(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) This was by no means a write-in, requiring a slow and steady teasing out of some of the answers. Thanks to Imogen for the workout. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9 Punishment limiting one’s feeling (9)
SENTIENCE : SENTENCE(a punishment handed down, usually by a court of law) containing(limiting) I(Roman numeral for “one”).
10 Cut short travel in area of republic (5)
SLIGO : “slit”(cut, say, a throat) minus its last letter(… short) + GO(to travel).
Answer: The county town in the Republic of Ireland.
11 Sum that’s missing a policeman found (7)
MOUNTIE : “amount”(a sum, say, of money) + IE(abbrev. for “id est”, the Latin for “that is”;that’s) minus(missing) “a “.
Defn: … in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
12 Cockney villain that goes into the bag (3,4)
TEA LEAF : Double defn: 1st: Cockney rhyming slang for “thief”; and 2nd: That which goes into a tea bag.
13 Covering for Caesar, army conceals defensive blunder (4)
TOGA : T.A.(abbrev. for the British Territorial Army) containing(conceals) O.G.(abbrev. for “own goal”;a defensive blunder, literally, in some sporting matches).
14 Favour daughter staying at home, giving optimistic view (4-6)
ROSE-TINTED : [ ROSETTE(a rose-like decoration to be worn as a badge of having won a prize or an honour;a favour) + D(abbrev. for “daughter”) ] containing(staying;suppressing) IN(at home).
16 Start foolish, but ____ , upright (7)
ENDWISE : [END + WISE], antonyms, respectively, of(but …) “start” and “foolish”.
Defn: Standing on one end.
17 Pacify small, small number (7)
SWEETEN : S(abbrev. for “small”) + WEE(small) + TEN(the number).
19 In ceremony, noise interrupts speech (10)
ORDINATION : DIN(noise) contained in(interrupts) ORATION(a speech).
Answer: A ceremony conferring holy orders;ordaining an individual. Could “In” be part of the definition, as it’s a ceremony to formally bring one into the order?
22 Singular disease in place of business? (4)
HIVE : Cryptic defn: “hives”(the disease) minus “s” to fancifully make it a singular noun.
Answer: A place of activity, whether by bees or humans conducting business.
24 Large, fleshier all round, but not so curvaceous (7)
FLATTER : L(abbrev. for “large”) contained in(… all round) FATTER(fleshier).
25 Man taking notes on book for poster (7)
BLOGGER : LOGGER(fancifully, one who keeps a log;takes notes) placed after(on, in an across clue) B(abbrev. for “book”).
Answer: One who posts on the Internet.
26 Make people leave net completely open (5)
CLEAR : Triple defn: 1st: As in “to clear the theatre”; 2nd: To clear;net a profit from trading; and 3: As with a clearing in a forest.
27 Starts to shed clothes, looking sexy – and hardened (9)
SCLEROTIC : Initial letters, respectively, of(Starts to) “shed clothes, looking ” + EROTIC(sexy).
Defn: …, as a result of sclerosis, a thickening and hardening of body tissues.
Down
1 Truly clever chap needed in statecraft of a new order (2,1,6,2,4)
AS A MATTER OF FACT : MA(abbrev. for “Master of Arts”, a clever chap who’s got this degree) contained in(needed in) anagram of(…new order) STATECRAFT OF A.
2 Doctor eluding detection initially treated himself (8)
INDULGED : Anagram of(Doctor) ELUDING + the 1st letter of(… initially) “detection “.
3 Offering limited view, I’m surprised to receive good degree (5)
MISTY : MY!(an exclamation expressing “I’m surprised”) containing(to receive) IST(letters resembling “1st”;short for First Class Honours, a good academic degree).
4 English city firm employs Pole that turns up again (4,4)
ONCE MORE : Reversal of(… that turns up, in a down clue) [ E(abbrev. for “English”) + ROME(the city) + CO(abbrev. for “company”;a commercial firm) containing(employs) N(abbrev. for one of the geographical poles) ].
5 Not a Jew? I had to go quiet (6)
GENTLE : “Gentile”(a non-Jew) minus(… had to go) “I“.
6 Imogen’s in car, last to leave place of refreshment (9)
ESTAMINET : MINE(possessive pronoun self-referencing the setter;Imogen’s) contained in(in) “estate”(short for an estate car, with a rear door and a large rear carrying space) minus its last letter(…, last to leave).
Answer: A small café or bar.
7 The Promenade des Anglais, perhaps, is most pleasant (6)
NICEST : NICE ST(abbrev. for “street”), as exemplified;perhaps by the Promenade des Anglais, a celebrated promenade in Nice, France.
8 Secret cards to be won? Don’t be fooled by this (10,5)
CONFIDENCE TRICK : CONFIDENCE(something told in confidence;a secret) + TRICK(in card games, a set of cards played in a round, and won the whoever played the highest-value card).
