Solving time: pretty quickly except for one clue
I went through this at a pretty good clip but I’m still befuddled by the wordplay for 5D (CARGOSHIP) : I suspect I’ve completely missed the boat. At it were. (Now corrected thanks to Stilt).
Across
| 4 | BECK,ON=rev(no=small number) – a BECK is a (probably Scots) stream. |
| 9 | SPE(C)TATOR – C in (a protest)*. |
| 10 | F(O)UND – “reverse” is a (financial) FUND in this case, i.e. doesn’t indicate reversal. |
| 11 | RUSSIAN ROULETTE – Clever cryptic def for the game which has exactly “a round”. |
| 14 | HAT(CHE)T – our perennial revolutionary CHE in that*. |
| 16 | BIG DEAL – two meanings |
| 19 | MONTGOMERY C,LIFT – Ref. MONTGOMERY, Alabama. |
| 23 | D,I’S,TEMPER – turns out DISTEMPER is a “viral disease” in cats… |
| 25 | NURSE – bit of a surprise to learn that there’s a NURSE shark. |
Down
| 1 | G,ASTRIC=(scar – it)* – note how the trailing possessive “’s” isn’t used in the fodder which is valid since could be read as “scar it – is ugly” with “is ugly” being the anagrind. |
| 3 | EX,TRIC[k],AT,E – I saw the answer well before I worked out the wordplay: “end of sentencE” is just E. |
| 4 | BAT,ON – rev(tab=check). |
| 5 | CAR(GOSH,I)P – not sure about this: with C?R?O?H?P not much else occurs to me: “Fish around my island for vessel”. I can’t find a dictionary though that supports de-hyphenating CARGO-SHIP. As for wordplay I see: COS the “island”, HIP for “in”, anagram of GAR for “fish”. But I don’t see how to put it all together. Stilt below points out that it’s CAR(GOSH,I)P — where GOSH is exclamatory “my!”. So much for Greek islands and anagrammed fish. |
| 7 | HUNT-THE-SLIPPER – double/cryptic def for what was needed to win Cinderella’s hand. It’s also a children’s party game. |
| 8 | AD,VENT – def is “appearance” and I think that “is good for” is just a link phrase? |
| 15 | TRUNCHEO=(once hurt)*,N – TRUNCHEON is Brit billy-club. |
| 16 | BUMPER – two meanings: “unusually large” as in BUMPER crop e.g. |
| 18 | ASTARTE – hidden in “feAST, ARTEmis”. Good apposite surface: ASTARTE is a fertility goddess (aka Ishtar). |
| 21 | [c]RUSTY |
Don’t have the puzzle, but presumably 5D is CARP around GOSH (my) I(sland).
I too solved this at some stage from the def. ‘vessel’ but could not work out the full anno. instantly.
‘reserve’ gives ‘fund’
There is no reversal in the clue for which the answer is FUND.
10D: indeed — silly error on my part — while I was writing my notes up I read ‘reserve’ as ‘reverse’ and thus made the incorrect comment about it not indicating reversal! Anyway, of course: reserve is fund in this context.
thanks!