The puzzle can be found here.
Hello everyone. I hope you are enjoying the Easter weekend. My Tyrus blogs always seem to start with me saying that I found the puzzle easier than usual for this setter. Perhaps that’s partly down to expectations, but again it took me a fairly standard kind of time to fill the grid. Some of the parsing did take some untangling, but I think I have it all now.
There is a bit of theme in the clues, tying in with a perimeter nina which I have highlighted in the grid below. The theme fitted in nicely (well, fortunately not too nicely) with my favourite clue in the Times Jumbo I’ve just blogged (43d here).
I enjoyed it all and can’t really choose a favourite, but will just mention 24a, the very old-fashioned royal interloper in 3d and the simple but perfect 20d. Thanks Tyrus!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics, explicit [deletions] are in square brackets, and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
Across
8a Note Jose Carreras read out? (6)
TENNER
A homophone of (… read out) TENOR (Jose Carreras?)
9a Americans drinking crap beer regularly – they’ve no right to take over (8)
USURPERS
US US (Americans) around (drinking) cRaP bEeR regularly
10a He’s back in stir – missus finally moves to a new location (8)
REHOUSES
HE is reversed (back) in ROUSE (stir) + missuS finally
11a Wait to move to a new country (6)
TAIWAN
WAIT anagrammed (to move) + A + N (new)
12a Turn to seemingly good American novel (6)
UTOPIA
U (turn) + TO + PI (seemingly good) + A (American)
13a Sailor at university overcome by gas (8)
ARGONAUT
AT with U (university) inside (overcome) next to (by) ARGON (gas).
I can’t quite understand A B overcome to mean B overcome by A
15a Engineer wows leaders but they’re not to be trusted (6,5)
WEASEL WORDS
Make an anagram of (engineer) WOWS LEADERS
19a Plants are fine around wet areas, gardener ultimately admitted (3,5)
OAK FERNS
A (are) with OK (fine) around + FENS (wet areas) with gardeneR ultimately inserted (admitted)
21a Left with lots of women round big city neighbourhood (6)
HARLEM
L (left) with HAREM (lots of woman) surrounding (round)
22a Set in middle of the forest (6)
HARDEN
The middle of tHe + ARDEN (forest)
24a Head abroad taking hot-blooded type, naked, as partner (8)
TEAMMATE
TÊTE (head abroad) around (taking) mAMMAl (hot-blooded type) without outer letters (naked)
25a Stand a chance covering one note over with another (8)
TOLERATE
A LOT (chance) covering RE (one note) reversed (over) + TE (another [note])
26a Grace shown by Martha and Liam getting together (6)
THALIA
The answer is inside (shown by) Martha and Liam getting together like so: MarTHA LIAm
Down
1d Copies of Spare? They’re heartlessly abandoned (7)
REPEATS
An anagram of (… abandoned) SPARE and They’rE without the middle letters (heartlessly)
2d Separate publisher engaged by one of the family (8)
UNCOUPLE
OUP (publisher) inside (engaged by) UNCLE (one of the family)
3d Nancy’s very old-fashioned royal interloper (10)
TRESPASSER
French for (Nancy’s) TRÈS PASSÉ (very old-fashioned) + R (royal)
4d H and M in America are drones (4)
HUMS
H followed by M in US (America)
5d Clean round South of France town (4)
DUST
In rotation (round), SUD (South of France) + T (town).
I nearly queried this, but T = town is in the ODE:
abbreviation [in combination] (in names of sports clubs) Town: Mansfield T.
6d Alternative belief’s mistake essentially – not happening (6)
OPTION
OP[in]ION (belief) which has the middle letter of (… essentially) misTake instead of (not) IN (happening)
7d About to turn over swine – I’m not sure that could be literal (7)
ERRATUM
RE (about) going upwards (to turn over) + RAT (swine) + UM (I’m not sure)
13d King’s lost child in city abroad (5)
ARLES
[ch]ARLES (King) has lost CH (child)
14d Turn party round? Ex-PM describing Labour leader as toast (4,6)
GOOD HEALTH
GO (turn) + DO (party) reversed (round) + HEATH (ex-PM) around (describing) the first letter (leader) of Labour
16d Mark with date daringly showing leg but not breast (4,4)
DARK MEAT
MARK with DATE anagrammed (daringly)
17d Hurt roughly tailless stork (7)
MARABOU
MAR (hurt) + ABOUt (roughly) without the last letter (tailless)
18d In crate? Wrong – in the bag (7)
CERTAIN
An anagram of (… wrong) IN CRATE
20d Following stranger for food (6)
FODDER
F (following) + ODDER (stranger)
23d Ordered a number to go out and about (4)
NEAT
A with TEN (number) to go around it in reverse (to go out and about)
24d Box, maybe one from Hebridean island (4)
TREE
I (one) is taken from T[i]REE (Hebridean island)
I thought I was doing better than expected , too, but then ground to a halt. The grid was great for the Nina but not helpful to a struggling solver. A bit of a Curate’s Easter Egg for me. Thanks, both.
Liked ARGONAUT, OAK FERNS, TEAMMATE and NEAT.
Thanks, Tyrus and Kitty!
(Just to let you know I’m off out now, so won’t be able to make any replies or corrections until this evening. Hopefully there won’t be any of the latter!)
At 19A I put unparsed ‘fan ferns’ (I know there are such things) as I didn’t know ‘oak ferns’ – must try to remember in future that an are is a unit of area. I couldn’t quite understand 13A either. The tenner/tenor device has been somewhat overused of late. Otherwise less tricky than usual for Tyrus, for which thanks, also to Kitty.
Outstanding puzzle but very difficult. Thanks to Tyrus.
I justified 13a to myself as ‘at, University (having been) overcome’ etc.
Failed to parse OPTION and didn’t get MARABOU, though it seems obvious now.
Thanks Tyrus and Kitty.
Thanks kitty and Tyrus. Guessing the perimeter certainly helped.
Many thanks to Kitty for an excellent blog and to others who took the trouble to comment.
I’m a bit late here but I gather the quote was from Oprah
Joy to get a Vlad and a Tyrus in the same week.
Thanks JT