NTSPP – 189

NTSPP – 189

A Puzzle by Vigo

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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.

A review of this puzzle by Prolixic follows.

A warm welcome back to Vigo with a delightful crossword.  I know that there have been comments about its difficulty but I found it to be perfectly fair in its cluing and not too tricky.  Perhaps I was on the right wavelength for once.  Let us know how you fared below.

Across

1a Lack of furniture worth mentioning (7)
{NOTABLE} – Split 2, 5 the answer indicates a lack of the type of furniture you might have in a dining room.

5a Chemical loses mass when poured into cup (7)
{CHALICE} – An anagram (when poured) of CHEMICAL without the M (loses mass).

10a Cold fish in pit (6)
{STEELY} – A slippery fish inside a word for a pit or messy place.

11a Impress popular writer (8)
{INSCRIBE} – A two letter word meaning popular followed by another word for a writer.

12a Poor personal hygiene’s good for convenience (3)
{BOG} – The abbreviation for body odour followed by an abbreviation for good.

13a Banker’s thickness displayed thoroughly (6)
{DEEPLY} – The name of a river (banker) in Wales / North West England followed by a word used to describe thickness in terms of the number of layers of wood or paper perhaps.

 

14a Soft boy embarrassed about small sacs (8)
{BLADDERS} – The abbreviation for soft used when describing a pencil followed by a word for a boy, a word embarrassed reversed (about) and the abbreviation for small.

15a Wheat product not suitable for all’s a botanist’s concern (5)
{FLORA} – Remove a U (not suitable for all) from the description of milled wheat and follow this with the A from the clue.

16a It’s Midtown (5,4)
{INNER CITY} – An all in one clue.  The position of IT in CITY describes the midtown area of a city.

19a Returning Liberal gets Tory leader hot having taken lion’s share (9)
{BILLIONTH} – Reverse (returning) the abbreviation for Liberal and add the first letter (leader) of Tory and the abbreviation for hot.  Put the “Lion” from the clue inside to find the answer.

21a Small dishrags fraying at the edge lead to indolence (5)
{SLOTH} – The abbreviation for small (again) followed by the central letters (fraying at the edge) of CLOTHS (dishrags).

24a A politician joins journalist to follow good man East on wild rampage (8)
{STAMPEDE} – The A from the clue and the abbreviations for a politician and for a journalist go after the abbreviation for a saint (good man).  Follow this with the abbreviation for East.

26a Intelligence supplied by current university chaps (6)
{ACUMEN} – The abbreviation for a type of electrical current followed by the abbreviation for university and another word for chaps.

27a Mohair regularly stroked by rower (3)
{OAR} – The even letters (regularly) of mohair

28a More active threat in uncontrolled fire (8)
{FRISKIER} – A word for a threat goes inside an anagram (uncontrolled) of FIRE.

29a Churchman starting to move up two grades provides ray of hope (6)
{BEACON} – The name for an ordained person (before they are ordained priest) with the initial letter changed to a higher grade (D to B).

30a Dash insect between poles (7)
{SMIDGEN} – The name of an annoying flying insect goes between SN (poles).

31a Bad publicity preceding Byron’s work? (7)
{ADVERSE} – A word for publicity followed by another word for poems (Byron’s work?).

Down

2d Meatloaf endlessly processed becomes grayish-brown colour (7)
{OATMEAL} – An anagram (processed) of MEATLOAF without the final letter (endlessly).

3d Polar team travels with no regard for time (9)
{ATEMPORAL} – An anagram (travels) of POLAR TEAM.

4d Places surrounded by rest areas (6)
{LAYBYS} – A word meaning places (or puts) goes around (surrounded) the BY from the clue.

6d Armies holding long-time prisoners (8)
{HOSTAGES} – Another word for armies goes around (holding) a word meaning a long time.

7d Revolting right replaces rational core (5)
{LURID} – The abbreviation for right replaced the central letter (core) of a word meaning rational or clear.

8d Eat crab salad in US night spot (7)
{CABARET} – An anagram (salad) of EAT CRAB.

9d Original premise (3,4,6)
{BIG BANG THEORY} – The description of how scientists believe the universe began.

17d California copper delayed workout (9)
{CALCULATE} – The three letter abbreviation for California, the abbreviation for copper (as in the metal) and a word meaning late.

18d First young Jew holds love for El Capitan’s home (8)
{YOSEMITE} – El Capitan is a vertical rock formation in this American national park.  The first letter of Young and a word for a Jew contains (holds) the abbreviation for love.

20d Acting student endlessly improvising first two characters (7)
{INTERIM} – A word for a student with the final letter removed (endlessly) followed by the first two letters of improvising.

22d Deep sleep in hills after shocks (7)
{TREMORS} – The abbreviation for deep sleep inside a word for hills.

23d Stop teacher getting sarcastic (6)
{BARBED} – A word meaning stop followed by the type of degree a teacher may have.

25d Considered return of French follows total retreat (5)
{MUSED} – A word for total is reversed and followed by the reversed French word for of.