A nice Sunday workout from Crosophile this week.
I’d perhaps have got through it quicker had I not been so slow to spot the anagram in the long 16 across. 15 down also gave me a couple of problems, and I eventually had to check online to understand the wordplay.
Favourite clue may have been 19 down, which raised a bit of a chuckle when the penny dropped.
| Across | ||
| 8 | IOAN | Gwen’s John and I go paint regularly (4) |
| I [g]O [p]A[i]N[t]. The implication is presumably that someone named “Gwen” may well be Welsh, and this is the Welsh version of “John”. | ||
| 9 | XENOPHOBIA | A phoenix flies round old boy hating aliens (10) |
| OB in (A PHOENIX)*. | ||
| 11 | TEDIOUS | Eccentrically suited with nothing drab (7) |
| (SUITED + 0)*. | ||
| 12 | CANTATA | Record Farewell (a musical work) (7) |
| CAN + TATA. | ||
| 13 | SMARTASS | Elite force capturing marketplace square is too clever by half (8) |
| (MART in SAS) + S. | ||
| 14 | HERETO | Somehow the River Ebro when crossing the middle is so far (6) |
| (THE + R + E[br]O)*. | ||
| 16 | THE SAME OLD STORY | Might this be read smoothly after taking a seat? (3,4,3,5) |
| (RE[a]D SMOOTHLY + SEAT)*. I’m still not entirely sure what the definition is here, perhaps just “this” or an &lit. I’m probably being pedantic, but it just seems to me that the idiom “the same old story” doesn’t tend to refer to something that’s actually read. | ||
| 18 | ATTAIN | Get a Times and an Independent in the centre (6) |
| A + T + T + (I in AN). | ||
| 20 | FIERCEST | Most violent, having a hand in fight over queen and church (8) |
| (ER + CE) in FIST. | ||
| 23 | EJECTOR | I retired in Provence, lacking aspiration to play the bully and bouncer (7) |
| JE< + [h]ECTOR. | ||
| 24 | ONE-OFFS | Sort of switch retaining energy, seconds and originals (3-4) |
| (E in ON–OFF) + S. | ||
| 25 | ENTERPRISE | Put in parking to increase business (10) |
| ENTER + P + RISE. | ||
| 26 | ANNE | She‘s constrained in manner (4) |
| Contained, or indeed constrained, in [m]ANNE[r]. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | NINTHS | This news might be disseminated in intervals (6) |
| (THIS + N + N)*. Ninths are intervals in the musical sense. | ||
| 2 | HANDMADE | E.g. like samplers from old female servant say? (8) |
| Homophone of “handmaid”. | ||
| 3 | PERSISTED | Went on a site about special diamonds (9) |
| PER + (S in SITE) + D. | ||
| 4 | FORCE | Clad in iron, a baddie for Tolkien’s army (5) |
| ORC in Fe. | ||
| 5 | CHANNEL-SURFER | Being on board between Dover and Calais, he hops on the box (7-6) |
| Allusion to somebody being on a surfboard in the English Channel. | ||
| 6 | ABLAZE | Sailor’s lounge on fire (6) |
| AB + LAZE. | ||
| 7 | PARADOXY | March most of the way to O2 with no info in a 10 (contradictory) state? (8) |
| PARAD[e] + OXY[gen]. | ||
| 10 | CONTRADICTORY | With cut in business I’ll get caught between two Conservatives in disagreement (13) |
| (TRAD[e] + I + C) in (CON + TORY). | ||
| 15 | ALBINOISM | Condition associated with white noise mostly in mobile Military Intelligence lab (9) |
| NOIS[e] in (MI + LAB)*. | ||
| 16 | TRAPEZES | Revolving section becomes looser, say, and swings (8) |
| PART< + homophone of “eases”. | ||
| 17 | OVERFUND | Give too much money for dodgy Devon fur (8) |
| (DEVON FUR)*. | ||
| 19 | TREATY | Is this like The Goodies convention? (6) |
| As in “like a treat”. Nice one. | ||
| 21 | TASTED | Before unruly teenager sat up, got a smack (6) |
| SAT< + TED. | ||
| 22 | TRURO | Couples leave trunk road finally for Cornish city (5) |
| The last couples of letters leaving TRU[nk] and RO[ad]. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
I’d say that 1A is a reference to the Welsh-born painter Gwen John, sister of the better known Augustus John.
15D I’ve only ever seen spelled ALBINISM.
16A Mild suggestion, perhaps a sort of &lit as “the same old story” (perhaps to a child at bedtime) would presumably be read smoothly due to its familiarity.
A tougher than usual workout from Crosophile, with some nifty wordplay.
Thanks to Crosophile and Simon Harding.
I meant 8A, the first A clue.
Thanks, Simon Harding and gwep. Yes, 8a is an allusion to Gwen John. It doesn’t work as simply Gwen John of course but that’s why I didn’t go for Blodwyn’s John or something.
By the way, there was ‘no nina to be found’ in this puzzle. [see falling main diagonal, although see also 7Dn and 10Dn 🙂 ].