Well, I thought Monday's was tough, at least the left side of it, but this one was closer to one I'd expect for a Monday. If it has a theme, it's a Tour de l'Europe, and odyssey indeed, referring to places in Greece (twice), Romania, Armenia, Germany (twice), and Italy (twice), But this is a mere observation, made to help avoid a blank space before the analysis of clues below, and doesn't help you solve the clues. It took me 20 minutes and my only MER was in relation to 12d, see below. I thought my clue of the day, 10a, was mildly amusing.
| Across | |
| 1 | Matched level in light drama, backer having withdrawn (8) |
| COMPARED - PAR (level) inside COMED which is COMEDY without its backer. | |
| 5 | Seated outside clubs, Hesse emptied small bag (6) |
| SACHET - SAT has C (clubs) and HE (Hesse emptied) inserted. | |
| 8 | Wicked deeds at or around large towns (10) |
| ATROCITIES - AT, OR reversed, CITIES. | |
| 9 | Poet relieved of diamonds getting payment in advance (4) |
| ANTE - the poet DANTE loses his D. | |
| 10 | Why logician won't accept chair is obvious (6,2,6) |
| STANDS TO REASON - Cryptic definition ha ha. | |
| 11 | Daily forced to cancel leader in ridiculous pretence (7) |
| CHARADE - CHAR (daily) (M)ADE. | |
| 13 | Headless corpse is sent back for certain journey (7) |
| ODYSSEY - (B)ODY'S = headless corpse is, YES reversed = sent back for certain. | |
| 15 | Divine law associated with electoral system (7) |
| PREDICT - PR (electoral system) EDICT (law). | |
| 18 | Country folk involved in operatic number (7) |
| ARMENIA - MEN (folk) inside ARIA. | |
| 21 | Nobleman to free bananas at this point stuck in tree (4,2,3,5) |
| PEER OF THE REALM - PALM is the tree, into which insert (TO FREE)* and HERE. | |
| 22 | Fortify, across the pond, a private thoroughfare (4) |
| GIRD - GI (across the pond a private), RD (thoroughfare). My loins are frequently girded. | |
| 23 | One to quit troubled Dáil Eireann — that causes rush! (10) |
| ADRENALINE - (DA L EIREANN)*. | |
| 24 | Irishman joins Anglicans for spirited meeting (6) |
| SEANCE - SEAN the Irish chap joins CE the Church of England. Perhaps not. | |
| 25 | Outrageous sort of animus (8) |
| INFAMOUS - (OF ANIMUS)*. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Brilliant rescue dog detailed to enter cricket club (7) |
| CLASSIC - CC cricket club has LASSI(E) a 'detailed dog' inserted. | |
| 2 | Horse carrying disease endlessly spread (9) |
| MARMALADE - MARE the horse has MALAD(Y) inserted. | |
| 3 | Song about stinker seen in rural idyll (7) |
| ARCADIA - ARIA (song, as in 18a), has CAD (stinker) inserted. | |
| 4 | Style shown in being short with the French (7) |
| ENTITLE - ENTITY = being, shortened = ENTIT, LE the in French. | |
| 5 | One to support stocking revolutionary American poet (9) |
| SUSPENDER - SU = revolutionary American, SPENDER as in Stephen Spender a poet. | |
| 6 | Husband tucking into liqueur that’s got body (7) |
| CHASSIS - CASSIS a blackcurrant liqueur, has H for husband inserted. | |
| 7 | Agreement achieved with three tens, minus tips (7) |
| ENTENTE - (T)EN, TEN, TE(N). | |
| 12 | Researcher wanting this instruction to make tea? (9) |
| DOCTORATE - to get TEA you need to 'doctor' ATE. First instincts were that a doctorate is a qualification being sought, or obtained, but here it refers to a person in course of obtaining one, perhaps with an added word 'student' being understood. EDIT there again, as pointed out below, if the definition is "researcher wanting this" it works. | |
