Thank you Peter for an enjoyable puzzle.
| Across | ||
| 9 | LUSITANIA | City outside Tunisia turned into part of the Roman Empire (9) |
| LA (city) contains (outside) anagram (turned) of TUNISIA | ||
| 10 | EYRIE | Inaccessible spot where setter’s entertained by Jane? (5) |
| I (the setter) inside (entertained by) EYRE (Jane Eyre perhaps) | ||
| 11 | SPARROW | Missile trailing special bird (7) |
| ARROW (missile) following SP (special) | ||
| 12 | ABSCOND | Sailors pretend to bear north then do a runner (7) |
| ABS (Able Seamen, sailors) COD (pretend) contains (to bear) N (north) | ||
| 13 | DUSTY | Dutch pigpen’s not cleaned thoroughly (5) |
| DU (Dutch) STY (pigpen) | ||
| 14 | SCARECROW | Animal crossing ploughed up acre in credit with fixture in field … (9) |
| SOW (animal) contains (crossing) anagram (ploughed up) of ACRE in CR (credit) | ||
| 16 | HANSEL AND GRETEL | … has learnt legend about children abandoned in forest (6,3,6) |
| anagram (about) of HAS LEARNT LEGEND | ||
| 19 | POLYESTER | Publicity surrounding liquid used for washing material found in fabrics (9) |
| POSTER (publicity) contains (surrounding) LYE (liquid used for washing) | ||
| 21 | BASED | Located wings of albatross in part of garden (5) |
| AlbatrosS (wings, outer letters of) in BED (part of garden) | ||
| 22 | SCRATCH | Special cart distributed church’s cash (7) |
| S (special) anagram (distributed) of CART then CH (church) | ||
| 23 | CANVASS | Vans breaking down in shed curtailed campaign (7) |
| anagram (breaking down) of VANS in CASt (shed, curtailed) | ||
| 24 | LINGO | Language used in Berlin government (5) |
| found inside berLIN GOvernment | ||
| 25 | NECTARINE | 9 accepting new crate of fruit (9) |
| NINE (9) contains anagram (new) of CRATE | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | CLOSED SHOP | Get rid of officer during cut in firm with restrictive hiring policy (6,4) |
| LOSE (get rid of) DS (Detective Sergeant, officer) inside CHOP (cut) | ||
| 2 | ASSASSIN | Killer of topless girls getting home (8) |
| LASS LASS (two girls, both topless) and IN (home) | ||
| 3 | STORMY | Rough old soldier hiding in farm building (6) |
| O (old) RM (Royal Marine, soldier) inside STY (farm building) | ||
| 4 | SNOW | Partners attending opening of observatory with cocaine (4) |
| S and N (partners in Bridge) with Observatory (opening letter of) and W (with) | ||
| 5 | SALAMANDER | Tool encasing buddhist monk’s portable stove (10) |
| SANDER (tool) contains (encasing) LAMA (buddhist monk) | ||
| 6 | MENSWEAR | Space in M&S used by women getting attention for some of its clothing (8) |
| EN (space, printing) in M and S then W (women) with EAR (attention) | ||
| 7 | ARDOUR | Passion in letter unyielding (6) |
| AR (the name of the letter R) DOUR (unyielding) | ||
| 8 | DEAD | Insensitive wife finally accepted by relative (4) |
| wifE (final letter of) in DAD (a relative) | ||
| 14 | SMARTPHONE | Vehicles turned up with mostly fake electronic device (10) |
| TRAMS (vehicles) reversed (turned up) then PHONEy (fake, mostly) | ||
| 15 | WALT DISNEY | Daily news broadcast about Tinseltown’s foremost film producer (4,6) |
| anagram (broadcast) of DAILY NEWS containing Tinseltown (foremost, first letter of) | ||
| 17 | ELECTION | Choice made by evangelical leader reading in church (8) |
| Evangelical (leader, first letter of) then LECTION (a reading in church) | ||
| 18 | TASMANIA | Tense Australian male entering troubled Asian island state (8) |
| T (tense) then A (Australian) M (male) inside anagram (troubled) of ASIAN | ||
| 20 | LARYNX | Health professional protecting lower part of airway in soft part of neck (6) |
| RN (Registered Nurse, health professional) contains (protecting) airwaY (lower part of) in LAX (soft) | ||
| 21 | BANTAM | Small soldier has trimmed ribbon on cap (6) |
| BANd (ribbon, trimmed) on TAM (a cap) | ||
| 22 | SILT | Deposit is returned to lieutenant (4) |
| IS (reversed) returned then LT (lieutenant) | ||
| 23 | COCK | Bird in small pile of hay (4) |
| double definition | ||
definitions are underlined
I write these posts to help people get started with cryptic crosswords. If there is something here you do not understand ask a question; there are probably others wondering the same thing.
