I thought this was a very classy puzzle from Joker, with elegant and succinct cluing throughout - lovely craftsmanship. With such high quality throughout, singling out any particular clues for special mention almost feels inappropriate, but let's just say 22a, 23a, 16d and 21d struck me as particularly good in term of their economy and elegance, and with 9dn being my personal favourite.
This, I believe, is a particularly tricky one to place on the "degree of difficulty" spectrum. On the one hand there are no obscure references (apart from 1dn being an unusual word - but generously clued) and most of the definitions are pretty literal (although 9dn is a very nice cryptic definition). On the other hand, the succinct (one might even say 'terse', albeit in a totally non-derogatory way) cluing might prove somewhat disconcerting to newcomers. It certainly took me a few minutes to get into the rhythm.
Anyway, whether you find it relatively straightforward or rather hard, I hope you all enjoy this fine example of the setter's art as much as I did. Thanks very much to Joker for a lovely puzzle.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(--): omitted letters indicated by {-}
This, I believe, is a particularly tricky one to place on the "degree of difficulty" spectrum. On the one hand there are no obscure references (apart from 1dn being an unusual word - but generously clued) and most of the definitions are pretty literal (although 9dn is a very nice cryptic definition). On the other hand, the succinct (one might even say 'terse', albeit in a totally non-derogatory way) cluing might prove somewhat disconcerting to newcomers. It certainly took me a few minutes to get into the rhythm.
Anyway, whether you find it relatively straightforward or rather hard, I hope you all enjoy this fine example of the setter's art as much as I did. Thanks very much to Joker for a lovely puzzle.
Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(--): omitted letters indicated by {-}
| Across | |
| 1 | Self-assertive dog biting part of leg (7) |
| PUSHING - PUG (dog) taking in (biting) SHIN (part of leg) | |
| 5 | Stop circulating mail (4) |
| POST - *(STOP) with "circulating" signposting the anagram | |
| 7 | What’s ruled in true metres (5) |
| REALM - REAL (true) + M (metres) | |
| 8 | Former newspaper, say (7) |
| EXPRESS - EX (former) + PRESS (newspaper) | |
| 10 | One parliamentarian is a devil (3) |
| IMP - I (one) MP (parliamentarian) | |
| 11 | Take down girl’s garment (9) |
| DISMANTLE - DI'S (girl's) MANTLE (garment - a kind of cloak) | |
| 13 | Outcry where university rower embraces priest (6) |
| UPROAR - U (university) + OAR (rower) 'embraces' PR (priest - abbrev. of Pastor) | |
| 14 | Decoration of lavish ceremony leading to Order of Merit (6) |
| POMPOM - POMP (lavish ceremony) in front of (leading to) OM (Order of Merit) | |
| 17 | Mentioned earlier as help about a vocal number? (9) |
| AFORESAID - AS AID (as help) around (about) FORE (sounds like 'four' - a vocal number). Nice QC clue, I thought - particularly clear definition compensates for somewhat tricky wordplay. | |
| 19 | Self-importance displayed by the gods (3) |
| EGO - Hidden in (displayed by) thEGOds | |
| 20 | Ban is to operate on worked amber (7) |
| EMBARGO - GO (to operate) after (on) *(AMBER) with "worked" indicating the rearrangement | |
| 22 | Herb is a man’s name (5) |
| BASIL - DD - simple but elegant | |
| 23 | SupportRemain (4) |
| STAY - DD | |
| 24 | Slim profits ultimately got by loan provider (7) |
| SLENDER - S (last letter - 'ultimately' - of profitS) + LENDER (loan provider) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Quiet and well-spoken — having gone to pieces? (11) |
| PARTICULATE - P (quiet - musical notation) + ARTICULATE (well-spoken), giving a scientific term meaning "in the form of minute separate particles". Not a word I was familiar with, but seemed feasible enough and the wordplay was compelling. | |
| 2 | Soldier’s eating new fish (7) |
| SNAPPER - SAPPER (soldier) ingesting (eating) N (new) | |
| 3 | I am to act as a go-between next (9) |
| IMMEDIATE - I'M (I am) + MEDIATE (to act as a go between) | |
| 4 | Like a fry-up— grand, right and simple (6) |
| GREASY - G (grand) + R (right) + EASY (simple) | |
| 5 | Something in orange piping — not fashionable or good (3) |
| PIP - PIP{in}{g} - i.e. PIPING minus IN (fashionable) and G (good) | |
| 6 | Son cried and did some housework (5) |
| SWEPT - S (son) + WEPT (cried) | |
| 9 | What makes flat bread in a cooker (5,6) |
| STEAM ROLLER - ROLL (bread) inside (in a) STEAMER (cooker) | |
| 12 | Like something one won’t catch a video lab processing (9) |
| AVOIDABLE - *(A VIDEO LAB) with "processing" signalling the anagram | |
| 15 | Very glad purchaser initially rented (7) |
| PLEASED - P (Purchaser initially) + LEASED (rented) | |
| 16 | Islands, distant ones with no name (6) |
| FAROES - FAR (distant) + O{n}ES (ones with no name - i.e. minus the N) | |
| 18 | Death notice about king in revolution (5) |
| ORBIT - OBIT (death notice) goes around (about) R (king) | |
| 21 | Take power from appeal to God for some light (3) |
| RAY - {p}RAY - P(power) removed from 'appeal to God' | |