Another brilliant and enjoyable crossword from Gila.
There were lots of great clues, my favourite being the excellent anagram in 13D. It was almost a piece of social commentary, given the conflicts over gentrification seen in areas of London.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | SARABAND |
Dance artists returned to join a musical group (8)
|
| RAs(=Royal Academicians)< + a band. A saraband is a Spanish dance. | ||
| 9 | ERENOW |
Celebrity mostly on ecstasy up until this point (6)
|
| Renow[n] on e{cstasy} | ||
| 10 | BRAT |
British singer Charli XCX’s 2024 album (4)
|
| B{ritish} + rat(=singer in the sense of one who sings and rats out their accomplices in an interrogation) | ||
| 11 | ON THE MONEY |
Exactly where you might see a portrait of Jane Austen in the UK? (2,3,5)
|
| DD. Jane Austen appears on the £10 note. | ||
| 12 | MORSEL |
Bit of fungus enveloping root of sycamore (6)
|
| Morel(=a type of mushroom) around s[ycamore] | ||
| 14 | SWIFTIES |
Quick videos regularly selected for some pop fans (8)
|
| Swift(=quick) + even letters of videos. Swifties are fans of Taylor Swift. | ||
| 15 | PROPOSITIONED |
Expert journalist taking on role, as suggested (13)
|
| (Pro(=expert) + ed{itor}(=journalist)) around position(=role) | ||
| 17 | ARTESIAN |
Area isn’t regenerated well? (8)
|
| (Area isn’t)*. An artesian well is one where water comes to the surface without any pumps being required because it is under pressure within the bedrock. | ||
| 19 | PREPAY |
Get ready and always handle the bill up front (6)
|
| Prep(=shortened form of prepare) + ay(=archaic version of always) | ||
| 21 | HUMIDIFIER |
If I’m hired afresh to bring in unionisation at first, it may improve the atmosphere (10)
|
| (If I’m hired)* around u[nionisation] | ||
| 22 | TWIG |
Understand what’s primarily involved in kid’s game (4)
|
| W[hat] in tig(=kid’s game) | ||
| 23 | FASCIA |
Panel created by sporting organisation’s spies in the States (6)
|
| FA’s(=Football Association) + CIA(=US spy agency) | ||
| 24 | TEASPOON |
Cracked pot – one containing a small amount of liquid (8)
|
| (Pot one)* around (a s{mall}) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BARRIO |
Place that’s Spanish, except it’s a place in Brazil (6)
|
| Bar(=except) + Rio(=place in Brazil). A barrio is a Spanish administrative division but now often used to mean the Spanish speaking sections of US cities. | ||
| 2 | RAPT |
Reportedly how presents may be sent (4)
|
| Hom of wrapped | ||
| 3 | PALO ALTO |
Friend circles seen around key tech bro hub? (4,4)
|
| (Pal(=friend) + OO(=circles) around alt(=key i.e. the alt key on a keyboard) | ||
| 4 | YEMENI |
Certain Arabian chaps occupying the old institute (6)
|
| Men(=chaps) in (ye(=old word for the) + i{nstitute}) | ||
| 5 | RECONTINUE |
Train about … about … about to proceed once more (10)
|
| Retinue(=train) around (c{irca} + on)(=both words for about) | ||
| 6 | BONEHEAD |
Single male with terrible clothing is a fool (8)
|
| (One(=single) + he(=male)) in bad(=terrible) | ||
| 8 | DATA SCIENTIST |
New stats indicate who may work using algorithms (4,9)
|
| (Stats indicate)* | ||
| 13 | SHOREDITCH |
“Sod the rich” sprayed somewhere in East London (10)
|
| (Sod the rich)* | ||
| 15 | PORTUGAL |
Part of Europe’s revised LPGA tour (8)
|
| (LPGA tour)* | ||
| 16 | IMPERIAL |
Risk apprehending a supreme leader (8)
|
| Imperil(=risk) around a. This seems a little odd because imperial is usually an adjective but it can be used as a noun meaning an emperor or empress. | ||
| 18 | IBIZAN |
Guy from Scotland possibly bringing in business from a site in the Med (6)
|
| Ian(=name of Scottish origin) around biz(=slang for business) | ||
| 20 | AMIGOS |
French pals taking journey to get to pals in Mexico (6)
|
| Amis(=French word for friends) around go(=journey) | ||
| 22 | TYPO |
Tit for tat, say, a feature of party politics? (4)
|
| Hidden in “party politics”. The def just means that tit may be accidentally typed instead of tat. |
I agree. The anagram in 13d was very good. But I thought the one in 8d was better particularly for the way ‘new’ was used both as an anagrind and in the surface. Also liked the long entries and IBIZAN. Thanks NealH and Gila.
