A brisk workout from BRADMAN this Friday, thanks to whom for dishing out a good challenge for solvers making the move up from beginners to the next level (intermediates??).
FF: 8 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | MOPEDS | Bikes of Rockers’ enemies outside gym (6) |
| MODS (rocker’s enemies) outside PE (gym) | ||
| 4 | SHAMED | The old woman about to be put back in hut, disgraced (6) |
| AM (old woman = MA , reversed) in SHED (hut) | ||
| 8 | TURN OFF | Performance cancelled? It’s a bore (4-3) |
| TURN (performance) OFF (cancelled) | ||
| 9 | PLANETS | Worlds beyond earth seen in maps (7) |
| semi &lit; ET (ExtraTerrestrial, beyond earth) in PLANS (maps). WORLDS as a def stands by itself but i felt it was too elegant a clue to not include “beyond earth” | ||
| 11 | HECTICALLY | The guy caught twitching, friend in a frenzy (10) |
| HE (the guy) C (caught) TIC (twitching) ALLY (friend) | ||
| 12 | RUIN | Bein’ sorry about building that’s disintegrated? (4) |
| RUINg (being sorry, equivalent of BEIN’) | ||
| 13 | FARCE | Mug gets to hug lover finally in comedy (5) |
| FACE (mug) around R (loveR, finally) | ||
| 14 | MAGDALEN | College managed with difficulty to accommodate learner (8) |
| MANAGED* containing L (learner) | ||
| 16 | SLIGHTED | Insignificant journalist disregarded (8) |
| SLIGHT (insignificant) ED (journalist) | ||
| 18 | NONET | In Barbican, one terrific piece of music (5) |
| hidden in “..barbicaN ONE Terrific..” | ||
| 20 | CALF | Man’s neighbour is a little beast (4) |
| cryptic def; referring to the island calf of man, off the coast of the isle of man | ||
| 21 | POWERHOUSE | How’s Europe going wrong? Energetic person provides the answer (10) |
| HOW’S EUROPE* | ||
| 23 | JAVELIN | Field event broadcast live in early part of the year (7) |
| LIVE* in JAN (early part of year) | ||
| 24 | ALGIERS | Capital city is large, sprawling (7) |
| IS LARGE* | ||
| 25 | TASKED | After short time begged to be given a job (6) |
| T (time, short) ASKED (begged) | ||
| 26 | LYCHEE | What’s fruity? Bit of smelly cheese (6) |
| hidden in “..smelLY CHEEse” | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | MOUSE | One sitting by computer has to think about nothing (5) |
| MUSE (think) around O (nothing) | ||
| 2 | PUNSTER | Joker is better when keeping sarcasm to a minimum (7) |
| PUNTER (better) containing S (Sarcasm, minimum of) | ||
| 3 | DEFICIENT | Expert holding one terribly nice to be inadequate (9) |
| DEFT (expert) containing [ I (one) NICE* ] | ||
| 5 | HOLLY | Prickly type, completely putting wife off (5) |
| wHOLLY (completely, without W – wife) | ||
| 6 | MINERVA | Exceptional man I revere, not half, as source of wisdom (7) |
| MAN I REVere (not half)* | ||
| 7 | DETRIMENT | Blokes taken in by rubbish America put out that shows prejudice (9) |
| MEN (blokes) in DETRITus (rubbish, without US – america) – i believe the parsing is correct but not sure how the definition lines up | ||
| 10 | CLIMB DOWN | Conservative, dim and blown apart, to become more humble (5,4) |
| C (conservative) [ DIM BLOWN ]* | ||
| 13 | FELLAPART | Bloke given role went to pieces (9) |
| FELLA (bloke) PART (role) – should have been clued as 4,5 instead of 9 | ||
| 15 | GENERALLY | Energy running out restricts everyone, as a rule (9) |
| ENERGY* containing ALL (everyone) | ||
| 17 | GAFFERS | Bosses will make blunders? About right! (7) |
| GAFFES (blunders) around R (right) | ||
| 19 | NEOLITH | The lion represented in old piece of stone (7) |
| THE LION* | ||
| 21 | PAINE | Revolutionary bringing agony to English (5) |
| PAIN (agony) E (english) | ||
| 22 | SERVE | Wait as substitute about to go out (5) |
| reSERVE (substitute, without RE – about) | ||
*anagram
Re 13d: 17d!
Thanks to Turbolegs and Bradman
13 down caused a raised eyebrow indeed! Otherwise a speedy solve for me. I do wonder if some of the GK may be a tad on the recherche side eg. Calf (of Man( and (Tom) Paine. But lots of fun as usual from the Don.
I thought for a moment we had a nasty neologism at 13down, them I read the blog and my fears were assuaged. Thanks to all.
As usual, an enjoyable fun run from the Don. Thanks, Turbolegs and Bradman
Re 21d Thomas Paine certainly diid bring “agony to English”! Thanks to both.
Thanks both.
For 18a I had CANON which is equally valid. I was sure it was correct and so I could not finish the crossword.
Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs. I had the same problem with canon-NONET (and the middle N worked with NEOLITH) but getting GENERALLY resolved that issue. FELLAPART was my LOI because of the numeration. I had to check CALF as an island, but was happy to see in 3d “expert” = “deft” rather than ace or pro.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Enjoyable and slightly easier than usual puzzle from the Don here. A couple of interesting definitions- ‘beyond earth= ET, ‘Man’s neighbour’= CALF (which sent me scurrying to the atlas), ‘what’s fruity’ = LYCHEE and ‘one sitting by computer’= MOUSE.
Hadn’t heard of Thomas PAINE. MAGDLADEN was the last one in.