This crossword can be found here.
After blogging Boatman’s Guardian puzzle yesterday, this was a welcome relief – a simple, straightforward puzzle with most of the answers being “write-ins”. A good range of devices, non-contentious homophones, long and short answers, no specialist knowledge required, no difficult words – a very good crossword for beginners.
Thanks, Gurney.
| Across | ||
| 1 | STARS AND STRIPES | Exotic satin dress strap Pole might display (5,3,7) |
| *(satin dress strap”), indicated by “exotic”
The Stars and Stripes may well be displayed on a pole. |
||
| 9 | LARGEST | Somewhat stellar gesture, generous in the extreme (7) |
| Hidden in “stelLAR GESTure” | ||
| 10 | ON SIGHT | When observed, there’s no turning back at location, I’d say (2,5) |
| <=NO + homophone of SITE (“location”), indicated by “I’d say” | ||
| 11 | NIALL | Guy from Northern Ireland with everything? (5) |
| Northern Ireland with ALL (“everything”) | ||
| 12 | SUPERNOVA | Terribly nervous drinking quietly with a star (9) |
| *(nervous) drinking P (piano, in music, so “quietly”), with A | ||
| 13 | ETIQUETTE | Standards of behaviour quite possibly better after extremists leave (9) |
| *(quite) + (b)ETTE(r)
“Possibly” is the anagram indicator, and “after extremists leave” indicates that we should remove the extremes (i.e the first and last (letters)) of the word “better” |
||
| 15 | ENNUI | By sound of it cricket side with small feeling of dissatisfaction (5) |
| Homophone (indicated by “by sound of it”) of ON (“cricket side”) + WEE (“small”) | ||
| 16 | SPENT | Initially sleeping poorly every night, they’re exhausted (5) |
| Made up of the initial letters of “Sleeping Poorly Every Night They’re” | ||
| 18 | PRESEASON | SA openers trained in this period? (9) |
| *(sa openers), the anagram indicator being “trained”. | ||
| 20 | OVERPLAYS | Exaggerates importance of dramas completed earlier (9) |
| OVER (“completed”) + PLAYS (“drama”) | ||
| 23 | FORGO | Give up pro board game (5) |
| FOR (“pro”) + GO (“board game”) | ||
| 24 | DEEP-SEA | Hurry back by mid-year giving description of wet area (4-3) |
| <=SPEED (“hurry, back”) + (y)EA(r) | ||
| 25 | ODORISE | Oddly Old Boy with pay increase gets perfume perhaps (7) |
| Take the odd letter of “OlD bOy” with RISE (“pay increase”) | ||
| 26 | NATIONAL LOTTERY | Six perfect balls in this game? Long odds against that! (8,7) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SILENCE IS GOLDEN | Appeal for quiet colleges is binned, failing to start, unfortunately (7,2,6) |
| *(colleges is inned), where the “inned” is indicated by “binned, failing to start” | ||
| 2 | AIR TAXI | Aviatrix, very briefly flying, ordered for this transport? (3,4) |
| *(aiatrix), with “ordered” as the anagram indicator.
“very briefly flying” tells us to remove the “v” from “aviatrix”, as it has flown (away). |
||
| 3 | SHELL SUIT | Society anguish over plea for casual wear (5,4) |
| S(ociety) + HELL (“anguish”) over SUIT (“plea”, as in law) | ||
| 4 | NOTES | Pays attention to distinctive vocal sounds (5) |
| Double definition | ||
| 5 | SHOWPIECE | Fine example succeeded – the way with no violence reportedly (9) |
| S(ucceeded) + HOW (“the way”) + homophone of PEACE (“no violence, reportedly”) | ||
| 6 | RISER | More prudent getting right to replace wide vertical pipe (5) |
| WISER (“more prudent”) with the W (“wide”) replaced by R (“right”) | ||
| 7 | PEG DOWN | Restrict Margaret? Not happy (3,4) |
| PEG (“Margaret”) + DOWN (“not happy”) | ||
| 8 | SITUATION COMEDY | Programme cost I’m breaking down – needs to be spelt out fully (9,6) |
| Two steps required here – *(cost i’m) gives us SITCOM, which then needs to be extended to SITUATION COMEDY (“spelt out fully”) | ||
| 14 | TOP BANANA | Leader knocking trophy over, crazy when bottom’s pinched? (3,6) |
| <=POT (“trophy”, knocked “over”) + BANANA(s) (“crazy”, with its “bottom pinched”) | ||
| 15 | EYES FRONT | Sentry and foe in struggle for command (4,5) |
| *(sentry foe), with “struggle” being the anagram indicator. | ||
| 17 | ELEMENT | Factor in running away to get married, having no work? (7) |
| EL(op)EMENT (“running away to get married”, without OP (“having no work”) | ||
| 19 | SARDINE | Starving and ravenous, first of all eat fish? (7) |
| First letters of “Starving And Ravenous” + DINE (“eat”) | ||
| 21 | PESTO | Sauce from Dieppe store (5) |
| Hidden in “diepPE STOre” | ||
| 22 | SHOAL | Sandbank crowd (5) |
| Double definition | ||
*anagram
Is ODORISE (25d) a proper word? I suppose it’s a back-formation from “deodorise”, but it’s not in Chambers or the Compact OED.
Sorry, I meant 25 across.
Tom_I
Both Collins and the ODE have odorize/odorise. The ODE gives its origin as “late 19th century: from Latin odor ‘odour’ + -ize”.
Thanks Gurney and loonapick
Only got to this on the weekend and also found it quite straightforward, although I didn’t find it awash with write-ins !
There were new learnings: SHELL SUIT was a new term and the pronunciation of ENNUI was the first time that I had to learn how to say it.
Finished with a couple of the long ones – 8d and 26a followed by ENNUI as the last one in.