I found the south-east corner of this puzzle very tricky, it took me much longer than all the rest of the puzzle combined. Anyone else find this, or was it just me? There is one answer I cannot explain (20dn), any help appreciated.
There seemed to be a lot of ‘missing letter’ constructions in this puzzle, more than one would normally expect. I spotted a few WWII references, though not quite a theme and also some very nice anagrams. Thank you Redshank.
Across
1 Where to start digging gold in a lode possibly? (8)
ELDORADO
D (start of digging) OR (gold) in (A LODE)* anagram=possibly – definition is &lit, Eldorado is a fabled land of gold
5 19 goods, sweet (6)
BONBON
BON BON (good, twice) – a sweet and a type of spoon also known as a Puritan Spoon. I’m not sure on the exact spoon details, I don’t have any reliable refernce material to consult. Whoops, I have misread the clue number, 19 is NICE not PURITAN (which is 18). Possibly Nice= from Nice in France, in French. Good and bon are synonyms in English, so not necessary to invoke French (though no reason why not to either?). Good=bon is adjectival, so cannot be pluralised. Thanks to Rishi.
9 In which to cook odd bits of 10 pecan nuts (8)
SAUCEPAN
StAtUs (10, odd bits of) PECAN* anagram=nuts
10 Standing stone figures earl discarded (6)
STATUS
STATUeS (stone figures) missing E=earl – definition is ‘standing’
12 Without notice, lady invests old students’ dough (5)
LOLLY
O (old) L L (two learners, students) in LadY missing AD (advertisement, notice) – cash
13 Old Protestant Welshman set in charge (9)
EVANGELIC
EVAN (Welsh name) GEL (set) IC (in charge) – definition is ‘old Protestant’. I’m not sure why ‘old’ is there, Chambers gives ‘Protestant’ as a current meaning of evangelic.
14 Manhattan products flop when bottled (1-5)
A-BOMBS
BOMB (flop) in (bottled by) AS (when). Manhattan was the codename for the US atomic weapons program in WWII.
16 It spans river junction in 12 (7)
PONTOON
PO (river) then T (junction) in NOON (12) – definition is ‘it spans’, a type of bridge made of boats
18 Upright piano tuner worked without one (7)
PURITAN
PIANO (piano) TUNER* anagram=worked containing (without, outside) I (one) missing (without) ONE. Thanks to Eileen, mike04 et al. I did parse it this way when solving (honest!) but for some reason failed to remember when commenting the solution. Sloppy work!
20 Big names export drug from Sulawesi (6)
CELEBS
CELEBeS (old name for Sulawesi, island in Indonesia) missing (exporting) E (ecstacy, drug)
22 I make an impression with one brief visit in uniform (9)
IDENTICAL
I DENT (make an impression) with I (one) CALL (visit, missing last letter) – definition is ‘uniform’
23 A Lloyd Webber’s partner’s moment? (5)
TRICE
T RICE (Tim Rice, partner of Andrew Lloyd Weber)
24 He was here backing royal house over Israel (6)
KILROY
YORK (royal house) reversed containing (over) IL (Israel, IVR) – ‘Kilory was here’ was a popular American phrase and graffiti slogan in WWII
25 Material on Near East? (8)
RELEVANT
RE (regarding, on) LEVANT (Near East) – definition is ‘material’, relevant to
26 This son held estate implicitly (6)
ELDEST
found inside (implicit in) hELD ESTate
27 Feeling disheartened in life perhaps (8)
SENTENCE
SENTiENCE (feeling, disheartened) – a life sentence perhaps
Down
1 Art supporters, sly types after women’s lib? (6)
EASELS
wEASELS (sly types) after W=women has been liberated (taken out) – made me smile!
2 Eg Baron Cohen lookalike dashed across the pond (6-9)
DOUBLE-BARRELLED
DOUBLE (lookalike) and BARRELLED (dashed, American) – an example of a double barelled name (missing the more typical hyphen, eg Sasha Baron Cohen)
3 Like some of the wind cure Mike ignored (5)
REEDY
REmEDY ignoring M=mike – like the woodwind
4 GP was rude about leading lady’s bloomers (7)
DRAWERS
DR (doctor, GP) WAS* rude=anagram about ER (leading lady, The Queen) – drawers and bloomers are types of underwear
6 A lot can go wrong with quite a few sides (9)
OCTAGONAL
(A LOT CAN GO)* wrong=anagram
7 This showed bottle in RAF, a bit shattered (6,2,7)
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
(BOTTLE IN RAF A BIT)* anagram=shattered – definition &lit (ish). A very nice clue.
