A Monday challenge from Hubble.
And I found it a tough one. Having previously blogged a Hubble puzzle shortly after Christmas, I was perhaps expecting something similarly solver-friendly, but this one cranked the difficulty level up several notches.
There are several one- or two-letter subtractions/substitutions here, which, I must confess, are not my favourite type of clue. Having said that, everything was perfectly fairly clued, so no quibbles from me. Favourite clue was the one that gave me most trouble, in terms of working out the parsing, namely DIALECTS, where the EC took me an age to understand. Thanks very much to Hubble for the somewhat strenuous workout.
Moh’s cruciverbial hardness scale rating: Apatite
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | CINEMATOGRAPHER |
Romantic page ruined by the woman filming boss (15)
|
| Anagram (ruined) of ROMANTIC PAGE + HER (the woman) | ||
| 9 | ACCEPT |
Shoulder muscle twisted in a court (6)
|
| Reversal (twisted) of PEC (pectoral muscle) inside A (from surface) CT (court) | ||
| 10 | MULTIPLY |
What one must do to get product like tissues? (8)
|
| Double definition, the second referring to multi-ply tissues | ||
| 11 | DIALECTS |
Laid back country club once cleared out tourists with different ways of speaking (8)
|
| Reversal (back) of LAID + EC (the European Community, former name of what is now the EU, so a club of countries/country club once) + outer letters (cleared out) of TouristS | ||
| 12 | IRKING |
Annoying to be discovered in Ormskirk in guesthouse (6)
|
| Hidden in ormskIRK IN Guesthouse | ||
| 13 | AFFECTS |
Very loud echo absorbed by book has an impact (7)
|
| FF + E inside ACTS (book of the New Testament) | ||
| 16 | IGNEOUS |
Brother escaping from erupting subregion describing rocks (7)
|
| Anagram (erupting) of SU[br]EGION (br/brother escaping from). Not all rocks are igneous, of course, so perhaps a ? would have been in order | ||
| 19 | GLUTEN |
Block up hideout, heading off to provide protein (6)
|
| GLUT (to block up/fill to excess) + [d]EN (hideout, heading off) | ||
| 21 | HAMILTON |
Musical mother, on her return, welcomed by hotel (8)
|
| Reversal (on her return) of MA inside (welcomed by) HILTON (hotel) | ||
| 24 | SMACKERS |
Nuts to take out credit for son’s million pounds (8)
|
| [cr]ACKERS (nuts, mad) with CR (credit) replaced by S (son) and M (millions) | ||
| 25 | NURSED |
Looked after distribution of refunds fellow ignored (6)
|
| Anagram (distribution of) RE[f]UNDS (F for fellow ignored) | ||
| 26 | COUNTER-ATTACKED |
Hit back at noble queen and king taking over diplomat’s hotel by day (7-8)
|
| COUNT (noble) + ER (the late Queen Elizabeth, of blessed memory, whose shade still frequents many a cryptic) + ATTAC[h]E (diplomat, with the H for hotel replaced/taken over by K for king) + D (day) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MISCHIEF |
Young girl’s spoken of primary injury (8)
|
| Soundalike (spoken of) of ‘miss’ (young girl) + CHIEF (primary). Def as in ‘I’ve done myself a mischief’ | ||
| 2 | REPEAL |
Ring concerning first annulment (6)
|
| PEAL (ring of bells) preceded by RE (concerning) | ||
| 3 | TACTIC |
Almost quote Tom, say, coming up with plan (6)
|
| Reversal (coming up, in a down clue) of CIT[e] (almost quote) + CAT (tom, say) | ||
| 4 | TOPMOST |
Tense cabinet maker breaking spectacles on route to the highest level (7)
|
| T (tense) + insertion (breaking) of PM (prime ministers appoint cabinets, so cabinet maker…) into OO (spectacles) + ST (route) | ||
| 5 | DRILLING |
Cooking back in Sunderland instead of Gateshead is boring (8)
|
| [g]RILLING with the G (Gateshead) changed to a D (back in Sunderland) | ||
| 6 | SPRINKLE |
With season curtailed, deer trekking northwards scatter (8)
|
| SPRIN[g] (season curtailed) + reversal (trekking northwards, in a down clue) of ELK | ||
| 7 | MERLIN |
Essentially admit nothing about rearing falcon (6)
|
| M (central letter – essentially – of adMit) + reversal (rearing) of NIL RE (nothing about) | ||
| 14 | ENTICING |
Tempting every second member of gang in Chittenden to come round (8)
|
| Reversal (to come round) of alternate letters (every second member) of GaNg In ChItTeNdEn | ||
| 15 | TENDERED |
Offered soft beds with covers removed (8)
|
| TENDER (soft) + [b]ED[s] (beds with covers removed) | ||
| 17 | UNOPENED |
Still locked, editor’s holding up a French competition anyone can enter (8)
|
| ED beneath (holding up) UN (a French) OPEN (competition anyone can enter) | ||
| 18 | THUS FAR |
Up to this point, the American footballers lacking energy and resistance (4,3)
|
| TH[e] US FA (the American footballers minus E/lacking energy) + R | ||
| 20 | LEMMON |
Oscar-winner regularly lied introducing leading parts for Marilyn Monroe (originally Norma) (6)
|
| Alternate letters of LiEd + initial letters (leading parts) of Marilyn Monroe Originally Norma. Jack Lemmon won two Oscars, in 1955 and 1973, but not, sadly, for Some Like It Hot | ||
| 22 | MINUTE |
Tiny writer eating bit of iced fruitcake (6)
|
| ME (writer) around (eating) I (bit of iced) NUT (fruitcake) | ||
| 23 | LYRICS |
Cyril’s rewritten words (6)
|
| Anagram (rewritten) of CYRILS |
A somewhat different solving experience than moh. Rattled this off, helped by getting 8a straightaway and then all the linking down clues apart from 1d (needed the final F before I saw that one). The only hold-ups were MULTIPLY & GLUTEN.
Experience more like that of Hovis than moh – though a chunk of my time was spent on LOI COUNTER-ATTACKED where there was a lot going on. MULTIPLY may COTD. I did wonder if there was a bit of a movie/theatre subtext with CINEMATOGRAPHER, LEMMON, LYRICS, HAMILTON, MERLIN but suspect that is coincidence.
Thanks both
My picks: MULTIPLY, COUNTER-ATTACKED, SPRINKLE and THUS FAR.
Thanks Hubble and moh.
The wordplays and solutions were less trouble from Hubble, than, say for example, yesterday’s Filbert, yet it took me nearly twice the time to complete.
The culprits are all those uncrossed opening letters – approaching two-thirds of the solutions.
A very enjoyable puzzle, lots of variety and well-compiled surfaces. MULTIPLY best in show.
Thumbs up, setter & moh