A brisk solve this morning, with just a few tortuous constructs that needed a bit of pencil-chewing
Nothing too strenuous. Just right for a Tuesday, with one rather nice &lit. Thanks, Peto.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BRIGHT |
Born just as clever (6)
|
| B[orn] + RIGHT (‘just’). | ||
| 4 | CHEAPENS |
Degrades revolutionary when in prison? Just the opposite (8)
|
| CHE (Guevara, revolutionary) + AS (‘when’) contain PEN (‘prison’), i.e., ‘just the opposite’ of the sense of ‘PEN contains CHE AS’ in the 1st part of the clue. | ||
| 10 | CODEINE |
Fish oil’s essence obtained by Gene not originally as an analgesic (7)
|
| COD (‘fish’) + I (centre, ‘essence’ of ‘oIl’) in gENE without 1st letter. | ||
| 11 | NEPTUNE |
Roman god’s sister admitting weird pet hate finally (7)
|
| NUN (‘sister’) contains anagram (‘weird’) of PET then last of ‘hatE’. | ||
| 12 | LAST |
What Dr Manette needed to survive (4)
|
| Double definition &lit. Ref ‘Tale of Two Cities’ wherein the prisoner Manette needs the tools of his cobbling hobby (including his ‘last’) to help him ‘survive’ (to ‘last’). Very succinct. | ||
| 13 | CONSTRAINT |
Against aim to block street by force (10)
|
| CON (‘against’) + TRAIN (of a weapon, to ‘aim’) in ST[reet]. | ||
| 16 | SPRITE |
Fairy prince putting on a spectacle for the audience (6)
|
| PR[ince] in S.ITE (homophone of ‘sight’, a ‘spectacle’). | ||
| 17 | ALL TOLD |
Gore counted around fifty in total (3,4)
|
| AL (‘Gore’, U.S. politician) + TOLD contain L (Roman 50). | ||
| 20 | COUNSEL |
Advice from uncle so ridiculous (7)
|
| Anagram (‘ridiculous’) of UNCLE SO. | ||
| 21 | TOCSIN |
Tax return at home may be alarming (6)
|
| SCOT (old ‘tax’), reversed, + IN (‘at home’). | ||
| 24 | EASY STREET |
Emended part of the essay on Republican support returning in an affluent state (4,6)
|
| Anagram of ‘T{he} ESSAY’ + R[epublican] + reversal of TEE (‘support’). | ||
| 25 | PORT |
Left with soldiers in the middle of exercises (4)
|
| O[ther] R[anks] (‘soldiers’) in PE (‘excercises’). | ||
| 27 | CHALICE |
Cup of tea left to cool (7)
|
| CHA (‘tea’) + L[eft] + ICE (to ‘cool’). | ||
| 29 | ELECTRA |
Choice by Priam oddly ignored in play (7)
|
| ELECT (n., the chosen, the select few, the ‘choice’) + alternate letters of ‘pRiAm’. | ||
| 30 | NEEDLESS |
Small tip of steel on goad is not necessary (8)
|
| NEEDLE (to ‘goad’) + S[mall] + 1st of ‘S{teel}. | ||
| 31 | BEADLE |
Unfortunate debacle not initially caused by university official (6)
|
| Anagram (‘unfortunately’) of DEBAcLE without 1st of C{aused}. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BACKLASH |
Help with strike causing strong negative reaction (8)
|
| BACK (to ‘help’) + LASH (to ‘strike’). | ||
| 2 | INDUSTRIOUS |
Hard-working Dutch American involved in our sit-in surprisingly (11)
|
| D[utch] + US in anagram (‘surprisingly’) of OUR SIT IN. | ||
| 3 | HAIL |
Address husband trouble (4)
|
| H[usband] + AIL (to ‘trouble’). | ||
| 5 | HONESTLY |
Devout around place of retreat in truth (8)
|
| HO.LY (‘devout’) contains NEST (‘place of retreat’). | ||
| 6 | APPARITION |
A pair point out a ghost (10)
|
| Anagram (‘out’) of A PAIR POINT. | ||
| 7 | EMU |
Fast mover running through desolate mudflats (3)
|
| Contained in ‘desolatE MUdflats’. | ||
| 8 | SHEATH |
Covering last of speeches by former PM (6)
|
| Last of ‘speecheS’ + (Edward) HEATH. | ||
| 9 | DEPOT |
Record breaking rave needing Tottenham’s foremost warehouse (5)
|
