A (mostly) gentle prize puzzle from Tramp this week. Thank you Tramp.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SEDUCE | Charm sweetheart briefly during date (6) |
| DUCk (sweetheart, briefly) inside SEE (date) | ||
| 4 | SPATULAS | They might mix in resort with short greeting on return (8) |
| SPA (resort) with SALUTe (greeting, short) reversed (on return) | ||
| 9 | CASINO | Where some might deal cocaine to a crime ring (6) |
| C (cocaine) then A SIN (crime) O (ring) | ||
| 10 | FLAMENCO | Dance fan second to last in Strictly Come Dancing (8) |
| anagram (dancing) of FAN with strictLy (second to last letter) and COME | ||
| 11 | PAVEMENT ARTIST | One might create a scene in public, as VIP treatment inept (8,6) |
| anagram (inept) of AS VIP TREATMENT | ||
| 13 | WIRETAPPER | Bugger! Burst water pipe, right? (10) |
| anagram (burst) of WATER PIPE and R (right) | ||
| 14 | AGRA | Indian place put starter of rice in oven (4) |
| Rice (starting letter of) inside AGA (oven) | ||
| 16 | SEND | Forward‘s head to score goal (4) |
| Score (first letter, head) then END (goal) | ||
| 18 | ECOLOGICAL | Company after energy that’s natural and non-polluting (10) |
| CO (company) following E (energy) then (that has) LOGICAL (natural) | ||
| 21 | COMMON OR GARDEN | Kinky man, Roger, with condom that’s standard (6,2,6) |
| anagram (kinky) of MAN ROGER with CONDOM | ||
| 23 | AEROSTAT | One found in hanging basket, a rose sprayed with cheap stuff (8) |
| anagram (sprayed) of A ROSE then TAT (cheap stuff) – a balloonist | ||
| 24 | STEAMY | Sexy old girlfriend going for outfit that’s blue (6) |
| SexY missing EX (old girlfriend) replaced by (going for) TEAM (outfit) – this clue took me longer than the rest of the puzzle combined | ||
| 25 | KILLDEER | What poacher might do to get American bird (8) |
| KILL DEER (what poacher might do) | ||
| 26 | SMALLS | Underwear stores empty around shopping centre (6) |
| StoreS (no inner letters, empty) contains (around) MALL (shopping centre) | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SOCK | Item of clothing accordingly getting designer label (4) |
| SO (accordingly) with CK (Calvin Klein, designer label) | ||
| 2 | DESPAIR | Having no love makes couple give up hope (7) |
| DoES (makes) PAIR (couple) missing O (love) | ||
| 3 | CONTESTS | Questions to do before exams (8) |
| CON (to do, cheat) then TESTS (exams) | ||
| 5 | PULL THE PLUG | Stop and help crazy pair of Yanks outside (4,3,4) |
| anagram (crazy) of HELP inside (with…outside) PULL and TUG (yank, twice) | ||
| 6 | TIMERS | Watches money invested in banks (6) |
| M (money) inside TIERS (banks) | ||
| 7 | LINKING | Connecting line doing tattoo (7) |
| L (line) and INKING (doing tattoo) | ||
| 8 | SHORTFALL | Deficit quick to come down (9) |
| SHORT (quick) FALL (to come down) | ||
| 12 | EXPECTORATE | Bank on no charge to cough up (11) |
| EXPECT (bank on) O RATE (zero rate, no charge) | ||
| 13 | WISECRACK | Old comedian to attempt joke (9) |
| WISE (Ernie Wise, old comedian) then CRACK (attempt) | ||
| 15 | AGERATUM | Get on grass, let me see plant (8) |
| AGE (get on) RAT (grass, informer) and UM (let me see) | ||
| 17 | NUMERAL | One turning up on time wearing model’s clothes revealing figure (7) |
| UN (one) reversed (turning up) on ERA (time) inside (wearing) ModeL (outer letters, clothes) | ||
| 19 | CUE BALL | White sign over bouncer (3,4) |
| CUE (sign) on BALL (something that bounces) | ||
| 20 | DOUSED | River running through Germany twice flooded (6) |
| OUSE (river) inside (running through) D D (Germany, twice) | ||
| 22 | BYES | Bowled OK, conceding runs (4) |
| B (bowled) YES (OK) | ||
Thanks for the blog PeeDee and it was definitely a gentle offering for a prize and
more straightforward than those in the week before. I singled (doubled?) out WIRETAPPER and PULL THE PLUG. Thanks also to Tramp for the puzzle.
Thanks PeeDee. Gentle is the right word I’m sure. The NW corner held me up for no good reason and I had the same battle as you with 24a. Not sure about 23a, I think an aerostat is the lighter than air vehicle, not the person or thing so conveyed.
In 5d is the second yank not TUG?
Yes, I agree – mostly gentle, but I took almost as long over 24a as you did. I didn’t know AEROSTAT or AGERATUM but the wordplay and crossers got me there eventually.
For 5d I think the two Yanks are PULL and TUG (not LUG). A very clever clue.
Thanks Tramp and PeeDee.
Biggles – you beat me to it!
