Pleasing puzzle which I found not too difficult, the 15-letter answers around the perimeter yielded quite quickly, solving time 18 mins.
* = anagram
ACROSS
1 MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD Double definition
9 SUSS OUT USS Enterprise (Star Trek) in SOUT(H) Le Midi = South (of France)
10 LAYETTE YET in LATE
11 EXAMS MAX (top score) reversed in E (English) S (Section)
12 SHORTAGES (hot gear)* in SS
13 OFFHANDED ie it could be (had Ned)* = HANDED with OFF indicating the anagram
15 CANON Double definition canon = all the works of a particular writer (ie output)
16 STROP S PORT reversed
18 SCRAMBLES (Mrs Cable)* first letter of Skiddaw
20 ISLANDERS Referring to Isle of Man and Isle of Dogs (London)
23 ATRIA Alternate letters (in odd positions) of ‘asteroidal’
24 NAPHTHA First letters of words from National, very well concealed with an excellent misleading surface suggesting banking
25 ROSSINI (sir is no)* My favourite clue, with Spanish shaver referring to the Barber of Seville, Rossini’s best-known work
26 EVERY NOW AND THEN E VERY NO WAND THE N
DOWN
1 MASTER OF SCIENCE (centre of ice mass)*
2 DISTAFF Hidden reversal in ‘beef fats I’d’
3 LOOK SHARP OK in (So Ralph)*
4 OATHS (has to)*
5 TALL ORDER Mountains
6 EGYPT GYP in ET (centre of Beth)
7 OCTAGON N (direction) following OCT (month) AGO (back)
8 DRESSING STATION Victoria’s a (railway) station (in London)
14 DESPERADO had the effrontery = DARED (upwards) containing ESP (especially) – centre of crowd = O
15 COMPASSED ASS in COMP ED
17 RELAPSE (asleep)* under pieR
19 LARGISH (girl has)*
21 NUTTY NUT (head) TerriblY
22 SYRIA Hidden reversal in fAIRY Stories
I probably took a similar time over this, which is unusually fast for me. The long clues were reasonably easy, which is why it fell into place quite quickly. I liked 18 across, which I suppose you’d have to classify as an &lit. Not knowing much about religion, I had some doubt over whether a canon was technically a priest or not in 15 across.
Thank you, nms. I did enjoy this one and managed it with just a couple of tougher ones to hold me up, but there were a good number of clues I needed your explanations for. Like you say, the four fifteen-letter clues were accessible, which helped fill the rest of the grid. I especially liked NAPHTHA and – like you – ROSSINI.
At 18ac, I spent a stupid amount of time looking to put VINCE in somewhere – he seems to have been the setters’ pet of late. But I still don’t understand it – is it not one of those reverse anagram thingies where SCRAMBLES is the anagrind? Otherwise I can’t see where the anagrind is.
Good puzzle to start the week.
Thanks nms. This was a quick solve as, unusually, all the perimeter went in at first glance. I finished with Islanders, which I still do not understand. I don’t think it has anything to do with the IOM since the clue has Men not Man. Dogs is also problematical since it would define Isle or Island not Islanders.
Thanks for clearing up a doubt or two nms.
I’ve no idea who Mrs. Cable or Skiddow are, but I think you’re probably both right about 18ac, ie.&lit and reversed anagram.
Skiddaw is a mountain in the Lake District. Scrambling is a technical term for ascending a mountain where you have to use your hands to hold onto rocks rather than just walk and there are some bits of Skiddaw where that is required.
Hi Lenny @3.
As the islands themselves are called ‘of Man’ and ‘of Dogs’, it is to be assumed, tongue-in-cheek, that their inhabitants are men and dogs, respectively 🙂
Thanks for comments about 18ac, but just so that I can go and get on with the rest of my life for today, can someone please tell me where the anagrind is?
KD. I think you were right the first time at #2
The answer SCRAMBLES is the anagrind.
Scramble is what you do to get MRS CABLE on top of Skiddaw.
Anyway, for the sake of what’s left of my sanity I’m going to try to stop thinking about it, and I suggest you do the same.
Hi Kathryn’s Dad
It’s as you said in your first comment: the anagrind is SCRAMBLES. [I spent too long on the Vince Road, too.]
Stella: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Cable
Snap, beermagnet!
Thank you, both. My medication kicks in about this time of the day, so I’ll be fine now.
I liked scrambles very much, nicely misleading and if not an original construction, beautifully done anyway. Likewise islanders which caused a forehead contusion.
Thanks Eileen, with that reminder I recall he has come up in one or two crosswords recently, though I think it’s the first time his wife’s been mented 🙂
Tee-hee Sorry Stella but that typo’s a great (if un-pc) anagrind.
Great start to the week, took a minute or 2 to get going then the perimeter fell in and the rest caved in with it, thought the spanish barber was a fantastic clue when it twigged why Rossini was right. Dressing station is a new phrase to me but the clue made it obvious. Thanks GW and Niall
Late entry here. Thanks nmsindy and Glow-worm.
Re 18A: KD@7 et al on tha anagrind. Before I got on to “SCRAMBLE”, which confirms the anagram as mentioned by some above, another anagrind for me was the “artificiality” of “Mrs Cable”. After trying to connect the name unsuccessfully, the other possibility was that it had been deliberately concocted/arranged, ie. as anagram fodder. This realisation was probably subconscious in many solvers’ minds.