was a reference to driving something home (to ram one’s message home) as in battering ram.
So thanks to PeeDee for a helpful explanatory blog.
Thanks both. I agree with Julie @4 that RAM is to drive (impel) rather than the computer meaning
I struggled with this for some time and was just thinking I wasn’t on the setter’s wavelength when WAVELENGTH came up.
Nice.
Got it finished in the end but resorted to reference material too many times to feel I had solved it.
Thank you Brummie and PeeDee.
As for ACD @2, I found this easier than many prize puzzles, though I also had to check on AER. BALLETIC sounded strange to me, but it is in the COED. I particularly liked CRYPTOGRAM, ENNOBLED and the PONYTAIL!
For “ram” I think “to impel” and “RAM Drive” both work. I picked the RAM drive because after a career in IT that was a familiar term to me. I don’t think there is a right and wrong here, pick whichever is most familiar to you, or perhaps something else entirely.
Quite gentle for a prize. I liked AURORA and puzzled over NUTHATCH- I’m not sure why now!
Thanks Brummie.
Thanks Brummie and PeeDee
I had, perforce, to do this without any references, so it can’t have been difficult, but I didn’t really find it all that entertaining.
Slight question mark over crypt=chapel. Yes, a chapel might be in a crypt, but most chapels aren’t, and many crypts don’t contain chapels.
@PeeDee
I think 21a would be a rather poor clue if it depended on “drive” as a definition of RAM in the computer sense. Without wishing to ram the point home, I think it’s right to say that not only is a RAM-drive unlikely to be known to the non-technician, but it is not even a drive, strictly, but an emulation of a drive in RAM. Certainly, RAM itself is not “a drive”.
It was obvious to me that 21d was likely an anagram of “retina” meaning “group of sea snails”, so although I needed a dictionary to find the unfamiliar word NERITA, it went in fairly early. (I’m not of the party that considers using reference books “cheating”; on the contrary, such use means I’m learning something new while I enjoy myself).
Hello Tony
My view of crosswords are that they are more of an art than a sport. There is no one right way to look at them and no referee to judge. One can take them however one wishes. Like reading a poem or watching a play; each person can get something out of it depending on his or her experience. There are no rules other than those which ones makes for oneself. RAM drive is what comes to my mind, something else comes to yours. I don’t claim my explanation to be right or better, or that the clue depends on it. It is just the way that I explained it based on who I am.
Nice puzzle. I can’t remember after a week what my hangups were, except that BANANA BOAT defeated me, at least the BOAT part. I kept trying to find some kind of four-letter plant besides “tree” and “vine” (I know, there is no banana vine). Nice to check in after the week.
Hello PeeDee
I must agree that a clue which brings the desired solution unerringly to mind, by whatever route, is a successful clue. I very much appreciate the work you and your colleagues do here, even if I don’t say “thank you” each time and it has been a great pleasure joining this fellowship of crossworders. Thanks for your time and trouble.
@Valentine
I had the same trouble with BOAT, even after I sussed BANANA. I got locked into “bear” as meaning “produce” and kept seeing “TREE” in the space allocated for “BOAT”, till suddenly — as so often — the answer popped into my head seemingly from nowhere.
2,24across (MEET WITH APPROVAL) should actually be 2,24across,16.
Another enumeration blooper.
Did I like this puzzle?
Well, it wasn’t very hard but it didn’t sparkle either.
I can’t say that the surfaces stood out – e.g. 21d, what does that mean?
By the way, CRYPTOGRAM (23ac) is the Dutch word for what people in Holland call a ‘cryptic crossword’.
Very much based on what we consider to be cryptic and double definitions.
However, precision or grammar are far away, often completely out of sight.
And therefore, since my arrival in the UK I can hardly solve these puzzles anymore.
(Long Live Rufus!)
Thank you to PeeDee and Brummie
Sil re 21d – quite right. I had not noticed at the time, but I what situation other than a bizarre dream would one mistake a retina for a group of sea snails? It is nonsense. I should make more of an effort to read the clues instead of just solving them.
An enjoyable prize, not too difficult but reasonably challenging. NERITA was new to me but easy enough to guess and look up…
Thanks to Brummie and PeeDee