15 Identifying pattern that’s bound to squash one irritant (9)
SIGNATURE : SURE(that is bound to happen, as in “a sure thing”) containing
(to squash) [ I(Roman numeral for “one”) + GNAT(an irritating insect) ]
17 Coke party that’s thrown by children (8)
SNOWBALL : SNOW(like “coke”, slang for cocaine) + BALL(a party;a social function).
18 Closely follow the scandal of the Three Blind Mice? (8)
TAILGATE : Cryptic defn: In the nursery rhyme, the Three Blind Mice had their tails chopped off, and that episode might be refered to as TAILGATE, with the suffix “-gate” to mean a scandal, originally picked up from the Watergate scandal.
Defn: … another vehicle, say.
20 I write a cheque, one to be put into chest (6)
DRAWER : Double defn: 2nd: … of drawers.
21 Refuse to ride horse, using whip (6)
THRASH : TRASH(refuse;garbage) containing(to ride;to travel around or over) H(slang abbrev. for “heroin”, for which “horse” is also a slang term). I’m not too sure of the containment indicator.
23 There may be one on the bench here in playing area (5)
COURT : Double defn: 1st: A court of law where you’ll find a judge on the bench; and 2nd: Where you would play, say, tennis or squash.
(Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)
Thanks scchua. Yes, there were some quite tricky ones here. I wrestled with ‘knee bone’ before light dawned ONCE MORE. Quite a bit of variety in the clueing, from the straightforward double definitions ( and a curlier triple one) to the splendid TAILGATE type. Thanks Imogen.
Thanks Scchua 18D I don’t think tailgate has anything to do with Watergate – it’s just the word that’s used when another vehicle – often a large lorry – sits right on your bumper. Closely follws is a bit of an understatement for this practice.
We loved Toga og as an defensive blunder.
An excellent atart to the holiday weekend thanks to Imogen.
Happy Easter to all
Super puzzle, and a good start to Easter.
Sorry Shirley, but I’m sure that Scchua is dead right on 18d: as indicated, the suffix ‘gate’ is now widely used to describe any scandal (such as ‘plebgate’).
Thanks Imogen and scchua
I found this very difficult and almost gave up, as I found several clues that I had solved unsatisfactory in their lack of precise indication. I know that’s the point of a crossword, but some were just too unhelpful, I thought. All of the clues I am going to complain about can be justified, but that’s not my point.
10a “cut short” = “sli” and how many other possibilities?
22a wouldn’t “place of activity” be far better than “place of business”?
1d semi “ghost anagram”. I saw that “statecraft” must be involved, but didn’t work out the rest as I didn’t guess that I had to assume that “clever chap” = MA
6d “car” = “estate” and how many other possibilities? “estate” could be more clearly indicated, surely?
Complaints over. I did like TAILGATE. TEA LEAF, TOGA, ENDWSIE and SCLEROTIC.
18d scchua has indicated that the definition is “follow another vehicle closely”, while the “gate” derives as George @3 describes.
scchua – there doesn’t seem to be an active link to the blog with pictures at the moment.
Does “business” allude to the busyness of bees?
Thanks, scchua and Imogen.
Very nice puzzle. Particular favourites: TOGA, TAILGATE and, most of all, INDULGED, for its superb construction and surface.
[Hi muffin @4 – re 22ac: reading it as ‘busyness’ worked for me.]
Hi again, muffin – that wasn’t in answer to your query – we crossed!
Muffyword @ 7
Yes, I thought that was probably the intention, but “hive of business” isn’t as familiar as “hive of activity”. A “second-level” distractor, perhaps?
Don’t like being negative but totally agree with Muffin@4. Completed eventually but not very satisfying.
Apologies to muffin and Muffyword for confusing you with each other. 😉
Eileen@12 – we are superficially alike.
………….and so are we!
Of course we recently had gate gate aka plebgate.
Thanks for the blog sschua. I thoroughly enjoyed this, especially for the variety. The righthand side fell out quite steadily, with the exception of 23dn, which was my last one in. The left took a bit longer.
TAILGATE made me smile!
Thanks Imogen.
Thanks scchua and Imogen
An enjoyable puzzle – I particulalrly liked 14a, 1d, 2d, 7d, 15d and 23d.
I failed to parse OG in 13a, and missed ‘net’ in 26a. I also failed on 22a.
I respectfully second all muffin’s comments @4
Thanks, scchua
I’m another with muffin @4. LHS took an unconscionably long time. Some excellent clues, but I found the puzzle frustrating. Sorry, Imogen!
I thought this was very good. Like others, the right hand side went first, and even with 1d in place the left took much longer. But the surfaces were clever and the subsidiaries fair, so I always wanted to crack on.
COURT was last; Mrs Trailman had to check it wasn’t BOARD, which it nearly could be.
Thanks scchua for showing me that CLEAR was a triple def!
And see who’s there in the middle of the first row … !
Thanks Imogen, right level for a bank holiday i.e. difficult.
