The puzzle is available here.
Hello again. Today it’s Nitsy’s turn to entertain us, and entertained I was. Some surfaces to elicit reactions: an “ew” or two and an “ow” – no crates of beer dropped on my toes please!
I always like to see my favourite Greek letter; it’s my current Zoom display name, which I tend to change regularly. (Not sure whether to share my current name on Skype, the platform I usually use to communicate with Mr K. I changed last week it from Kitty after a couple of people elsewhere had apparently called him Mr T, and I figured that would make me …)
Anyway, I digress. Back to the important business of the puzzle. Thanks, Nitsy!
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. Link words are generally omitted for clarity.
Across
1a Prime Minister has sex appeal in part (4)
PITT
IT (sex appeal) in PT (part)
3a Matthew perhaps sliced bananas, holding one with pressure (8)
DISCIPLE
An anagram of (… bananas) SLICED containing (holding) I (one) with P (pressure)
10a Requiring lots of hands to rub in Vaseline all over the place (6-9)
LABOUR-INTENSIVE
TO RUB IN VASELINE anagrammed (all over the place)
11a Hurt leg – I knocked over Greek character’s organ (9)
HARMONIUM
HARM (hurt) + ON (leg) + I + the reversal of (knocked over) MU (Greek character)
12a Minute hole in one weapon (4)
MACE
M (minute) + ACE (hole in one)
13a Strain from boy holding rake? On the contrary (7)
ROULADE
LAD (boy) inside (holding …? On the contrary) ROUÉ (rake)
15a Legs it upstairs, welcoming part of a keep-fit routine? (3-3)
SIT-UPS
LegS IT UPStairs is containing (welcoming) the answer
17a 1960s model ignoring fashion for seafood (6)
SHRIMP
SHRIMP[ton] (1960s model, Jean) without (ignoring) TON (fashion). I didn’t know the model, but a quick search confirmed my first guess of the name
19a Soldier‘s gun returned by a king (7)
REGULAR
LUGER (gun) reversed (returned) by A + R (king)
20a Support for Portugal (4)
PROP
PRO (for) + P (Portugal)
21a Is soldier for example retreating after duke’s ridicule? (9)
DISPARAGE
IS + PARA (soldier) + EG reversed (retreating), all after D (duke)
24a New torn leather, dad? Need this? (6,3,6)
NEEDLE AND THREAD
N (new) + an anagram of (torn) LEATHER DAD NEED
25a Delay the man’s opening of international gallery? (8)
HESITATE
HE’S (the man’s) + the first letter (opening) of International + TATE (gallery)
26a Postpone visit (4)
STAY
Double definition, with a neat surface that remains topical
Down
1d Sanctimonious learner caught formidable fish (8)
PILCHARD
A charade of PI (sanctimonious), L (learner), C (caught) and HARD (formidable)
2d Flower from wood miles away (5)
TIBER
TI[m]BER (wood) without M (miles away)
4d Narrow strip of land connecting areas is therefore restricting motorway (7)
ISTHMUS
IS + THUS (therefore) containing (restricting) M (motorway)
5d New Tory campaign he’s filming (14)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
An anagram of (new) TORY CAMPAIGN HE
6d Head teacher‘s rule read aloud (9)
PRINCIPAL
Homophone of (… read aloud) PRINCIPLE (rule)
7d Woman put on new uniform (4)
EVEN
EVE (woman) put on N (new)
8d Captain may need this gun with plan to purchase one (9,5)
AUTOMATIC PILOT
AUTOMATIC (gun) with PLOT (plan) around (to purchase) I (one)
9d Drop trousers I had split (6)
DIVIDE
DIVE (drop) contains (trousers) I’D (I had)
14d Take reins off a horse? Nun’s ordered nothing’s removed (9)
UNHARNESS
A H[o]RSE NUNS anagrammed (ordered), in which O (nothing) is removed
16d Hairy fly in red cordial (8)
FRIENDLY
An anagram of (hairy) FLY IN RED
18d Set of audio files – quiet with almost strange pitch (7)
PODCAST
P (quiet) + most of (almost) ODd (strange) + CAST (pitch)
19d River ultimately where small fish live (6)
RESIDE
R (river) + the last letter of (ultimately) wherE + S (small) + IDE (fish)
22d Beer crate oddly dropped on one’s toes (5)
ALERT
ALE (beer) + cRaTe without odd letters (oddly dropped)
23d Bird taking top off for creep (4)
INCH
[f]INCH (bird) with the removal of the first letter (taking top off)
A pleasant enough Sunday puzzle in spite of the presence of one of my bugbears in 7d.
I hope no-one refers to Mr K as Mr N, but Mr W would be very appropriate.
Many thanks to Nitsy and to Kitty.
Enjoyable, not too taxing solve for a late Sunday afternoon. Still there were some that needed a bit of working out such as HARMONIUM and I didn’t know ROULADE in the musical sense. Loved your picture of the FRIENDLY lion, bear and tiger.
Clue of the day for me was undoubtedly SHRIMP. I’m (just) old enough to remember when she caused a sensation during the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival in 1965 by wearing a white mini skirt without hat or gloves to the races which is alluded to in the link you kindly provided. I always mess up putting in links myself, so to be safe I’ll put another link to the Wikipedia page which describes this incident in more detail, at the very end of this post; hope it works. The picture of The Shrimp on that day truly is iconic, at least to those in Melbourne and further afield who still remember the fuss it caused.
Thanks to Kitty and to Nitsy
Link to Jean Shrimpton wearing the white mini skirt at the Victoria Derby is here.
Possibly my first Nitsy – and enjoyed it – I couldn’t get away from “IT” for fashion even though the (excellent) Netflix series ‘Bridgerton’ mentions ‘TON’ throughout, also annoyingly I didn’t get LEG=ON even though I’ve taught myself to always look for a cricket reference! Note these were not the only ones I didn’t get, just my main learning experience!
PODCAST and ALERT my favourites
Thanks to Nitsy and Kitty
Really fun Sunday.. I’m also well old enough to remember the Shrimp.. I’d say she was the first proper supermodel… not aware of the Melbourne/miniskirt episode so thanks Wordplodder@2.. Luger was a bit of a blast from the past also.. used to turn up fairly frequently back in the day…
Thanks Nitsy n Kitty ( penny just dropped re appropriateness of Greek letter..doh)
Makes me sigh when I realise, yet again, that Kitty is far too young to remember Jean Shrimpton – she was my idol during my teenage years!
An enjoyable puzzle from Nitsy although I have to confess to not knowing the required definition of ROULADE, it’s a culinary term to me.
My top three were PILCHARD, TIBER & INCH – all made me smile.
Thanks to Nitsy and to my favourite feline – I’ll second RD’s vote for Mr W!
Thanks, a nice quick solve today though we didn’t know that meaning of roulade or ton.
Lovely puzzle and blog
Most enjoyable, although we were a little surprised in 24ac that ‘need’ was in the clue and also part of the answer. And, as our grandchildren could have told today’s blogger, PILCHARD (1dn) is the name of Bob the Builder’s cat!
Favourites were HARMONIUM and CINEMATOGRAPHY.
Thanks, Nitsy and Kitty.