A brisk solve, with a nice variety of clues
Gozo often offers a pangram (not this time) or a theme, but if there are any extras today, I am failing to spot them. ANAGRAM looks like a hint, and there are nine in today’s puzzle.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DIAL TONE |
Possible lead in to making a phone call? (4,4)
|
| semi-&lit and anagram of (possible) LEAD IN TO | ||
| 5 | BRUNEI |
The state of Sarkozy’s wife out East (6)
|
| [Carla] BRUNI (Sarkozy’s wife) around (out) E (East) | ||
| 10 | RIGHT |
Spot on brilliant book overlooked (5)
|
| [B]RIGHT (brilliant) minus (overlooked) B (book) | ||
| 11 | REALISTIC |
Forged article is true to life (9)
|
| Anagram of (forged) ARTICLE IS | ||
| 12 | CANISTERS |
Tins of wine special constable imbibed, upset (9)
|
| {SC (special constable) around (imbibed) RETSINA (wine)} all reversed (upset) | ||
| 13 | ENSUE |
For starters, even nowadays, Surrey usually enforce follow on (5)
|
| First letters of (for starters) E[VEN] N[OWADAYS] S[URREY] U[SUALLY] E[NFORCE] | ||
| 14 | KIDNEY |
Youngster recalled desire for offal (6)
|
| KID (youngster) + YEN (desire) reversed (recalled) | ||
| 15 | REHEATS |
Puts back in the oven — but there’s a difficulty (7)
|
| Anagram of (difficulty) THERE’S A | ||
| 18 | ANAGRAM |
Could be danger from garden, for example (7)
|
| Clue as definition, “danger” being an anagram of “garden” | ||
| 20 | LOCATE |
Company back in former position (6)
|
| CO. (company) reversed (back) inside (in) LATE (former) | ||
| 22 | LEMON |
Carol rejected consuming bit of microwaved fruit (5)
|
| NOEL (carol) reversed (rejected) around (consuming) first letter of (bit of) M[ICROWAVED] | ||
| 24 | LIVERPOOL |
City supply of organs (9)
|
| Cryptically, a LIVER POOL could be a “supply of organs.” | ||
| 25 | POLICE CAR |
In which real cop in charge crashed? (6,3)
|
| &lit and anagram of (crashed) {REAL COP + I/C (in charge)} | ||
| 26 | AWAKE |
A vigil alert (5)
|
| A + WAKE (vigil) | ||
| 27 | DIREST |
I’d flipped over, repose being most terrible (6)
|
| I’D reversed (flipped over) + REST (repose) | ||
| 28 | ETON MESS |
Sweet comment about shambles (4,4)
|
| NOTE (comment) reversed (about) + MESS (shambles) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DIRECT |
Unambiguous order (6)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 2 | ARGENTINA |
Country inn, a great resort (9)
|
| Anagram of (resort) INN A GREAT | ||
| 3 | TITUS ANDRONICUS |
Tudors in Tunics — a new play by the Bard (5,10)
|
| Anagram of (new) TUDORS IN TUNICS A | ||
| 4 | NURSERY |
New North Surrey garden centre (7)
|
| Anagram of (new) {N (North) + SURREY)} | ||
| 6 | RAISE THE CURTAIN |
Lift drapes when Austrian heretic is murdered (5,3,7)
|
| Anagram of (when . . . is murdered) AUSTRIAN HERETIC | ||
| 7 | NOTES |
Determined to reject memos (5)
|
| SET ON (determined to) inverted (reject) | ||
| 8 | INCREASE |
Where striker stands for more pay? (8)
|
| IN CREASE (where striker stands in cricket) | ||
| 9 | CAESAR |
Roman ruler will grab girl, we’re told (6)
|
| Approximate homophone of (we’re told) SEIZE HER (grab girl) | ||
| 16 | ASTROLABE |
Scientific instrument bathed city in a flickering light (9)
|
| LA (city) inside (bathed . . . in) {A + STROBE (flickering light)} | ||
| 17 | GALLOPED |
Lass strode along and moved fast (8)
|
| GAL (lass) + LOPED (strode along) | ||
| 19 | MALICE |
Claim a point out of spite (6)
|
| Anagram of (out) {CLAIM + E (a point, i.e., east on a compass)} | ||
| 20 | LEVERET |
Young form-filler (7)
|
| Cryptic definition. According to Chambers, a leveret is “a hare in its first year,” and a form, in this sense, is “the bed of a hare, shaped by the animal’s body.” Nice clue. | ||
| 21 | FLEETS |
Speedy, small companies’ cars (6)
|
| FLEET (speedy) + S (small) | ||
| 23 | MILER |
Middle-distance runner turning up from the preliminaries (5)
|
| Hidden in (from) [P]RELIM[INARIES] inverted (turning up) |
Very quick solve today for me too, with a few too many anagrams and reversals.
