An enjoyable Sunday solve from Raich once again.
Whilst I don’t time solving, this one seemed quite brisk with few real holdups. Last one in was REARDON, partly because it took me a moment to spot that a name was required, and perhaps also because he was a little before my time. I wonder how international solvers fared on that clue.
I particularly enjoyed some of the longer anagrams, with the 15-letter 21 across being a standout.
| Across | ||
| 1 | MYSORE | Gracious, very, about city in India (6) |
| MY (as in “good gracious!”) + SO + RE. | ||
| 4 | POLKA DOT | Fabric pattern, New Look, apt, has Duke impressed? (5,3) |
| D in (LOOK APT)*. | ||
| 9 | TYRANT | Despot‘s terribly hollow violent speech (6) |
| T[erribl]Y + RANT. | ||
| 10 | PER ANNUM | Managed to stop writer reversing Greek letter on regular basis? (3,5) |
| (RAN in PEN) + MU<. | ||
| 11 | LADY WITH THE LAMP | Tender heroine whose work was illuminating? (4,4,3,4) |
| A reference to Florence Nightingale, of course, and I guess &lit, or perhaps a cryptic definition. | ||
| 13 | SELF-ESTEEM | Vanity sees me left abandoned? (4-6) |
| Anagram of (SEES ME LEFT). | ||
| 14 | SKYE | Scottish kilt you encountered initially – here? (4) |
| Initial letters of S[cottish] K[ilt] Y[ou] E[ncountered]. | ||
| 16 | CARD | Source of information possibly about road (4) |
| CA + RD. | ||
| 18 | MARIONETTE | One under control of couple getting around port trap (10) |
| (RIO de Janeiro + NET) in MATE. | ||
| 21 | A FAREWELL TO ARMS | Work of Ernest, self-aware mortal, rewritten? (1,8,2,4) |
| Anagram of (SELF AWARE MORTAL), and a 1929 novel by Ernest Hemingway. | ||
| 23 | INDUSTRY | At home clean extremely rigorously – diligence (8) |
| IN + DUST + R[igorousl]Y. | ||
| 24 | UNEASE | Northeast area cuts employment bringing apprehension (6) |
| (NE + A) in USE. | ||
| 25 | MONOTONE | Unvarying way of working – something other than unique (8) |
| MO + NOT ONE. | ||
| 26 | REMOTE | Sure motel’s far (6) |
| Hidden in [su]RE MOTE[l]. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | METAL | Time to tuck into food giving lead, perhaps … (5) |
| T in MEAL. | ||
| 2 | STRUDEL | … Stan, not half discourteous, left dessert (7) |
| ST[an] + RUDE + L. | ||
| 3 | RENOWNED | Famous section of Army won over Kelly maybe (8) |
| RE + WON< + NED Kelly. | ||
| 5 | OVER THE HILL | Ramshackle – their hovel – ultimately dreadful – past best (4,3,4) |
| (THEIR HOVEL)* + [dreadfu]L. | ||
| 6 | KNAVES | 16s – features of churches, we’re told (6) |
| Homophone of “naves”. | ||
| 7 | DENMARK | Following retreat Gospel writer in state (7) |
| DEN + MARK. | ||
| 8 | TIMEPIECE | Maybe watch mice pee, it’s revolting! (9) |
| Anagram of (MICE PEE IT). | ||
| 12 | TETRAHEDRON | Noted rather unusual solid figure (11) |
| Anagram of (NOTED RATHER). | ||
| 13 | SOCIALISM | Independent on Sunday, to begin with, claims evolving political theory? (9) |
| Anagram of (I[ndependent] O[n] S[unday] + CLAIMS). | ||
| 15 | ANNOUNCE | Declare arrival of girl, then wait, by sound of it? (8) |
| It took me a while to spot the wordplay, but I think it’s ANN + OUNCE. ANN is the girl, and an OUNCE is a unit of weight, which sounds like “wait”. A sort of reverse homophone then. | ||
| 17 | REARDON | Bring up fellow, snooker great (7) |
| REAR + DON, and a reference to Ray Reardon. | ||
| 19 | TORNADO | Commotion about relief at first not available in storm (7) |
| (R[elief] + NA) in TODO. | ||
| 20 | BEDSIT | Prediction about daughter is raised in room (6) |
| (D + IS<) in BET. | ||
| 22 | STEVE | Guy stumped the day before (5) |
| ST + EVE. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
Thanks for blogging, Simon.
I remember this falling out in a mostly straightforward way, but I did get stuck for a while on MYSORE and REARDON (where I wanted to make ‘bring up’ the definition and start the answer with F) but the crossers sorted that out.
I, too, liked the long anagram for A FAREWELL TO ARMS.
Well done, Raich.
Quick but enjoyable. I don’t know REARDON, but the crossers enabled me to have a stab at the name and then confirm it.
I was also held up by MYSORE because I couldn’t get Mumbai out of my head until I had all the crossers.
I particularly liked STRUDEL and TIMEPIECE.
Very enjoyable puzzle which was right at the easy end of things for me. Lots of solid stuff with the nicely done and amusing 8d (natch) being my COD. Thanks to Raich for the puzzle and to SH for the blog (I’m now off to strap meself down for the server switch – see you all on the other side).
Very ennjoyable and mostly straightforward, though I didn’t see the ‘not one’ part of MONOTONE so put MONOTONY and hoped for the best. Thanks to setter and blogger.