NTSPP – 146

Not the Saturday Prize Puzzle – 146

A Puzzle by Prolixic

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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.

A review of this puzzle by crypticsue follows.

A welcome return for Prolixic to the Saturday afternoon spot. I have to say that  I found parts of this crossword  were particularly tricky, and that wasn’t just having to look at the wordplay carefully in order to spell 11a before there were any checking letters!   

Please leave a comment telling us what you thought.  You can also add your assessment by selecting from one to five stars at the bottom of the post.

 

Across

1a           Service provided in mountain area (6)
{MASSIF}  –  A type of religious service followed by the conjunction meaning provided.

5a           Pupil returns drink to get money (8)
{DRAWDOWN}   – The transfer of funds from one account to another.   A reversal of a type of minor person under the care of a guardian,  followed by an informal way of saying drink a drink  all in one go.

9a           Transporter of vehicle seen in the outskirts of Hobart (8)
{HANDCART}  A simple form of one or two wheeled transport.   Insert a motor vehicle (3) into the ‘outskirts’ (outside letters) of HobarT  – you anslo need to remember to insert the conjunction meaning in addition to.

10a         Withdraw a set of books on recreation (6)
{RECANT}   Follow the abbreviation for a recreation ground with A from the clue and the set of books in the Bible dealing with re-creation.

11a         King Henry’s revolutionary verse about career for Russian leader (10) 
{KHRUSHCHEV}   Follow the abbreviations for King and Henry  with a synonym for career in the sense of rush wildly, then the usual crossword ‘revolutionary’ and the abbreviation for Verse.

12a         Look over rock (4)
{REEL}   Simply reverse (over) a suggestive look.

13a         Arrangements made when one leaves organised factory (8)
{NETWORKS}   Remove the A (one) from organised or tidy (4) and follow with another word for factory.

16a         Dangerous part of chalet hallway (6)
{LETHAL}  Hidden (part of ) chaLET HALlway.

17a         Regularly supply unlimited clues in support (6)
{SPLINT} A support for a broken limb is obtained from the odd letters of SuPpLy followed by a synonym for clues with the outside letters removed (unlimited).

19a         Fashion alto wore in battle scene (8)
{WATERLOO}     An anagram (fashion) of ALTO WORE.

21a         Show King leaving part of church (4)
{FONT}  Remove R for Rex or King from a show or outward aspect.

22a         Car in sheltered square produces powerful emissions (6,4)
{COSMIC RAYS}    Hide a small Nissan car in an adjective meaning sheltered, warm or snug, and then follow the result with an S (square) and split 6,4.

25a         South American steer returns to city in area of Germany (6)
{SAXONY}   The abbreviation for South American, a reversal of an adult male steer or bull and the abbreviation for a well-known North American city.

26a         Articles about old authority describe one churchgoer (8)
{ANGLICAN}  Take the abbreviation for the London authority from 1965 to 1986, insert I (describes one) and then insert the resulting four letters between two lots of the indefinite article.  You should end up with a member of the Church of England.

27a         Warden committed to the Spanish (8)
{SENTINEL}  Another way of saying committed to (4, 2) (as in entering the Monthly Prize Puzzle competition) , followed by the Spanish word for ‘the’.

28a         Refuse to turn back in second set of exams (6)
{RESITS}  Take a verb meaning to refuse and move the second of the two S’s to the end of the word.

Down

2d           Half hearted group’s quiet shame (5)
{ABASH}   A mention for our setter’s old pop favourites perhaps??  Remove one of the middle letters of the famous Swedish group  and then follow with the two letters which make a noise instructing  you to be quiet.

3d           Desperate rogue flees from guardhouse in disguise as ascetic (5)
{SADHU} –  Remove the letters ROGUE from GUARDHOUSE and then make an anagram of the remain letters (in disguise).

4d           Smarter pervert (7)
{FLASHER}    A double definition which made me smile as I did wonder if the person in question had a new mac would that make him a smarter offender?? :D

5d           Leaves holes in the ground? (7)
{DITCHES}   Another double definition, the first being a verb meaning leaves or abandons, the second being a noun referring to holes in the ground.

6d           Dawn left to support 4 in short order (7)
{ARRIVAL}  Remove the last letter (short) from a verb meaning to order (especially troops in a line) insert the Roman numeral for four, and then finish with L for left.               

7d           One who gives a medal to designer (9)
{DECORATOR}  Another double definition.   At the time of testing, I did query whether the person in the solution was actually a ‘designer’.

8d           Heartless woman being driven around in camper van (9)
{WINNEBAGO}   Remove the middle letter from WOmAN (heartless) and make an anagram (driven around)  of the remaining letters and BEING .

14d         European expert acquires nuclear material in secret investigation (9)
{ESPIONAGE}   E (European) plus an expert revered for his profound wisdom, into which has been inserted a charged atom (nuclear material).

15d         No dad saw it around Ulster? (9)
{WAISTCOAT}   I had forgotten that  No Dad is apparently how Jim Davidson referred to this garment when worn by John Virgo in the game show Big Break as  in “No Dad, don’t wear that”!!    An anagram (around) of SAW IT followed by the type of garment of which an Ulster is an example.

18d         Yacht on manoeuvres is one moving quickly (7)
{TACHYON}  Another anagram (manoeuvres), this time of YACHT ON, gives us a hypothetical elementary particle capable of travelling faster than the velocity of light.  Such an education, the cryptic crossword!

19d         Salute Carol (7)
{WASSAIL}      Double definition again – a toast (salute) made at a festivity  or a verb meaning to go round singing carols at Christmas.

20d         Set off in support of cowboy (7)
{TRIGGER}   The first part of this double definition is quite clear; the second part requires you to require the famous horse of a, possibly these days slightly less, famous cowboy.

23d         Head off armies rampaging in French city (5)
{REIMS}  remove the ‘head’ of [A]RMIES and rearrange (rampaging) the remaining letters.

24d         Agent found when in still (5)
{YEAST}  Insert a two letter word meaning when into a sentence connector meaning still, to get a useful baking agent.

Thanks once again to the ever prolific Prolixic – if you enjoyed it too and want another go at one of his splendid crosswords, don’t despair, there is sure to be another one along soon –  there’s quite a pile of them to the left of my computer just waiting for the call to blog!