| Music: Love, Revisited Time: 50 minutes I found this one really tough, mainly due to several answers I simply did not know. As in Mephisto or the Club Monthly, it is possible to laboriously construct unknowns from the cryptics, but at least in Mephisto you will have numerous crossing letters to confirm your guess, Being tonight's blogger, I ended up having to confirm my potential mombles through post-solve research, and I am pleased to say they were correct. But they very easily could have been wrong. I suspect those who had heard of everything in this puzzle might have had a rather different experience, as most of the answers went in very quickly. Some of the cryptics were quite clever, but it was certainly possible to biff most of the answers, which is what I did once I got going. Across | |
| 1 | Ball game’s all over without one got in by Canaries? (9) |
| BILLIARDS - BI(A(I)LL backwards)RDS, where DBE is indicated by the question mark. | |
| 6 | A lot of ginger, say, in jelly (5) |
| ASPIC - A SPIC[e], a bit of a chestnut with many variations. | |
| 9 | What could make matrons beam (7) |
| TRANSOM - anagram of MATRONS, which I believe has been seen before. | |
| 10 | Finish old cheese item with hard-to-remember name (7) |
| DOOBRIE - DO + O BRIE, the one I did not know, the UK equivalent of a doodad or a doohickey. | |
| 11 | Hunger for money (3) |
| YEN - Double definition, and quite a simple one. | |
| 12 | Get annoyed with detail in embroidery (11) |
| NEEDLEPOINT - NEEDLE + POINT in entirely different senses. | |
| 14 | Short trip that is taken by class (6) |
| SORTIE - SORT + I.E> | |
| 15 | Sneak home late (8) |
| INFORMER - IN + FORMER. | |
| 17 | Bottom perhaps ruined hat with inane transformation (8) |
| ATHENIAN - anagram of HAT + INANE. Bottom, and all the other cast members, were nominally Athentians. | |
| 19 | Divided affection between Charlie and Nick, initially (6) |
| CLOVEN - C(LOVE)N[ick]. Charlie is already a 'C' in the NATO alphabet. | |
| 22 | Smooth sailor — with uniform splitting I’m a star attraction (11) |
| PLANETARIUM - PLANE + TAR + I(U)M. | |
| 23 | Bread for one of the water birds (3) |
| COB - Double definition, both a bit obscure but gettable. | |
| 25 | Shells, perhaps, put back in a cleansing solution (7) |
| AMMONIA - AMMO + IN backwards + A. | |
| 27 | Instrument’s a relic, unfortunately possessing little volume (7) |
| CLAVIER - Anaagram of A RELIC + V. The instrument played by one of Bottom's fellow-actors. | |
| 28 | Trim old penny black (5) |
| DINKY - D + INKY. I don't think 'trim' is a very exact synonym here. | |
| 29 | Nutcracker, say, partly exuded sap when used badly (3,2,4) |
| PAS DE DEUX - Anagram of EXUDED SAP, where 'partly' goes with 'Nutcracker', and not with 'exuded'! | |
| Down | |
| 1 | The two years together in basic accommodation (5) |
| BOTHY - BOTH + Y, no problem for me, but maybe for some. | |
| 2 | Pupil of the French composer in England meeting resistance (7) |
| LEARNER - LE + ARNE + R. | |
| 3 | Where words go together without India’s lack of feeling? (11) |
| INSENTIENCE - IN SENT(I)ENCE. | |
| 4 | What propels black sheep to swap places (6) |
| RAMJET - JET RAM with the components reversed. Roger! | |
| 5 | Rising river breaking bank is not one’s first concern (8) |
| SIDELINE - SID(NILE upside-down)E, where 'side' is inelegantly used to construct...'side'! | |
| 6 | A run past (3) |
| AGO - A GO, one from the Quickie. | |
| 7 | Cease cutting hair style daily (3,4) |
| PER DIEM - PER(DIE)M. | |
| 8 | Top river site for tobogganing (6,3) |
| CRESTA RUN - CREST + ARUN, which is a river in either Sussex or Nepal, take your pick - I hadn't head of either one of them, nor of the toboggen run, but it seemed likely enough. | |
| 13 | Where to seek help with unruly attendant (7,4) |
| PROBLEM PAGE - PROBLEM + PAGE in entirely different senses, the section with the Agony Aunts. | |
| 14 | Damp lawns treated for waterlogged area (9) |
| SWAMPLAND - anagram of DAMP LAWNS, a very apt one. | |
| 16 | Privy, in the style of backbencher getting illumination with motion (4,4) |
| LAVA LAMP - LAV + ALA MP. I thought 'loo' was going to be used to make 'loop', but not so. | |
| 18 | English copywriter under hotel chief (7) |
| HEADMAN - H + E ADMAN. | |
| 20 | Inoculant needs a small volume injected into climber (7) |
| VACCINE - V(A CC)INE. | |
| 21 | Fish dishes include prime pieces of salmon and cod (6) |
| PISCES - PI(S[almon],C[od])ES, a rather busy cryptic. | |
| 24 | Spar containing radium and alkaline mineral (5) |
| BORAX - BO(RA)X. | |
| 26 | No military ships will abandon velocity (3) |
| NAY - NA[v]Y, a simple letter removal-clue. | |