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TfTT. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.
Before looking at the answers, if you would like some additional help, click the label below.
Hints...
Some hints and tips:
- The fish at 18A is commonly found in rollmops.
- Seurat was a pointillist.
- The old car marque was rebranded as Triumph in 1959.
And click on this label to get the solution.
Solution and explanation of the answers...
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other
indicators.
Across
7 Begin with top rated solicitor (5,3)
START OUT – STAR (top rated) TOUT (solicitor).
8 Parasite to mark correctly (4)
TICK – Double definition.
9 French city drives one mad (6)
ANGERS – Double definition.
10 Earlier religious leader (5)
PRIOR – Double definition. Our third in a row!
11 I say nothing (3)
EGO – E.G. (for example; say) O (nothing).
12 Crazy German used to feed livestock (6)
MANGER – [Crazy] (German)*.
14 Agent unprofessional to try again? (6)
REPLAY – REP (agent) LAY (“unprofessional”; non-professional). The ? indicates cryptic nature of the wordplay.
16 Turn away catching start of dodgy publicity (6)
ADVERT – AVERT (turn away) [catching] [start of] D{odgy}.
18 Leaderless fish going astray (6)
ERRING – [Leaderless] {h}ERRING (fish).
19 Become unwell in Versailles (3)
AIL – Hidden in, [in], VersAILles.
20 Eccentric, like a Seurat painting (5)
DOTTY – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint.
21 Last to finish on river (6)
ENDURE – END (finish) URE (river).
23 Prophet almost made one scared at first (4)
AMOS – Almost Made One Scared [at first].
24 Bat first - target is one that shouldn't be missed (4,4)
OPEN GOAL – OPEN (bat first) GOAL (target).
Down
1 The usual old car (8)
STANDARD – Double definition. Standard cars were rebranded as Triumphs in 1959.
2 Cheese that is found after beer is drained (4)
BRIE – Outside letters of BeeR [drained] I.E. (that is).
3 Missouri drug addict - Tom? (6)
MOUSER – MO (Missouri) USER (drug addict). Tom as in cat.
4 Drunken Proust in a semi-conscious state (6)
STUPOR – (Proust)* [drunken].
5 "Saint Jack", the revealing entertainer (8)
STRIPPER – ST (saint) RIPPER (Jack the).
6 Cliff's award cut by 20% (4)
SCAR – {o}SCAR (award) without 1/5 of its letters [cut by 20%].
13 Muhammed Ali in terrible rage before match? (8)
GREATEST – [terrible] (rage)* TEST (match). Or so he claimed, hence the ?.
15 Unusual sort of moral ban (8)
ABNORMAL – [sort of] (moral ban)*.
17 Elizabeth begins taming unruly royal (6)
TAYLOR – [begins] T{aming} [unruly] (royal)*.
18 Prime sports team (6)t
ELEVEN – Double definition.
20 For a kick off, don't use my bathroom - that's stupid! (4)
DUMB – Initial letters, [for a kick off], of Don’t Use My Bathroom.
22 Really appreciates lodgings (4)
DIGS – Double definition.
7 Begin with top rated solicitor (5,3)
START OUT – STAR (top rated) TOUT (solicitor).
8 Parasite to mark correctly (4)
TICK – Double definition.
9 French city drives one mad (6)
ANGERS – Double definition.
10 Earlier religious leader (5)
PRIOR – Double definition. Our third in a row!
11 I say nothing (3)
EGO – E.G. (for example; say) O (nothing).
12 Crazy German used to feed livestock (6)
MANGER – [Crazy] (German)*.
14 Agent unprofessional to try again? (6)
REPLAY – REP (agent) LAY (“unprofessional”; non-professional). The ? indicates cryptic nature of the wordplay.
16 Turn away catching start of dodgy publicity (6)
ADVERT – AVERT (turn away) [catching] [start of] D{odgy}.
18 Leaderless fish going astray (6)
ERRING – [Leaderless] {h}ERRING (fish).
19 Become unwell in Versailles (3)
AIL – Hidden in, [in], VersAILles.
20 Eccentric, like a Seurat painting (5)
DOTTY – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint.
21 Last to finish on river (6)
ENDURE – END (finish) URE (river).
23 Prophet almost made one scared at first (4)
AMOS – Almost Made One Scared [at first].
24 Bat first - target is one that shouldn't be missed (4,4)
OPEN GOAL – OPEN (bat first) GOAL (target).
