This was a rather-kinder-than-usual crossword from Phi, but its neat clueing was as good as always.
I shall not be in later so won’t be able to react to any comments until late on Saturday at the earliest.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
Phi tends to put incredibly obscure Ninas into his crosswords, which are sometimes hardly seen by anybody. This must be dispiriting for him after all that effort and recently we seem to have been given some crosswords without a Nina. Is this one of them? Probably not.
| Across | ||
| 1 | AIRCRAFT CARRIER | Ship put about source of epidemic, having limited expertise (8,7) |
| I had this long before I could parse it to any satisfaction, but now I look more carefully, it seems to be (air [= put about] carrier [= source of epidemic]) round craft [= expertise] | ||
| 9 | CITADEL | Quote line about a Duke in fortress (7) |
| (cit(a D)e l) | ||
| 10 | NEST EGG | Recalled information about stone, say, in investments? (4,3) |
| ne(st eg)g, the neg being (gen)rev. | ||
| 11 | EAR | Not beginning to carry or lug (3) |
| {b}ear | ||
| 12 | CENTRE COURT | Sporting venue: ecstatic, we hear, about to try to win (6,5) |
| “sent” re court — court as in make amorous advances to | ||
| 13 | THERMIONS | Article’s penetrated by minor excited particles (9) |
| (minor)* in the’s | ||
| 15 | EJECT | Get rid of first person in Paris to come in drunk etc. (5) |
| e(je)ct, je being I , the first person, in French, and ect being (etc)* | ||
| 16 | ODIUM | Nothing simple about source of unusual hatred (5) |
| 0 di(u{nusual})m | ||
| 18 | STOCKPILE | Keep building to standard? (9) |
| I need help here, since I can’t see how standard? and stockpile have any connection — standard? has to be the definition I think since stock = keep and pile = building; or perhaps it’s some sort of a CD, where if you stockpile something then you build up stocks of it, but again what has standard? to do with it? | ||
| 20 | UNSOLICITED | A lot of cult editions distributed without asking (11) |
| (cul{t} editions)* | ||
| 22 | PEA | Vegetable that’s almost entirely vegetable matter (3) |
| pea{t} | ||
| 23 | EPISTLE | Letter in Latin in ensemble’s latest track (7) |
| (e{nsemble} pist(L)e) | ||
| 24 | INCISOR | I note canine is – with gold – adjacent to this? (7) |
| I n c is or, and the incisor tooth is adjacent to the canine | ||
| 26 | THE CATS WHISKERS | Excellent contacts in the radio business (3,4,8) |
| 2 defs? One of them is really more a description. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ANCIENT MONUMENT | A committee with four names arranged to protect university building of historic interest (7,8) |
| u in (a committee n n n n)* | ||
| 2 | RETIREE | Former worker, weary, having mostly to stagger around (7) |
| re(tire)e{l} — weary = tire, a verb | ||
| 3 | ROD | Way to dismiss active staff (3) |
| ro{A}d | ||
| 4 | FELONIOUS | Look into morass over debts associated with crime (9) |
| fe(lo)n IOUs | ||
| 5 | CANER | One punishes Church accepting a new Rector (5) |
| C(a n)E R | ||
| 6 | ROSY-CHEEKED | Cherokees rampaging about cowboy finally beginning to dance, getting flushed? (4-7) |
| {cowbo}y in (Cherokees)* d{ance} | ||
| 7 | ICE CUBE | Clinker, say, that is full of carbon – hint to bring in boron (3,4) |
| i(C)e cu(B)e — not clinker as in coal, but something that clinks in the glass | ||
| 8 | ROGETS THESAURUS | Author gestures, vaguely encompassing second reference work (6,9) |
| s in (Author gestures)* | ||
| 12 | CAMOMILE TEA | Drink? Caught a second time with ale brewing (8,3) |
| c a mo (time ale)* | ||
| 14 | SMOOTHISH | Quiet about this after low rough? Not very (9) |
| s(moo this)h — a good clue that I couldn’t even get with all the checkers, because of the clever definition; I had to use an electronic aid; well I didn’t have to and should jolly well have got it by thinking, but I was weak | ||
| 17 | INSPIRE | Popular father retaining power to encourage (7) |
| in s(P)ire | ||
| 19 | IMPASSE | One politician taking on stupid European in stalled debate? (7) |
| 1 MP ass E — stupid a noun here | ||
| 21 | CHESS | Men leaving unpleasant tasks succeeded in game (5) |
| ch{OR}es s | ||
| 25 | COS | Reduced-price salad veg (3) |
| cos{t} | ||
*anagram
I think in 18 the def is ‘keep’ = ‘to stockpile’. ‘Stock’ = ‘standard’ & ‘pile’ the building. But I cant see a nina either. Fun puzzle, tough. Thanks to both.
In an old crystal set radio a “cat’s whisker” was used to make contact with the crystal and tune in a station. Is that what you meant by “a description”, John?
Thanks both.
Wow, that went in quickly, finishing it all in one sitting before ten o’clock. It helped that I was able to get the four long answers almost as write-ins. Back when I was a lad, there were often descriptions on how to make a cat’s whisker radio receiver. Never tried it, though.
Yes, we finished this quickly in two passes. The only one we couldn’t parse was 1ac – we got the ‘craft’ and ‘carrier’ but can’t really see that ‘air’ means ‘put about’ – hang on, maybe it does in the sense of a rumour being put about or ‘aired’. Favourites were THERMIONS and INCISOR.
Thanks, Phi and John
I parsed stockpile as Grant@1.
A fairly gentle one from Phi though I hadn’t come across the ‘radio contacts’ meaning for 26a and if there is a theme/Nina I’ve missed it. Some of the parsing also took a bit of working out, particularly 1a and 12a. I liked the ‘Clinker, say’ def and STOCKPILE. .
Thanks to John and Phi
I enjoyed this, but it really was far too easy to present any sort of challenge to the solver.
Yes in 18ac the ‘to’ is as in ‘A to B’ = ‘BA’. Not what one immediately thinks of but OK I suppose. And I’m not really quite sure what I meant by saying that one of the definitions in 26ac was more a description, since they’re clearly both definitions. Sorry to be so vague.