| 14 | Romanians on the rampage in small republic (3,6) |
| SAN MARINO - (ROMANIANS)*. | |
| 16 | Alligator is one regarding soft floor covering (7) |
| REPTILE - RE (regarding), P (soft), TILE (floor covering). | |
| 17 | Prepare without finishing and study in China (7) |
| DRESDEN - DRES(S), DEN = study. | |
| 18 | Long article about a provincial Greek (7) |
| ACHAEAN - ACHE (long), AN (article), insert A. An Achaean comes from an area of Greece in the NW Peloponnese. | |
| 19 | Wine stain unfortunately showing up (7) |
| MARSALA - MAR = stain, ALAS reversed. | |
| 20 | After correction, smile, as lacking purpose (7) |
| AIMLESS - (SMILE AS)*. | |
Page Summary
horryd : My European Tour [+0] - kevingregg : 15:18 [+0]
- jackkt : (no subject) [+2]
- boltonwanderer : Not a classic [+0]
- myrtilus000 : For nothing now can ever come to any Gird. [+0]
- sawbill : 20 minutes [+0]
- robrolfe : (no subject) [+5]
- pootle73 : 26:45 [+5]
- thepotterer : Researcher [+2]
- harmonic_row : (no subject) [+0]
- keriothe : (no subject) [+0]
- gothick_matt : (no subject) [+0]
- philjordan : After a breakfast of granola.... [+1]
- john_dun : (no subject) [+0]
- 84801442 : 33:37 [+0]
Comments
Tme let's say 45 mins.
FOI 5ac SACHET
LOI 22ac GIRD
COD 17dn DRESDEN
WOD CASSIS without the husband
At 2dn - as fond of MARMALADE as I am, I think only of MARGARINE as spread.
Edited at 2019-10-23 05:33 am (UTC)
Most was straightforward enough although the need to insert an apostrophe in order to parse ODYSSEY delayed me a little and I had to trust to wordplay to come up with the unknown ACHAEAN at 18dn.
My knowledge of Lassie is more or less confined to the American 1950s TV series and I vaguely remember she was occasionally involved in various rescues of children trapped in deserted mines etc, but I wasn't sure this qualified her to be defined as a 'rescue dog' as in today's clue. However a little research revealed that the original Lassie as created by Elizabeth Gaskell in a classic short story (later filmed) rescued two half-brothers who were lost and dying in the snow, so the reference is more specific than it had seemed at first.
Edited at 2019-10-23 05:58 am (UTC)
I agree with Pip and BW: MER at Doctorate and COD to Stands to Reason.
Thanks setter and Pip.
Liked GIRD.
Thanks pip and setter.
Doesn't DOCTORATE work best with a definition of "Researcher wanting this", as Pip mentioned as being his initial thought? That's how I read it.
..... and club in the singular?
Edited at 2019-10-23 08:40 am (UTC)
Just spent 5 mins finding out what MER meant and 20 mins creating an account!
I’ve followed this blog for a few years now And never felt worthy of making a comment before.
Just quote some poetry and tell us what you had for brekker.
I agree with others that ‘researcher wanting this’ is the definition for DOCTORATE.
Fairly steady top-to-bottom from FOI 1d CLASSIC, though I had to have a few passes at the bottom half when only AV sprang to mind initially at 15a PREDICT, I wasn't too sure about the existence or spelling of SAN MARINO, Achaea or MARSALA and like others took a while to see LOI 22a GIRD.
I needed to write out the anagrist before ADRENALINE revealed itself. NHO ACHAEAN.
FOI SACHET
LOI MARMALADE
COD DOCTORATE
TIME 14:26
No problems with this - though had to think about the spelling and parsing of ACHAEAN.
PREDICT took a while as I was thinking law = ACT.
The tooing and froing over DOCTORATE is above my head - it seemed a reasonable answer with three of the checkers in place.