8 Nobody grasps second missile’s point (4,4)
NOSE CONE
SEC (second) in (grasped by) NO ONE (nobody)
11 Where guys are tense and theatrical (4)
CAMP
double/cryptic definition – guy ropes could be tense (taut) in a campsite
15 Maoist nut translated Origin of Species (9)
MUTATIONS
(MAOIST NUT)* anagram=translated – mutation of genes is a part of of evolution
17 Drizzle almost bound to upset horny beast (8)
SPRINKLE
SPRINt SPRINg (bound, almost) with ELK (horny beast) reversed (upset)
19 Northern Rock’s described as friendly (4)
NICE
N (northern) ICE (rock, diamond) – definition is ‘described as friendly’
20 Where to train sheepdog, say, for one (7)
COLLEGE
Why? Something to do with Collie dogs? COLLiE (sheepdog) with EG replacing (for) I (one). Thanks to Pelham Barton for this.
21 Penny is the French version – I’m used to pound (6)
PESTLE
P (penny) EST LE (is the, French)
23 Tiny dry biting comment (5)
TWEET
WEE (tiny) in (bitten by) TT (dry) – definition is comment, sort of &lit-ish too.
*anagram
Hi PeeDee
I could not resist the challenge in your preamble. 20dn is COLLIE with EG replacing I. I would almost certainly not have got this so quickly without you having already mentioned Collie dogs in your blog.
Thanks Pelham. I had all the pieces, I could not put them together.
Thanks for the blog, PeeDee.
Christmas seems to have come a week early, for me, at any rate, with Radian yesterday and again as Redshank today – not to mention Tramp and Philistine!
Many thanks, Redshank, for another cracker!
[I initially parsed 18ac as in the blog – but it doesn’t quite work, does it? Are we missing something?]
Thanks Redshank and PeeDee.
ELDORADO was a fine start to a fine crossword today.
I found the SW trickier than the SE, PeeDee.
PURITAN is an anagram of “piano tuner” without the letters of the word “one”.
Thanks, mike04 – I should have known Redshank better!
18a is an anagram of PIANOTUNER after removing ONE (which letters are not all together but dispersed, though in the same order as one).
I was typing, double-checking and previewing my Comment when mike04’s appeared in the meanwhile.
Qn: If the letters o n and e were not in the same order, would we have required an anagram indicator for the jumbled deletion fodder?
5a: ‘good’ is an adj and adjectives don’t take the plural form.
So we need to interpret “19 goods” as “19 [Nice] good, good” before we reach bonbon = sweet.
Agree?
Spot on Rishi!
Rishi@7
Having read 18ac again, I’m now wondering what instrument the
‘Upright piano tuner’ is not working with! I wonder if Redshank knows?
In my opinion, another anagram indicator would be required if O, N and E were not in the same order.
Rishi @7, you certianly have a point, but requiring further explanation of the ordering of ONE would seem a bit pedantic to me. However, your point about ‘goods’ not being interpreted as GOOD + GOOD unless the meaning is a noun is also pedantic, but in that case I like the objection.
I think both points are arguable either way. I guess it just comes down to personal taste, whether it ‘works’ for one or not.
Re puritan had the same device in the grauniad so saw that straight off. My SE problem caused by putting in atime for 23 without doing a full parse. Silly boy. Thanks PD for both blog and other site stuff. Phil
If ‘good’ is an adjective, so what? We can still have two or more of it, can’t we? ‘Adjective’ is a noun, though, perhaps I should remember, but even so I had no problem with the cryptic grammar.
Re the compound anag, we’ve had this debate before, when many expert opinions were offered. It was a very amusing day, as I recall. But since one (among the many) possible outcome(s) is PURITANONE I can’t see why we’d need a second indicator for that construction.
So there we are: The Redshank Redemption.
Thanks, Paul B.
I missed the compound anagram debate. Glad you waded in!
2 down: american for dashed is barreled, not barrelled.
17 down: spring, i think, not sprint (not that it makes any difference in the crossword).
I had a look on merriam-webster.com and it gives both spellings: barrelled or barreled.
For who’s interested in that discussion on compound anagrams, about a year and a half ago, here it is: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2012/07/13/financial-times-14055-by-redshank/
Indeed, another Redshank.
But then, he is the Master of this device.
As Redshank, as Crucible too.