Yep, pleasant stroll for a prize, albeit with a couple of nhos, viz killdeer and ageratum, both doable per instruction. Ditto aerostat, which rang only a faint bell. Soms nice succinctness, eg 16ac. Thanks both.
Yes, definitely tug or the letters don’t add up.
The only thing of note in my notes was the observation that “wearing model’s clothes” (17d) and “stores empty around” (26a) are ultimately exactly the same device, using quite different expressions.
…some nice…
My favourites were PULL THE PLUG + STEAMY (loi).
New for me was KILLDEER.
Thanks Tramp and PeeDee
Thanks to Tramp and PeeDee. I could not parse STEAMY but managed to finish when I finally got BYES.
I always hate to say this as I am very aware that pride cometh before a fall and all that, but I did write “Easy for a Prize?” on this last Saturday.
Nevertheless thank you to Tramp. I did need help with some parses such as the “salut/e” part of SPATULAS at 4a, SEND at 16a, and 24 STEAMY (as aforementioned by acd@9), so thanks also to PeeDee for a helpful blog.
Like grantinfreo@5, I also noted KILLDEER 25a as U/F, (mentioned also by michelle@8), as well as AGERATUM at 15d, but using quirister@3’s methods, I also eventually worked them out.
Faves were 10a FLAMENCO, 18a ECOLOGICAL, 21a COMMON OR GARDEN and 5d PULL THE PLUG, the latter again echoing michelle’s post@8 – and WhiteKing’s@1. So there was lots to like.
Like others, I didn’t know AEROSTAT, KILLDEER or AGERATUM, but got there in the end. I see Chambers gives ‘a balloonist’ as its second meaning for AEROSTAT (the first being the balloon itself), but that sounds odd to me. All very enjoyable; thanks Tramp and PeeDee.
A fairly straightforward but enjoyable solve with plenty of well written clues and no major quibbles.
Favourites were WIRETAPPER (bugger – excellent!), PULL THE PLUG, and (despite it taking a while to work out the parsings) NUMERAL and STEAMY.
One minor quibble – in 22 dn, I would have preferred ‘runs conceded’.
Thanks to Tramp and to PeeDee.
Good puzzle, about the right degree of difficulty, with the interesting new words identified by grantinfreo@5 and others. One minor point about 17d – does UN mean ONE? Or should there have been some indication that we need to look to French, eg “Nice one turning up ….”?
Thanks from me also to Tramp and PeeDee.
To sjshart@13
I was thinking exactly the same way about ‘un’. But then I thought un could be one as in:
I’ve caught a big’un.
[J in A: Just to let you know I’ve added a late comment to yours on yesterday’s blog.]
Thank you Tramp indeed a nice gentle puzzle with some top clueing. For some ridiculous reason I stared at 24 for ages before the penny finally dropped. Favourite was 23 – clever surface ? Loved 5, never heard of a Killdeer. And thank you PeeDee for the blog.
Not sure where that ? Came from – it was supposed to be a smiley face
[Thanks Pedro@15. I just asked the site to pass on my email address to you so that I could send you a photo, and ask in return that you might be kind enough to send a picture of the Commando. Warm regards, JinA.]
Thanks to those who spotted the LUG/TUG error. Fixed now.
Yes, mostly gentle, but all precisely clued with smooth surfaces. Like others, I took a long time to parse STEAMY, mostly because I was going at it from the wrong end, assuming that ‘sexy’ was the definition. It was quite a head-slap moment when the penny dropped.
Thanks to Tramp and PeeDee.
An enjoyable solve with some clever wordplay and misdirection. Even AEROSTAT and KILLDEER were gettable from the clue though new to me. The first example I was given when learning what a pun is was “A gentleman who would expectorate on the carpet cannot expect to rate as a gentleman” and I’ve never forgotten it though I half wish I had.
Thanks to Tramp and PeeDeec
All been said but I did rather enjoy this and I often struggle with this setter.
Thanks Tramp.
Very enjoyable. Particularly liked 10a FLAMENCO; 16a,SEND; 21a, COMMON OR GARDEN; 3d CONTESTS (took me quite a while) and 4d, WISECRACKS.
Didn’t think of that meaning of “bugger” in 13a and resorted to word search to get it in the end.
I think I’d seen the word AEROSTAT, but didn’t know what it meant and KILLDEER and AGERATUM were completely unknown to me, but all very clearly clued, so gettable from wordplay.
@PeeDee, a couple of points from the parsing:
4a SPATULAS didn’t explicitly mention the reversal of SALUT(e) (but obvious, I suppose).
In 26a, the containment indicator is “around”, not “stores”.(That supplies the S’s, as you said.)
Thank you Tony for taking the time to point out the typo and omission in the blog. It is good to get it all 100% right and I never quite manage to get all the way there on my own. Fixed now.
Belated thanks to setter and blogger, and we too found STEAMY way harder to parse than the rest. Penny dropped 2 days after we had completed otherwise: much time spent trying to get to the solution from ‘steady’ as the old girlfriend . . .
Np, PeeDee. Thanks for the blog.
Detested 3d, even though PeeDee’s parsing is more precise than mine. It’s good to study (con) before exams (tests). And questions often form a contest.