The puzzle can be found here.
Hi all. A Morph puzzle is always a treat and I thought this was as fun and as elegantly done as usual. A lovely way to begin the day I always refer to (for obvious reasons) as Caturday. Thanks Morph!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER.
Across
1a It may be a problem for server to secure victory in court umpire’s rearranged (8,5)
COMPUTER VIRUS
V (victory) in COURT UMPIRE‘S anagrammed (rearranged)
9a Saving time, cook pasta sauce with end of sausages and vegetable (9)
ASPARAGUS
Without (saving) T (time), make an anagram of (cook) PAS[t]A , then add RAGU (sauce) and the last letter (end) of sausageS
10a Nicaragua not blessed with mineral-rich deposits (5)
GUANO
NicaraGUA NOt contains (blessed with) the answer
11a The objective for people in general is to stop pollution and keep alive (7)
SUSTAIN
US (the objective for people in general, referring to the objective case) inside (to stop) STAIN (pollution)
12a Wandering deserter entering Morecambe? (7)
ERRATIC
RAT (deserter) inserted into (entering) ERIC (Morecambe?)
13a Broadcaster cut international lines (5)
RADII
RADIo (broadcaster) without its last letter (cut) + I (international)
15a Neatly dressed, with bows? (9)
SHIPSHAPE
Cryptically, a SHIP SHAPE would be one with bows
17a Don’t commit to catwalk? (9)
PUSSYFOOT
PUSSY (cat) & FOOT (walk)
18a Upland area, good to cycle round (5)
RIDGE
G (good) with RIDE (to cycle) outside (round) it
19a Underground organiser of Vietnam revolution recalled (7)
OVERMAN
The answer is part of VietNAM REVOlution reversed (recalled)
21a Pound and Euro lines (7)
RONDEAU
Make an anagram of (pound) AND EURO
23a I make my way from Tibet to Pakistan and try to avoid hard work (5)
INDUS
TRY removed from (to avoid) INDUS[try] (hard work)
24a Respondent in case of abduction taking oath’s not adult (9)
ANSWERING
Outer letters (case) of AbductioN + SWE[a]RING (taking oath) without (not) A (adult)
25a Music scene etc I abandoned for intellectually demanding activity (6,7)
ROCKET SCIENCE
ROCK (music) + SCENE ETC I anagrammed (abandoned)
Down
1d Santa’s disgusting habit – poor reaction to getting stuck in chimney? (14)
CLAUSTROPHOBIA
CLAUS (Santa) has next to him an anagram of (disgusting) HABIT POOR
2d Home counties Brit down under comes over and moons (5)
MOPES
SE (Home counties) and POM (Brit down under) is reversed (comes over)
3d Fantasy football team from Madrid being one to keep (9)
UNREALITY
REAL (football team from Madrid), with UNITY (being one) around it (to keep)
4d Say short prayer outside a US state court for finely balanced contest (3-3-5,4)
EGG-AND-SPOON RACE
EG (say) + GRACE (short prayer) around (outside) A (a), ND (North Dakota, US state), and SPOON (court)
5d Media boss into underwear grabs Status Quo fans? (6,9)
VESTED INTERESTS
ED (media boss) goes into VEST (underwear) and INTERESTS (grabs)
6d Moore perhaps got it (5)
ROGER
A double definition
7d Joker perhaps has device for opening doors (5,4)
SMART CARD
A joker, a witty and eccentric one, could perhaps be described as a SMART CARD
8d Non-theoretical psychologist on the Parisian urban environment (8,6)
CONCRETE JUNGLE
CONCRETE (non-theoretical) + JUNG (psychologist) on LE (the, Parisian)
14d Character crossing the line is parachutist, perhaps (9)
DESCENDER
A double definition
16d Green site redeveloped in national park (9)
SERENGETI
GREEN SITE anagrammed (redeveloped)
20d Cubism without Braque’s beginning to morph into different art form (5)
MUSIC
CU[b]ISM without Braque’s first letter (beginning) anagrammed to make (to morph into) a different art form to that in the clue
22d Water that’s green welling up (5)
EVIAN
NAIVE (green) reversed (welling up, in a down entry)
Very nice. All the long answers made me smile, although I needed the blog to parse 4d. I think 11a was my favourite.
Thanks to Morph and Kitty.
