So far as I can see this is the first time that I’ve blogged a Wire, who has often appeared on Saturdays, which I don’t do. But it was a pleasant experience: some very nice clues and no particular problems (I had them with 5dn, but that’s down to my lack of general knowledge) although it wasn’t easy: my time, which I take care not to divulge to anyone because it is so embarrassing, was a bit longer than usual, especially for a Wednesday.
Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
I bet there’s a Nina. Wire has done them before but the only thing I can see is HAKA across the middle unches. That’s surely not enough.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DREADNOUGHT | Didn’t open one book on deserted ship (11) |
| d (read nought) — if you didn’t open one book you read nothing, or nought — the Dreadnought was an early battleship and the word came to be used for any battleship | ||
| 9 | PAWPAWS | Twice seeing assistant with small fruit (7) |
| (PA w) twice, then s | ||
| 10 | THIRSTY | Eager in solving square root of 900 divided by s (7) |
| thir(s)ty — 30 is the square root of 900 — I wasn’t all that sure about eager = thirsty, but the dictionaries support it | ||
| 11 | UNWELCOME | Clue: ”Women possibly given a frosty reception‘ (9) |
| (Clue Women)* — (I won’t be so presumptuous as to edit the clue so that there isn’t a double quote followed by a single one) | ||
| 12 | LOACH | Catch British film maker (5) |
| 2 defs, the fish and Ken Loach | ||
| 13/23 | ET TU BRUTE | Speak right away about coarse remark from Senate floor (2,2,5) |
| (utte{r})rev. brute | ||
| 14 | RE-ELECTION | Following dance, nervously notice what Trump desires (2-8) |
| reel *(notice) | ||
| 16 | MOTORSPORT | Races model in rural land by harbour (10) |
| mo(T)ors port | ||
| 19 | SNUB | Rebuff introduction to Nemo aboard the Nautilus? (4) |
| s(N{emo})ub — the Nautilus was the submarine in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | ||
| 21 | OPERA | Trooper apparently securing work (5) |
| Hidden in TroOPER Apparently | ||
| 22 | SODA BREAD | Food section with zero fish on promotion (4,5) |
| s 0 dab re ad | ||
| 24 | SCIENCE | Catholic sits in silence taking Latin discipline (7) |
| s(C)i{L}ence | ||
| 25 | LOUTISH | Ill-mannered unionist among group is close to Taoiseach (7) |
| lo(U)t is {Taoiseac}h | ||
| 26 | SECOND-GUESS | Anticipate moment with visitors? There’s no time! (6-5) |
| second [moment] gues{t}s | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DOWN WITH THE KIDS | Call to depose piratical family on the street? (4,4,3,4) |
| “Down with the Kidds” — ref. Captain Kidd the pirate | ||
| 2 | Raise some unparliamentary correspondence (5) | |
| Hidden rev. in unparLIAMEntary | ||
| 3 | DISPOSE | Get rid of officer’s heartless gang (7) |
| DI’s po{s}se — but don’t you dispose of? In which case the definition is ‘get rid of’. To dispose isn’t so far as I can see to get rid of: as Collins says, it’s intransitive, followed by ‘of’. | ||
| 4 | OATMEAL | Powdered grain, egg and meat cooking inside of hall (7) |
| 0 (meat)* {h}al{l} — the first a is part of the anagram, not the second one: if it was the clue would be ‘… cooking inside inside of hall’ | ||
| 5 | GRIDLOCK | Gun full of rust, it did initially jam (8) |
| G(r{ust} i{t} d{id})lock — the Glock pistol was new to me | ||
| 6 | TASMANIAN DEVILS | Island vets maybe limiting craze for marsupials (9,6) |
| mania in (island vets)* | ||
| 7 | SPOUSE | Uplifting theatre activities consume partner (6) |
| (ops)rev. use — operations in the operating theatre | ||
| 8 | HYPHEN | Priest under extremely heavy layer makes short dash (6) |
| h{eav}y P hen | ||
| 15 | ARMAGNAC | Spirit of Apocalypse half-visible, heads of nations attend church (8) |
| Armag{eddon} n{ations} a{ttend} c{hurch} | ||
| 16 | MAOIST | 18D flyer perhaps circling over area in fog (6) |
| Since 18D is RED FLAG, a red flag flyer perhaps is a Maoist — it’s (o a)rev. in mist | ||
| 17 | POSTERN | Artwork above new rear entrance (7) |
| poster n | ||
| 18 | RED FLAG | Signal judge harbouring Dutch convict (3,4) |
| re(D)f lag — judge = referee as in football, as you’d expect from the Indy | ||
| 20 | BUDDHA | Teacher and doctor had to support American pal (6) |
| bud [American pal] *(had) | ||
| 23 | See 13 Across | |
Really enjoyable In 1ac ‘d’ for deserted was new to me, and remains unexplained, or am I missing something?
d = deserted is in Chambers, but not evidently Collins or the Oxfords. I don’t know what it means.
d. There is always an interesting topic on this website and perhaps this internet site gives an indication of the source of the abbreviation for deserter/d.
http://irishgarrisontowns.com/d-for-deserter/
I found this quite tough – only just finished having nibbled away at it all day. LOACH the fish was new to me.
Joyce only – Bert is away. I started this at around 10 last night when we normally look at the Indy puzzle.
I found it quite tough too – glad I wasn’t the only one Dormouse. I only had a few filled in before I gave up and had another stab at it this morning. Thankfully, my brain seemed to be more in gear but I needed to use the ‘check’ button quite a few times. I cheated for the last one ET TU so thanks John for the parsing.
Thanks to Wire as well.