A sparkling lesson from Orense in how to make a puzzle both easy-peasy and a joy to solve. I was left, if not entirely grumble-free, then certainly entertained.
As so often, I felt somewhat overdosed on anagrams (but some were very neat, so that’s barely a grumble at all). I had a severe parsing glitch at one point, as will be seen – and I would question whether Edam cheese can fairly be counted as the product of a cow (of course I realise it’s a dairy product, but I’m pretty sure some middlemen are involved, and that the cow shouldn’t be given all the credit). Minor moans only. A lovely puzzle; thank-you, Orense.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CHAMBER MUSIC | Bedroom suite? (7,5) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 10 | NICOSIA | Coins given out with first-class returns for capital (7) |
| Anagram of coins reversal of AI [A1, first-class] | ||
| 11 | INWARDS | Direction in which nurses’ responsibilities lie? (7) |
| In wards [where nurses work] | ||
| 12 | OMANI | Chap covered in oil, mostly? Maybe! (5) |
| Man [chap] within oi(l) – the &lit alludes to the oil-rich state of Oman | ||
| 13 | COURTIER | New recruit protecting old attendant (8) |
| O [old] within anagram of recruit | ||
| 15 | VIEWFINDER | A pollster’s optical device? (10) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | PELT | Hide from rain (4) |
| Double definition – a lovely little clue | ||
| 18 | NEAR | Not far away from genuine article (4) |
| Hidden in genuiNE ARticle | ||
| 20 | SET THE PACE | Led teacher’s pet astray, dismissing resistance (3,3,4) |
| Anagram of teachers pet minus R [resistance] | ||
| 22 | ENSEMBLE | Musicians look like replacing first two with topless men (8) |
| Resemble [look like] with the first two letters replaced by (m)en | ||
| 24 | TABOO | Bill loves being forbidden (5) |
| Tab [bill] o o [zeroes, loves] | ||
| 26 | CLEAR UP | Tidy profit out of bed (5,2) |
| Clear [profit] up [out of bed] | ||
| 27 | ROAD MAP | Plan strategy for peace? (4,3) |
| Double definition | ||
| 28 | ENTERTAINING | Thinking about creating a diversion (12) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | HECTARE | Land of the free teacher? (7) |
| Anagram of teacher | ||
| 3 | MASTIFFS | Dogs having slight set-to during church service (8) |
| Tiff [slight set-to] within mass [church service] | ||
| 4 | EDAM | Produce of cow or horse after race finishes (4) |
| (Rac)e dam (horse) | ||
| 5 | MAISONETTE | Dwelling on estimate being wrong (10) |
| Anagram of on esimate | ||
| 6 | SEWER | Disposal outlet for sheep put in empty steriliser (5) |
| Ewe [sheep] within s(terilise)r | ||
| 7 | CORNICE | My agreeable and decorative part of room (7) |
| Cor [My!, Gosh!, Lor lumme!] nice [agreeable] | ||
| 8 | INCONVENIENCE | Bother at home with the ladies? (13) |
| In [at home] convenience [ladies(‘ toilet)] | ||
| 9 | ESPRIT DE CORPS | Dire prospects for renewing morale (6,2,5) |
| Anagram of dire prospects | ||
| 14 | INTERLOPER | Bury look for each one who gatecrashes (10) |
| Inter [bury] lo [look] per [each] | ||
| 17 | RESTRAIN | Hold back son on coach (8) |
| A charade of Re [on] s [son] train [coach] – but I can’t for the life of me see how to parse it | ||
| 19 | AUSTERE | Teresa sadly accepts university is spartan (7) |
| U [university] within anagram of teresa | ||
| 21 | ALBUMEN | A pound on youth centre workers being white! (7) |
| A lb [pound] (yo)u(th) men [workers] | ||
| 23 | MERIT | Worth millions with flag raised (5) |
| M [millions] reversal of tire [flag] | ||
| 25 | ORCA | Killer bearing donor card? Quite the opposite! (4) |
| Hidden in donOR CArd | ||
Re parsing 17d
Hold back son on coach (8)
Hold – def
back son – read: back s on – back s re – thus RE S
on – position ind in a Dn clue
coach – TRAIN
How do you like this?
Agree with the easy-peasy joy to solve. Took a while to link the cheese with the cow but it did make me smile.
Thanks to Orense and Ringo
Ringo and Rishi @1
“back” is used quite often in clues in THE SKELETON CROSSWORD
(Sunday Express) to clue the two letters RE.
I’ve always assumed that the setters were referring to
the prefix re- meaning ‘again, back’ as in words like REVERT.
I’m not sure if this helps!
Thanks, Orense and Ringo.
I agree with everything Ringo has written. Rishi and mike04 offer possible solutions to the RES question, but I suspect Orense was being unusually careless. I didn’t like TRAIN for coach very much, either. The clue was easy to solve, but I found it inelegant. However, a good time was had by all. Thanks Orense and Ringo.
17 does look mangled now it’s pointed out but it just flew in during a rapid grid fill. Edam caused a minor curse but really this was probably the easiest I’ve done in years.
Thanks Ringo
On 17 I considered “coach” to mean “retrain” as in to train repeatedly, so then def. is “hold back” which is closer in meaning to “restrain” than just “hold” I think.
@Jimmy
I was not too serious when I gave that anno.
I agree that ‘coach’ might give RETRAIN, but still the clue doesn’t lead to a satisfactory parsing. For, in this Dn clue, ‘son on coach’ will give STRAIN but how is RE derived? If RE comes from ‘back’ as has been suggested above and if the def is ‘hold back’ (as you rightly point out), then ‘back’ does double duty.
Please ignore my post above (written carelessly).
I meant to say
For, if ‘coach’ gives RETRAIN, in this Dn clue, ‘son on coach’ will give S RETRAIN.
Finally I think the clue required some editing/revision.