Another solid puzzle from Anax. This was not as hard as some I have seen from him which is just as well given how busy we all are at the moment.
Only 6 answered after the first pass, and only a handful more after that before real life got in the way of solving and I had to leave it for the day. Returning to it on the Sunday with a clearer head I managed to finish it off with great enjoyment. So thanks to Anax.
Apologies for the early appearance of this blog last week. I completely missed the extended submission deadline.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | APERTURE | Opening for a routine over in A&E (8) PER (for a) RUT< (routine, over) inside A E |
| 5 | PLACID | Still cold in 7 (6) C[old] in PLAID (CLOTH qv 7) |
| 10 | DISPORT | Play dead and one’s left (7) D[ead] 1’S PORT (left) |
| 11/12/13 | ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS | Fancy talk, so it has produced no answer (7,5,6,4,5) (TALK, SO IT HAS PRODUCED NO ANSWER)* AInd: Fancy. &Lit Really chuffed to get this early on after considering the possibilities of the 4th word with the H in place. Greatly helped by the surface meaning of the whole clue suggesting this aphorism. |
| 14 | ANNOYANCE | Bugger off, as can anyone (9) (CAN ANYONE)* AInd: Off. |
| 16 | SUNBONNET | Poem about one black hat (9) ‘UN (one) B[lack] inside SONNET (poem) |
| 18 | ABOUT | Border guards love to get on (5) O (love) in ABUT (border) |
| 19 | BUNKER MENTALITY | Such optimism may be a trap, of course (6,9) I’m not sure about this clue. While a bunker is a trap in golf (of course), I would not equate Bunker Mentality with optimism – it is more a state of defensiveness and fear |
| 22 | SANTA FE | State capital wants unlimited cuts secured (5,2) [w]ANT[s] inside (cuts) SAFE (secured) |
| 23 | EARTHEN | Get to keep the clay (7) THE inside EARN (get) |
| 24 | NOTION | One into unacceptable belief (6) I (one) inside NOT ON (unacceptable) |
| 25 | GRIMACES | I’m into a lovely threesome – looks painful! (8) I’M inside GRACES (lovely threesome) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | ANDES | A range of Parisian designs (5) Hidden ParisiAN DESigns. Easy one to give a few first letters |
| 2 | ED SHEERAN | He’s earned bucks as a songwriter (2,7) (HE’S EARNED)* AInd: bucks. Lovely clue for the wunderkid + a great whole clue extended definition |
| 3 | TROIKAS | Drink then scrap over Russian teams (7) SAKI ORT all reversed. |
| 4 | RATIONAL NUMBER | Perhaps a fraction of The Sound of Music? (8,6) RATIONAL (sound) NUMBER (music) |
| 6 | LITURGY | Office bug – it’s been caught (7) IT in LURGY (bug) |
| 7 | CLOTH | Make thick, hard material (5) CLOT (make thick) H[ard] First answer in – attempted early due to the cross reference from 5 |
| 8 | DISINVEST | Withdraw money in error – remove clothes (9) SIN in DIVEST |
| 9 | PADDINGTON BEAR | Bond character filling out note in conference? (10,4) ADDING TO (filling out) NB (note) inside PEAR (conference). This has to be my favourite clue of the grid. As soon as I considered conference pears, I realised which Bond was being referenced – Michael Bond. |
| 13 | WASHBASIN | Bowl with wood, soft, like (9) W[ith] ASH (wood) B (soft) AS IN (like) |
| 15 | NEOLITHIC | Ancient oil in the ground, and carbon (9) (OIL IN THE)* AInd: ground, + C[arbon] |
| 17 | OREGANO | Yellow, say, on a climbing herb (7) OR (yellow) EG (say) ON A< |
| 18 | ANAGRAM | Poor slumber is one of our problems (7) (POOR SLUMBER)* = (OUR PROBLEMS)* Is this &Lit? Certainly the whole clue is a definition by example. I needed all the crossing letters before getting this, A-A-R-M couldn’t be much else, then I understood this kind of reverse clue. Still not sure how to classify it |
| 20 | NONET | Composition one saw upside-down (5) TENON< |
| 21 | YONKS | A long time that is wasted in kiss (5) YON (that) K[is]S Last One In. Not sure why I found this so hard to get. Yonks feels like a dated slang word. |
18Dn is just a cryptic definition, albeit a very subtle and clever one, very reminiscent of the same setter’s “One is never odd or even (10)” a couple of years ago.
Oh dear, you’ve done it again. This was a prize crossword, with an extended deadline of 3 January. What’s to stop people copying the solution from the blog here and sending in entries during the coming week?
Enjoyed this one, which felt like light relief after the Maskarade in the Guardian, so definitely at the easier end of the Anax spectrum. Loved the Bond character – that was much easier for me than anything from James Bond would have been…
Thanks to Anax and beermagnet
Another fine and enjoyable Anax puzzle.
Still, I wondered about some clues.
Is it really fair to clue UN as ‘one’ without referring to where they say it like that (16ac)?
Anax is a very precise setter but what is ‘as’ doing in 14ac?
Does B in 13d really mean ‘soft’?
Yes, I do think of pencils but cannot find a full justification.
Anax could have used ‘black’ anyway in this clue (with a surface that’s really under par).
The Sound of Music = RATIONAL / NUMBER? Really?
If it is like you parsed it, beermagnet, I think it is pretty loose for a perfectionist like Anax.
Thanks All (as someone ‘over there’ used to say, ages ago).