Found this enjoyable and tough – got stuck in the west half of the grid, but Chifonie’s usual neat clueing got me there in the end. 20ac last in, and probably my favourite.
Across
7 See other arrangement made for stretcher in Oxford, say (8)
SHOETREE
=”stretcher in Oxford, say” – a device put in shoes, such as Oxfords, to preserve their shape. (See other)*
9 It’s normal to protect sick supporter (6)
PILLAR
=”supporter”. PAR=”It’s normal”, around ILL=”sick”
10 Egghead gets to US university? Give off! (4)
EMIT
=”Give off”. E[gg]=”Egg/head”, plus MIT=”US university”
11 Deputy hypnotised boss by the end of the day (10)
UNDERSTUDY
=”Deputy”. UNDER=in an unconscious state=”hypnotised”, plus STUD=”boss”, plus [da]Y
12 Understand article and be incensed (6)
SEETHE
=”incensed”. SEE=”Understand” plus THE=”article”
14 Bad service during journey? You can bet on it! (8)
ROULETTE
=”You can bet on it!”. LET=”Bad service” in tennis, inside ROUTE=”journey”
15 Obsequious warrant officer with the forces (6)
SMARMY
=”Obsequious”. S[ergeant] M[ajor]=”warrant officer”, plus ARMY=”the forces”
17 Stopped alongside, showing craft (6)
PEDALO
=”craft”. Hidden in [Stop]PED ALO[ngside]
20 Earl in indiscriminate application of rubber (8)
MASSEUSE
=”rubber”. E[arl] in MASS USE=”indiscriminate application”
22 Charlie takes a break from making insignia (6)
CRESTS
=”insignia”. C[harlie] in the phonetic alphabet, plus RESTS=”takes a break”
23 Sickness for oarsman after eliminator (10)
HEATSTROKE
=”Sickness”. STROKE=”oarsman”, after HEAT=”eliminator” round
24 Stop and shoot (4)
STEM
=”Stop” a flow; =”shoot” of a plant
25 Start to slave and clear out weed (6)
SPURGE
a weed. S[lave] plus PURGE=”clear out”
26 Thousands working for relative (8)
GRANDSON
=”relative”. GRANDS=”Thousands” plus ON=”working”
Down
1 Bubbly Tory slows down (8)
CHAMPERS
=”Bubbly”. C[onservative]=”Tory” plus HAMPERS=”slows down”
2 Clever one to catch out (4)
NEAT
=”Clever”. A=”one”, with NET=”catch” on the outside
3 Birds in Greek river (6)
GROUSE
=”Birds”. GR[eek] plus OUSE=”river”
4 Eye a fresh flower (8)
APERTURE
=”Eye”. A plus PERT=”fresh” plus URE=”flower”=river
5 Everyone’s identical anyway (3,3,4)
ALL THE SAME
=”anyway”; also can be read as =”Everyone’s identical”
6 An outlaw’s born with it (6)
BANDIT
=”An outlaw”. B[orn], plus AND IT=”with it”
8 Excavate, initially, under new stand (6)
ENDURE
=”stand”. E[xcavate], plus (under)*
13 Brief managed seat held by Conservative (10)
TRANSITORY
=”Brief”. RAN=”managed”, plus SIT=”seat”, both inside TORY=”Conservative”
16 Doctor frees police officers (8)
MOUNTIES
=”police officers”. M[edical] O[fficer]=”Doctor” plus UNTIES=”frees”
18 John to be trained at work (2,3,3)
ON THE JOB
=”at work”. (John to be)*
19 Take one’s time getting fit (6)
BELONG
=”fit”. BE LONG=”Take one’s time”
21 Drink exotic pop in Syria (6)
ALEPPO
is in Syria. ALE=”Drink” plus (pop)*
22 Islander in wild trance (6)
CRETAN
=”Islander”. (trance)*
24 Fusses over drink (4)
SODA
=”drink”. reversal (“over”) of ADO’S=”Fusses”
Thanks to manehi for the blog. I had MASSEUSE but failed to see ‘indiscriminate’. You explained that.
I am a little puzzled by 4d: equating ‘eye’ and APERTURE seems to be pushing the definition of either one of these.
On 7 it took me a while to remember that Oxford is a type of shoe.
For 25a, I had SARCLE – start of slave, plus “clear” out, and the word means “to weed”! Unfortunate that the clue could have two equally plausible readings (although to be fair to the editor, it looks like Chambers doesn’t have “sarcle” – it seems to be an OED only word).