Nice one for a lengthy breakfast! I didn’t understand 19A but have subsequently learned that an overman is the third in line of the officers of a mine, who inspects it every morning to check that it’s safe. Thanks Morph and Kitty
As Kitty says, this was a real treat. I couldn’t parse the US bit of11a, so thanks very much to Kitty for the explanation.
I’m not entirely convinced by the definition for 7d & the first definition for 14d, but that aside everything else was excellent with 8d my favourite.
Many thanks to Morph and to Kitty.
Delightful – one of my favourite setters paired with my favourite blogger!
19a was something of a guess but no problems elsewhere. Big ticks for 17,23&25a plus 2&4d.
Many thanks to Morph and to Miss Kitty – enjoy your Caturday!
I really enjoyed this one, 1a and 8d being particular favourites, as was 4d, though I didn’t fully parse it. When I realised RAT was the right filling for 12a my thought was “Of course – the Desert Rats were desert-ers”, but obviously that was overcomplicating it. My LOI was Evian, and I then kicked myself as I’m sure I’ve seen naive -> Evian before.
A most enjoyable offering from Morph to brighten a dull Saturday. We liked 9ac for the surface, but although we might add some leftover sausage to the ragu with our pasta I don’t think we’d serve it with asparagus! And we wondered at first if 19ac had anything to do with Ho Chi Minh (an intentional misdirection?) but then we remembered the overmen who were/are members of NACODS – the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers.
Slightly disappointed that there wasn’t a picture in the blog to go with 17ac.
Thanks, Morph and Kitty.
allan_c @6 – apologies for being remiss. Atoned for with a video. 🙂
Kitty@7. Brilliant! So that’s why it’s called a catwalk.
Very late today and quite possibly the last poster. But I’ve been distracted by domestic duties and some rugby on TV. And the distraction did the job in that I had stalled about a third of the way into this and nothing was dropping. And, post-break, CLAUSTROHOPHIA suddenly made sense and it was a veritable unblocking of the dam. Rest of the puzzle took ten minutes or so. Clearly the subconscious had been working on the other clues and, once I started getting initial letters and crossers, everything fell into place.
The aforementioned CLAUSTROPHOBIA and CONCRETE JUNGLE both raised a smile but my favourites were OVERMAN, RIDGE, the delightfully defined VESTED INTERESTS and the cunningly clued INDUS. RONDEAU was new to me but solveable and I do share the two reservations of Rabbit Dave @3.
Thanks Morph and Kitty
Also late today – just back from a most enjoyable famliy Zoom gathering, which went on longer than I expected.
‘Treat…. fun … elegantly done’ – dead right, Kitty.
I enjoyed all the long ones, too, especially 1ac for the superb surface and 1dn for the humour, along with 9ac for the construction – but I’m with Allan @6 as far as the recipe goes 😉 – and 14dn, where I really admired the first definition and don’t understand Rabbit Dave’s and PostMark’s reservations.
There were lots of neat little touches to make me smile, such as ‘Say short prayer’ and the use of ‘morph’ in 20dn.
‘Dull’ is certainly the word for the day – it hasn’t really got light here at all – so many thanks to Morph for lifting the gloom and to Kitty for the blog.
Kitty@7: Purr-fect!
Eileen @10. My objection to 14d (maybe the same as others) is that a descender is not a character crossing the line but part of a character that goes under the line. The definition in Chambers also says this.
Hovis @12 – thanks for responding. I take your point, having checked Chambers but, staunch pedant as I am, that quibble hadn’t occurred to me. Surely, if a part of a character is crossing the line, that character is, per se, crossing the line?
[I confess, as I think I have done a number of times before, my tolerance of supposed weaknesses in cluing is in direct proportion to my respect for the integrity of the setter’s clues. I’ve always relied on Morph for meticulous cluing.]
Eileen @13 – exactly the same here. I had assumed the definition to be fine based on the same thinking, with the quality assurance provided by the identity of the setter. I try to check everything thoroughly when blogging, but must confess that these days I increasingly rely on commenters to pick up on anything I’ve got wrong or missed.
Kitty @14 – sorry for the delay: I’ve been listening to / watching my recording of the earlier BBC2 Mozart Requiem.
I don’t think you’ve missed or got anything wrong – but, as a fellow blogger following the same line as you, I’m totally with you.
Sorry but I don’t see your point Eileen. Yes, the character clearly crosses the line also but the solution is DESCENDER which is the bit that lies below the line not the character making the definition wrong. Ok, I’ll admit the integrity of this setter is unquestionable (but we all make mistakes) and there may be an alternative definition that I am unaware of.