A high-quality crossword from Radian which took me longer than it should have done in retrospect, since the clues are generally quite clear, as witness the fact that many of the explanations below have been explained without words.
The theme is 18ac words, of which we have examples in 11ac (probably), 25ac, 13dn, 15dn, 19dn and no doubt several others that I can’t immediately see. There are some words, like 4dn or 23dn, whose letters are formed in a certain way, but they are not so far as I know 18ac words.
Definitions in italics.
Across
1 Perhaps stock old French wine, not quite the top bottles (7)
BOVINES
b(o vin)es{t}
5 After 5 in the morning one can set about e.g. retinol (7)
VITAMIN
V 1 t(am)in — can = tin
9 Time to muse (5)
ERATO
era to
10 Cooked onion contains copper? To us it’s harmless (9)
INNOCUOUS
Cu in (onion)* us
11 Customised bedrooms touring Illinois? (10)
DORMOBILES
(bedrooms)* round Il, &lit.
12 Heart of Cumbria , fell journal (4)
BLOG
{Cum}b{ria} log — I took ages over this because I was thinking that the heart of Cumbria was mb
14 Guy is on line, freely exploiting creativity (11)
INGENIOUSLY
(Guy is on line)*
18 Left chap note with a uniform in case (11)
PORTMANTEAU
port man te a u
21 Bob, say, dislodges top of gargoyle from keystone (4)
COIN
coi{g}n — bob as old shilling
22 Thirsty bird, single, makes drink (3,7)
DRY MARTINI
dry martin 1
25 Films made here by club hiring Oscar students (9)
BOLLYWOOD
b(O LL)y wood wood = club as in golf club — the word continues although all (?) woods are nowadays made of metal
26 Forces department to import blue berets in barrow, say (5)
MOUND
MO(UN)D — the blue berets are the United Nations and the Forces department is the Ministry of Defence
27 Hog sections of river during floods (7)
RASHERS
rashe(r)s — I think this is the second of the six definitions of rash in Chambers: ‘a large number of instances of anything happening at the same time or in the same place’ — nicely disguised definition in the clue
28 Old pipes mum put in (7)
MUSETTE
mu(set)te — an early form of bagpipe
Down
1 Head of bank does his job in 18 words (6)
BLENDS
b{ank} lends — portmanteau words are blends
2 Sixth Indian city supplying aid to union (6)
VIAGRA
VI Agra
3 21 ages come together, dispersing gloominess (10)
NEOLOGISMS
(gloominess)* — 21 ages coming together is the joining of coin and ages to make coinages — Azed once in his slip tore apart a clue that used this idea of joining two words (or was it splitting? I can’t remember) saying that this was a clue to a clue; but I’m sorry, I think this is fine
4 Some comics incorporating futuristic ideas principally? (3-2)
SCI-FI
S{ome} c{omics} i{ncorporating} f{uturistic} i{deas}, &lit.
5 With which marshal can get even, short of time? (9)
VENGEANCE
(can get even – t)* — I think this is an attempt at an &lit., but what being short of time has to do with vengeance I can’t see — perhaps there is more going on
6 Lousy food?/Choose a different course (4)
TACK
2 defs
7 It’s dark and it’s still not half time (8)
MOONLESS
Sorry. Lost here. OK moonless = dark but the last bit defeats me: is it some football reference? (surely not, for then it would be half-time)
8 Most of posy ages once picked up? It’d be useless for these then (8)
NOSEGAYS
Reverse hidden in poSY AGES ONce
13 Medics mostly gather round posh faction (10)
DOCUDRAMAS
(doc dr amas{s}) round u — a portmanteau word, a mixture of fact and fiction
15 Vast George I sunroom undergoes restoration (9)
GINORMOUS
(G1 sunroom)*
16 Key to where astronauts drink? (5,3)
SPACE BAR
2 defs, one of them whimsical, referring to where astronauts might have a drink
17 Solicitors need them to work for leaders, say (8)
ARTICLES
2 defs which didn’t shout out at me — leaders in newspapers
19 Regressive clothes, clothing of the French Left (6)
KIDULT
ki(du l)t — ‘du’ is French for ‘of the’ — not a word I was very familiar with but according to Chambers it’s ‘an adult who enjoys entertainment intended for children’
20 Do Dutch do nothing about Germany? (6)
DIDDLE
D id(D)le, D standing for both Dutch and Germany
23 It transmits miles over lines (5)
MODEM
m(ode)m — ‘miles’ indicates m and m, not simply m which it could stand for
24 Usually 8 bits in safety-belt mounting (4)
BYTE
Reverse hidden in safETY-Belt — I can’t see why these computer people can’t be a bit clearer about things and say that 8 bits always = a byte; after all we don’t say that 3 feet usually = a yard — but ‘usu’ is indeed what Chambers says
*anagram
Thanks John and Radian,
This also took me a long time, but I enjoyed it a lot.
