An enjoyable offering from Mara. Took me about five and a half minutes, so I'm thinking it was on the easier side of average difficulty. What did you think?
There was nothing too devious in the constructions, and no real obscurities as fas as I can see, although MINARET, SAUTERNE and the required meanings of BLOOMER are probably only known to me from crosswords.
Had some fun with the anagrams today, with no less than seven of them appearing in this puzzle. If you list all of the anagram indicators (or anagrinds, as Horryd insists on calling them), it reads like a haiku describing my university days:
strangely
slipping
awfully
desperate
terribly
drunk
wrong
Makes you wonder just how many possibilties there are, doesn't it? And how hard it must be to find one that hasn't been used before.
Anyway, that's not what I'm being paid for, so let's get on with the parsing of the clues (which is also not what I'm being paid for).....
Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined. Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised. Then there's the answer IN BOLD, followed by the parsing of the wordplay. (ABC)* means 'anagram of ABC'.
There was nothing too devious in the constructions, and no real obscurities as fas as I can see, although MINARET, SAUTERNE and the required meanings of BLOOMER are probably only known to me from crosswords.
Had some fun with the anagrams today, with no less than seven of them appearing in this puzzle. If you list all of the anagram indicators (or anagrinds, as Horryd insists on calling them), it reads like a haiku describing my university days:
strangely
slipping
awfully
desperate
terribly
drunk
wrong
Makes you wonder just how many possibilties there are, doesn't it? And how hard it must be to find one that hasn't been used before.
Anyway, that's not what I'm being paid for, so let's get on with the parsing of the clues (which is also not what I'm being paid for).....
Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined. Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised. Then there's the answer IN BOLD, followed by the parsing of the wordplay. (ABC)* means 'anagram of ABC'.
| Across | |
| 1 | Mistake at the bakery? (7) |
| BLOOMER - "at the bakery" refers to another definition of bloomer, ie a large loaf with diagonal slashes on a rounded top. Actually neither of these definitions is used where I come from, but both are presumably common enough in the UK. They certainly are in Crosswordland. | |
| 5 | Surprise result, winning a few tennis games (5) |
| UPSET - UP (winning) + SET (a few tennis games) | |
| 8 | Lighter carpet in fact, yes terribly, and hard (6,5) |
| SAFETY MATCH - MAT (carpet) in (FACT YES)* + H (hard) | |
| 10 | Shock, with things that are hard recalled (4) |
| STUN - NUTS, reversed. Well nuts are hard to crack, and a 'hard nut' is a tough person. Arfur Daley's minder Terry was well 'ard. | |
| 11 | Simplest, but strangelywritten wrongly (8) |
| MISSPELT - (SIMPLEST)* A word that is commonly misspelt, funnily enough. | |
| 12 | Situated towards the back, like a bird (6) |
| ASTERN - AS (like) + TERN (a bird) | |
| 14 | Unwell, not succeeding without leader (6) |
| AILING - {f}AILING (not succeeding) | |
| 16 | Winedrunk neat, sure! (8) |
| SAUTERNE - (NEAT SURE)* A French sweet wine from the Sauternais region of the Graves section in Bordeaux. So Wiki says anyway. On edit: Actually that would be a Sauternes. A Sauterne is a Californian wine. Many thanks to Ulaca, who knows these things. | |
| 18 | Shocker with Kafka's first novel (4) |
| BOOK - BOO (shocker) + K (Kafka's first) | |
| 20 | Practical and realistic— so grounded? (4-2-5) |
| DOWN-TO-EARTH - Double def I think the second definition is meant to be cryptic, but we refer to a practical and realistic person as being 'grounded', so it could be seen as the same definition re-stated. | |
| 22 | Fishgave off an odour (5) |
| SMELT - Double def | |
| 23 | Duck fat on drake, perhaps, endless (7) |
| MALLARD - LARD (fat) on MAL{e} [male (drake, perhaps), endless] | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Composer’s record overheard (5) |
| LISZT - Homophone (overheard) of LIST (record) Never quite sure where to put the Z in these names, despite being a big fan of Ziggy Niszczot, who played for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the early '80's. | |
| 3 | Crime of a criminal (7) |
| OFFENCE - OF + FENCE (criminal) A fence is a person who deals in stolen goods. Usually named Freddy. | |
| 4 | In essence, a tree swallow (3) |
| EAT - Hidden in essencE A Tree | |
| 6 | Erect— from above or below (3,2) |
| PUTUP - 'From above or below' indicating a palindrome in a Down clue | |
| 7 | Rankslipping on leech! (7) |
| ECHELON - (ON LEECH)* | |
| 9 | Written note in officers’ dining room on time (7) |
| MESSAGE - MESS (officers' dining room) + AGE (time) | |
| 11 | London police carrying rajah's wife up tower (7) |
| MINARET - MET (London police) 'carrying' INAR [RANI (rajah's wife) 'up'] MET is the commonly used abbreviaton for London's Metropolitan Police Service. RANI is Indian royalty. Both commonly found in crosswords. | |
| 13 | Mad sort desperate for fame (7) |
| STARDOM - (MAD SORT)* | |
| 15 | Generous, serving brie all wrong (7) |
| LIBERAL - (BRIE ALL)* | |
| 17 | Duck going in awfully wet, head of linnet drier (5) |
| TOWEL - O (duck) in (WET)* + L (head of linnet) | |
| 19 | Different article in gold (5) |
| OTHER - THE (article) in OR (gold) As you've probably learnt by now, gold is nearly always AU (chemical symbol) or OR (from heraldry). | |
| 21 | Time in moderation (3) |
| ERA - Hiddden in modERAtion | |