For 12A the break up should be “cod”, not “con”, for sham, pretend, etc.
I found this harder than I was expecting – pride cometh before a fall and all that. Quite a few I didn’t know or couldn’t parse including SALAMANDER for a ‘portable stove’, COCK for a ‘small pile of hay’, BANTAM for a ‘small soldier’, SCRATCH for ‘cash’ and AR for, well, R. A few bird references around about, but probably not enough to make a theme.
No harm in being taken down a peg every now and then.
Thanks to Peter for an enjoyable puzzle and to PeeDee for the blog.
Lovely anagrams at 16a and 15d.
Didn’t like the repeated use of STY in the crossing 3d and 13a.
Guessed SALAMANDER. Knew the newt-like creature but not the portable stove. Wonder how it arrived at these somewhat different meanings.
Didn’t know BANTAM for “small soldier”. Guess that’s where bantam weight comes from.
Like WordPlodder, I didn’t know R was spelt AR. Funny how little people typically know how to spell our own alphabet (and how so many cannot pronounce aitch properly).
Thanks to Peter and PeeDee.
Very nice anagram at 16A, also liked 19A.
12A as per @1 Dilip.
20D it’s {airwa}Y in (“protected by”) RN in LAX.
Good fun. Thanks to Peter and PeeDee
Errors fixed now, thanks.
WordPlodder – when I saw Peter in the title I expected this would be nice but over In 5 minutes. Not as easy as I expected, like you say!
Hovis – I am reminded of an acquaintance who grew up in Belfast at the hight of the troubles. She said that how you pronounced aitch was a serious matter, the “right” pronunciation could get you into serious trouble if used in the wrong area.
Hovis: This gives you the link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander_heater
Thanks trenodia – a mythological beast I didn’t know. Always nice to find new ones.
Quite a few things that I had to check – SCRATCH, SNOW (sorry, Hoskins, I’m sure you’ve taught us that one!) and SALAMANDER, plus I phoned a friend about the washing liquid, I hadn’t helped myself by assuming that the publicity was simply PR.
Thought the 16a anagram was quite neatly done.
Thanks to Peter and to PeeDee for the blog.
I found the gridfill ok, but missed some of the finer details of wordplay.
Just loved EYRIE and DUSTY – and not just because they contain friends! Hope to see both Dutch and Jane along here later.
Also marked NECTARINE and some of the four-letter ones.
The duSTY/STormY sty clash is a shame, but didn’t mar the enjoyment.
Thanks to Peter and PeeDee.
(Gah – refreshed just before posting but still managed to cross with Jane!)
Very enjoyable! Thanks to Peter and PeeDee.
I agree about the unfortunate use of sty twice and until I solved 22 across thought we might also have had two SPs, but thankfully not.
As both sentences stand perfectly well on their own at 14 and 16 across, why the ellipsis? Am I missing something ?
@gslphotog – I don’t understand why setters add ellipses either. Most of the time they seem pointless to me.
@gsolphotog and PeeDee: The ellipses are necessary in this case because otherwise the clue to 16ac is a sentence without a subject. What or who has learnt the legend? Unlikely as it may seem, it can only be the animal in the previous clue. The ellipses are cerainly not pointless (pun intended) here.
I think what I am saying is that they seem pointless to me. Most of the other clues in this puzzle are fragments that don’t make a coherent sentence by themselves. Most clues are like this in general. What is special about those two?
Even complete sentences can have have either explicit subjects or implicit subjects, so can fragments. Unless the ellipses provides add some particular feature to the clues then they seem pointless to me.
In this particular case an “animal crossing ploughed up acre in credit with fixture in field” is pretty much nonsensical to start with, adding that it has learnt about legends on the way doesn’t make it any better.
The second part makes more sense without the ellipsis. It at least gives you the opportunity to imagine an implied subject where it could make sense, the ellipsis just ensures that it doesn’t.