Thanks Gila and NealH (especially for mentioning how much you liked the puzzle in first line of blog – I read that and decided I would delay working and do two crosswords this morning).
Agree that this a great and enjoyable puzzle. Some of the surfaces were amazing – completely natural but still forming a well structured clue.
I was a bit irked with imperial being used as a noun. Just looked it up and Chambers has 9 separate definitions as a noun!
A DNF for me as I couldn’t see ON THE MONEY and put unparsed ON THE COVER. I was a bit lost on BRAT and only got there by looking up Charli XCX, who was absent from my musical knowledge until now. Otherwise very much enjoyed so thanks Gila and Neal.
I also looked up IMPERIAL as I haven’t encountered the nounal form and was as surprised as Matthew N. I agree with both NealH and Sofamore wrt the anagrams for SHOREDITCH and DATA SCIENTIST. Other highlights: the smooth surface of SARABAND; the use of ‘morel’ in MORSEL; the misdirection of ‘always’ in PREPAY; the fun surface and neat def for TEASPOON; the def for TYPO and another lovely anagram in PORTUGAL. I have to confess to falling at the last, failing to see the short def in RAPT.
Thanks Gila and NealH
Brilliant. I liked all the clues already mentioned. I needed a word finder to get RAPT which was also a clever clue.
Thanks Gila and NealH. Very enjoyable puzzle. Very good blog.
RAPT was my COTD.
TYPO and DATA SCIENTIST were other top faves.
PREPAY: Did the clue require an ‘archaic’ indicator?
I’d also quibble that ARTESIAN is an adjective describing a type of well; “well” is a noun. [Brings back memories of an assignment in an introductory geology class back in college, in which we were handed topographic and geological maps of a certain area and asked where one could dig an artesian well. That was fun, actually–you had to understand what conditions create such a well, and then find a place where that would happen. To wit, you need an aquifer with a recharge zone at a higher elevation than your well, with an impermeable stratum lying geologically above it.]
Anyway, I quite enjoyed the crossword. I like the fact that the cultural references are firmly in the present, and agree that the SHOREDITCH and DATA SCIENTIST clues were great.
Charli XCX sounds like a name a setter would make up to get certain letters for wordplay. That completely threw me. Spent ages trying to get it down to 4 letters. Was slightly surprised to later find out she was a real artist. Let down by my modern music knowledge again.
Thanks both. Really liked ON THE MONEY. BRAT might have defeated me as it’s fairly obscure GK but it did appear as part of a clue for Bratwurst in a Methuselah puzzle in October; not sure why the only 2 references to a 2024 album I can remember in cryptic are for the same one.
Thanks all. This was excellent, with a very welcome range of references.
(Apart from the hackneyed Scotsman. As many have pointed out before, Iain is now the common spelling in Scotland. Continuing to use Scot=Ian is going down a road where cryptic crosswords become a substitution exercise for those that know the secret code.
Sorry, rant over, I really did enjoy this.)
TFO@9. Brat was significant enough that Collins picked it as their word of the year,.
LOi – after quite an interval – 2d RAPT – very nice 😉
I agree with DuncT@11. I stopped listening to popular music in the sixties as it was getting boring but even I have heard of Charli XCX and BRAT. In fact, it was so obvious I thought it couldn’t possibly be the answer and left it blank.
@13 and others….each to their own, as always, but to acknowledge a piece of ‘pop music’ over all others across 6 decades and more because it appears as a dictionary choice might potentially be narrowing things a little?