Mostly straightforward Monday fun – thanks to Brendan.
It being a Brendan puzzle, there is of course a theme, and here all the across answers form familiar two-word phrases. Noticing this early on helped me with some of the later answers.
| Across | ||||||||
| 7 | CONTRACT | Make short counterargument with pamphlet (8) CON (a counterargument) + TRACT (pamphlet) |
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| 9 | BRIDGE | Part of ship that crosses river, often (6) Double definition |
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| 10 | CAPE | Cold primate in sleeveless cloak (4) C + APE |
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| 11 | GOOSEBERRY | Kind of fool whose company isn’t wanted? (10) Double definition |
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| 12 | SIMPLE | In some clues, I’m pleasantly straightforward (6) Hidden in clueS I’M PLEasantly |
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| 14 | INTEREST | Present setter’s anagram to intrigue (8) IN (present) + SETTER* |
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| 15 | MILTON | Poet’s one line in masculine style (6) I (one) L[ine] in M[asculine] TON (style) |
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| 17 | KEYNES | Economist making crucial point inconclusively (6) KEY (crucial) + NES[s] (geographical headland or point) |
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| 20 | INTERIOR | Private put in grave situation backed foreign ruler (8) INTER (bury, put in grave) + reverse of ROI (French king) |
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| 22 | DESIGN | Reluctantly agree about son’s intention (6) S[on] in DEIGN |
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| 23 | ARITHMETIC | Thing reversed in chart I revised as piece of mathematics (10) Reverse of ITEM (thing) in (CHART I)* |
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| 24 | MEAN | Humble soldiers protecting area (4) A[rea] in MEN |
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| 25 | DOUBLE | Stand-in to make score of ten, say (6) To make a score (20) out of ten is to DOUBLE it |
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| 26 | SAUCEPAN | Something used by cooks in USA – pecan nuts (8) (USA PECAN)* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | VOCALISM | It’s uttered very briefly on weird social media, initially (8) V[ery] + SOCIAL* + M[edia] |
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| 2 | STYE | Eye problem from middle of last year (4) The middle letters of laST YEar |
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| 3 | TANGLE | Seaweed gourmet ultimately put on fish (6) [gourme]T + ANGLE (to fish). Tangle is “coarse seaweed, esp. the edible Laminaria” |
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| 4 | ABSENTEE | Problem pupil stimulated in a communal meeting (8) SENT (stimulated) in A BEE (communal meeting) |
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| 5 | FIREBRANDS | Radicals assuming rising changes image (10) Reverse of IF (assuming) + REBRANDS |
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| 6 | AGORAS | Wide open spaces since found, after a journey over river (6) R[iver] in A GO (journey) + AS (since). Agora is a Greek marketplace, and the root of agoraphobia, fear of open spaces |
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| 8 | TROPIC | Subject embracing monarch in global circle (6) R (king or queen, monarch) in TOPIC |
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| 13 | POLLEN TUBE | What helps reproduce stock, say? Pet bull one redeployed (6,4) (PET BULL ONE)* – Stock is a plant, which a pollen tube would help to reproduce |
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| 16 | OPIUM DEN | Supplier of drug mostly impounded, destroyed (5,3) Anagram of IMPOUNDE[d] |
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| 18 | SIGN AWAY | Relinquish or keep subscribing? (4,4) Double definition |
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| 19 | GRATIS | Free traitor imprisoned by US troops (6) RAT (traitor) in GIS (US soldiers) |
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| 21 | NARROW | New missile limited in scope (6) N + ARROW |
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| 22 | DICTUM | Richard’s pronouncement on corporation, statement of principle (6) Homophone of “Dick” + TUM (stomach, corporation) |
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| 24 | MEET | These days, rarely fit for sports event (4) Double definition – MEET is an old word for fitting (as in “it is meet and righr so to do”) so rarely used in that sense these days |
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Quite difficult and I didn’t notice the theme until after I finished the puzzle when I looked at the btl comments at Guardian.
I couldn’t parse 1d as I assumed that V=very and the SM bit = social media which left me with umparsed OCALI!
New for me: POLLEN TUBE.
Favourite: INTERIOR.
When you lay out the answers like this, the theme is obvious – but I missed it in the grid. I think FIREBRANDS took me as long as all the others combined (though I didn’t see the parsing of MEET). Thanks, Brendan and Andrew.
I can’t see why my comment@1 was deleted so I will try posting it again…
Quite difficult and I didn’t notice the theme until after I finished the puzzle when I looked at the btl comments at Guardian.
I couldn’t parse 1d as I assumed that V=very and the SM bit = social media which left me with an unparsed OCALI!
New for me: POLLEN TUBE.
Favourite: INTERIOR.
Quite difficult and I didn’t notice the theme until after I finished the puzzle when I looked at the btl comments at Guardian.
I couldn’t parse 1d as I assumed that V=very and the SM bit = social media which left me with an unparsed OCALI!
New for me: POLLEN TUBE.
Favourite: INTERIOR.
NOTE: Comments 1 and 3 were me – I see now that the system works quite well. I had mis-typed my email address so the comments were not accepted. I guess an email was sent to that incorrect email address which most likely does not exist!
Thanks Brendan and Andrew
I found this hard for a Monday, particularly the RHS, and I didn’t parse ABSENTEE or the NES part of KEYNES.
Favourite GRATIS.
No theme, of course, but it’s very well executed.
Fairly straightforward. As always I failed to spot the theme, which would have speeded up the solve. I took a bit of time to get on the wavelength.
Quibble: I wouldn’t describe an agora as a wide open space since it would probably have buildings round it, but I suppose agoraphobia justifies the clue.
Favourite: FIREBRANDS
Nho POLLEN TUBE but obvious from the clue.
Mostly straightforward and I only spotted the theme after MILTON KEYNES leapt out and all nicely done with the others. Couldn’t parse MEET so thanks for that plus the extra gen on AGORAS. My favourites were FIREBRANDS, POLLEN TUBE and OPIUM DEN.
Ta Brendan & Andrew.
I got the theme straight away and so got a few solutions directly from that, which sort of feels like cheating.