Klingsor starts the week, he seems to have gone for a &lit record attempt it felt like today.
Can’t see any theme or Nina beyond that however. Second time lucky my first attempt to post disappeared into the electronic ether…
| Across | ||
| 1 | BEAR | Carry On Cabby ‘s central character keeps active on retirement (4) |
| A(ctive) in RE (on) rev after caBby | ||
| 4 | BUNNY GIRLS | Spice up Northern Rugby League by using scantily dressed females (5,5) |
| [N RL BY USING]* | ||
| 9 | HORNBLOWER | A literary naval officer phones (10) |
| 2 types of phone | ||
| 10 | HARE | One runs in haste, taking bounds (4) |
| A & R in bounds of HastE | ||
| 11 | COLOUR | Detained by tribunal interminably, see red? (6) |
| LO(ok) in COUR(t) | ||
| 12 | ORIENTAL | First quitting heroin, Rocky gets high mostly from E? (8) |
| (h)ERION* & TAL(l) | ||
| 14 | MOLE | Spot or spy a breakwater (4) |
| Triple def | ||
| 15 | CURATES EGG | Primarily, any thing embodying parts evil and doubly good? (7,3) |
| Any Thing Embodying in CURSE & GG | ||
| 17 | VINDICATED | After victory, accused receiving acquittal first of all is this (10) |
| V(ictory) & A(quittal) in INDICTED | ||
| 20 | DRAB | In recession pub’s deserted – that’s boring (4) |
| D(eserted) BAR rev | ||
| 21 | ATTAGIRL | A word of encouragement to dog in sporting trial (8) |
| TAG (dog follow) in TRIAL* | ||
| 23 | SQUEAK | Manuel’s what? Returning car after second indication oil’s needed? (6) |
| QUE & KA rev after Second | ||
| 24 | LUGE | Toboggan is regularly returned with part missing (4) |
| hidden reversed in rEGULarly | ||
| 25 | POINSETTIA | Cultivated in a pot, it’s decorative, ultimately (10) |
| [IN A POT IT (decorativ)E]* | ||
| 26 | BARELEGGED | European’s set about, rudely pushed outside for not wearing stockings? (10) |
| E(uropean) & GEL rev in BARGED | ||
| 27 | RANI | Head of state’s last to see princess (4) |
| IRAN with the I at the end | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | EROTOLOGIST | So Rigoletto ‘s stirring? He’ll study various aspects of it! (11) |
| [SO RIGOLETTO]* studier of IT sex | ||
| 3 | RUN TO SEED | Get shabby tabloid for perusal by Spooner (3,2,4) |
| Spoon of SUN TO READ | ||
| 4 | BALDRIC | Edmund’s servant shortened warrior’s belt (7) |
| BALDRIC(k) | ||
| 5 | NOW YOURE TALKING | I’m no longer getting the silent treatment? That’s more like it! (3,5,7) |
| Cryptic double def | ||
| 6 | YORKIST | Chap backing king’s first supporter of the White Rose (7) |
| ROY rev & K(ing) & 1ST | ||
| 7 | ROAST | Pan is right at the top of oven (5) |
| R & OAST | ||
| 8 | SWELL | Plump for The Dandy (5) |
| DD | ||
| 13 | AGGRAVATION | A crook going to pocket regular instalments of road tax? Annoyance will result (11) |
| RoAd * VAT (tax) in A GOING* (crooked) | ||
| 16 | SODBUSTER | American farmer like this gets introduction to Diane Keaton? (9) |
| SO & D(iane) & BUSTER keaton | ||
| 18 | CRIPPLE | Damage created by constant babble (7) |
| C constant & RIPPLE | ||
| 19 | DISUSED | Abandoned education after university in Norfolk town (7) |
| U(niversity) in DISS & ED(ucation) | ||
| 21 | AD-LIB | Give publicity to politician? One’s not prepared to do it (2-3) |
| AD (poster) & LIBeral | ||
| 22 | TIGER | Formidable opponent in golf involved in row (5) |
| G(olf) in TIER | ||
*anagram
A very nice puzzle and blog, although Klingsor knows that I’m no fan of a device he uses in 6d (I haven’t used it yet, but there’s eight years to go until Klingsor wins his bet).
I hope no-one minds if I use this as a recruitment ad, though. A couple of my long-time test solvers are now too busy to help me out anymore, so I’m looking for replacements. There’s no money in it, just 2-3 puzzles a week to find fault with and assess for enjoyment and difficulty (setters frequently have no idea how easy/hard a puzzle actually is because we already know the answers). If you’re interested, my address is mike@jackalope.demon.co.uk. Ximenean purists need not apply.
Thanks for a nice gentle Bank Holiday entertainment from Klingsor; even the two (to me) new words, EROTOLOGIST and SODBUSTER were gettable without much trouble. But I went off on a wild goose chase with 4dn looking for a character in King Lear (Edmund does have a servant but he’s not named) till the penny dropped.
Thanks, flashling, for the blog – and nice to meet you on Saturday.
I enjoyed this puzzle by Klingsor even though there were a few clues that I could not parse, or only partially parse: 1a (def = carry on), 15a (cd?), 27a (def = head of state) & 13d (def = annoyance).
My favourites were 3d, 21d, 12a, 4a, 6d, 11a and especially RUN TO SEED, NOW YOU’RE TALKING & SQUEAK (last in).
I learnt a few new words today, including ‘sodbuster’, ‘curate’s egg’ and ‘oast’ = ‘kiln, oven’.
Thanks for the blog, flashing. I still don’t get 27a. Please explain.
@Michelle RANI is the princess, IRAN is the state with I the head of it moved to the end.
A controversy there, which may be resolved at Alberich’s site: should it have been ‘head’, or ‘leader’?
I think we should be told. Thanks for some enjoyable BH fun, Skirlnog.
Actually, I found this a bit of a toughie. Several answers at the end I entered without being at all sure why that was the answer – 1ac, 11ac and 2dn – and I’ve only just got 2dn. Reading the blog, I at first thought IT sex meant computer sex. 🙂
Incidentally, I think there’s a typo in 26ac. Surely it’s GEL for “set”, not REL.
[Oops, fixed thanks Dormouse]
Some lovely clues here. But I was a bit unsure that CRIPPLE was the correct answer (and only put it in because I couldn’t think of anything else), since ripple and babble don’t seem the same to me. Or are they in some way?
Thanks flahling for the blog – we entered RANI without understanding why!
Quite a challenge for a Monday but it is a Bank Holiday….
Thanks Klingsor. The surfaces of your clues are always a delight. However, we may be in a recession but the pub in Manchester was certainly NOT deserted on Saturday and it also wasn’t boring!
Wil@7 – forgot to mention that babble can describe the murmuring of a stream so it seems OK in our opinion to link it with RIPPLE.
flashling@4
thanks for the explanation. I was thinking of ‘rani’ as ‘queen’ = head of state. I now realise that Collins and Chambers also define ‘rani’ as ‘princess’. I doubt that I would have been able to parse it anyway.
25A Not noticed by blogger or commenters, the “s” from “it’s” has been omitted from the anagram fodder.