A touch on the harder side today from Teazel. I had three blank as my target ten minutes came and went: 1d, 2d and 20ac. The last of these was the first to fall, after I worked out the correct place to put the "it" (no word P_ITR_T_exists). It took a while, though, to see what was going on at 2d - very nicely masked. That left me staring impatiently at 1d, and I threw in the towel as the clock loomed 13. So a DNF. But on the plus side it's always good to see the less-showy parent noun of a household adjective. A good dose of nicely unusual words and wordplay elsewhere made this very good fun. Among other things, I learnt/was reminded that an arcade can be a row of arches - crazy, eh? Many thanks to Teazel!
| Across | |
| 4 | Rows of arches, where one finds amusement? (6) |
| ARCADE - double definition, also applicable to a few arched trees or shrubs. | |
| 7 | Internal dispute politely conducted? (5,3) |
| CIVIL WAR - cryptic definition, with a well-appointed question mark, for civil wars tend to be anything but civil: the English Civil War claimed 10 per cent of the adult male population, and pitted many a family against itself. | |
| 8 | Recordtiny stretch of time (6) |
| MINUTE - double definition. In non-literal contexts, a minute is an instant. | |
| 9 | So menial prepared grain product (8) |
| SEMOLINA - anagram of SO MENIAL. | |
| 10 | Artist catches male bird (4) |
| RHEA - R.A. (artist) catches HE. | |
| 12 | Temporary framework round truck stop is disposed of (8) |
| SCAFFOLD - CAFF (truck stop), around which goes SOLD: one meaning of "to dispose of" is "to sell". | |
| 15 | Poetry and music, for example need high-quality skills (4,4) |
| FINE ARTS - double definition, the second usually humorous/ironic. "Fine arts" now more often refers to the visual arts, but originally applied to any area of human creativity that was to be enjoyed for its own sake, over more practical concerns. | |
| 18 | Revolutionary circle to form again (4) |
| REDO - RED (revolutionary) O (circle). Red, as a symbol of revolution, is a vivid reference to bloodshed, violence, and radical change, with the "red bonnet" being a symbol of the French Revolution long before its adoption in Russia. | |
| 20 | In religious house it is an urgent task (8) |
| PRIORITY - Inside PRIORY (religious house) goes IT. | |
| 22 | Victor, one with wise face (6) |
| VISAGE - V (Victor in phonetic alphabet) I (one) with SAGE (wise) | |
| 23 | Famous singer astonishes sailor (4,4) |
| ROCK STAR - ROCKS (astonishes) TAR (sailor) | |
| 24 | Stop somewhat rude sister (6) |
| DESIST - In the letters of ruDE SISTer, somewhat. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Cunning procedure while out of hospital (4) |
| WILE - Take the H(ospital) out of WHILE. Cunningly simple cryptic procedure: if a shop out of milk has no milk in it, a "while" out of H has no H in it. | |
| 2 | In polite exchange, silver as fee for guide (8) |
| PILOTAGE - Inside an anagram (exchange) of POLITE, put AG (silver). I'd have taken this to simply mean navigation, but I see it can also be a payment. | |
| 3 | Rustic lovers: river birds captivate one (6) |
| SWAINS - SWANS (river birds) captivate I (one). A country sweetheart, before that it was more generally a farmhand or countryman, and before that a servant, from the Old Norse sveinn: a boy or attendant. The OED has a "swainess" as a female lover, and a "swaining" as a noun for "love making, 'spooning'." | |
| 4 | Invasion force mass inside a drama school (6) |
| ARMADA - M(ass) inside A RADA (a drama school). Armada has the same root as army, armour, and, indeed, arm. From Latin or something. | |
| 5 | Ice-cream, cold one (4) |
| CONE - C(old) ONE. | |
| 6 | Comprehensiveselected for special duty (8) |
| DETAILED - double definition. | |
| 11 | In top of forehead, sort of fracture (8) |
| HAIRLINE - double definition. | |
| 13 | Reducedshare (3) |
| CUT - double definition | |
| 14 | In tangled forests king makes strong defence (8) |
| FORTRESS - In an anagram (tangled) of FORESTS goes R (Rex / king). | |
| 16 | Bear being regularly proud and saucy (6) |
| RUPERT - RU (regular/even letters of pRoUd) and PERT (saucy) | |
| 17 | Son with nagging desire to change (6) |
| SWITCH - S(on) W(ith) ITCH (nagging desire). I'm often slow to see the W for with, so it's welcome practice in an easier clue. | |
| 19 | Army team in vehicle (4) |
| TAXI - TA (Army) XI (team = eleven - starting eleven, say) | |
| 21 | Amphibian pulled along, we hear (4) |
| TOAD - which we hear the same as TOWED (pulled along) | |