| EP (a ‘record’) in DO (a party, a ‘rave’) + 1st of T[ottenham]. | ||
| 14 | ILL-ASSORTED |
Realist and old society tease become incompatible (3-8)
|
| Anagram (‘tease’) of REALIST + OLD + S[ociety].. | ||
| 15 | STANDSTILL |
Stop opening of trail after bears get sick (10)
|
| STANDS (‘bears’) + 1st of T{rail} + ILL (‘sick’). | ||
| 18 | PEERLESS |
Unrivalled nobles overwhelming the French (8)
|
| PEER.S (‘nobles’) around LES (Fr. pl. ‘the’). | ||
| 19 | INITIATE |
Cool object placed by crew say on bow of Iranian launch (8)
|
| IN (‘cool’) + IT (‘object’) + 1st of I{ranian} + ATE (homophone of eight, rowing ‘crew’) | ||
| 22 | DEACON |
Clergyman’s answer? Finding company in haunt of vice (6)
|
| A[nswer] + CO[mpany] in DE.N (of e.g. iniquity, ‘vice’). | ||
| 23 | REBEL |
Contributing to obscure beliefs of Jack Cade perhaps (5)
|
| Hidden in ‘obscuRE BELiefs’. | ||
| 26 | CEDE |
Give up for a month around the start of Easter (4)
|
| Reversal of DEC[ember] + 1st of E{aster}. | ||
| 28 | AGE |
Wise son leaving for a long time (3)
|
| sAGE (‘wise’) without S[on]. |
Pleasant way to pass the time, but some difficult parsing as pointed out, eg for CHEAPENS and INITIATE. I admit to taking the hint from 24a and bunging a few in from the def, including EASY STREET appropriately enough. Recognising ‘Dr Manette’ as a character from “A Tale of Two Cities” was as far as I could get, so 12a went in from ‘to survive’ and crossers.
I before E except after C? Wrong again, which held me up for CODEINE. I was pleased to remember TOCSIN, thanks to hearing it in a “Miss Marple” episode on the TV a few months ago.
Thanks to Peto and Grant
I’m not one for timing myself, but this was a very quick solve for me. That it was pretty much a write- in was probably due to me being on Peto’s wavelength today.
I liked 14, 17 and 24 best.
A swift, and as Wordplodder says, pleasant way to spend a coffee break.
Thanks to Peto and to Grant, especially for parsing INITIATE and LAST. This latter I got from the definition alone and even though a shoe’s ‘last’ occurred to me, I was grateful for the explanation. It’s a very long time since I read that book and I didn’t remember that character. Time for a re-read, perhaps.
Um Grant,
For 25a, I’m sure you mean OR in PT, rather than PE, on this occasion.
I liked Easy Street though I was tempted by East Surrey for a moment. My second meeting with Jack Cade in a puzzle this week
To Diane:
Obvs. Slip of the old brain. Happening too much these days.
And, Grant, your spelling of SUCCINT in 12a was a bit too succinct. 🙂
Thanks to both Peto for the fun puzzle and Grant for the answers I couldn’t parse.
Thanks for the blog, I shrugged at LAST but now I think it is really impressive after the explanation.
To Ed
Another brain-fade. P’raps I shd be signing off from this.
Roz. Surely you shrugged AT FIRST, but then ceased to shrug AT LAST?
Grant @8,
No, we’d miss your spirited commentary!
Grant@8: what Diane@10 said! You’re still much better at solving these than I am.
Thanks Pete and Grant (and don’t you dare stop !)
A welcome respite from the harder variety here as I fall further behind with the daily FT puzzles.
No real holdups apart from not putting the word play for EASY STREET together – but there was enough there with the jumbled ESSAY and the reversed TEE to know that it was certainly the correct answer. Was interesting to see the PEERLESS / NEEDLESS crossing in the SW corner.
That PEERLESS was my last one in after seeing the ill-fated ‘Jack Cade’ as the penultimate one.