December 18, 2023, by Laura Nicholson
Christmas Cryptic Crossword Solutions
We hope you enjoyed the Christmas cryptic crossword! Jon Lewis has very kindly provided us with the solutions and explanations, just in case there are a few clues you are still pondering!
ACROSS
1 Professor of History’s female friend given first of many Christmas presents
MONICA PARTRIDGE
MONICA (female F.R.I.E.N.D.) PARTRIDGE (first gift from the 12 Days of Christmas)
Monica Partridge was the first woman to be a Professor at UoN, hence ‘of History’.
9 Positive vote behind tutor adjusting feature of desktop
OUT-TRAY
AY (a vote in favour) ‘behind’ (after) an anagram of TUTOR* (‘adjusting’)
An out-tray might be a feature of a (physical) desk top.
10 Local (the one in EastEnders) not taking sides in dramatic conclusion
VICINAL
VIC (the Queen Vic pub ‘local’ in EastEnders) [f]INAL[e] (dramatic conclusion, not taking ‘sides’)
11 Perhaps Clive, Peter & Teresa laud misbehaving without chief of discipline
LAUREATES
Anagram of TERESA LAU[d]* (‘misbehaving’) without D[iscipline] (‘chief’ letter)
Clive Granger and Sir Peter Mansfield are both local examples of Nobel laureates.
12 Ruin every other kiss for Spencer’s partner
MARKS
MAR (‘ruin’) K[i]S[s] (‘every other’ letter)
Marks (& Spencer’s) running their Christmas adverts usually signal the start of the season as soon as Halloween is over.
13 Building American Dad’s source of entertainment
POPE
POP (‘American Dad’) E[ntertainment] (its ‘source’)
The Pope building on University Park which used to house a fair few members of Learning Tech!
15 Ultimately believe Dutch message can be taught
EDUCABLE
[believ]E (‘ultimately’) DU (abbreviation for ‘Dutch’) CABLE (a ‘message’)
19 US city extremely reluctant to interrupt one bordering #17
PORTLAND
R[eluctan]T (‘extremely’, i.e. at the edges) inside (‘to interrupt’) POLAND (‘one (country) bordering’ (answer) #17, the Baltic Sea)
22 Test match initially absent from lesson
ORAL
M[atch] (‘initially’) absent from [m]ORAL (‘lesson’)
26 Unwelcome guest among those sharing building with social sciences?
IN-LAW
IN (‘among’) LAW (the group sharing a building with Social Sciences)
In-laws are (potentially) unwelcome guests unless mine are somehow reading, in which case they’re wonderful.
28 Southern banker trimmed the setter’s suit!
EXECUTIVE
EXE (‘Southern ‘banker’, in this case ‘something with banks’, the River Exe) CUT (‘trimmed’) IVE (‘the setter’s, ie “the setter has” from my perspective).
29 Copy lecturer, getting hold of ‘normal’ clothes
APPAREL
APE (‘copy’; mimic) L (‘lecturer’, university abbreviations) around (‘getting hold of’) PAR (‘normal’, not just on golf courses)
30 Vote against Centre for Education occupying questionably messy testing site
EXAMSYS
X (‘vote against’, as opposed to a tick) [educ]A[tion] (‘centre for’) inside (‘occupying’) an anagram of MESSY* (‘questionable’)
31 One’s neighbour playing hardball with wry liar
HALLWARD LIBRARY
Anagram of HARDBALL WRY LIAR* (‘playing’),
‘One’s neighbour’ refers to the answer to 1 across (Monica Partridge) as the appropriately named building in this instance.
DOWN
1 Regularly losing sleep after judgement upset learning environment
MOODLE
[s]L[e]E[p] (‘regularly losing’ (letters)) after DOOM backwards (‘judgement’, ‘upset’)
2 One avoiding suit against last president?
NO-TRUMPER
A double definition, per the split of the underlining – one avoiding a suit in Bridge (etc) would be a NO-TRUMPER, as might someone currently harbouring less than pleasant thoughts of the last President of the US.
3 Complain about onset of vague EU action for Turkey?
CARVE UP
CARP (‘complain’) around (‘about’) V[ague] (‘onset of’) EU
As will be happening to a few birds come Christmas day, I’d imagine.
4 Prominent Libertine injects most of lout’s hallucinogen
PEYOTE
PETE (Doherty, ‘prominent Libertine’) around (‘injecting’) YO[b] (‘most of’ lout)
5 Prepared for 30 diverse careers
REVISED
Anagram of DIVERSE* (‘careers’), ‘prepared for 30’ (across; EXAMSYS)
6 Embrace Michael providing a balanced mixture of chemicals
RACEMIC
[emb]RACE MIC[hael] (‘providing’, ie hidden within)
A racemic mixture has equal amounts of left- and right-handed enantiomers of a chiral molecule or salt, so I’m told.
7 Student’s focus – a round at first, then this?
DONER
[stu]D[ent] (‘focus’, ie centre) ONE (‘a’) R[ound]
A popular follow-up to a trip to the pub. So I’m told.
8 Signed up, frantically still need to dodge initiation to Libraries
ENLISTED
Anagram of STILL NEED* (‘frantically’) losing one L[ibraries] (‘initiation to’, and removed as part of ‘to dodge’)
I’d not condone dodging your initiation to Libraries, obviously.
14 Date oddly agreed to come back
ERA
A[g]R[e]E[d]< (‘oddly’, ‘to come back’)
15 Term held up by madness
END
[ma]DNE[ss] (‘held’, ie within these words, ‘up’, ie backwards)
In a down clue, indicators implying verticality are often used in place of generic reversal indicators.
16 University starts to figure out source of hoaxes
UFO
U (‘university’, eg in UoN) F[igure] O[ut] (‘starts to’, ie first letters of)
A potential source of hoaxes (depending on one’s beliefs…)
17 Cashew occasionally props up curry, a European main
BALTIC SEA
C[a]S[h]E[w] (‘occasionally’) after (‘props up’ in a down clue, ie ‘supports’/’is under’) BALTI (‘curry’) with A (after the rest)
18 Mature student’s aim? Stop working hard
OPSIMATH
Anagram of AIM STOP* (‘working’) with H for hard (like you’d see on a pencil, say)
From Greek; opse = late / mathe = learning; so ‘one learning late in life’.
20 Unrefined slice of “marshmallow” brownies
LOW BROW
Hidden in (‘slice of’) [marshmal]LOW BROW[nies]
21 One wanting to overshadow learner is an annoying person
NEEDLER
A NEEDER could be ‘one wanting’, around L for ‘learner’ (like learner plates on a car; ‘overshadow’)
23 Prohibit getting involved in opening of Recruitment Centre rubbish?
RHUBARB
BAR (‘prohibit’) inside (‘getting involved in’) R[ecruitment] (‘opening of’) HUB (‘centre’)
In addition to going well with custard, ‘rhubarb’ is a general word for ‘nonsense’.
24 Disclose “purest” ravers really all stripped more than once
REVEAL
[pu]RE[st] [ra]VE[rs] [re]AL[ly] (‘all stripped more than once’; ie take two ‘layers’ of letters off each word)
No comment.
25 Barely passes English test, often dropping by to support head of Geography
GETS BY
E (‘English’) T[e]S[t] (‘often dropping’) BY after (‘to support’; down clue) G[eography] (‘head of’)
27 Place for Mike’s mate coming up well without use of banks
LAPEL
PAL (‘mate’, ‘coming up’; down clue) [w]EL[l] (‘without use of banks’; ie the outside letters)
A mike(…rophone) could be pinned to a jacket’s lapel.
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