A pleasant solve from Dazzler today, with no obscurities and some nice surfaces. Unfortunately I think this setter died in December of last year so regrettably we will only have a few more of his offerings to enjoy before the pipeline runs dry.
Today is Pi Day, so-called because (in American notation) it's 3/14 - it's also Einstein's birthday. However when I Googled March 14th I found that the majority of entries on the first page of results referred to a rather less well-known celebration that perhaps doesn't bear repeating on a family blog site. Live and learn.
The puzzle can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20160314/13858/
Definitions are underlined.
Today is Pi Day, so-called because (in American notation) it's 3/14 - it's also Einstein's birthday. However when I Googled March 14th I found that the majority of entries on the first page of results referred to a rather less well-known celebration that perhaps doesn't bear repeating on a family blog site. Live and learn.
The puzzle can be found here if the usual channels are unavailable: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/puzzles/crossword/20160314/13858/
Definitions are underlined.
| Across | |
| 3 | Dread man losing his head during film (5) |
| PANIC - {m}AN (man losing his head, i.e. the word "man" without its initial letter) inside (during) PIC (film) | |
| 7 | Shopkeeper is more vulgar, we hear (6) |
| GROCER - homophone (we hear) of GROSSER (more vulgar). We've had this homophone a couple of times before, including from Dazzler himself in Quicky 31 (though in that case it was to clue part of greengrocer). | |
| 8 | Obligation on American (4) |
| ONUS - ON + US (American) | |
| 9 | Prison officer's in front of islander (8) |
| MAJORCAN - CAN (Prison) with MAJOR (officer) in front. E.g. Rafa Nadal. | |
| 10 | Affected part of week after returning (4) |
| FAKE - hidden reversed (part of ... returning) in weEK AFter | |
| 11 | Doctor amuses with a quote about one being hardly audible (5,2,1,5) |
| QUIET AS A MOUSE - anagram (Doctor) of AMUSES + (with) A QUOTE, about I (one). An expression in neither Chambers nor Collins but ODO has it. | |
| 15 | Purpose of extremely divisive ending (13) |
| DETERMINATION - D{ivisiv}E (extremely divisive, i.e. the first and last letters of the word "divisive") + TERMINATION (ending) | |
| 16 | British rugby player almost forming league (4) |
| BLOC - B (British) + LOC{k} (rugby player almost, i.e. the word "lock" (rugby player) without its final letter). A lock is either member of the second row in the scrum. | |
| 18 | Guard the wandering girl (8) |
| DAUGHTER - anagram (wandering) of GUARD THE | |
| 20 | Arguments in banks (4) |
| ROWS - double definition | |
| 21 | Dog runs from underground worker (6) |
| COLLIE - COLLIE{r} (runs from underground worker, the word "collier" (underground worker) without the letter "r" (runs)) | |
| 22 | Bring to mind agreement accepted by the first lady (5) |
| EVOKE - OK (agreement) inside (accepted by) EVE (the first lady) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Make a fuss about heart of hurt animal (8) |
| CREATURE - CREATE (Make a fuss) about {h}UR{t} (heart of hurt, i.e. the middle letters of the word "hurt") | |
| 2 | Mirror in Quebec house (4) |
| ECHO - hidden in (in) QuebEC HOuse. | |
| 3 | Make public declaration in favour of request (8) |
| PROCLAIM - PRO (in favour of) + CLAIM (request). I can't say the claim=request equivalence immediately sprang to mind, but ODO has one definition of claim as "to formally request or demand". | |
| 4 | Time of day when nobody lacks energy (4) |
| NOON - NO-ON{e} (nobody lacks energy, i.e the word "no-one" without the letter "e" (energy)) | |
| 5 | Challenge prisoner over van (8) |
| CONFRONT - CON (prisoner) over FRONT (van) | |
| 6 | Get rid ofboat out East (4) |
| JUNK - double definition | |
| 12 | Duty constraining queen to keep fit (8) |
| EXERCISE - EXCISE (Duty) around (constraining) ER (queen) | |
| 13 | Reveal girl's put on a little weight (8) |
| ANNOUNCE - ANN (girl) on OUNCE (a little weight) | |
| 14 | Country a novel is written about (8) |
| SLOVENIA - anagram (written about) of A NOVEL IS | |
| 17 | Take turns playing polo (4) |
| LOOP - anagram (playing) of POLO. I think you need to read "Take turns" in the sense of making turns rather than the usual meaning. | |
| 18 | Repeatedly imitate bird once (4) |
| DODO - DO (imitate) twice (repeatedly) | |
| 19 | On the radio totally divine (4) |
| HOLY - homophone (On the radio) of WHOLLY (totally) | |