Fine puzzle from Dac as always. A nice balance with less familiar answers given easier wordplay, solving time 26 mins.
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 FALL FOR F (FLORAL)* My joint favourite clue today, along with 11 and 27. Definition: fancy
5 MOBILES OB in MILES
9 SOB SISTER (BOSS TRIES)*
10 GONER ON in GER
11 BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT (LET NATION selecT BIG STAR)* A beautifully constructed &lit clue.
15 CHAPLAIN CH A PLAIN
18 INVESTOR INVENTOR with S for N
19 QUEEN’S PARK RANGERS A London football team (in the second tier of English football).
Royal residence in Scotland with extensive grounds where ‘rangers’ might work gives the cryptic part.
25 KNEL(l) priesT “sound” here does NOT indicate a homophone
26 VERITABLE Blue in (RELATIVE)*
27 RUSTLER One of my trio of clues of the day ST in RULE at Ranch &lit
28 TREASON (RATE’S)* ONly Good surface reading
DOWN
1 FAST Double definition
2 LOBO LOO around B Another name for timber wolf (US)
3 FAIRBANKS A in FIR BANKS
4 RETAIN TA in REIN
5 MARIACHI Mexican street musicians, I confirmed after. MARCH around I A then I
6 BEGUN This held me up as I first pencilled in BEGAN but could not justify the wordplay. EG (say) in BUN (cake)
7 LANDGRAVES LAND GRAVES (ie get the wine after a successful bid)
8 SCRUTINISE S and TIN in CRUISE
12 STRIP POKER Safari TRIPPER around OK
13 CLEVERNESS CL EVER NESS
16 POUSSETTE (STEPS OUT E)* e = energy
17 CONNIVER N N I in COVER
20 BEIRUT “bay route”
22 RATEL E in R AT L runs towards lake = runs at lake
23 IBIS I B IS
24 BENN Tony Benn BENIN less I
For those of us solving in the dead tree version, there was a moment of panic at the sight of a gridless inside back page, followed by a frantic search through the paper until the crossword was finally located buried inside, on p55. Otherwise reasonably presented in the new redesign, except that the setter’s name is inexplicably in a point size so small it’s barely visible to the naked eye. What’s that all about, Mike – someone want to cut us down to size?
Content-wise, of course, ’twas a pleasure – I loved the QUEEN’S PARK RANGERS clue, and also BEIRUT, being a homophonophile. SOB SISTER was new to me, but guessable.
Thanks for puzzle and blog.
They indicated where the crosswords were in the index on Page 3, also while I could be wrong, the puzzle seemed to have more space than sometimes recently.
Thank you, nms. Enjoyable as always from Dac, and managed to finish with just a couple of flirts with on-line wordsearches. Learned some new words and expressions (LANDGRAVE and SOB SISTER) but seem to remember having come across RATEL (the honey badger) before somewhere. All fairly clued as always from Dac, with a good number of smiley moments.
Excellent surface at 25ac – very evocative image, a bit like Betjeman’s old ladies cycling to church in the mist (can’t find the exact line, but it was whatever John Major cited along with warm beer to typify the English).
Pasquale also used GRAVES (the wine) across at the Grauniad today – a tough puzzle.
I couldn’t possibly comment on the cutting down to size of the setters, the smaller text, the harder-to-find crossword, other than drawing attention to the Editor-in-Chief’s comment that he looks “forward to hearing your opinions on the new Independent”
Dac set this a while back, but we’ve been waiting for 11 Across to return (not to watch it, at least on my part, I hasten to add – I’m more of an American Idol man). I think it was probably before an Indy regular took over at 19 Across too.
A particularly good puzzle from Dac. Playful yet grounded.
Several excellent clues, the pick being ‘Queens park rangers’, ‘Beirut’, the masterful ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and ‘Treason’.
50′
I’m attempting Dac’s puzzle at the moment — and it’s hurting my eyes. As for reading the some of the articles… Oh dear, what ARE they up to?! Unless they get back to proper typography this could kill the paper off. HELP!!!
Queens Park Rangers gave me a grin. I hesitate to mark down a Dac as I do enjoy his offerings (and The King/ Elvis/Formerly Prince clue from last week is for me an alltime great) but there did seem too many little known words today; however eschewing aids, I make things a bit difficult for myself
11/14A is brilliant – must be a favourite for clue of the year! (Is there such a thing?) But what is the E-in-C thinking of with those tiny headings? Desist at once, or I shall invoice the Indie for the cost of a magnifying glass!
7D: Perhaps there’s an error on my printout but why “counts” in the clue?
Ah, I see: from the German nobility. Silly me, I thought the definition was kind of like an antonym to Seagraves. I wish this blog had an “edit” function. Sorry guys.
I should have mentioned that in the blog esp as landgrave is not that familiar a word.
SOB SISTER got me for a while. I just didn’t see an anagram and having S-B —T-R suggested SUB EDITOR so strongly that it took me ages before I saw SISTER.
Excellent puzzle.
I like the spacious feel to the puzzle layout. I like the cryptic being with the concise and Sudokus. I’m not so keen on its location but can’t imagine a whole puzzle section being elsewhere intact. I’m reserving judgement on the font.
Struggled again! Sob sister,Mariachi,Fairbanks and Landgraves all new to me.My GK is sadly lacking to get close to finishing any of these.26 minutes to solve?! Took that long to get 2 clues!