1 The usual old car (8)
STANDARD – Double definition. Standard cars were rebranded as Triumphs in 1959.
2 Cheese that is found after beer is drained (4)
BRIE – Outside letters of BeeR [drained] I.E. (that is).
3 Missouri drug addict - Tom? (6)
MOUSER – MO (Missouri) USER (drug addict). Tom as in cat.
4 Drunken Proust in a semi-conscious state (6)
STUPOR – (Proust)* [drunken].
5 "Saint Jack", the revealing entertainer (8)
STRIPPER – ST (saint) RIPPER (Jack the).
6 Cliff's award cut by 20% (4)
SCAR – {o}SCAR (award) without 1/5 of its letters [cut by 20%].
13 Muhammed Ali in terrible rage before match? (8)
GREATEST – [terrible] (rage)* TEST (match). Or so he claimed, hence the ?.
15 Unusual sort of moral ban (8)
ABNORMAL – [sort of] (moral ban)*.
17 Elizabeth begins taming unruly royal (6)
TAYLOR – [begins] T{aming} [unruly] (royal)*.
18 Prime sports team (6)t
ELEVEN – Double definition.
20 For a kick off, don't use my bathroom - that's stupid! (4)
DUMB – Initial letters, [for a kick off], of Don’t Use My Bathroom.
22 Really appreciates lodgings (4)
DIGS – Double definition.
I think I enjoyed STRIPPER and TAYLOR most. Also DIGS and EGO for their clever concise definitions. I had to think about AIL for a while because ill seemed to be.right there too. Thanks- good workout!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. I liked EGO too.
DeleteSorry. That was me commenting.
DeleteThanks Phil.
ReplyDeleteGood start to the day and had the same response as curryowen.
Many clues were kind to us of, ‘The Grey Brigade’!
Dick and Nell
Glad you found many of the clues kind. I thought it was one of our most straightforward.
DeleteLovely crossword Phil, and one of your less challenging ones I thought - I completed it in 9 minutes. Held up by Scar and Erring, but then I usually find clues where one has to drop the first letter difficult. You might perhaps have rung the changes by cluing Erring as "cockney fish going wrong"!
ReplyDeleteLOI was Angers, got from letter-search once I had the checkers, as it is not a city I know. I was wondering how well others would know it, but in its defence it is I see a reasonable sized place at 150,000, so about the size of Burnley. But would we expect foreigners to know of Burnley?
Many thanks
Cedric
Thanks, Cedric. I rather liked Phil's surface suggesting a meandering shoal; herring are found in vast shoals, but your clue is a good one too. By the way, the city Angers has come up (as part of the wordplay) in a Times QC as recently as October... see here, so I was happy Phil's clue wasn't beyond the pale.
DeleteSorry. In case you hadn't guessed, that was me, but not logged in.
DeleteAlso enjoyed this, many thanks. Never managed to parse SCAR: was stuck on removing a letter from the end, but managed to believe that perhaps someone somewhere gets awarded a scarf…. Ho hum. The brain is a marvel.
ReplyDeleteYou maybe had this in mind... The Fred L. Scarf award.. So your parsing is valid too!
DeleteSorry. I see I wasn't logged in when I commented.
DeleteJust got round to finishing yesterday's QC and thought I'd carry on with the weekend treat...some of these made me pause for thought and a dnf as I lazily entered 14a as 'repeat' - I guess a bit too tired to see that one through properly. I was tempted by Packhard for 1d but it didn't parse so waited for the PDM. Cliff= Scar in my book. Liked Start Out/pen Goal among others. Thanks to you and the team for providing these!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to Phil for an enjoyable challenge which restored my confidence after 5 dnfs on the QC this week. I too started off with ill instead of ail which was, I assume, clever misdirection but sorted out by the Liz Taylor clue which I liked.
ReplyDeleteAlso enjoyed 20d which took a bit of working out and then bingo!
The efforts of the team are much appreciated.
Thanks to all who have commented and enjoyed the puzzle. It would be very remiss of me not to doff my cap to John, who had an unusually high input at the clueing stage where I started out with a fair few "clunkers" !
ReplyDeleteAngers have a soccer team in the top division in France, so should have been well enough known to serious followers of the beautiful game....
Late to this, but highly enjoyable, even if I put "Repeat" for 14ac so dnf.
ReplyDeleteThanks! JamesEd46