Thanks Chifonie & manehi.
I thought this was going to be easy at the beginning but then got a bit stuck.
chas@1; both my Chambers and Oxford Thesauruses have APERTURE=eye.
NEAT was my LOI, which I failed to parse. I liked the ‘rubber.’
Thanks to Robi for the explanation.
I thought this was a beautiful little crossword, and a nice standard for a gentle stretch. As someone posted at the G. – “Quiptic moments with Prize gems“…well said!
Some Setters (like some cricketers) just seem to have a natural gift for elegance and simplicity.
Normally I see Chifonie and expect a lot of write-ins, but I agree with manehi that this was a little tricky in places, and enjoyable. It took me a while to see MASSEUSE, which I needed to get BELONG, my last in. Never heard of sarcle – a little knowledge is a dangerous thing…
Thanks to Chifonie and manehi
Thanks Chifonie and manehi
A straightforward but classy puzzle that was completed in two short sessions – nice, crisp clues that left no ambiguity with the solutions.
MASSEUSE was the last one in and the only one to give any serious trouble. Well except for initially entering GRANDPOP at 26a and unsuccessfully trying to find a pop that was a word for $1000 – finally was able to see that it was a couple of generations further down the tree !!!
The ‘unhelpful’ grid didn’t seem to get in the way of getting it finished.
I had BEST at 2dn., reading the clue as a double definition – ‘clever one’ and ‘to clear out’.
I didn’t enjoy this as much as others seem to have. I thought that some of the definitions were a little weak, such as ‘forces’ in 15a to clue ‘army’ (to me, forces would embrace the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines),, and ‘shoot’ for ‘stem’ in 24a. Dictionaries may support these definitions, but they don’t work too well for me. I’m also not a fan of clues like 24d, where one needs crossing letters to know which of two possibilities to enter (‘soda’ or ‘ados’ in this instance).
Otherwise, not a bad challenge, but last week’s puzzles set the bar pretty high, and my expectations were raised.
Glad i wasn’t the only one with best at 2d. Gosh, quiet in here today. Is this the Indy blog? 🙂
I thought this was going to be an extremely fast solve but my last two, MASSEUSE and NEAT, took a while to tease out. I don’t think “best” works for 2dn, but that’s just my opinion. As far as the possible “sarcle” at 25ac and “ados” at 24dn are concerned, the checkers rule them out so I don’t have a problem with the clues.
This was a reasonable challenge after yesterday.
However I did rattle along until the SW corner. Briefly held up there by ALEPPO, MOUNTIE and MASSEUSE (LOI)
I took SPURGE to be the verb (“Remove or clear away or out by cleansing or purifying”) as I’m not sure the plant is a weed. I’m no gardener though!
As GC @9 says, expectations raised after last week. 🙁
Thanks to manehi and Chifonie
After seven stops on the tube, only 16d and 20a remained. And that’s how it stayed for the rest of the day. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
Was able to rattle through this – just seemed to latch into Chifonie’s succinct wavelength.
Also had BEST @2d
Anyone note the potential double meaning @18d? I imagine Paul in his semi-scatological mood would develop link between the solution and John training.
Thanks to C and manehi
Brendan, a weed is just a plant that is growing in the wrong place and spurge certainly does that in my daughter’s garden, so I think the definition is ok.
Like others I was going along very nicely until the SW corner which held me up for quite a while. Masseuse was my LOI.
I had no problem with 24. For me ‘over’ can only indicate reversal of the preceding word. ‘Drink fusses over’ works for SODA. ‘Over drink fusses’ doesn’t work for ADOS, or anything else.
alm3 @15
Thanks for that. I was actually waiting for the “wrong place” definition to be mentioned.
The gardener in our house is SWMBO so my knowledge is temporary and purely on a need to know basis.
However I did think about this when solving the puzzle and discounted this definition as consequently “weed” could mean any plant whatsoever.
I did some further research yesterday and found that some Euphorbia do have the word “weed” in their common name. Not all though as I do remember my better half pointing at some plant or other and saying “how lovely the Euphorbia is this year”!
It’s all “voodoo” 😉
Sorry about the late comments, but now that the guardian publishes an online Australian edition our local paper can no longer publish the Guardian crossword as the “English Cryptic”. So I print off a week’s worth of crosswords at a time and work through them at one per day with my post breakfast coffee.
Might just be me, but I found this one disappointingly simple and not up to the Guardian’s usual standard.