I was just too busy to write this post for last week’s Guardian Prize crossword, but let me know if you want any of its answers explained.
This time around, we have a setter called Brockwell. The jury’s out – he or she tries hard, certainly, but now and then stretches the rules. Anyway let’s dive in.
9 across: Insufficient time for female investigator (9)
DEFECTIVE the definition part is ‘insufficent’. The clue tells us ‘time for female’, meaning ‘replace a T with an F’ in ‘detective’ (investigator) || eventually this sort of thing becomes second nature
10 across: Single bloke recalled bedding male icon (5)
EMOJI ‘eoji’ is ‘i joe’ (single bloke) recalled (i.e. backwards); and ‘bedding male’ means it has an ‘m’ stuck in it || took me a fair while – not bad
11 across: Silent picture (5)
STILL a double definition – both words mean the answer || which seems a boring type of clue, but the idea is that the combination of the two definitions takes you down a misleading path – not that that works in this case.
12 across: Revolutionary record by Steps needing no introduction for 19a (9)
PLEASURES The answer to 19a is ‘joy’, and that is the definition part; ‘pl’ is revolutionary record (LP backwards), and ‘easures’ is ‘measures’ (steps) without its introduction.
13 across: Some junk now normal in X ? (7)
UNKNOWN It’s a hidden word: ‘… junk now normal …’ ; the definiton is ‘X’, which is typically referred to as the ‘unknown’ in mathematical equations
14 across: Spice girl briefly in love with total animal (7)
OPOSSUM ‘pos’ is ‘Spice girl (posh) briefly (i.e. not all of it) – we find it in (i.e. inserted into) ‘o sum’ — i.e. love (o) and sum (total) || for those not yet aware, ‘love’ in a cryptic crossword often means zero (think of tennis), which then can come in many forms such as ‘o’, ‘nil’, etc.
17 across: Sacred druid making regular sacrifies for Irish king (5)
ARDRI -a-r-d -r-i- is ‘sacred druid’ with every other letter missing (i.e. making regular sacrifices; and Ardri, naturally, as Brockwell expects everyone with half a brain cell to be well aware, is an ancient title meaning ‘high king’
19 across: Jimmy Case trapping ball is a delight (3)
JOY ‘jy’ is ‘Jimmy Case’, because these two letters are the outside and the remaining letters (in this case ‘imm’) are on the inside. The ‘outer’ letters are referred to in various crafty ways – usually as ‘extremes’ or ‘container’, but in this instance it’s ‘case’. Anyway, this case is trapping a ball (‘o’).
20 across: Doctor eating in European capital – for example ? (5)
DINER This drove me nuts. Doctor (‘dr’) eating ‘in’ is ‘dinr’ – I wanted there to be an ‘a’ to make it Dinar, because that is an example of European money/coin (i.e. capital) – but how to account for the ‘a’ ??? Meanwhile, a ‘dr’ eating ‘in E’ (in, followed by ‘E’uropean capital (first letter of European)) makes diner — but there is nothing obvious in the clue that defines a diner. Finally I understood the question mark was doing its usual work here – ‘doctor eating’ is an example of a diner.
21 across: Lady in lingerie knocked back after endless sin and poison (7)
ENVENOM ‘env’ is an endless sin, because it’s ‘envy’ without the end letter. Then we have ‘mone’ (one of the well known pandemic profiteers, previously known for her lingerie business) backwards. It means poison as a verb, obv.
22 across: Lynx Africa oddly choking adult in California (7)
CARACAL Lynx is the definition (google it); ‘arac’ is the odd letters of Africa (arc) tightly grasping (so, choking) ‘a’ (for adult). It’s all in ‘cal’ which is a common abbreviation for California
24 across: Fly page in Paradise Lost (9)
DISAPPEAR ‘lost’ signals that we should make an anagram of ‘Paradise’ — the letters are lost in the sense that they have gone wild and crazy. We then stic a p in it (page in…). We then get disappear, in the sense of run off very quickly.
26 across: Encouragement when son gets amongst Chelsea (9)
BOOST A Chelsea boot is a well-known type of boot — popularised by celebs in swinging sixties London. Stick ‘s’ for son in among the letters of ‘boot’ and you get the answer
28 across: Henry and Jack holding fine catches (5)
HOOKS That’s ‘h’ for henry and ‘os’ for Jack (OS for ‘o’rdinary ‘s’eaman, and Jack Tar, both mean the same thing in crosswordland – a sailor). So far we have ‘hos’ — now we make it ‘hold’ something which means fine, meaning we put ‘OK’ in it.
