VELIA eases us into the week…
Nothing too taxing for a Monday here… which is all for the best as I feel somewhat under the weather!
HEDGE FUNDS and WEB PAGES maybe a bit flappy, but otherwise solid stuff. I liked NORWEGIAN, DEFINITION, MICHELLE and EQUINE/ENDORSE in particular.
Thanks VELIA!
1 Fashions for Harry (6)
STYLES
4 Nice girl’s nightmare: being eaten by vermin (8)
MICHELLE
HELL (nightmare) being eaten by MICE (vermin)
10 Arouse, making sure rights etc sorted (9)
RESURRECT
(SURE RR (rights) ETC)* (*sorted)
11 Beginning of damage engulfing university (5)
DEBUT
DEBT (damage) engulfing U (university)
12 Chief Justice Knox became empathetic at last (4)
EXEC
[justic]E [kno]X [became]E [empatheti]C (at last)
13 Work may be seen with duplicate password (4,6)
OPEN SESAME
OP (work) + (SEEN)* (*may be) with SAME (duplicate)
15 Bumpy road UN left in a poor state (7)
NODULAR
(ROAD UN L (left))* (*in a poor state)
16 Horse pills? Take one of five (6)
EQUINE
EE (pills) take QUIN (one of five)
19 Token instrument can be heard (6)
SYMBOL
“cymbal” (instrument, “can be heard”)
21 Finish 16, head off back (7)
ENDORSE
END (finish) + [h]ORSE (16, head off)
23 Sharpness found in all of these clues (10)
DEFINITION
25 Some people have back support (4)
HELP
([peo]PLE H[ave] (some))< (<back)
27 Not totally mean pain (5)
STING
(STING[y] (mean)) (not totally)
28 Cut end; somehow ignore cut end (9)
TAILORING
TAIL (end) + (IGNOR[e] (cut end))* (*somehow)
29 She left Tallahassee dazed and confused (3,2,3)
ALL AT SEA
(TALLA[h]AS[se]E (she left)) (dazed)
30 Made monk kiss unclothed good looker (6)
ADONIS
[m]AD[e] [m]ON[k] [k]IS[s] (unclothed)
1 Rank of material worker (8)
SERGEANT
SERGE (material) + ANT (worker)
2 Okay, ate dry crackers about 24 hours ago (9)
YESTERDAY
YES (ok) + (ATE DRY)* (*crackers)
3 Jane from Ireland on the blower (4)
EYRE
“Eire” (Ireland, “on the blower”)
5 Home may be perfect and strong (7)
INTENSE
IN (home) + TENSE (may be perfect)
6 Investments for impoverished topiarists? (5,5)
HEDGE FUNDS
7 Sign from Willi Brandt (5)
LIBRA
8 One of two theories not so daft (6)
EITHER
(THE[o]RIE[s] (not so))* (*daft)
9 Pocketing pennies, look for spice (6)
PEPPER
PEER (look for) pocketing PP (pennies)
14 Irresponsible to take the red- eye (3-2-5)
FLY-BY-NIGHT
17 Ibsen or Grieg possibly wearing no pants! (9)
NORWEGIAN
18 Online material of interest to spiders? (3,5)
WEB PAGES
20 Tie and belt buckle – stop interfering! (3,2,2)
LET IT BE
(TIE and BELT)* (*buckle)
21 Unusual quote about cattle coming up (6)
EXOTIC
(CITE (quote) about OX (cattle))< (<coming up)
22 Poetry on South African port (6)
ODESSA
ODES (poetry) on SA (South African)
24 Luxury end of Gulf Stream (5)
FRILL
[gul]F (end of) + RILL (stream)
26 Forest club (4)
WOOD
I wondered why Michelle needed to be French, then some of the other answers showed me the way (down the long and winding road).
All my troubles seemed so far away when I finished this in short order, held up only by my own handwriting, where the 3rd letter of 16A looked like a V. I wasn’t sure what “impoverished” was doing in 6D. Any ideas?
Excellent crossword with a lot of Beatles in it.
Yesterday, Sergeant Pepper, Norwegian Wood, Let It Be, Michelle, Help.
I’m on a roll with spotting themes – it can’t possibly last
Thanks to Velia and Teacow – get well soon
John@2 if a topiarist was impoverished, he might be in need of funds for his hedge!
For smut, 30ac is a classic. Preferred this to Vulcan’s.
Enjoyed this one, minor quibble I’m just not sure Eyre and Eire sound alike; Eyre = “air” and Eire = “Air + ra”
At least that is how it was pronounced in N Ireland when I was growing up
Of course it may have been Ian Paisley trying his best to make it sound like error
Enjoyed this quite a bit. Particularly liked the parsing for both 21a and 21d. Can’t believe I missed the theme despite knowing all those tunes quite well. Thanks Velia and Teacow.
Thanks Velia and Teacow
Didn’t find it as easy as most of the rest of you for some reason. Looking back over it not quite understand why now. Even though LET IT BE brought to mind the Beatles song, it didn’t dawn on me that there were a great many others shining out there invisibly !!
Kinda liked the loosely defined class at 6d, 17d and especially 18d.
Finished with that WEB PAGES (when it suddenly dawned on me) and the reversed HELP (even though I spent a lot of times looking for the hidden word).