This was very good stuff from the Tees-er, but far from easy. Experience of solving IQs and the odd Listener definitely helped me piece together a few of these, though I’m struggling with one or two!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1/13 | MAGNETIC NORTH – (TONIGHT CARMEN)* |
| 6 | DIVIDE – DI[-d] + VIDE (see) |
| 9 | MOSQUE – Q(uart) in (MOUSE)* |
| 10 | INFRARED – IN + F(ellow) + RARE + D(ied) |
| 11 | TOMAHAWK – TOM + A HAWK |
| 12 | ANONYM – AN + ON + MY re3v. |
| 14 | UNDERWEAR – Cryptic def. |
| 17 | MAURITIAN – ([-s]ANITARIUM)* |
| 19/24 | SOUTH CHINA SEA – (THIS OCEAN HAS + U[-nusual])* |
| 22 | RYOKAN – YOK[-o] in RAN |
| 23 | YELLOWER – YELL + OWER – ‘or more’ is a very clever definition here |
| 25 | REVEAL – V[-alu]E in REAL |
| 26 | LILIAN – LIL’ IAN! |
| 27 | DETERRED – TERR[-y] in DEED |
| Down | |
| 2 | AMOROSO – A MORO SO |
| 3 | NO QUARTER – NO (stylised dram) + QUARTER (4th part) |
| 4 | THEBAN – THEN embracing BA |
| 5 | CHICKEN MARYLAND – Not 100% sure on this one – ‘Girl hardly daring to deliver meal’ |
| 6 | DEFEATED – FED rev. + [-sw]E[-et] + (DATE)* |
| 7 | IN RANGE – N(ewton) in IN RAGE |
| 8 | ENDOMORPH – This must be END (death) + MORPH (one of our compilers), but not sure where the O comes in with ‘to’ |
| 13 | NUMERICAL – N.U.M + ERIC + [-co]AL |
| 15 | WHOSOEVER – (SOHO V[-1]EWER)* |
| 16 | STANDS IN – S(ain)T AND SIN |
| 18 | UXORIAL – U (posh) + XO (executive officer) + RIAL (cash) |
| 20 | TEENAGE – (GENE TEA)* |
| 21 | CLARET – (L(eft) CRATE)* |
Thanks Tees for the crossword and Ali for the blog.
5dn: I read it as “Girl hardly daring” = CHICKEN MARY and “deliver” = LAND
8dn: One could get O from “one [first letter] of our”, but this seems to require those three words to do double duty. In the singular, “compiler” would be enough for MORPH, but that does not work in the plural.
25ac: I think this clue would be better without “the”: after all there is more than one team in Madrid, even sticking to Association Football.
Thanks for the blog, Ali, and Tees for an enjoyable puzzle.
I read 8dn as ‘End o’ Morph’! [and 5dn as PB did.]
Eileen @2 re 8dn: Yes that works for me without requiring any words in the clue to do double duty. Thanks.
Thanks everyone. Quite a tough one! I was pleased to have a solution but the details of several escaped me until now. Now that I’ve seen Ali’s explanation, I think my COD is probably 23 – must be one of the best disguised definitions.
Thank you Ali.
Found this hard but enjoyed it and was pleased to finish it. I’m still not understanding three things, if someone could oblige: how do we get the BA in THEBAN? How does YELLOWER work? (I see it’s YELL + OWER). And where does the NO in NO QUARTER come from?
And I know I’ve chuntered on about this before, but I continue to think that referencing other setters (ENDOMORPH) is unfair for the average solver who probably doesn’t even look, or care, who the setter is before attempting the puzzle. But a small niggle in what was a well-constructed crossword, thank you also to Tees.
Re K’s D at #6, Or = gold (yellow) so ‘or more’ = yellower. Ba = soul (from Egypt) and No (or Noh) = drama from Japan. These are two or three-word things that tend to be used in puzzles that one gets to know over time.
Thanks, Tees and Ali/
K’s Dad @5 and using Chambers 2011:
23ac: or² (heraldry) n the tincture gold or yellow, so “or more?” indicates a comparative yellower – the dodgy nature of this indicated by a question mark.
3dn: no[4] n the traditional Japanese style of drama developed out of a religious dance.
4dn: ba n in ancient Egyptian religion, the soul, represented as a bird wirh a human head.
OR and NO are almost crossword cliches – I did not know BA, but it had to be that to fit the rest of the clue.
Maybe even two or three-letter things…
… and in my comment @7 crossing nms @6, “with” not “wirh”.
Thanks, both. I’ve seen OR for the gold bit in previous puzzles, and that’s a clever clue now you’ve explained it; but can’t say I’ve come across any of those other two babies before …
Got it all, though without fully understanding some of the clues, so thanks to Ali for the blog. RYOKAN was a new word to me but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_%28Japanese_inn%29 explained it.
Thank you all very much indeed for the comments, and to Ali for the excellent blog.
14A is meant to parse as a fairly jocular charade using UNDER plus WEAR, but I agree it has its CD characteristics! The only other item I have is that the U in UXORIAL is clued ‘acceptable to posh’: one for good old Nancy Mitford, that is.