A great Saturday challenge from Serpent today.
As we have come to expect, some excellent surfaces and crafty misdirections and no unusual words. We have a small niggle with 5d, but otherwise plenty to exercise the old grey matter to get us in the mood for the York S&B later today!
| Across | ||
| 9/26 | Rush about without discipline? Quite the opposite! (6) | |
| HASTEN | ||
| 10 | Southern city stores rubbish in pile (7,4) | |
| STATELY HOME | S (southern) ELY (city) round or ‘storing’ TAT (rubbish) + HOME (in) | |
| 11 | Report back without completing figure of speech (5) | |
| TROPE | ||
| 12 | People appearing in National Theatre role organised registration (9) | |
| ENROLMENT | MEN (people) ‘appearing’ in anagram of NT (National Theatre) ROLE – anagrind is ‘organised’ | |
| 13 | Mangle Quasimodo’s role on the radio? (7) | |
| WRINGER | A homophone (‘on the radio’) of RINGER – referring to Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, who rang the bells | |
| 15 | One who’s withdrawn from public life’s beginning to exercise on park (7) | |
| RECLUSE | L (first letter or ‘beginning’ of ‘life’) USE (exercise) after or ‘on’ REC (Recreation Ground or ‘park’) | |
| 17 | Two forms of art start to portray claustrophobic space (3,4) | |
| RAT TRAP | Two anagrams or ‘forms’ of ART + P (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘portray’) | |
| 19 | Column following one paid to perform biographical sketch (7) | |
| PROFILE | FILE (column) following PRO (professional – ‘one paid to perform’) | |
| 20 | Actively dislike having to go round cycling dry or wet (7) | |
| HYDRATE | HATE (actively dislike) |
|
| 21 | Moderate delivery of drugs no longer available (4,3) | |
| EASE OFF | A homophone (‘delivery’) of Es (drugs) OFF (no longer available) | |
| 22 | Public restraint’s said to exercise and tax the system excessively (9) | |
| OVERTRAIN | OVERT (public) + a homophone (‘said’) of REIN (restraint) | |
| 24 | Bushmen imbibing concealed sources of water (5) | |
| NIMBI | ‘Concealed’ in ‘BushmeN IMBIbing’ | |
| 25 | Class took exam about profits and balances (4,7) | |
| SETS AGAINST | SET (class) SAT (took exam) round GAINS (profits) | |
| 26 | See 9 | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | 10 informal discussions put up value in advance (10,5) | |
| CHATSWORTH HOUSE | CHATS (informal discussions) HOUSE (put up) after WORTH (value – ‘in advance’) – the ’10’ referring to 10across | |
| 2 | Allied resistance in classified exchanges with intelligence agency (10) | |
| ASSOCIATED | ASSO |
|
| 3 | Key passage for the audience (4) | |
| ISLE | A homophone (‘for the audience’) of AISLE (passage) | |
| 4 | Job anxiety leads to early retirement (6) | |
| CAREER | CARE (anxiety) + first letters or ‘leads’ to Early Retirement | |
| 5 | Rent decrease produces emotional response (8) | |
| TEARDROP | TEAR (rent) DROP (decrease) – we had to check that ‘rent’ could mean ‘tear’, as in normal usage, ‘rent’ would be the past tense – i.e. ‘torn’. However, Chambers confirms that ‘rent’ is an obsolete or dialect form of ‘rend’, so it does work – but we think there should perhaps be an indication that it is not current usage | |
| 6 | Race revolution wanting an end finally to cause of suffering (5-5) | |
| CYCLO-CROSS | CYCL |
|
| 7 | Posh education establishment completely dropping English accent (4) | |
| TONE | ETON (‘posh educational establishment’) with the ‘E’ (English) moving front front to back, or ‘completely dropping’ (in a down clue) | |
| 8 | Perhaps Robin and Harry fainted here with Fred (9,6) | |
| FEATHERED FRIEND | An anagram of FAINTED HERE and FRED – anagrind is ‘harry’ | |
| 14 | Huge Hackney charity event upset mad aunt (10) | |
| GARGANTUAN | NAG (Hackney – a horse) RAG (charity event) reversed or ‘upset’ +an anagram of AUNT – anagrind is ‘mad’ | |
| 16 | In favour of joining two universities by start of year to demonstrate consistency (10) | |
| UNIFORMITY | FOR (in favour of) between or ‘joining’ UNI and MIT (two universities) + Y (first letter or ‘start’ of ‘year’) | |
| 18 | Moving article, to do with mother and father during pregnancy (8) | |
| PRENATAL | PARENTAL (to do with mother and father) with the first ‘A’ (article) moved | |
| 21 | This has an influence on elements updated on-line (2,4) | |
| EL NINO | An anagram of ON-LINE – anagrind is ‘updated’ | |
| 23 | Swallows take flight, ultimately going north in the direction of China? (4) | |
| EATS | EAST (‘in the direction of China’) with the ‘T’ (last or ‘ultimate’ letter of ‘flight’) moving forwards or ‘north’ in a down clue | |
| 24 | Pay close attention to me? (4) | |
| NOTE | Double definition – ‘me’ being a NOTE in the sol-fa notation | |
Another fantastic Serpent crossword. Struggled but got there in the end apart from not knowing 6d. Wrote down cycle-cross, which didn’t quite parse. Thanks for the explaining this BJ.
I have no problem with rent and tear as nouns.
A minor point: in 20a ‘cycling’ is not the same as an anagram, but is a special case. E.g. dyr is not cycling dry even though it is an anagram.
I loved it but search as I may, I cant find any of his trademark extras. I bet there’s something lurking so I’ll watch this space in case someone cracks it.
copmus @2
I don’t know if this is all there is, but in all the rows the second across solution starts with the last letter of the first entry and these letters, in order, spell out SERPENT.
Thanks Gaufrid. Having just spoken to Serpent at the S&B at York, we can confirm that yes, he is lurking ‘in the grass’!
In 5 down rent is being used as a noun.
One of Serpent’s first crossies had ‘Serpent’ in each perimeter or something like that, so ever since I’ve been on the lookout. Needless to say I didn’t spot this one….. Thought Rat trap very clever, and sighed at Robin, as I had a red-breasted supervisor most days last week in the garden.
A good one as always, thx to S and B&J
I found this quite a struggle, at the end having to guess the answers without really knowing why they were and using the check facility online. Even then, I couldn’t see 7dn. Not very satisfying for me.
Tackled this after getting back from York S&B and made heavy weather of it – lots of help required. Brain fade, probably, after all the mental exercise at York. At least that’s my excuse.
A very late comment – this was on my pile from the York event. I found this one a little easier than some of Serpent’s previous puzzles apart from one or two parsings, and a very pleasant challenge. Needless to say I missed the Nina.
Thanks to Serpent, B&J