A tough one today from Rongo, providing a good bridge to the 15x15 crossword (although perhaps less so this week). I came in a bit shy of 17 minutes, twice the time of Tuesday's QC which I did just before this. It made for a very satisfying solve as the difficulty came (mostly) from misdirection rather than obscure general knowledge, with pretty much all the answers being everyday words. Well worth persevering with if you found it a struggle, for there were some cracking clues: I liked the novelty of 5ac and the aha! moment of 19ac, but I loved the surface-level commentary on the motivations of the creator in both 1d and 14d. Honourable mentions also to a lovely cryptic definition at 10d, and the dilemma of a lazy-bones at 12d. Excellent puzzle, much enjoyed - many thanks to Rongo!
| Across | |
| 1 | Simple vehicle cut sharp moves (8) |
| PUSHCART - Anagram (moves) of CUT SHARP. | |
| 5 | General sense that a lot of people studying science end with! (4) |
| GIST - Only parsed post solve: a scientist's area of expertise will often give the title ____gist. Astrologist, for example. (Joke) | |
| 7 | Bird’s carefree frolic (4) |
| LARK - double definition. | |
| 8 | Ma, create fantastic meal with scones (5,3) |
| CREAM TEA - Anagram (fantastic) of MA CREATE. | |
| 9 | Ecstasy widespread after a number arriving at Spanish island (8) |
| TENERIFE - E (ecstasy) RIFE (widespread) after TEN (a number). "Arriving at" is an elegant example of a "link-word" between wordplay and definition: in the surface reading it describes drug-running; in the cryptic reading it means "after doing the wordplay, one arrives at the answer". | |
| 11 | Bravo for flamenco in East End pit? (3) |
| OLE - A pit is HOLE, pronounced 'ole in the East End. | |
| 13 | Get bigger Detective Inspector in front of deceased (6) |
| DILATE - DI (detective inspector) afront LATE (deceased) | |
| 16 | Shouts encouragement in board game with centre hidden (6) |
| CHEERS - CHEQUERS (board game) with the middle letters (QU) taken out of sight. | |
| 18 | Supportstage for Journey (3) |
| LEG - Double definition. | |
| 19 | Air simple kind of shirt covering jeans (8) |
| TELEVISE - TEE (simple kind of shirt) covering LEVI'S (jeans). My last one in. | |
| 20 | Reversing cap, one polite chap is hard-working (8) |
| DILIGENT - DIL (LID = cap, reversed) I (one) GENT (polite chap) | |
| 22 | Grand, in the style of festive event (4) |
| GALA - G (grand) A LA (à la, in the style of). | |
| 23 | Tory puffed out air in speech (4) |
| BLUE - BLEW (puffed out air), in speech the same as BLUE. | |
| 24 | European among bidders wasted chicken feed, perhaps (8) |
| BIRDSEED - E(uropean) among/inside an anagram (wasted) of BIDDERS. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Guided holy man from Sodom before heartless end (7) |
| PILOTED - PI (holy - short for pious) LOT (man from Sodom, whose wife became a pillar of the community); ED = E[n]D, heartlessly/without centre. Questionable judgement from God (and indeed everyone involved) in this merry little tale. | |
| 2 | Throttle holy man with right point of view (8) |
| STRANGLE - St. (saint/holy man) with R(ight) ANGLE (point of view) | |
| 3 | Designer is part of circle to beat English court (9) |
| ARCHITECT - ARC (part of circle) HIT (beat) E(nglish) Ct. (court) | |
| 4 | Article appearing in Echo after Thursday (3) |
| THE - E (Echo in phonetic alphabet) after TH. (Thursday) | |
| 5 | Maybe Sam Spade sticks with another tool for gardener (7) |
| GUMSHOE - GUMS (sticks) with HOE (another [i.e., not a spade] tool for gardener). Never heard of him: a PI in the Maltese Falcon. "Gumshoe" for detective derives from the stealthiness afforded by said footwear. | |
| 6 | Refinery melts ore, somehow extracting oxygen (7) |
| SMELTER - anagram (somehow) of MELTS ORE, with the O (oxygen) removed/extracted. | |
| 10 | Endless series of steps to get to the next level (9) |
| ESCALATOR - a lovely cryptic definition. On the surface it describes a Sisyphean task; in the cryptic reading it accurately, if obliquely, describes an escalator. | |
| 12 | Vegetative lump partly turned to rise, unsupported (8) |
| LEVITATE - "Partly" means some of the letters of vegETATIVE Lump, "turned" means reversed. Great surface! A couch potato thinks about answering the door, thinks better of it. (The answer would be to levitate, but alas.) | |
| 14 | Perhaps Shakespeare under the weather provides Iago’s motivation? (3,4) |
| ILL WILL - William = Shakespeare, perhaps. William under the weather = ILL WILL. An excellent clue: "ill will" might cover it, but Iago's motives are open to a lot of interpretation. Here we have an interesting alternative theory for the creation of this villain: Shakespeare was suffering from a thoroughly miserable hangover. | |
| 15 | Iago’s end almost excited worry (7) |
| AGONISE - Anagram (excited) of IAGO'S EN (end, almost = en). Iago again, this time (spoiler alert) with a surface-level reference to his imprisonment and torture. | |
| 17 | Supervisor to attract aliens northward (7) |
| STEWARD - DRAW (attract) ETs (aliens), written upwards/northward. | |
| 21 | Decline eastern bishop twice (3) |
| EBB - E(astern) ; B(ishop), twice. | |