My first blog for Gurney. I found this very easy to solve, ideal for a beginner as a start into the world of cryptics (but not equally easy to annotate – the explanations for 2d and 29a eluded me for long).
I enjoyed the clues for short words like 9a, 13a more than the long one like 17a, 20a where I felt the surface was a tad forced. I don’t yet have a clear explanation for 23a – your inputs invited.
Across
1 CLASSY CLASS (students) [mutin]Y
4 ADORABLY ADO (fuss) R (rule) ABLY (skilfullly)
9 SCREAM S (Sweden) CREAM (the very best)
10 ASSASSIN cd; take a VIP out, as in, eliminate.
12 LORE hidden reversed in ‘numEROLogist’
13 ANGER ANGLER (fisherman) – L (line)
14 POPE POP (father) E (English)
17 ABSTEMIOUSLY (BEAUTY LISSOM)*
20 INCAPACITATE (IT AT AN ICE CAP)*
23 SLAP PALS (friend’s) reversed. But is slap = make-up? Not sure of this one.
24 TABLE TAB (bill) LE (‘the’ in French
25 POLE dd. A Pole comes from a country east of UK, and north and south are poles.
28 ATHLETIC H (husband) L[ov]E, in ATTIC (upper room)
29 CAREER CARE (like, as in ‘will you care to dance?’) ER (a suffix for someone in profession, like farmer). The word ‘profession’ led me to expect a dd and I had a question mark next to the answer; it’s only while writing the blog that the penny dropped.
30 THROTTLE (HOTTER L[ef]T)*
31 LESSEE LESS (not so) [k]EE[n]
Down
1 CASELOAD CAD (dishonourable guy) around (ALOES)*
2 AIRBRUSH BRIA[r] (prickly shrub, cut) reversed, RUSH (move quickly). BRUSH happens to be an anagram of “shrub”, and that’s what I was stuck with at first, trying with all might to fit AIR into the wordplay.
3 STAG S (small) TAG (monitoring device)
5 DISREPUTABLE (PARTIES BLUE D[isplays])*; with “wild” as the anagrind and “not proper or decent” the definition.
6 READ READ[y] (almost prepared)
7 BISHOP cd. A bishop is a chess piece, therefore ‘mover on board’. While other pieces move along a file (vertical row of squares) or rank (horizontal row of squares), the bishop moves diagonally on the chess board.
8 YONDER WONDER (surprise) – W + Y (unknown)
11 ANTIMALARIAL (AIRMAIL NATAL)*
15 MEANT MEAN (average) T (time)
16 PLAIN dd
18 BARONESS B (Belgium) (REASONS)*
19 REHEARSE HER (that lady) reversed, EAR (organ) S (singular) E (energy)
21 ASLANT hidden in ‘chinAS LANTerns’
22 RASHER RASH (hasty), RE (about) reversed
26 FELT dd
27 GAME dd
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