The fates – or anyway the FT – smiled on me today: I was late getting started, but the crossword was a breeze. I think this was my first encounter with Sayang, and it was a very pleasant solve – easy enough, but immaculately clued and all-in-all a nice start to a sunny winter’s day. Thank-you, Sayang.
ACROSS
1. ASSASSINATION Ass + ass [couple of fools] + I [one, a] + nation [state]
9. TWADDLE T(ravel) + waddle [travel like ducks – ‘travel’ does double duty here]
10. APPAREL A + P [Portugal] + par [standard] + el [Spanish for ‘the’]
11. ABIDE A + B [second-rate] + ide [fish]
12. ABOMINATE Anagram of into a beam
13. TUNGSTEN Tun [vessel] + anagram of gents
15. LARIAT Aria [song] within lt [lieutenant, junior officer]
18. SCROLL Stroll [constitutional] with t(he) replacing c [circa, about]
19. WINE LIST Cryptic definition
22. OBSTINATE Anagram of (th)e botanist
24. SPAIN Spa [resort] + in [home]
25. ELEMENT Double definition
26. CHALICE CH [Switzerland] + Alice [lady]
27. DISINVESTMENT Anagram of events in midst
DOWN
1. ATTRACT At [by] + tract [piece of land]
2. STATIONER Double definition
3. SEDGE S [special] + edge [advantage]
4. ICE WATER Anagram of waiter EC [European Community]
5. AMAZON Double definition
6. IMPLICATE Imp [naughty child] + cat [animal] within lie [story]
7. NORMA Norma(l) [usual]
8. CLIENT Lien [right] within ct [court]
14. SALTINESS Anagram of stainless
16. IMITATIVE I [one] + initial letters of M(erchandise) i(ndiscreetly) + tat [cheap goods] + i’ve [I have]
17. WISEACRE Wise [Ernie, comedian] + ac [account] + re [about]
18. STOLEN Anagram of not(ab)les
20. TANGENT Tan [hit] + gent [man]
21. CANTON Double definition
23. SPEED Double definition
24. SMART Reversal of trams [public transport]
I thought it had quite an old-fashioned sort of clueing feel about it. Easiest of all today’s 6 cryptics.
Thanks Sayang for the puzzle and Ringo for the blog.
9ac: You can avoid the claim of double duty here by taking “Start to” as the indicator for the initial T. This is consistent with use of “the first” at 18ac.
15ac: Not sure what “into” is doing in this clue.
22ac: This could be taken as a partial “& lit” clue where the whole clue is the wordplay as anagram of botanist followed by (th)e.
27ac: Superb anagram.
2dn: This does not work for me as a double definition, although I will be glad if someone can make it work. I assumed that it was necessary for the wordplay to split the word “Poster” into “Post” (= “Station”) + “er” (which is left unchanged). Personally I seriously dislike the unsignalled requirement to split clue words, but as always I have no quarrel with those whose views differ from my own.
20dn: See the last sentence of my comment on 2dn.
24dn: I would have preferred a vertical reversal indicator here – perhaps “Fashionable to take up public transport”. However, I have a lot of sympathy for the view that answers can be constructed horizontally and then entered vertically. As always, I have no quarrel …
Further to my earlier comment on 2dn, the double definition works if you accept that an agent noun can be formed from any verb and then (from Chambers 2008) post² vt to station somewhere on duty. I prefer that to my original parsing. As always, I have no quarrel …
I am not sure that the wordplay of 20D quite works for me.
The subsidiary part gives ‘ at a tangent’ whilst the answer is simply ‘tangent’.