Nice puzzle by Nitsy which varied from quite easy in places to quite tricky, solving time 32 mins.
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 LAMP M (master) in LAP (drink) lamp = punch (hit) Good use of different meanings of words
3 SORBITOL A new word to me that I got from the wordplay (Boris)* tol(l), a substitute for sugar
10 POLITICAL ASYLUM Cryptic definition
11 TARANTULA (L A RAT AUNT)*
12 AVID Diva reversed
13 COCAINE Definition: snow C (constant) (Ice on a)*
15 ENSIGN (sending)* less d = diamonds (cards)
17 FLIGHT Lost (first letter) in FIGHT (combat) Excellent surface
19 LOOKOUT LOO (can) K (king) OUT (publicly reveal)
20 SPAR raps reversed
21 EXPLICATE EX (place it)*
24 PROFESSIONALISM (pressman is a fool I)* less a (one)
25 DRESSING This was my last answer, a double definition, I think, with the divide at smoothing/clothes
26 FEAR feather less the. I liked this.
DOWN
1 LIPSTICK lip = cheek stick = put on
2 MOLAR My (oral)* & lit
4 OIL-CAKE Cattle feed (like a cow)* less w = weight, another excellent surface
5 BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY Cryptic definition
6 TALKING-TO TALK (hot air) (got in)*
7 LAMB LAM (paste) Bread
8 STANDING (fixed) ORDERS (charges) order to bank to make payment on particular day
9 ACCUSE ACC (account) USE (profit)
14 CELLPHONE My favourite clue, excellent cryptic definition. Term for a mobile phone used in US
16 STREAMER Reel in STEAMER
18 TREASON T REASON
19 LAPTOP “This might get you on line and ready to learn, without getting cut off”. I’ve verified this is right from the Indy website, but I don’t understand the wordplay, l might be line, apt might be ready
22 ARISE arise = result hard worker deserves A RISE
23 SPUD S (small) PUD (hand) – this was a new meaning of SPUD for me, dicts confirm it.
Hi nms
19dn is APT (ready to learn) in LOP (cut off). I’m not sure that I like ‘without getting’ as the insertion indicator.
Thanks, nms. I think your reflection on it being a puzzle of two halves is exactly right: I got all the easy ones and practically none of the hard ones!
Thanks nms for the blog, and thanks Nitsy for a nice start to the week.
Was able to use words whose meanings I learned from and since doing the Indy, viz. 1A LAMP and 23A SPUD.
Particularly like the cryptic definitions for the long ‘uns 10A POLITICAL ASYLUM and 5D BUSMAN’S HOLIDAY and the wordplay for 19A LOOKOUT.
After a slow start, I found this fairly smooth going apart from 19 down, where the convoluted wordplay completely lost me, and 22, where I didn’t spot arise for result. I thought 23 down was pretty tricky, which two unusual meanings in it and only got it when I remembered pud as hand from another puzzle. I thought dressing was actually three definitions, since it can mean straightening, smoothing and clothing.
I think 25a may be a triple definition, straightening lines of troops, smoothing blocks of type and the possibly obscure vestments.
Found this a bit mixed, the SE corner perhaps taking as long as the rest of the puzzle put together. Last in was LAPTOP, one of several I wrote in without fully understanding the wordplay. Still, a successful unaided solve, so I shouldn’t complain.
Not a lot to add really, couldn’t see why laptop was right, as NMS says, easy and tricky. Spent a while thinking about creasing for 25 which when ironing means decreasing, do like words that mean the opposite of themselves.
Quite a nice puzzle. I had SPOD for 23dn, not quite knowing what a spod was, but it is a word I’m fairly sure. Something like nerd I think.
It seemed to me that 19ac would have been better as (4,3), with perhaps something slightly different from ‘reveal worry’. Lookout is more a noun than a verb I should have thought, and although a lookout (n.) possibly reveals a worry this seems rather loose to me. How is a lookout a worry?
I didn’t get 26, which I regret as it seems to be the best of this rather mixed bunch. I liked LOOKOUT, OIL-CAKE and FLIGHT too. The cd’s were cd’s and, as usual, left me cold. ‘Spirals’ is an unusual anagram indicator in that it implies a particular structure rather than a simple re-ordering, but sadly it doesn’t come out like that. What’s ‘On the contrary’ doing in 1d? Clearly it says you don’t put lipstick on your cheek, but on your lips isn’t ‘contrary’ to that, and anyway the clue works perfectly well without it.
Wil – I think 19a has ‘lookout’ as in ‘it’s your lookout’, ie something for you to worry about, your worry.
Martin – ‘on the contrary’ is often used by setters to indicate that two elements of the answer are transposed, so in this case it’s not ‘stick + lip’ but ‘lip + stick’.
Martin H: Couldn’t ‘on the contrary’ in 1 down indicate that the expected word order (with ‘on’ meaning on top of, i.e. first) is reversed?
Sorry, Allan C: I’ve just repeated what you said – didn’t take it in properly!
Have just come across this reprinted in today’s i – I’ve been enjoying doing these all week whilst on holiday until I came across this awful crossword.
What appalling clueing and terrible synonyms. I’ll certainly avoid this setter in future.
Beg to differ Alison, I found this sparkling with ideas, and if some definitions were a bit cryptic, well that’s allowable in my book!