A fun challenge from NEO!
FF: 9 DD: 8
Happy Easter / Holidays folks.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | KRONA |
Nerd leaving second area recalled Swedish bread (5)
|
| ANORaK ( nerd, without the second A – area ), all reversed ; i learnt this meaning of ‘anorak’ today. | ||
| 10 | BAMBOOZLE |
Deceive Black American student into drink (9)
|
| B ( black ) AM ( american ) [ L ( learner ) in BOOZE ( drink ) ] | ||
| 11 | ABETTER |
Advanced with superior party giving support (7)
|
| A ( advanced ) BETTER ( superior ) | ||
| 12 | DERMA |
Skin layer observed in Spider-Man (5)
|
| hidden in “..spiDER-MAn” | ||
| 13 | UNTIE |
BBC having no answer: remove constraints (5)
|
| aUNTIE ( bbc, without A – answer ) | ||
| 14 | ORPHEUS |
Old Rush EP disturbed classical musician (7)
|
| O ( old ) [ RUSH EP ]* | ||
| 15 | LISZT |
Sound tip for virtuosic pianist (5)
|
| sounds like LIST ( tip ) | ||
| 17 | CONSERVATIONIST |
Green-keeper perhaps moved Victorian stones (15)
|
| [ VICTORIAN STONES ]* | ||
| 20 | REGAN |
Scheming daughter to recover missing unit (5)
|
| REGAiN ( recover, without I – unit ) | ||
| 22 | VISITED |
Sex position daughter went to see (7)
|
| VI ( sex ) SITE ( position ) D ( daughter ) | ||
| 24 | SABLE |
Gloomy bishop opening trade event (5)
|
| B ( bishop ) in SALE ( trade event ) | ||
| 26 | IDIOT |
Personal documents one returned to Charlie (5)
|
| ID ( personal documents ) I ( one ) OT ( reverse of TO ) | ||
| 27 | NOMINAL |
Duck, bird in northern lake, not real (7)
|
| [ O ( duck, zero ) MINA ( bird ) ] in N ( northern ) L ( lake ) | ||
| 29 | DERRING-DO |
Heroic deeds going astray in Democrat Party (7-2)
|
| ERRING ( going astray ) in [ D ( democrat ) DO ( party ) ] | ||
| 30 | OCULI |
Here and there, no actual fit round windows (5)
|
| alternate letters of “..nO aCtUaL fIt..” | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SKUA |
Predatory bird sending others heavenward? (4)
|
| reverse of AUKS ( birds, ~other ) | ||
| 2 | HOMESPUN |
Detective heard double entendre: rather crude? (8)
|
| sounds like HOLMES ( detective ) PUN ( double entendre ) | ||
| 3 | SARTRE |
Existentialist showcases cunning in series regularly (6)
|
| ART ( cunning ) in SRE ( SeRiEs, alternate letters of ) | ||
| 4 | OBTRUSIVE |
Prominent virus to be spread (9)
|
| [ VIRUS TO BE ]* | ||
| 5 | SMART |
Northbound public transport fleet impressive (5)
|
| reverse of TRAMS ( public transport fleet ) | ||
| 6 | BORDELLO |
Doorbell broken — here one’s invited to knock (8)
|
| [ DOORBELL ]* ; tongue-in-cheek surface! 🙂 | ||
| 7 | AZORES |
Unknown soldiers in rising ocean archipelago (6)
|
| [ Z ( unknown ) OR ( soldiers ) ] in reverse of SEA ( ocean ) | ||
| 8 | DEVASTATED |
Woman under duke said to be heartbroken (10)
|
| D ( duke ) EVA ( woman ) STATED ( said ) | ||
| 14 | OSCAR WILDE |
Ladies crow about one with conviction for love (5,5)
|
| [ LADIES CROW ]* | ||
| 16 | STEVENSON |
Saint with just the same name as writer (9)
|
| ST ( saint ) EVEN ( just ) SO ( same ) N ( name ) | ||
| 18 | EINSTEIN |
Genius stumped probing articles in Berlin (8)
|
| ST ( stumped, cricket ) in EIN EIN ( articles in berlin, german ) | ||
| 19 | ISTANBUL |
One sultan out to seize British port (8)
|
| I ( one ) { [ SULTAN ]* containing B ( british ) } | ||
| 21 | GOITRE |
Swelling has clotted blood round it (6)
|
| GORE ( blood ) around IT | ||
| 23 | SAMSON |
Judges character weakened when distressed? (6)
|
| cryptic def; referring to the character in judges , seventh book of the hebrew bible, who loses strength if his hair were to be cut (~dis-tress-ed ) | ||
| 25 | BARGE |
Bump into freight boat (5)
|
| double def | ||
| 28 | LVIV |
City large lively Neo had to leave (4)
|
| L ( large ) VIVid ( lively, without I’D – Neo had ) |
Why “clotted” blood and not just blood in 21D?
Enjoyable, esp Orpheus, conservationist, visited, homespun, bordello, Samson. Thanks both.
The first meaning of GORE in Chambers is “clotted blood” (the second is just “blood”). Rattled through this but failed to get LVIV. Nice to see Spider-Man with the correct hyphenated spelling. I have only just (yesterday) got around to finishing Neo jumbo special from last Xmas which had the clue “A superior party offering support” which made 11a easier than it would otherwise have been.
It went in fairly easily, with time needed to complete the NW corner and LOI LVIV.
DERMA and SMART were nice observations by Neo. CONSERVATIONIST was a wonderful anagram and surface. BARGE & HOMESPUN were simple but interesting and IDIOT another excellent surface. I am not usually a big fan of cryptic definitions, but I loved OSCAR WILDE. In the end there were so many good clues that I could have mentioned several more.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs
Thanks for the blog and happy Easter . A few of my pet likes here, KRONA the second area makes it precise . VISITED , sex=VI is getting more common , it is more accurate and allows more deception . AZORES , I always prefer OR=soldiers , using “men” is very disparaging . Many other neat clues , only disappointed with EINSTEIN , better definitions are available .
It was a great start to the Easter hols. LVIV held me up the longest.
Thanks to Neo for the fun and Turbolegs for an immaculate blog.
I was beaten by LVIV, but the rest was fun with some excellent clues as listed by others above.
I parsed 16d STEVENSON with the phrase ‘just the same’ = ‘even so’ rather than ‘just’ = ‘even’ and ‘so’ = ‘same’.
Thanks Neo and Turbolegs.
Sourdough @7. Me too on “even so”.