I was thankful when I saw a Nestor arrive for my turn blogging.
Always a pleasure and there were some very nice surface readings in these clues
I had 13 in after the “first pass” (all clues read) mostly in the top half, and the rest fell in reasonably nicely until the last 3 pairs: 15 RECESS needed 16 solved to give me more than just -E-E–; 2D needed the final crosser from 11A; and trickiest of all for me 19D needed the P from 18A.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 6 | HISPANIC | Maybe Mexican greetings cause alarm (8) HIS (greetings: “Hi”s) PANIC (alarm) |
| 9 | ROONEY | E.g. Keane gets round individual footballer (6) ONE (individual) inside ROY (Ref. Roy Keane). My immediate thought was Keegan from (E.G. KEANE)* but that thankfully doesn’t work, doesn’t fit and isn’t right |
| 10 | OPTIONAL EXTRAS | Extended package features non-binding future with Ferguson, possibly endless rubbish (8,6) OPTIONAL (non-binding future – why future?) EX (Ferguson, possibly – Sarah I presume) TRAS[h] (endless rubbish) As Unferth points out at #1: OPTION is a non-binding future – a financial derivative, and the Ferguson we need here is ALEX |
| 11 | NOURISHING | Having a bite, eating mashed peeled fruit as healthy food (10) ([f]RUI[t])* AInd: mashed, becomes URI, inside NOSHING (Having a bite) |
| 13 | EMMY | Judge barred from prize award (4) [j]EMMY (prize in the crowbar sense) |
| 14 | THRILL | Personnel breaking cash register tremble (6) HR (Personnel – Human Resources department) inside TILL (cash register) |
| 15 | RECESS | Interval of rash behaviour getting centre half dismissed (6) REC[kl]ESS (rash behaviour, with the centre removed – why half dismissed? Presumably if it was all dismissed it would be RE[ckle]SS leaving RESS), anyway interesting wordplay device See Comment #4 for more accurate explanation |
| 18 | SPUN | Courage mostly presented favourably (4) SPUN[k] Courage, mostly |
| 20 | DEPENDABLE | Sure to make shallow experience more profound, without any duplicity? (10) If you make the shallows more profound you end up with the DEEP END, so you are DEEP-END-ABLE (that’s a stretch), then to removing duplicity you must make double letters singletons. See Comment #4 for more accurate explanation |
| 21 | MAGICAL REALISM | Version of Alice à la Grimm’s supernatural style? (7,7) (ALICE A LA GRIMM’S)* AInd: Version of. First of the long answers to go in after I saw the likely anagram fodder and definition and plugged away with pencil and paper long enough to spot the magic: A beautiful apposite anagram. |
| 23 | PILLAR | Upright member, a Republican, behind tiresome person (6) PILL (tiresome person) A R[epublican] |
| 24 | ENTANGLE | Confuse powerless mystic symbol (8) [p]ENTANGLE |
 |
||
| Down | ||
| 1 | KILOVOLT | Amount of electricity reduced base volume in equipment (8) LO[w] (base, reduced) VOL[ume] all inside KIT (equipment) |
| 2 | UNCONSOLED | Still disappointed with scam, only taken in and in Berlin (10) CON (scam) SOLE (only) inside UND (and, in German – in Berlin) |
| 3 | BRAE | Scottish bank turned around in near bankruptcy (4) Hidden reversed in nEAR Bankruptcy |
| 4 | LOST GENERATION | Disillusioned youth suffered a failure in power? (4,10) DD/CD After I saw GENERATION I tried to squeeze in BEAT … |
| 5 | BECALM | Thread filling megabytes is up still (6) LACE (thread) inside MB (megabytes) all reversed |
| 7 | PETER PRINCIPLE | Apostle follower changes insult to hype during bad management explanation (5,9) PETER (apostle) DISCIPLE (follower) change DIS (insult) to P.R. (hype) IN (during). The Peter Principle is where people are promoted based on how well they are doing their current job, thus inevitably rising to a position where they are useless and getting stuck there. (That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it) |
| 8 | CRANIA | Arnica treated headcases (6) ARNICA* AInd: treated. |
| 12 | GREEN PARTY | Who’d have role in alternative energy? (5,5) PART (a role) inside ENERGY* AInd: alternative. I tried to make SOLAR PANEL fit – but the government removed the subsidies so it wasn’t worth it |
| 16 | SOLEMNLY | First of spacemen alone docking moon lander with dignity (8) S[pacemen] LEM (moon lander) inside (docking) ONLY (alone). I really liked this clue |
| 17 | SPURGE | Plant needing second cull (6) S[econd] PURGE (cull) |
| 19 | PLACID | Phlegmatic Conservative kept in check (6) C[onservatives] inside PLAID (check) – LOI – needed a P |
| 22 | AFRO | Mounted soldiers note unrestrained style (4) OR (soldiers) FA (note) all reversed (mounted). I don’t think of afros as unrestrained, they are certainly styled, just big! |
In 10ac I think ‘non-binding future’ is ‘option’ (financial term) and ‘Ferguson, possibly’ is ‘Alex’.
unferth is right there.
Thanks for blog.
He is isn’t he – blog corrected
Thanks Nestor and Beermagnet
15ac: REC(klessn)ESS
20ac: DEEPEN DABBLE with duplicated letters removed.
Thank you PB. Those are much more accurate explanations for those two clues
I thought this was a fine puzzle, with some inventive clues. I particularly enjoyed 12D, GREEN PARTY (and the blog comment :)) and 20A, DEPENDABLE. LOI was RECESS at 15A – took me an age to see it. I was confused by 18 across though as I had SPIN[e], so couldn’t work out why it was presented in the past tense. Thanks for clearing that up for me and to Nestor for an enjoyable challenge.