A brisk trot through the forest to beat the The Witch of the Woods today. But there’s an interesting diversion on the way…
Good if brief Tuesday fun. The first and last four across solutions come in roll-over pairs, clued by the first definitions in their second elements, which is very neat. Thus, INDIAN SUMMER, SUMMER HOLIDAY, HOLIDAY ROMANCE and VENTURE CAPITAL, CAPITAL LETTER and LETTER WRITER. Thanks Velia!
| Across | ||
| 1 | INDIAN | National assistance needed back in local . . . . (6) |
| AID (‘assistance’) reversed in INN (pub, ‘local’). | ||
| 4 | SUMMER | . . . . September sun, add the sea in St. Tropez . . . . (6) |
| Definition is of 1a plus this. SUM (‘add’) + MER (‘sea’ in French). | ||
| 8 | HOLIDAY | . . . . may be all inclusive or bank . . . . (7) |
| Definition is of 4a plus this. Thus ‘all-inclusive summer holiday’ and ‘bank holiday’. | ||
| 9 | ROMANCE | . . . . love not working for Italian church (7) |
| Def is of 8a plus this. ROMAN + C[hurch] of E[ngland]. | ||
| 11 | TYPESCRIPT | Pretty pics, ugly text (10) |
| Anagram (‘ugly’) of PRETTY PICS. | ||
| 12 | DUPE | Rejected a portion of rice pudding and fool (4) |
| Reversed inclusion in ‘ricE PUDding’. | ||
| 13 | SUSHI | Soup’s served regularly with this inside – that’s fishy! (5) |
| Alternate letters of ‘SoUpS’ + inside letters of ‘tHIs’. | ||
| 14 | SPHEROID | Building redo ship-shape (8) |
| Anagram (‘redo’) of REDO SHIP. | ||
| 16 | PATHETIC | Quote back passage to begin with – that is sad (8) |
| PATH (‘passage’) + CITE (‘quote’) reversed (‘back’). | ||
| 18 | GLEAN | Gather information for good list (5) |
| G[ood] + ‘LEAN’ (to ‘list’). | ||
| 20 | GRUB | Dig food served in a pub? (4) |
| Double def, ‘pub grub’ being its stock fare. | ||
| 21 | SKETCHIEST | Roughest boat seen during sleep, briefly (10) |
| KETCH in SIESTa, shortened. | ||
| 23 | VENTURE | Dare unleash river . . . . (7) |
| VENT (to release, ‘unleash’ as of steam, anger &c) + river URE. | ||
| 24 | CAPITAL | . . . . startup money for London . . . . (7) |
| Definition is of 23a plus this straight def of ‘London’. | ||
| 25 | LETTER | . . . . month starts with this landlord . . . . (6) |
| Def. is of 24a plus this. All months start with a capital letter + ‘one who lets’. | ||
| 26 | WRITER | . . . . correspondent sounding more precise? (6) |
| Def is of 25a plus this. Homophone of ‘righter’, ‘more precise’, which Chambers gives only as a noun, hence the q-mark. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | IRONY | Press “play” at the end for feature of Greek theatre (5) |
| IRON (to ‘press’) + end of ‘plaY’. | ||
| 2 | DRIVERS | Clubs for motivators (7) |
| Another DD. | ||
| 3 | ANARCHIST | China’s rat problem is subversive (9) |
| Anagram (‘problem’) of CHINA’S RAT. | ||
| 5 | U-BOAT | Craft using beads only, accessorising tank tops (1-4) |
| 1st letters (‘tops’) of words 2-6 in clue. | ||
| 6 | MEANDER | Strange name given to the German wind (7) |
| Anagram (‘strange’) of NAME + DER (‘the’ in German). | ||
| 7 | RECEPTION | 10 percent out for party (9) |
| Anagram (‘out’) of IO PERCENT. | ||
| 10 | DISSECTED | Misguidedly sided with religious group, imprisoned and analysed (9) |
| Anagram (‘misguidedly’) of SIDED includes SECT (‘religious group’). | ||
| 13 | STAIRWELL | Report to look really hard for flight location (9) |
| Homophone (‘report’) of STARE WELL (to ‘look really hard’) + cryptic def. | ||
| 15 | HIGHCHAIR | Spaced out leader’s just the thing for young diners (9) |
| HIGH (‘spaced out’) + CHAIR (‘leader’). I’d have spaced or possibly hyphenated this myself. | ||
| 17 | HABITAT | Place a small amount in bucket? (7) |
| A BIT in HAT of which ‘bucket’ is a type. | ||
| 19 | ELITIST | Highbrow titles I dished out (7) |
| Anagram of TITLES I. | ||
| 21 | SERVE | Work to start the game (5) |
| Double def again. | ||
| 22 | STARR | Drummer among first arrivals (5) |
| Inclusion in ‘firST ARRivals’. Ringo, of course. | ||
*anagram
I currently cant edit the blog, so here’s an update.
The clues is question are roll-over pairs, so INDIAN SUMMER, SUMMER HOLIDAY, HOLIDAY ROMANCE and VENTURE CAPITAL, CAPITAL LETTER and LETTER WRITER.
Blog now fixed. Phew.
I do wonder if Velia is mixing up sushi and sashimi in 13a but I guess I should let it pass – others might not.
Took a while to spot what was going on with the linked clues. Once I got INDIAN and saw INDIAN SUMMER along the top explaining the “September sun” it all fell into place.
I thought 11a was a particularly nicely constructed clue.
Thanks to Velia and Grant.
A nice crossword thank you Velia – I did notice the pairs
Thanks also to Grant
I spotted the word pairs, though took ages to get my last one in, HOLIDAY, which I still don’t really get, at least the ‘may be all inclusive’ bit. Just being thick.
Apart from a bit of frustration at the end, I liked this, even the ‘ellipsis’ clues, which normally don’t work as well and naturally as they do here. My favourites were the misleading surface for DUPE, and SPHEROID for the Tom Lehrer reminder.
Thanks to Velia and Grant
To Wordplodder:
Yes, indeed! Almost put the ref
in myself: ‘Hurl that spheroid down the field…’ but didn’t think anyone would get it. Thanks for the shared memory.
Thanks to Velia and Grant. I really enjoyed this one. GRUB was my LOI because I was not familiar with it as a verb but I had much fun working out the word pairs – though I needed help parsing LETTER – and I was slow in spotting the “ketch” in SKETCHIEST..
LOI VENT-URE which took me ages as I went through three-letter English rivers common in crosswordland.
Thanks Velia and Grant
Let myself down with this one by only half twigging to the function of the ellipses in the top and bottom set of clues. Was able to fill in the grid with the answers but with major queries on some of the definitions – e.g. didn’t fully understand ‘September sun’, ‘love not working’, etc. … derrrrhhh
In that respect this was an excellent puzzle and this setter is fast becoming a favourite.
Unsurprisingly a couple of the elliptical clues – VENTURE and HOLIDAY were the last couple in