I ticked TITUS ANDRONICUS, and KIDNEY (not an anagram). I did not remember Carla Bruni or ASTROLABE and did not know a company car is called a FLEET. At least I could solve those clues, unlike LEVERET where I did not know the word for young hare or its bed.
Thanks Gozo and Cineraria
Thanks Gozo. I thought this was heavy with anagrams but oddly my only miss was ANAGRAM itself. All else went in quickly but the parsing of CANISTERS and BRUNEI eluded me. Favourites included KIDNEY, LIVERPOOL, POLICE CAR, ARGENTINA, and TITUS ANDRONICUS, my COTD. I was surprised to see ‘new’ used twice as an anagram indicator when there are so many others to choose. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.
Bright and breezy does it!
Lovely.
Thanks Gozo (this brought me more cheer than Liverpool’s domestic form!) and Cineraria.
Meant to say that I found REALISTIC was very neat.
Wonder if there’s any jokes about Scousers trading organs. But yes, pretty cruisy, few dnk (or cnr) bits, like Bruni, and the hare’s form. Retsina backwards was neat, tho done before I fancy, and the Bard’s new play is a brill anag. Fun, thx GnC.
Filled the top straight in and the bottom almost as quickly. Either my iq has gone up or that was easy. Liked realistic, Argentina. Not sure kidney and liver are enough to form a theme. Thanks both.
Very enjoyable; nothing too taxing. LEVERET was the only one I couldn’t parse.
Lots of fun: I rattled through this before breakfast with just one miss. Anagrams always help for me, but I ‘m kicking myself about 18A because it just didn’t occur to me that the answer was Anagram! D’Oh!
Anyway, thanks to Gozo and Cineraria.
Thanks Gozo and Cineraria
7dn: Unambiguously NOTES from the enumeration. The same words with the enumeration (3,2) would give SET ON just as unambiguously.
21dn: Chambers 2016 gives fleet¹ n “a number of ships, aircraft, motor cars, etc owned by the same company or otherwise associated”. Then the plural “companies'” in the clue gives us the plural FLEETS for the answer.
Well, ANAGRAM was my last solution, which was face-palm time, because I had noted loads of anagrams, so this was the keyword to the theme?
Tony@2, I think , in 3d, the setter intends “a new” to be construed as “anew”, thereby avoiding the same anagrind in succession.
A gentle but accomplished puzzle, with plenty of smart moves. LEVERET in particular, is novel and nifty.
Lovely stuff, thumbs up, Gozo & Cineraria
E.N.Boll& @10: In 3d the ‘A’ is part of the anagram fodder so it can’t be ‘anew’ as the indicator. Other indicators — novel, curious, or fresh could have been used in place of new. In 4d ‘new’ could have easily been ‘renovated’ if one were to keep ‘new’ in 3d. The repetition seems a bit careless to me.
I liked the leveret clue. For once my love of hares proving useful!
Tony@11: you are quite right! (to be honest, I bunged it in because I know it’s one of those plays that nobody ever remembers, I didn’t check the fodder). Also, I don’t really rate “new” as an anagrind. I agree with your suggestions.
Maybe “relocated” in 4(d)?
“Re-written/ rescripted ” in 3(d)?
Ah… it’s easier when you’re a solver!
Apologies for cocking up the “anew” bit.
It’s still a very nice puzzle.
New was used for TITUS ANDRONICUS here because the clue was copied direct from file. When last used (by Gozo, March ’24) there was no other ‘new’ in the puzzle. Originally it was a Times clue, given as ‘Tudors in Tunics a reworking for this play’.
James@14 phew, great knowledge.
Makes my “rewritten/ rescripted” offer almost look clever! It’s a great anagram, so worth a sequel.
There’s nothing new under the sun.
One of our quickest solves ever – just about everything was a write-in, the principal exception being CANISTERS. Favourite was LEVERET.
Thanks, Gozo and Cineraria.
James @14: the Times clue surprises me because reworking is a transitive verb (in Collins, Chambers, SOED and ODE), so reworked should have been used.
I had to join a few dots – that version of the clue is out there somewhere, and the anagram was in the Times (2009) but the TFTT blog in those days only showed a selection of clues, and not the relevant one. It could be reworking as noun, though – which do you prefer?
A sincere THANK YOU to Gozo if reading this.
This is the first time I have ever completed a cryptic. I am thrilled and grateful in equal measure.
Have tackled them on and off for years but never exceeded ~80 percent completion, and often far less.
This is a fine day. I didn’t know where else to write this. It’s a babble of joy.
Congrats Alastair. Welcome aboard. 🙂