[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
A near pangram from Gurney this morning.
I was almost certain this was a pangram, but one final check before writing this blog revealed that there was no W in the completed grid. It felt while solving that there were a lot of anagrams, but there were only four full anagrams (funny how your mind plays tricks on you like that – or maybe it's just me?). Anyway, a fun solve.
Thanks, Gurney.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | RANDOM |
Chance currency award (6)
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RAND ("currency" of South Africa) + OM (Order of Merit, so "award") |
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| 5 | SKIPJACK |
Ignore sailor, one in the water? (8)
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SKIP ("ignore") + JACK ("sailor") |
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| 9 | CRUSADER |
Extremely clear with country, the German campaigner (8)
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[extremely] C(lea)R with USA ("country") + DER ("the" in "German") |
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| 10 | TALMUD |
Source of laws cheers, lifts me up, didactic, first of all (6)
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TA (thanks, so "cheers") + L(ifts) M(e) U(p) D(idactic) [first of all] |
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| 11 | UNREAL |
Lacking heart, unexpectedly neutral — hard to believe (6)
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*(neural) [anag:unexpectedly] where NEURAL is NEU(t)RAL [lacking heart] |
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| 12 | EPONYMIC |
Referring to name of equine, pony, Michael keeps (8)
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Hidden in [keeps] "equinE PONY MIChael" |
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| 14 | ARISTOCRATIC |
Satiric actor curiously upper-class (12)
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*(satiric actor) [anag:curiously] |
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| 18 | RECOGNIZANCE |
Bad gin craze once that may have financial consequences (12)
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*(gin craze once) [anag:bad] |
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| 22 | VIRTUOUS |
Six tour for a change with our group — good (8)
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VI ("six" in Roman numerals) + *(tour) [anag:for a change] with US ("our group") |
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| 25 | OLD BOY |
Describing network needing new blood? Yes, just a bit (3,3)
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*(blood) [anag:new] + [just a bit] of Y(es) |
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| 26 | ACCENT |
Mark of stress? (6)
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Cryptic definition |
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| 27 | FLATTERY |
Female, second of two, with ultimately smarmy sweet-talk (8)
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F (female) + LATTER ("second of two") with [ultimately] (smarm)Y |
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| 28 | CEREBRAL |
Breakfast item British scoffed, using head? (8)
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CEREAL ("breakfast item") scoffed Br. (British) |
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| 29 | TILTED |
Fought, having noble name, after central twist (6)
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TI(tl)ED ("having noble name") with its centre twisted becomes TI(LT)ED |
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| DOWN | ||
| 2 | ARRANT |
A right tirade, unmitigated (6)
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A + R (right) + RANT ("turade") |
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| 3 | DESPERADO |
Criminal deeds on regular basis agent brought up — bother! (9)
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D(e)E(d)S [on regular basis] + <=REP ("agent", brought up) + ADO ("bother") |
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| 4 | MEDALLION |
Ornament old menial recollected (9)
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*(old menial) [anag:recollected] |
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| 5 | SURFEIT |
Too much foam, finally subdue it (7)
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SURF ("foam") + [finally] (subdu)E + IT |
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| 6 | INTRO |
Lodging in cabin, troubled start (5)
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Hidden [lodging] in "cabIN TROubled" |
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| 7 | JOLLY |
Very happy (5)
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Double definition |
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| 8 | CRUCIFIX |
Important dilemma as a learner’s dropped religious item (8)
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A L (learner) dropped from CRUCI(al) FIX ("important dilemma") |
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| 13 | NOR |
Neither’s frequent close companion, not half normal (3)
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[not half] NOR(mal) |
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| 15 | CONSONANT |
Letter is in agreement (9)
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Double definition |
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| 16 | ANECDOTAL |
Act One — lad in play referring to oral accounts (9)
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*(act one lad) [anag:in play] |
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| 17 | MEDIOCRE |
Doctor, bringing in oxygen, referring to pedestrian (8)
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MEDIC ("doctor") bringing in O (oxgen) + RE ("referring to") |
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| 19 | GNU |
Animal seen in falling numbers (3)
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[seen] in "fallinG NUmbers" |
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| 20 | ZESTFUL |
Relaxing, getting new start, invigorating (7)
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(r)ESTFUL ("relaxing") with Z instead of R [a new start] becomes Z-ESTFUL |
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| 21 | COURSE |
Plan progress path (6)
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Triple definition |
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| 23 | THEME |
Note covering border idea to be expanded (5)
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TE ("note") covering HEM ("border") |
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| 24 | OTTER |
Swimmer going too far? I’m not sure (5)
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OTT (over the top, so "going too far") + ER ("I'm not sure") |
Solid enough but suffers by comparison with yesterday’s classic.
Isn’t the pangram missing a q as well as a w?
I made heavy weather of this on my first pass but a reset after lunch did the trick with everything solved and parsed eventually. Liked SURFEIT, TILTED and SKIPJACK.
Thanks to Gurney and Loonapick.
Quite challenging. Didn’t get TILTED. I wonder why “the German” is always the masculine “der”, and never the other four (die, das, den, dem). Curious.