One of the new setters and in this crossword eXternal has done the good job that we have come to expect of them. Sometimes my parsing is a little shaky, but no doubt all will be explained.
(Definitions in italics, in one case two definitions separated by a /)
Across
1 European ringing call centre gets someone from another continent (10)
AUSTRALIAN
Austrian round {c}al{l} — this Austrian/Australian connection comes up often in crosswords but eXternal handles it well here
6 Beginner scratched from file and spanner (4)
ARCH
{m}arch — spanner as something that spans
9 Old French copper, policeman above suspicion (7)
SOUPCON
Sou PC on
10 Belly‘s bad churning, sign of things to come (7)
ABDOMEN
(bad)* omen
12 Direct more ferocious squirrels away (5)
REFER
hidden in moRE FERocious, ‘squirrels away’ the inclusion indicator
13 Endearing drunk is immovable (9)
ENGRAINED
(Endearing)* — not ingrained, which seemed more likely — the dictionaries will give both versions but they won’t say how much more usual one is than the other: for that we have to try Google and there are just over a million hits for engrained but approaching five million for ingrained — it asked me if I meant ingrained when I entered engrained
14 People-carrier travelling about America (7)
AUTOBUS
(about)* US
16 Nasty trap hidden by merciless villain (7)
MINGING
Min(gin)g — Ming the Merciless
17 Silence on Fleet Street (7)
REPRESS
Re press — Fleet Street = press comes up from time to time and continues to be the metonym, as Wikipedia puts it, for the press even though the press has now deserted it
19 Falsely employed female reported, that’s not new (7)
MISUSED
“Miss” used [= not new]
21 Periods with deficiency to mind? (9)
BLACKOUTS
I think this is just a straight CD, although the fact that ‘lack’ is in the word suggests that I haven’t got it quite right
22 Missing Rhode Island, threaten to move (5)
IMPEL
Impe{RI}l — imperil = threaten
24 Getting trapped in shackle, gross humiliation (7)
CHAGRIN
Cha(gr)in
25 Annoying to be stopped by a barrier (7)
RAILING
R(a)iling
26 Ham producer concerned about animal welfare (4)
NOAH
(On)rev. AH — I think that AH stands for Animal Health, though I’m not sure — Ham was the son of Noah
27 Sportingly untie dog, it is pulling (7,3)
EDITING OUT
(untie dog it)* — pulling as in not publishing after all, as an editor sometimes does
Down
1 A ship on unknown stretch of water finds ancient kingdom (7)
ASSYRIA
A SS y [= unknown] ria [= strip of water] — according to Chambers a ria is a normal [?] drowned valley
2 Jam /set with unspecified ingredients (5)
STUFF
2 defs
3 Champion logger cut by luck (6-7)
RECORD-BREAKER
record(break)er — log = record and luck = break
4 Duck rejected nests underneath trees (7)
LINDENS
(nil)rev. dens
5 Disheartened, several limbs broken by a combination of things (7)
AMALGAM
a{r}m l{e}g a{r}m with a in the middle
7 Minor acts upset sentimentalists (9)
ROMANTICS
(Minor acts)* — not sure about romantics = sentimentalists — I don’t think Mahler, a great Romantic composer, would like to be called a sentimentalist, although in a loose way the words are equivalent
8 Might beastly suspenders invoke such an expression? (7)
HANGDOG
a hangdog expression and if you hang a dog it’s a beast being suspended — not sure quite what sort of clue this is, if indeed I’ve got the right idea
11 Vet, perhaps, strangely incising a toad (13)
DIAGNOSTICIAN
(incising a toad)*
15 Star fruit’s past best (3,6)
TOP BANANA
top [= star] banana [= fruit] and ‘past best’ is I think an indication that it’s a word for ‘best’ that would have been used in the past, in the possibly quite correct judgement of eXternal, though not in that of Chambers
17 Polish scam to get across one ancient border (7)
RUBICON
Rub (1) con — crossing the Rubicon
18 Amazed by idiot filling joints up (7)
STUNNED
(den(nut)s)rev. — joints = dens as in crack joints — dens appearing for the second time
19 Vole-like creature climbing boat overwhelmed by damp smell (7)
MUSKRAT
Must around (ark)rev.
20 Charm of French blonde (7)
DELIGHT
de [= of French] light
23 First formal ball (5)
PRIMO
Prim O — from Latin, but now assimilated into English
21A is presumably “LACK” within “BOUTS” meaning periods.
An excellent puzzle that might not have been as difficult as some Thursday puzzles but was extremely enjoyable.
At 21ac I had “lack” (deficiency) in “bouts” (periods) with “mind” as the inclusion indicator in a very clever &lit.
I saw 26ac as a cryptic definition that referred to both Ham as Noah’s son and his saving of the animals on the ark.
Hi Folks,
I’m fairly new to cryptic crosswords, and having a blast working through them in the Independent. Made a fairly good effort today, but struggled with 13a. Even after seeing this post, I’m unsure as to how you would arrive at engrained. Can anyone offer me some advice?
Best Wishes,
Stephen
For 15, I just interpreted the “past best” as meaning that the banana came after the word for best. I certainly don’t think top is obsolete as a word for best.
Stephen, you may not be familiar with the codes used here – the star in (endearing)* indicates an anagram.
21 is proper ‘&lit’ for achange. The whole sentence ‘periods with deficiency to mind’ is quite okay for BLACKOUTS, but the crtyptic parts are BOUTS with LACK to ‘mind’ or ‘look after’ sort of thign. Very good. This is a good puzzle.
….as Andy B said1!!
Very enjoyable, if a little less difficult than the two previous eXternal puzzles I’ve done. No need for the Serbo-Croat dictionary on this occasion at any rate.
Particularly liked spanner for ARCH and pulling for EDITING OUT. SOUPCON, REPRESS and RAILING all very nice, I thought.
REFER is one of the better clues of its type and the indicator ‘squirrels away’ an original touch. Both 8d and 21a very clever, 21a especially so.
Star of the show for me was NOAH, which had me laughing out loud.
All in all, a 20d.
We were held up in the SW corner for a while. Our last one in was NOAH which brought a smile to our faces – always a goid way ti finish a puzzle!
Thanks eXternal for the amusement and John for the blog.
Didn’t manage to get to this till this evening after a busy day away at a conference. Evenings are not best times for my crossword brain (such as it is) but having enjoyed eXternal’s last couple I thought I would have a go. Glad I did – not the hardest Thursday puzzle ever, but plenty of well-constructed stuff with MINGING my favourite for no other reason than my kids use it all the time.
In 15dn, TOP BANANA, the definition is ‘star’ and it’s BANANA for ‘fruit’ after ‘best’ for TOP. The TOP BANANA refers – I know not why – to the lead player, or in a business context, to the most senior manager.
Tks to John and eXternal.
Re engrained/ingrained Google’s ngram viewer is revealing http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=engrained%2Cingrained&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=