Tyrus is the cruciverbal brain behind today’s puzzle, on a grid allowing for as many as five 15-letter entries.
I found this to be a fairly tough and above all highly entertaining solve. There were four new words/expressions for me, at 5, 6, 9 and 17, all of which I could figure out to my satisfaction from the wordplay and then confirm elsewhere. The wordplay was quite intricate in places, for example in 16, where it took a long time for the penny to drop that the (upended) French word for dead, passed on accounted for half of the solution.
For me, what I derived most enjoyment from here was the smooth and at the same time misleading surface readings of several clues, especially the longer ones, such as 23 and 1, either of which could be my clue of the day. Another favourite is 19, for the political comment therein and for the truly clever use of proper nouns, of which there are several examples in this puzzle.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 08 | A MONTH OF SUNDAYS | Tony had famous names extremely deluded for some considerable time
*(TONY HAD FAMOUS N<ame>S); “extremely” means first and letters only are used; “deluded” is anagram indicator |
| 09 | TELLURATE | Mock turtle and ale for salt
*(TURTLE + ALE); “mock” is anagram indicator; a tellurate is a salt of telluric acid |
| 10 | HYENA | One may be spotted loudly greeting woman
Homophone (“loudly”) of “hi (=greeting) + Ena (=woman)” |
| 11 | RACKETS | Ruin partner – set to suffer court action
RACK (=ruin partner, as in the expression to go to rack and ruin) + *(SET); “to suffer” is anagram indicator; rackets is a simplified form of the old game of tennis |
| 12 | TORCHES | Lights in gold box for recycling
OR (=gold) + CHEST (=box); “for re-cycling” means first letter goes to the end, as if in cyclical motion |
| 14 | PAINT THE TOWN RED | Easy win, then depart to celebrate
*(WIN THEN DEPART TO); “easy”, presumably in the sense of loose, unconstrained, is anagram indicator |
| 17 | Y-LEVELS | Surveyors need these qualifications – year required for one
A-LEVELS (=qualifications, i.e. in UK education system); “year (=Y)” required for “one (=A)” means letter “a” is replaced by “y”; a y-level is a type of engineers’ level, used essentially to support telescopes |
| 19 | ON TRIAL | British wanted Blair (not Cook) to be answerable in court
*(<b>LAIR (“British (=B) wanted” means letter “b” is dropped) + NOT); “Cook” is anagram indicator |
| 21 | ROOMS | Accommodation no good for newlyweds
<g>ROOMS (=newlyweds); “no good (=G)” means letter “g” is dropped |
| 22 | NEBRASKAN | Local Bill managed to question arrested statesman
NEB (=local Bill, i.e. dialect word for “bill”, beak) + [ASK (=question) in RAN (=managed)]; cryptically, “statesman” here means someone from the US state of Nebraska |
| 23 | CONVENIENCE FOOD | Scam? No evidence of fiddling fare (which is easy to do)
CON (=scam) + *(NO EVIDENCE OF); “fiddling” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 01 | COLLECTIVE NOUNS | Like ambush, murder, violence? Consult criminal
*(VIOLENCE CONSULT); “criminal” is anagram indicator; (an) “ambush” (of tigers) and (a) “murder” (of crows) are both collective nouns |
| 02 | ATTUNE | Adjust to the end of Gove (head cheers up)
<gov>E + NUT (=head) + TA (=cheers); “up” indicates vertical reversal |
| 03 | ROMANSCH | Language school capitalist’s taken over
ROMAN (= “capitalist”, i.e. person from the Italian capital) + SCH (=school) |
| 04 | ASPECT | Look at taking gamble
SPEC (=gamble, i.e. speculation) in AT |
| 05 | IN THE RAW | Cavorting with near nude
*(WITH NEAR); “cavorting” is anagram indicator |
| 06 | MAKE HORLICKS OF | Take steps to sleep with old fellow but screw up
MAKE HORLICKS (=take steps to sleep, i.e. prepare bedtime drink) + O (=old) + F (=fellow); “to make a Horlicks of something” is to make a mess of, foul up |
| 07 | ASIA | In which Japan’s like Italy and America
AS (=like) + I (=Italy, in IVR) + US (=America) |
| 08 | AUTOREPLY | New layout on page included email facility
[RE (=on) + P (=page)] in *(LAYOUT); “new” is anagram indicator |
| 13 | SIDELINED | In Thatcher’s upbringing shop not at the heart of things
DELI (=shop, i.e. delicatessen) in SINED (DENIS=Thatcher, i.e. husband of former UK PM Margaret Thatcher; “upbringing” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 15 | THE ASHES | Batters side put out by English in trophy
TH-R-ASHES (=batters, i.e. hits repeatedly); “side (=R for right) put out by English (=E)” means letter “r” is replaced by “e” |
| 16 | TROMBONE | Upset Wenger’s passed on good European player
TROM (MORT=Wenger’s passed on, i.e. the French word for dead; “upset” indicates vertical reversal) + BON (=good, in French) + E (=European) |
| 18 | SINK IN | Register wrong family
SIN (=(a) wrong) + KIN (=family); the definition “register”, as in It hadn’t sunk in/registered with me that I would never seem him again |
| 20 | TRAVEL | Go later on march against cuts
V (=against, i.e. versus) in *(LATER); “on march” is anagram indicator |
| 21 | RACE | Stock for a certainty not all there
Hidden (“not all there”) in “foR A CErtainty”; “stock” is race, kindred, family, as in to be from good stock |
Wonderfully entertaining stuff from Jim the Great. We certainly know where he is coming from, don’t we?
As it is my wedding anniversary, I shall take this as a present.
Cheers RatkojaRiku and especially Tyrus.
I agree that this was a superb puzzle. It was a real challenge to separate the definition from the wordplay in several of the clues, and it was immensely satisfying after I had done it. It was only towards the end that I got the COLLECTIVE NOUNS and CONVENIENCE FOOD crossers, and the additional checkers they provided led me to my last two in, ROOMS and RACE, both of which should really have been solved sooner. I thought the clue for ON TRIAL was excellent.
Top stuff – nice smile in 6d.
Didn’t know NEB.
Many thanks to S&B.
Got them all, but it was hard, fun and challenging. Mind you, for 21 I presumed that a ‘racer’ was a slang abbreviation for the slang ‘racing certainty’ and ‘not all there’ meant ‘take off last letter’. Could not find RACER in that sense anywhere though, and completely missed the hidden word.
Brilliant stuff from Tyrus/Lato, very hard to me but well worth it with a few laughs and groans.
Thanks RR couldn’t see why and suspected a dodgy cryptic def in 13d but a belter in hindsight.
20dn defeated me, and 6dn I got only after a search – not an expression I can recall ever hearing.
Thanks to RatkojaRiku for the blog and to others for their comments.
Happy anniversary, Conrad.
It’s been quite a while since a puzzle contained no fewer than three clues, each with two ticks (being 19ac, 6dn and the highly satisfying 1dn).
So it must be a good one!
Thank you, Tyrus!