Thanks scchua; I wouldn’t have been able to solve this without aids but I thought most of the cluing was fine. MA=clever person might have been a bit naughty but as it was a small part in a large anagram I thought it was allowable. Car=estate is pretty regular fare in my opinion.
Well done, Sil, I completely missed that!
Thanks, scchua.
Well, I’m a fan! I thought this was excellent with nearly every clue requiring serious consideration, plenty of smiles when pennies dropped, and first class concealment of definitions. And a Nina to boot! (Thanks, Sil!)
Oh, lovely surfaces too! 🙂
Thanks to Imogen and scchua. I must echo Robi’s comments: Well spotted, Sil! and I couldn’t
have completed it without aids expecially the check button. This took hours to complete but
fortunately I have the time and this is the best way to spend it. Happy Easter to all – can’t
wait for the egg hunt!
Cheers…
I had PILE for 22ac, though couldn’t really justify it as a place of business!
I spotted the little Nina only after solving the puzzle, so it was of no use to me.
Unlike others I went fairly quickly through the LHS, only to come to a grinding halt in the NE where, for a while, I only had NICEST and where I really needed some resources to get on.
I am in the camp of solvers who enjoyed this immensely.
Even if I found it hard to find a substantial way in (just like with Imogen’s previous puzzle).
As to 26ac (CLEAR), it’s perhaps even a quadruple definition, as CLEAR (as an adverb) can mean just “completely”.
Yes, a really good crossword, I thought.
Many thanks for that to Imogen.
(and the usual thx to scchua for blogging)
Thanks all
If I am right in assuming Imogen is a female then I can say that she is maturing delightfully and will son be a very welcome addition to our top class compilers.
Last in 6d and 10ac.
I liked the long anagram at 1 down., 16 ac for a touch of originality.
scchua is clearly correct over ‘gate’, it represents one of those relatively quickly developing linguistic quirks which makes life so interesting for we word lovers.
Hard work and didn’t finish but admirable clueing. Thanks Imogen and scchua.
Well spotted, Sil!
Mick @27 I too had ‘pile’ and thought it could be connected with the scatological euphemism (dating from at least the C16) of ‘doing one’s business’. I’m naturally glad it was not the correct answer.
I looked throught the comments with increasing surprise that nobody had spotted the Nina, but then Sil popped up @21. I saw it as soon as it had fully appeared, so no help in solving but well before the end of the puzzle. I though it was an excellent crossword with some fine clues, not easy but not all that hard either. My last one in was HIVE, after originally writing in PILE, but luckily I went back to it and spotted the significance of “business”.
I also wondered whether Imogen intended to 24 the 25 :-).
Count me as another who thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. Some of the answers needed to be teased out from the wordplay but the cluing was always fair, IMHO. CLEAR was my LOI, and nice spot of the nina by Sil@21.
Hmm tailgate is fine it’s just the lazy journalese of anything-gate that annoys.
Cor tough un for sure, even as one 25a. caught me for a while.
Thanks Scc and Imogen who’s a setter to watch, carefully preferably behind mental sandbags 🙂
Sue and I found this meaty and without being “up itself”. What more could we want?
Only slip forgetting to revisit BOARD for 23d with which we weren’t happy.
Favourite was the triple def CLEAR.
Thanks Imogen, scchua and all.
I’d have given up on this puzzle but 18d was too much of a challenge. Thanks, Imogen and all.
I agree with RCW. I haven’t been a great fan of Imogen until now but this was much better. I particularly liked TAILGATE which of course has something to do with Watergate (Shirley)
Some of the clueing was a little loose but not so bad as some posters seem to suggest. Overall this was an enjoyable and challenging puzzle.
Thanks to Scchua and Imogen.
Thanks to setter and blogger. I thought this was a good workout.
But one thought on scchua’s comment on 10 : surely the use of the word ‘area’ means that the definition is of Sligo the county, rather than the town.
Totally disagree with those who criticised some of the clues. We are not here just to get the answers to individual clues separately; they go in this thing called a grid, and what happens, see, is that some of the letters of the answers are the same as some in other answers. You then use this feature to iron out any ambiguities in the clues.
How anyone can complain that it took an ‘unconscionably long’ time to complete it when most gripes here are about how quick and easy the puzzles are is beyond me. Are we to set a standard time for how long a puzzle should take? Perhaps specifying shorter times earlier in the week?
What nonsense. It’s a puzzle, and it’s up to us to get the right answers from the clues given to us by the setter. That’s all.
Mick H and Tupu – me too with “pile”. I decided Paul must have helped with that clue!
Thanks Imogen and scchua
Only got to this after being away for first bit of Easter – and thoroughly enjoyed it! It was one of those puzzles where each clue provided a mini-tussle with many having to be left a number of times before it would eventually yield.
Particularly liked having to justify the MA in 1d and the OG in 13a.
Without using obscure words, the setter has put together a very challenging puzzle with all of the Easter break there for it to be solved … it enjoyably filled up a few hours of mine on and off