29 across: Echo article about timeless movie character devoted to 12 (9)
EPICUREAN the definition (slightly dodgily) is ‘character devoted to pleasures’; the timeless movie is ‘picure’ (picture, without the ‘t’), and we have ‘e’ (for echo) and ‘an’ (article) ‘about’ it (i.e. around it)
1 down: Where to find drugs in Exeter – for a price (4)
ODDS E (for ecstasy) is commonly used in cryptics to mean drug(s). You will find plenty of E’s, of course if you look at the odds of Exeter (i.e. the odd letters); yep, that’s it – and in the betting world, ‘the price’ can be used interchangeably-ish with ‘the odds’.
2 down: Cheers rising with game in danger (2, 4)
AT RISK ‘at’ is ‘ta’ (cheers) backwards (rising). ‘risk’ is a well-known board game.
3 down: Islander’s local inn is heaving (10)
SCILLONIAN ‘heaving’ signals the anagram – of ‘local inn is’ – the word means someone from the Scilly Isles
4 down: Dr Livingstone finally getting leg over in Berkshire residence? (6)
PIGPEN ‘gp’ is Dr, and ‘e’ is the last letter of Livingstone (Livingstone finally); so far we have ‘gpe’. The latter gets pin (leg) over it (i.e. wrapped around it), which gives us ‘pigpen‘. A Berkshire is a type of pig – so ‘Berkshire residence’ is the definition part. || that was tricky
5 down: Funeral maybe set up inside by no mere coincidence (8)
CEREMONY ‘Funeral maybe’ is the definition part – i.e. a funeral is an example of the answer. It’s “set up inside …” because it’s a hidden word backwards in ‘by no mere coincidence’
6 down: All-points bulletin (4)
NEWS It involves all the compass points, N, S, E and W, and it’s a bulletin
8 down: Fall head over heels for lager (4)
PILS slip (fall) upside down (head over heels)
13 down: Custom in states north of Georgia (5)
USAGE ‘usa’ is states, and they are above/before (north of) ‘ge’ for Georgia || that’s the internet code for the country Georgia, not the US state, which is GA.
15 down: Bully to arrange a fight (5, 5)
ORDER ABOUT the definition is ‘bully’ as a verb; and the slightly cryptic bit is that ‘arrange a fight’ means ‘order a bout’
16 down: Decent interpretation of Amol Rajan’s starter (5)
MORAL ‘interpretation of’ signals the anagram, of the letters ‘amol’ and ‘r’ (starter of Rajan).
18 down: Fool is working around current split (8)
DIVISION ‘div’ (slang for fool) ‘is’ (is) ‘on’ (working – as in: turned on) wrapped around I (the symbol for electric current in electronics and physics textbooks)
19, 22 down: Actress rates lime juice cocktail (9)
JAMIE LEE CURTIS cocktail – as in mixture – is signalling the anagram here, of ‘rates lime juice’.
23 down: Tighter bum following introduction to calisthenics (6)
CLOSER a ‘loser’ is a ‘bum’ in US slang, and it follows ‘c’, which is the introduction to calisthenics || a proper fun clue, but a bit on the doable side
24 down: Hospital consumed by boy having elevated pulse (4)
DAHL ‘dal’ is ‘lad’ backwards (having elevated), and it consumes ‘h’ for hospital; the result is a pulse, in the sense of legume.
25 down: Stick-up job (4)
POST Just a double definition – post as in ‘stick up’ on the wall.
27 down: Author with crazy notion to pinch old car (4, 8)
TONI MORRISON The old car is a Morris, and we have an anagram of (crazy letter ordering of) ‘notion’ around it.
So what have we learned?
Brockwell has some moments of inspiration, very occasionally. Also I learned why ‘I’ stands for current. I mean, I knew that without thinking about it — because crosswords, and O’level physics — however I stopped for a moment to ask myself why on Earth is ‘I’ used for electric current? Well, turns out it comes from the French, who used ‘intensité‘ to refer to the amount of electricty flowing. The symbol I was used by André-Marie Ampère himself.
A Solver with Opinions 
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