A light challenge from ZAMORCA today
FF: 8 DD: 5
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BOUNCE |
Recoil from black cat (6)
|
| B ( black ) OUNCE ( cat ) | ||
| 4 | CHESSMAN |
One on board ship seized by revolutionary worker (8)
|
| SS ( ship ) in [ CHE ( revolutionary ) MAN ( worker ) ] | ||
| 9 | NODULE |
Lump has to drop off then you’ll report (6)
|
| NOD ( drop off ) ULE ( sounds like you’ll ) | ||
| 10 | FOLLOWER |
Fan of Orwell work (8)
|
| [ OF ORWELL ]* | ||
| 12 | HARANGUE |
Managed to stop a huge angry tirade (8)
|
| RAN ( managed ) in [ A HUGE ]* | ||
| 13 | ON EDGE |
Nervous about creep (2,4)
|
| ON ( about ) EDGE ( creep ) | ||
| 15 | EYED |
Enthralled by education in the past, you studied (4)
|
| YE ( you, old english ) in ED ( education ) | ||
| 16 | SCRAPING BY |
Just managing with son at home eating rubbish grub. Disheartened? Yes (8,2)
|
| { CRAP ( rubbish ) in [ S ( son ) IN ( at home ) ] } GB ( GruB, disheartened i.e. without inner letters ) Y ( yes ) | ||
| 19 | STRAWBERRY |
Fruit with unsightly growths recalled, make a mistake by accepting (10)
|
| reverse of WARTS ( unsightly growth ) [ ERR ( make a mistake ) in BY ] | ||
| 20 | CALM |
Briefly turned up bringing in money collected (4)
|
| CAMe ( turned up, briefly ) containing L ( money , pound ) | ||
| 23 | HOAXER |
A hex or trick reveals prankster (6)
|
| [ A HEX OR ]* | ||
| 25 | DOES WELL |
With Spring coming on female deer thrives (4,4)
|
| DOES ( female deer ) WELL ( spring ) | ||
| 27 | LOGGED ON |
Signed in to record professor in conversation (6,2)
|
| LOGGE ( sounds like LOG, record ) DON ( professor ) | ||
| 28 | SOLVER |
Only one securing victory’s right for you (6)
|
| [ SOLE ( only one ) containing V ( victory ) ] R ( right ) | ||
| 29 | ROOF TILE |
Jumper fellow left during match is found on top of building (4,4)
|
| ROO ( jumper ) F ( fellow ) [ L ( left ) in TIE ( match ) ] | ||
| 30 | STOREY |
Alternative energy source in farm building floor (6)
|
| [ OR ( alterative ) E ( Energy, first letter ) ] in STY ( farm building ) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BANSHEE |
Forbids leader to excuse supporting ambassador’s howler (7)
|
| BANS ( forbids ) HE ( ambassador, His Excellency ) E ( Excuse, first letter ) | ||
| 2 | UNDERWEAR |
For the most part unrewarded, cracked combinations (9)
|
| [ UNREWARDEd ( mostly ) ]* ; learnt this today | ||
| 3 | COLONY |
Settlement of intestine requiring surgery in the end (6)
|
| COLON ( intestine ) Y ( surgerY, last letter ) | ||
| 5 | HOOK |
Hampshire’s opener gets duck with fine catch (4)
|
| H ( Hampshire, first letter ) O ( duck ) OK ( fine ) | ||
| 6 | SPLENDID |
Great seeing special student finish papers (8)
|
| SP ( special ) L ( student ) END ( finish ) ID ( papers ) | ||
| 7 | MOWED |
Under obligation after Mike cut the grass (5)
|
| M ( mike ) OWED ( under obligation ) | ||
| 8 | NURSERY |
Market garden runs analysis on rye variety (7)
|
| [ RUNS ]* [ RYE ]* ; i wasnt happy with this because there doesn’t seem to be clear anagrind for RUNS so i googled and saw that URS is short for User Requirement Specifications in business analysis , and this cant be the parse either so i am going with the first attempt. | ||
| 11 | QUICKEN |
Hurry to question writer endlessly (7)
|
| QU ( question ) dICKENs ( writer, endlessly ) | ||
| 14 | WARRIOR |
Fighter, with terrible roar, tackling Irish uprising (7)
|
| W ( with ) { [ ROAR ]* containing reverse of IR ( irish ) } | ||
| 17 | GLAZE OVER |
Lose interest with half of government going round idle (5,4)
|
| LAZE ( idle ) in GOVERnment ( half of ) | ||
| 18 | SWEETEST |
Most sugary foods finally getting negligible tax (8)
|
| S ( foodS, last letter ) WEE ( negligible ) TEST ( tax ) | ||
| 19 | SCHOLAR |
Academic child’s also crazy about reading (7)
|
| { [ ALSO ]* around CH ( child ) } R ( reading ) | ||
| 21 | MALARKY |
Nonsense chit-chat from mummy bird leading young (7)
|
| MA ( mummy ) LARK ( bird ) Y ( Young, first letter ) | ||
| 22 | ESCORT |
Guide key soldiers back to front (6)
|
| ESC ( key ) OR ( soldiers ) T ( fronT, back of i.e. last letter ) | ||
| 24 | AGGRO |
Run out after badly written gag’s hostile reaction (5)
|
| [ GAG ]* R ( run ) O ( out ) | ||
| 26 | JOWL |
Judge has low sufferance for cheek (4)
|
| J ( judge ) [ OWL ]* |
I made steady progress clockwise around the grid. I liked BOUNCE for its neat surface. ON EDGE, and MALARKY
UNDERWEAR = combination was new to me too, and I do not like vague directions such as “for the most part” that do not tell you which part or how much of it. Not sure lose interest (referring to a person) is the same as GLAZE OVER (referring to eyes). And for ESCORT, I do not understand ORT. Your solution ignores the word “back”.
Thanks Zamorca and Turbolegs
Hi Martyn,
It was a clever misdirection. I fixed the blog now.
Regards,
TL
Ah, now I get ESCORT. thank you. I for one was misled by the misdirection.
A nice puzzle, especially because I noticed it was shaping up as a pangram and solved jowl by seeing there was no other spot for the necessary j.
Liked follower, strawberry, underwear, colony. (Another extra letter creating a lovely difference in meaning after yesterday’s chancer(y) beaut).
8d I took analysis to be the anagram indicator for runs
17d to glaze over is to become obviously bored in my book Martyn
Struggled with bounce (yes, I know ounce is a crossword staple but it never comes to mind) and storey which is obvious when you have the answer.
Good explanation of escort.
Thx all.
Most enjoyable. UNDERWEAR/combinations was a head scratcher.
Nice and light as our blogger says.
Favourites were FOLLOWER, QUICKEN, GLAZE OVER and UNDERWEAR.
Knowing Zamorca’s penchant for pangrams didn’t help today since I’d secured the a-z with more than half of the clues remaining but it was a kind grid after all.
Thanks to Zamorca and Turbolegs.
For 8d I took URS (Umpire Review System) as the previous reference to DRS (Decision Review System) in cricket, hence analysis of runs