After the last couple of weeks' offerings from the DMs that were enough to drive a man to drink even more than usual, it was a pleasant relief to get something that was significantly more attainable to the solver on the Cricklewood omnibus (viz. your humble blogger).
Which is not by any means to say this was a pushover. But, Jeff served up an enjoyable puzzle with his usual mix of some quite tricky stuff tempered with some more generous fare that enabled those of us further down the food chain to get a strong foothold and complete the solve within a feasible timescale, so grateful thanks to our setter.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(--); omitted letters indicated by {-}
| Across |
| 1 | Small and flipping serious bunkers are things to catch drivers (5,5) |
| SPEED TRAPS - S (small) + reversal of DEEP (flipping serious) + TRAPS (bunkers - the sand traps that have a mysterious magnetic attraction for golf balls) |
| 6 | Influential company take month off work (4) |
| OPUS - {OCT}OPUS. October leaves (take month off) the organisation whose tentacles spread everywhere in search of global domination. Must admit I'd not come across 'octopus' before as a term of art for a large organisation, but the metaphor was compelling and apparently it is a well recognised usage. |
| 9 | Whip up fruits (6,4) |
| RIDING CROP - "Up" is a term for being on horseback (hence RIDING) + CROP = fruits. Answer went in with some confidence, but needed to do a post-solve check on the "up" usage. |
| 10 | About to introduce museum’s fizzy drink (4) |
| CAVA - CA (about - circa) goes in front of (introduces) VA (museum), giving us the Spanish bubbly |
| 12 | Soldiers struggle with magazine? (6) |
| REVIEW - RE (soldiers - our old pals in the Royal Engineers) + VIE (struggle) + W (abbrev. with) |
| 13 | Nutty guys start to talk during act (8) |
| DEMENTED - MEN (guys) + T (start to Talk) 'during' DEED (act) |
| 15 | You’re supposed to go off in this carriage (8,3) |
| SLEEPING CAR - Barely cryptic cryptic - unless I'm missing something far more subtle... |
| 18 | After end of series rotten show travels — but not very far (6,5) |
| STONES THROW - S (end of serieS) followed by (after) *(ROTTEN SHOW) with "travels" as the anagrind |
| 21 | Being this 1 Down ’ad too many! (3-5) |
| RAT ARSED - *(SARTRE) - 1 Down - + 'AD also in the mix, with the anagrind being the fact that J-P had enjoyed one over the eight. No idea how to categorise this clue - it's a bit 'cryptic & Lit' but not... Anyway, answer was clear enough once 1 Down was in place. The answer seemed to provoke a bit of eyebrow action amongst some of the more conservative types hanging out on the Times Forum. Personally I think it's a great bit of contemporary colloquial English, but then again no one I know would ever regard me as an arbiter of good taste. |
| 22 | One villain in California is a chirpy type (6) |
| CICADA - I CAD (one villain) 'in' CA (abbrev. California) |
| 24 | Last in Oaks? You can have a punt on it but it’s a fiddle! (4) |
| SCAM - S (last in OakS) + CAM (river where punters stand at the correct end of the vessel) |
| 25 | Solitary carp, an aquatic creature (6,4) |
| HERMIT CRAB - HERMIT (solitary) + CRAB (to carp / whinge) |
| 26 | Extravagant oil, primarily (4) |
| OTTO - OTT (over the top - extravagant) + O (Oil primarily) referring to the perfume essence more usually called Attar from the Damask rose. Apparently. Extravagant seems to be doing double duty, as does oil in giving us the second O. The required answer was clear, but the full parsing left me a bit baffled and I will leave it to the senior pros here to comment further. Semi & Lit crossed my mind but I don't think it is... |
| 27 | Evil test with beagle is something some folk find creepy (4,6) |
| STAG BEETLE - *(TEST + BEAGLE) with "evil" as the anagrind |
| Down |
| 1 | Reject a lot of rubbish about writer and philosopher (6) |
| SARTRE - TRAS{H} reversed (reject a lot of rubbish) + RE (about) for the thinker who missed out on inclusion in the Bruces' Philosophers' Song (tricky rhyming material) but featured in the priceless Python sketch in his honour which can be viewed here http://www.openculture.com/2011/11/monty_pythons_flying_philosophy.html for anyone with eight minutes to spare. |
| 2 | Plant that might be put in joint (6) |
| ENDIVE - EN (put in - as in something en croute) + DIVE (joint - as in dodgy bar). A suitably curly clue. |
| 3 | Opener in dry season bats for ages (7,5) |
| DONKEYS YEARS - KEY (opener) 'in' *(DRY SEASON) with "bats" as the anagrind |
| 4 | Royal has brilliant career (4) |
| RACE - R (abbrev. Royal ) + ACE (brilliant) |
| 5 | Sporting promoter occupies gym for the moment (3,7) |
| PRO TEMPORE - *(PROMOTER) - with "sporting" as the anagrind - inside (occupies) PE (gym), giving us the full version of the more common pro tem. |
| 7 | Rehearsal for short part of play, postponed? (8) |
| PRACTICE - PR{O} ('for' short) + ACT (part of play) + ICE (postponed - as in "on ice"). I think the "ice" bit needs to be viewed in the context of this being a Down clue - i.e. PRO and ACT are above - 'on' - ice, hence the question mark indicating something a bit cryptic is going on. |
| 8 | The usualflag (8) |
| STANDARD - After the intricacies of the previous clue, a refreshingly straightforward DD |
| 11 | Cage: “Why listen?”, blasting this instrument (5,7) |
| PENNY WHISTLE - PEN (cage) + *(WHY LISTEN) with "blasting" as the anagrind for this apparently inflation-proof device |
| 14 | Clear soldiers, with time, from the village (10) |
| SETTLEMENT - SETTLE (clear - as in a debt) + MEN (soldiers) + T (time) |
| 16 | Journalists in Spain, therefore getting black coffee (8) |
| ESPRESSO - PRESS (journalists) 'in' ES (Spain) + SO (therefore) |
| 17 | Make smallertype of bridge (8) |
| CONTRACT - Another generous DD |
| 19 | Repeat the usual claptrap (6) |
| PARROT - PAR (the usual - or not, in my case, when on the golf course) + ROT (claptrap) |
| 20 | It’s good to wander in a punt (6) |
| GAMBLE - G (good) + AMBLE (to wander) |
| 23 | Superior adhesive’s used up (4) |
| SMUG - Reverse of GUMS (adhesive's used up) |