This was a high-quality puzzle from a consistently good setter.
There was no obvious theme but the puzzle was a pangram. That knowledge did slightly hold me up when I failed to notice the Q had already been used in 14D and convinced myself for a while that 3D must have a Q in it. My favourite clue was 4A both for the mischievous meaning and the very well disguised anagram.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BEHEST |
Workers accepting hard taskmaster’s initial request (6)
|
| (Bees(=worker bees) around h{ard}) + t[askmaster] | ||
| 4 | GOSHAWKS |
German rogue asks how to get birds! (8)
|
| G{erman} + (asks how)* | ||
| 9 | EXODUS |
Book flight (6)
|
| DD referring to the Biblical book | ||
| 10 | DEPLOYED |
Set out scheme in document (8)
|
| Ploy(=scheme) in deed(=document) | ||
| 12 | COWARDLY |
Yellow rope encircling wide area by empty lay-by (8)
|
| (Cord around w{ide} a{rea}) + l[ay b]y | ||
| 13 | ABLAZE |
Airline lying about lounge being on fire (6)
|
| BA<(=British Airways) + laze(=lounge) | ||
| 15 | EONS |
Heroines oddly overlooked for long periods (4)
|
| Even letters (odd letters overlooked) of heroines | ||
| 16 | STAUNCH |
Resolute, revolutionary fanatics besieging a church (7)
|
| (Nuts< around a) + ch{urch} | ||
| 20 | MINERVA |
Pit worker against absolute goddess (7)
|
| Miner(=pit worker) + v(=against,versus) + a{bsolute} | ||
| 21 | PAIR |
Setter adopted by average couple (4)
|
| I(=the setter) in par(=average in golf) | ||
| 25 | AROUSE |
Turn on extremely neglected fairground ride (6)
|
| [C]arouse[l] | ||
| 26 | GRIPPING |
Compulsive clenching of fists? (8)
|
| DD | ||
| 28 | NUMINOUS |
Mysterious male trapped in perverse union with American (8)
|
| (M{ale} in union*) + US(=American) | ||
| 29 | COLUMN |
Company taking on graduates exposed in newspaper piece (6)
|
| Co{mpany} + [a]lumn[i] | ||
| 30 | MANDRAKE |
Plant an English explorer found on Malta (8)
|
| M{alta} on an Drake(=English explorer) | ||
| 31 | STOLES |
Ceremonial garments pinched duchess’s rear (6)
|
| Stole(=pinched) + [duches]s | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BREECHES |
Trees around river providing places to load barrels (8)
|
| Beeches(=Beech trees) around r{iver}. The def refers to breech-loading rifles. | ||
| 2 | HOODWINK |
Sucker punch clinches essentially humdrum victory (8)
|
| Hook(=a punch in boxing) around ([hum]d[rum] win) | ||
| 3 | SCURRY |
Tip of Sioux Indian’s dart (6)
|
| S[ioux] + curry(=Indian meal) | ||
| 5 | OPEN |
Frank is taken aback by online post (4)
|
| Hidden, reversed in “online post” | ||
| 6 | HOLD BACK |
Restrain impudent journalist for Spooner (4,4)
|
| Spoonerism of “bold hack” | ||
| 7 | WAYLAY |
Welsh army heartlessly set ambush (6)
|
| W{elsh} + a[rm]y + lay(=set e.g. set/lay a trap) | ||
| 8 | SUDDEN |
Unexpected sound regularly upset Homer’s neighbour (6)
|
| Odd letters of sound + Ned<, referring to the character Ned Flanders from The Simpsons. | ||
| 11 | FLATTER |
Comparatively drab fawn (7)
|
| DD (fawn in the sense of fawning over something) | ||
| 14 | QUIVERS |
Squire worried about lover’s heart tremors (7)
|
| Squire* around [lo]v[er] | ||
| 17 | PILSENER |
Detective left clairvoyant nursing national beer (8)
|
| PI(=private investigator) + l{eft} + (seer(=clairvoyant) around n{ational}) | ||
| 18 | HABITUAL |
Henry maintains somewhat upper-class routine (8)
|
| Hal(=familiar form of Henry) around (a bit U(=upper class in U/Non-U sense)) | ||
| 19 | BRIGANDS |
Desperados holding area of ship and last of supplies (8)
|
| Brig(=area of ship) + and + [supplie]s | ||
| 22 | MAGNUM |
On motorway, football team consumes gallon bottle (6)
|
| (Man U(=football team) around g{allon}) on m{otorway} | ||
| 23 | ZOOM IN |
Narrow focus of animal sanctuary – mostly mustelidae (4,2)
|
| Zoo(=animal sanctuary) + min[k] | ||
| 24 | SPROUT |
Develop dilapidated US port (6)
|
| (US port)* | ||
| 27 | JUNK |
Oriental vessel graces Cajun kitchen (4)
|
| Hidden in Cajun kitchen |
There’s a misplaced opening bracket in 28a.
GOSHAWKS was my pick. I guessed PILSENER was an alternative to PILSNER that I hadn’t seen and bunged in BREECHES from the wordplay. Not sure if I’ve seen NUMINOUS before but it seemed to ring a bell.
I think the BRIG is the ‘holding area of ship’ in BRIGANDS?
Loved 4a GOSHAWKS! 😀 — and my LOi 5d OPEN…
…Could it be anything other than a hidden reverse? Nope. {No edit time today, I see.}
Liked ABLAZE, COLUMN, BREECHES, HABITUAL and ZOOM IN.
Thanks Italicus and NealH.
Took ‘holding area of ship’ as BRIG (Agree with PM@2).
Agree, NeilH, lovely surfaces, reminded me of Nutmeg jn the G (RIP). And neat wordplay — book flight, play in deed, m an Drake, etc, — not hard , but smooth. Thanks Italicus + Neil.
Great stuff. I wasted a lot of time trying to find a variant of OMINOUS I was happy with before NUMINOUS. Liked HOODWINK and BRIGANDS.
Helped by expecting a pangram for EXODUS. Thanks Italicus and Neal
Hi all, many thanks for the kind review and generous comments. Just wanted to confirm that my intention for BRIGANDS was as Postmark@2 parsed it.
Thanks Neal and italicus, the pangram appearing helped a bit as I suspected really on. Good start to the week
What a smooth puzzle! Talking of G setters, this reminded me of Arachne, with its silky smooth surfaces.
Loved GOSHAWKS, SCURRY and JUNK. Took me a while to parse OPEN… but as per FrankieG, when all else fails, look for a hidden. And this one was very well hidden! (Or at least I wasn’t on the lookout for it, as I’d already got JUNK, pangram-alerter and FOI as per my habit if bagging the short words first.)
Thanks both
*of
Oh, and to top it off, the grid has full rotational symmetry. It all made for a clean feel.
It’s also a pangram!