Re 7d MOONLESS:
Mo(ti)onless (subtract ti(me))
A modem is a “modulator-demodulator,” making it, I reckon, an 18 word. Thanks,Radian and John.
Thanks, John, for the blog.
As you say, another high-quality crossword from Radian, which was very enjoyable to solve.
I particularly liked INNOCUOUS and DORMOBILES – and NEOLOGISMS, which I took as also defining the theme.
Many thanks, as ever, to Radian.
Thoroughly enjoyable – many thanks to Radian – and to John!
Muffyword@1: that is very well done! I got the word but couldn’t parse it at all.
I enjoyed what I could manage and also the blog.
In 17d, I believe you mean to put du l’ admittedly a bit difficult to write with the apostrophe and inverted commas.
Thanks to both
I agree that this was a tricky puzzle but it was all fair and very enjoyable. Despite the signposting of PORTMANTEAU I didn’t notice that there were so many of them. DOCUDRAMAS was my LOI and it took a while before I was happy with the wordplay. MUSETTE also took a while because I couldn’t see past “ma=mum” for the start of the answer until I finally got KIDULT, realised that “set” was almost certainly the middle of the answer, and then the “mute=mum” penny finally dropped. I couldn’t parse MOONLESS so thanks for that Muffyword.
@5Heather McKay – don’t see why, “du” = of the (Fr) and “l” = left.
“Du” does not require the definite article to follow it, whether apostrophised or not; but perhaps the answer could be written as ki (du +l)t, but I’m happy the way John’s written it.
Thanks to Radian and John.
Very nice, thought moonless rather clever when I saw how it worked.
Did wonder whether 13d should be defined as factions rather than faction.
Thanks John/Radian
Found this tough but enjoyed it. Nice theme. Thanks to S&B and to Muffyword for explaining MOONLESS, which I would never have parsed in a month of Sundays.
Surely lot of the words aren’t so much 18s as 3s.
We also needed help with the parsing of 7d!
Thanks to all! Tough but fun.
Very nice – good type of theme.
Got there in the end. Thanks both.
Massive thanks to Radian. A thoroughly enjoyable crossword demonstrating flair, lightness of touch, wit, originality and variety. My kind of puzzle! Personal favourite 7dn; it and 8dn were great ‘spots’ by Radian.
Personal admission of philological libertarianism – I think each of 5,11,12,25ac and 4,13,15,19,23dn has something of the 13 and/or 3 about it!
A great blog, as ever…..many thanks, John.
John – I meant to ask you about an expression you used. You wrote “…..Azed once in his slip….” – this use of ‘slip’ eludes me. Might I be put out of my mystery?! Many thanks.
Here’s some of what I said in an email directly to William:
***
Azed you are probably aware of — he has set a crossword in The Observer every Sunday since 1972, with an extra one at Christmas. In the first one of each month, and also the Christmas one, he has a clue-writing competition, and after three weeks he announces his judgements in the form of winners 1-3, Very Highly Commended, and Highly Commended. About one-third of all the clues submitted get something. He writes a page of A4 in which he gives the names of these people and publishes all the winning clues except the HCs and writes a few paragraphs of his comments on the competition. This is called the Azed Slip (not sure where the word came from). I recommend it. You can have a look at all the past ones on the excellent website that John Tozer does: http://www.andlit.org.uk/
Wil Ransome (John)
Hi Wil (even greater name than John!)
Have just seen your reply. This is my immediate (and public) acknowledgement. It really is very kind of you to go to the trouble to write so helpfully and informatively (and greatly appreciated). I suppose it’s all part of what makes 15 squared such a peasant place to visit. I’ll certainly be following your directions and taking a trip to the John Tozer site! I’ve known of the Observer’s Azed for decades and even done one or two (time consuming) down the years, though not noticed the Azed Slip. Have presumed that ‘Azed’ named the crossword and have not related it to Azed the setter! Extraordinary to think that the same man has been doing it for all of these years. Once again, thank you Wil so very much.