Haven’t bumped into Nitsy for a while.
This was classic Sunday stuff: great fun from start to finish, nothing especially controversial and one or two things to learn along the way, such as at 10 across.
Can’t add much more that that. Many thanks to Nitsy, whose name is one tiny step along the alphabet from the cat I lived with and indeed grew up with for 19 years as youngster.
| Across | ||
| 1 | OCCUPY | Live in old vessel in Cyprus (6) |
| O + (CUP in CY). | ||
| 4 | ACCENTED | About to return money? Editor’s stressed (8) |
| CA< + CENT + ED. | ||
| 9 | PRISON | Bird is in for nuts, primarily (6) |
| IS inside (PRO + N[uts]). | ||
| 10 | INSTINCT | Charged this month in court (8) |
| INST + IN + CT. A new one for me, but it’s in Chambers as an adjective, alongside “imbued”, “animated”, “incited”, “moved” and that sort of thing. | ||
| 12 | SWINE | Rat‘s small and white, perhaps (5) |
| S + WINE. | ||
| 13 | IMITATION | Check abandoned line for cod (9) |
| [l]IMITATION. | ||
| 14 | TRANSPARENT | Frank rants about relative (11) |
| RANTS* + PARENT. | ||
| 18 | REPLACEMENT | Let man creep off to get substitute (11) |
| Anagram of (LET MAN CREEP). | ||
| 21 | EDITORIAL | I adore it terribly, Steel’s latest newspaper article (9) |
| Anagram of (I ADORE IT) + [stee]L. Perhaps a reference to Mark Steel? Not sure. | ||
| 23 | BRIDE | Apparatus for a horse left out – groom will need one (5) |
| BRID[l]E. | ||
| 24 | IDENTITY | I refuse to pen bird’s name (8) |
| TIT in (I + DENY). | ||
| 25 | RIBALD | Make fun of a learner? Daughter’s mean (6) |
| RIB + A + L + D. | ||
| 26 | SERENADE | Piece of music composed without a key? (8) |
| Took a moment, but it’s (A + D) in SERENE, D being a musical key. | ||
| 27 | AGREED | Admitted a sin (6) |
| A + GREED. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | OPPOSITE | Rival‘s work attitude embraces an indefinable quality (8) |
| OP + (IT inside POSE). | ||
| 2 | CRITICAL | Finding faults serious (8) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 3 | PROFESSOR | Teacher poses for shot with Queen (9) |
| (POSES FOR)* + R. | ||
| 5 | CONSIDERABLE | Great mind – intelligent (12) |
| CONSIDER + ABLE. | ||
| 6 | EXTRA | More irrelevant? Not half! (5) |
| Another one that took some thinking through, but it’s EXTRA[neous]. | ||
| 7 | TENNIS | Catch up with leaders in nerve-wracking, if short, game (6) |
| NET< + N[erve-wracking] I[f] S[hort]. | ||
| 8 | DATING | Seeing American lawyer can start to grind (6) |
| DA + TIN + G[rind]. | ||
| 11 | DISAPPOINTED | Girl’s set to be let down (12) |
| DI‘S + APPOINTED. | ||
| 15 | TREMBLING | Long journey cut short by maiden with large jewellery – a sign of fear? (9) |
| TRE[k] + M + BLING. | ||
| 16 | DELICATE | Exquisite iced tea drunk around end of meal (8) |
| [mea]L in (ICED TEA). | ||
| 17 | ATTENDED | Went to embrace nurse in awkward date (8) |
| TEND in DATE*. | ||
| 19 | GENIUS | Brilliance one’s shown in class (6) |
| I inside GENUS. | ||
| 20 | LINEAR | Learn if criminal female goes straight (6) |
| Anagram of (LEARN I[f]). | ||
| 22 | OFTEN | Blunt axes succeeded in many instances (5) |
| [s]OFTEN. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
This took me longer than the usual IoS, with some cunning cluing. Liked 10A, 14A, Ribald, 25A, is a decidedly archaic usage for mean, that I have never seen or heard used.
22D definition is (in) many instances.
Thanks to Nitsy and Simon Harding.
PS Sympathy to all cricketers (more so England) at the SCG today – Sydney’s official max 43.4C (110.1F).
A quick solve for me but had to check some unusual/archaic meanings. I entered SLIME for 12a, which kind of works, but SWINE is definitely better. Thanks to Nitsy and Simon.
Most of this went in very quickly. I seemed to be on the setter’s wavelength for the most part, although I couldn’t parse OFTEN.
Favourite clue was 23.
I second gwep’s sympathy re the heat wave in Oz. Not for the fainthearted. As they say, only mad dogs and Englishmen….
RIBALD for ‘mean’ and INSTINCT as an adjective were new to me too so needed a bit of thought. Liked the clues for PRISON and SERENADE.
Good accompaniment to the goings-on at the SCG. A bit more enjoyable than sitting in 43 degree temperatures anyway.
Thanks to Nitsy and Simon.
Who’s moaning about 43°C? It was a -3° windscreen-scraping morning here and ice still on the puddles at sunset. Actually it was quite pleasant for a Sunday stroll this afternoon. Not a bad Sunday stroll from Nitsy, either, although not such a quick solve as we thought it was going to be. The meanings at 10ac and 25ac were new to us, too, and we spent too long trying to find a bird other than a pigeon for 9ac before the penny dropped. 7dn also took a bit of working out.
Plenty to like but no real candidate for CoD. Thanks, Nitsy and Simon.
10a and 25a were new meanings for me too, but I shrugged and followed the wordplay. Took me a while to get on Nitsy’s wavelength. OPPOSITE was my FOI, but it took a while to get any further. Eventually things started to fall into place and I finished with SWINE then PRISON. Scraped in a few seconds under the half hour. Thanks Nitsy and Simon.
Ditto earlier comments about RIBALD and INSTINCT. I found this good fun but not all that easy. Thanks to Nitsy and Simon.