Some pleasingly tricky clues here, in particular 7 down and 16 down. I didn’t otherwise find much to comment on, except I wonder how our nonnative English speakers fared with the somewhat obscure slang in 8 down and 23 down.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | MAIN COURSE dd |
| 6 | ISIS I[sland] SIS[ter] (little female relative) |
| 9 | MICHAELMAS The names MICHAEL and SAM are “back-to-back” |
| 10 | LIDO LID (cap) O (ring) |
| 12 | WRITERS BLOCK *(BRISTOL WRECK) |
| 15 | CAMPANULA CAMP (effeminate) + A + ALUN (lad) reversed |
| 17 | TASTE S[on] in TATE (London art gallery) |
| 18 | ANGUS hidden in slANG USed |
| 19 | PRESCRIBE PRES[ent] CRIB (cot) E (close to “babe”) |
| 20 | PENCIL PUSHER PENCIL (wherein to find lead; why “lusty”?) P (quietly) USHER (guide) |
| 24 | PUBS B[ass] in SUP (drink), reversed |
| 25 | FLEA MARKET FL[og] (a couple beginning “flog”) + *(TEA MAKER) |
| 26 | REED RE (on the matter of) ED (education) |
| 27 | GRIM REAPER d&cd |
| Down | |
| 1 | MEMO reverse hidden in welcOME Mat |
| 2 | INCH A triple definition; an INCH is an island, and is also signified by IN CH (Switzerland). I think I would have preferred the misdirection of “Creep in Switzerland,” evoking a different sense of “creep” |
| 3 | CHAIRMANSHIP MAN (bloke) in *(IRISH CHAP) |
| 4 | UNLIT L[earner] in UNIT (one) |
| 5 | STAIRCASE I (one) in STAR (celeb) + CASE (bit of baggage) |
| 7 | SAILOR SUIT SAILOR (salt) SUIT (please) |
| 8 | SHOPKEEPER SHOP (grass) KEEPER (minder). “Shop” and “grass” are both slang words for “inform on someone to the police” |
| 11 | OBSTACLE RACE *(CLOSE CABARET) |
| 13 | SCRAP PAPER APP (iPhone gizmo) in SCRAPER (stripper) |
| 14 | IMAGINABLE IM (I am) + *(A BELGIAN) |
| 16 | UNPOPULAR U[niform] in UN (a, French) POPLAR (tree); the definition is simply “not in” |
| 21 | SWARM S[pecial] WARM (kind) |
| 22 | SKIP dd |
| 23 | STIR dd; both “stir” and “bird” are slang for “prison” |
Agent0: Re the slang terms in 8 and 23d: I don’t think any of these would have posed a problem to solvers in India. Non-native speakers of English pick up these when reading crime novels or tackling UK/US crosswords regularly.
Many thanks Agentzero I found this very enjoyable.
Well done, Jason. More of the same please!
I thought this was a ripsnorter of a puzzle. Plenty of neat twists, and deft exploitation of ambiguous phrase (e.g. ‘Bass’, ‘one such’, ‘not in uniform’). And, of course, bonus style points for resurrecting Olly Reed; I imagine that he’d appreciate being pegged alongside Mr Reaper in the bottom row!
20A’s lustiness is a reference to the priapic phrase “here’s lead in your pencil”.
24A, 1D and 13D (although, I quail at attributing phone apps uniquely to Apple!) also raised a smile.
Indeed a very good runout from Jason, Smiffy, and you pick the tricks I myself enjoyed. How nice ‘on the matter of education’ is!!
Don’t recall doing a Jason before. Solved most without aids but needed it for Campanula and couldn’t get swarm.
Thanks for the blog
Excellent stuff. Just the thing to avoid having to go home on a Tuesday evening. Another grey hair for campanula.
Thanks Agentzero.
Nice puzzle from Jason,not too difficult but plenty of amusing clues.Some good anagrams and the cheeky 20 across,which I read the same way as smiffy.
27 across didn’t quite work for me but was easily gettable.
Second use of APP in as many days.