Nutmeg makes a welcome return to the Quiptic slot with a nicely crafted puzzle that provides a good Monday morning work out for the old grey cells.
There were one or two that took a little thinking about here but, as ever with Nutmeg, some nice constructions and some entertaining surface readings.
I particularly enjoyed the Greek spirits in 20d. Very difficult to find these days.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LONG-SIGHTED |
English dog last in heat, running with vision impaired (4-7)
An anagram (running) of ENGLISH DOG and T (last letter of heat) |
| 9 | PODCAST |
Most of data having gone west, drop digital recording (7)
A reversal (having gone west) of DOPE (data) minus its last letter (most of) and CAST (drop). This took some thinking about |
| 10 | TORNADO |
Rent trouble comes as a great blow (7)
TORN (rent) ADO (trouble). A very nice definition |
| 11 | ICE SHEETS |
It’s cheese, oddly something consumed more with global warming (3,6)
An anagram (oddly) of IT’S CHEESE. I have often wondered whether the desire to eat more cheese was connected to global warming. Now I know |
| 12 | TIGHT |
Mean drunk? (5)
A double definition. Mean = TIGHT. Drunk = TIGHT |
| 13 | SKIM |
Casually read through second Kipling novel (4)
S (second) KIM (Kipling novel) |
| 14 | RETALIATED |
What avenger did, recalling detail a terrorist partly overlooked (10)
A reversal (recalling) of DETAIL and A (a) TER (terrorist partly overlooked) |
| 16 | DOWNMARKET |
Inferior stalls in Ulster? (10)
A cryptic-ish definition. DOWN is a county in what was once Ulster; you find stalls in a MARKET |
| 19 | AXED |
Wife leaving got bigger cut (4)
A deletion (leaving) of W (wife) from WAXED (got bigger) |
| 21 | FRIAR |
Mendicant father adopts retiring manner (5)
FR (father) around (adopts) a reversal (retiring) of AIR (attitude) |
| 22 | LIBERALLY |
Calumny finally withdrawn by meeting, freely (9)
LIBEL (calumny) minus its last letter (finally withdrawn) next to (by) RALLY (meeting) |
| 24 | CRIMSON |
Bloody child behind 80% of law-breaking (7)
SON (child) placed after (behind) CRIME (law-breaking) minus its last letter (80% of) |
| 25 | RECEDED |
Given new Wimbledon ranking, we’re told, went down (7)
A homophone (we’re told) of RESEEDED (given new Wimbledon ranking) |
| 26 | GRASSHOPPER |
Six-footer seen in peach jumper (11)
GRASS (peach, as in tell tales) HOPPER (jumper). Insects are quite often defined as ‘six-footers’ |
| Down | ||
| 1 | LADIES-IN-WAITING |
Degas’ initial win bewildered court attendants (6-2-7)
An anagram (bewildered) of DEGAS’ INITIAL WIN |
| 2 | NEATH |
Welsh town without water (hot) (5)
NEAT (without water) H (hot) |
| 3 | SO THERE |
“Yah boo sucks” among hooligan’s other expressions (2,5)
An answer hidden in (among) hooliganS OTHER Expressions |
| 4 | GO TO SEA |
Take the main job? (2,2,3)
A cryptic definition |
| 5 | TURN TAIL |
Spin yarn, so to speak, and scarper (4,4)
TURN (spin) and a homophone (so to speak) of TALE (yarn) |
| 6 | DRAUGHT EXCLUDER |
Banner supporting old-fashioned potion — it could stop the winter cold (7,8)
EXCLUDER (banner) placed below (supporting) DRAUGHT (old-fashioned potion) |
| 7 | OPTICS |
Expresses preference to include one conservative branch of physics (6)
OPTS (expresses preference) around (to include) I (one) C (conservative) |
| 8 | HOSTED |
Was MC‘s son framed by ardent journalist? (6)
It took me a little while to realise what the definition was here. It’s S (son) contained by (framed by) HOT (ardent) ED (journalist) |
| 15 | AMBROSIA |
Delicious food from continent — after mass, brother tucks in (8)
An insertion (tucks in) of M (mass) followed by (after) BRO (brother) in ASIA (continent) |
| 16 | DEFECT |
Quick and skilful to conceal EC shortcoming (6)
DEFT (quick and skilful) around (to conceal) EC (EC) |
| 17 | RELENTS |
Angry listener (not I) becomes more tolerant (7)
An anagram (angry) of LISTENER minus the letter I (not I) |
| 18 | EMBARGO |
Setter backing pub game in Prohibition (7)
A reversal (backing) of ME (setter, i.e. Nutmeg) BAR (pub) GO (game) |
| 20 | DRYADS |
Old men drinking extremely risky Greek spirits (6)
DADS (old men) around (drinking) RY (extremely risky = first and last letters of) |
| 23 | RECAP |
Republican taking step up gets run over again (5)
R (republican) plus (taking) a reversal (up) of PACE (step) |
Thanks Nutmeg and NMS
More challenging than today’s Rufus (how often do I say that?), with several going in unparsed, including my first two, 1a and 9a.
I raised an eyebrow at 21 a I thought that Fr actually stood for “friar”. However it took some googling to find a reference to support this
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fr
and “Father” is indeed much more common.
Nicely crafted is exactly right, nms. The girl done good again.
The peach/grass/tell on definition was new to me, as was the FRIAR definition of ‘mendicant’. So I have learned something this morning. Well done for parsing PODCAST, because I couldn’t.
HOSTED was my favourite today.
Thanks both.
I found this to be easier than today’s Rufus.
I needed help to parse 26a.
My favourites were 10a, 14a, 24a, 19a.
Thanks nms and Nutmeg
Not having to blog it, I gave up on parsing PODCAST, but I don’t think I would ever have thought of dope/data, though now it makes sense. Favourites were SO THERE and DRYADS. I haven’t seen today’s Nutmeg yet, so I can’t compare them.
Thanks, Nutmeg and newmarketsausage.
Thanks Nutmeg & nms, enjoyable Quiptic.
Not often that you see English as part of the fodder, so nicely misleading there. I particularly liked AXED, HOSTED & AMBROSIA.
Thans Nutmeg and newmarketsausage.
Needed help with PODCAST and HOSTED. I did like GRASSHOPPER, DRYADS and SO THERE!
I’d never heard of that usage of ‘peach’ so thanks for that.
As for 14a, I took it just to be a hidden reversal – DETAIL A TERrorist.
Peach new to me too but answer was obvious. Initially had downstairs rather than down market, made sense to me anyway. Thanks nms and the spicy one.