So after yesterday’s Brendan theme filled fun, we have a Chifonie, who has some surfaces to rival Dac’s in another place.
Not much else to add but a very pleasant solve on the bus this morning but after my recent Rufuses it was nice not to be continually typing CD & DD after virtually every clue 🙂
Definitions underlined where appropriate.
Off to a meeting now so won’t be around to check for mistakes for a couple of hours.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HOMAGE | Hospital gets distinction and with time gets reverence (6) |
| H(ospital) & O(order of) M(erit) & AGE | ||
| 4 | SOFTWARE | Programs for waste regeneration (8) |
| [FOR WASTE]* | ||
| 9 | SIGHT | Show sense (5) |
| Double def | ||
| 10 | VICARIOUS | Clergyman promises to be acting for another (9) |
| VICAR & IOUS (promises, debts) | ||
| 11 | ON IMPULSE | Spoil menu stupidly and thoughtlessly (2,7) |
| [SPOIL MENU]* I was misled for a while looking for carelessly rather than naturally. | ||
| 12 | SINGE | Burn running through housing estate (5) |
| Hidden inside houSING Estate with the surface hinting at a different burn entirely. | ||
| 13 | INTIMIDATION | I had been taken in by hint of browbeating (12) |
| I’D inside INTIMATION (hint) [Edit: abysmal typing fixed…] | ||
| 17 | SPICK AND SPAN | Choose to enter beach’s basin — it’s well kept (5,3,4) |
| PICK (choose) inside SAND’S (beach’s) & PAN (basin) | ||
| 20 | EVADE | Woman shelters a dead duck (5) |
| A & D(ead) all in EVE | ||
| 21 | ORIGINATE | Begin to speak about independent spirit (9) |
| ORATE (speak) about [I(ndependent) & GIN (spirit)] | ||
| 23 | ACCRETION | Collecting corps’ soldiers during battle (9) |
| C (corps) & RE (soldiers) in ACTION (battle) | ||
| 24 | ASTER | Teacher losing maiden’s flower (5) |
| M(aiden) removed from (m)ASTER | ||
| 25 | PROOFING | Making impervious tiles after initial postponement (8) |
| P(ostponement) & ROOFING (tiles) | ||
| 26 | SEE RED | Sibyl and Edward become angry (3,3) |
| Sibyl was a SEER & ED(ward) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | HISTORIC | Goulash so rich it is celebrated (8) |
| [SO RICH IT]* anag indicator is Goulash | ||
| 2 | MAGRITTE | Artist‘s friend retains determination (8) |
| GRIT in MATE | ||
| 3 | GET-UP | Clothes stand (3-2) |
| Double def. | ||
| 5 | ORCHESTRATION | Arrangement for that crooner is dreadful (13) |
| [THAT CROONER IS]* Very nice… | ||
| 6 | THRESHOLD | Writhe on crumbling doorstep (9) |
| THRESH (writhe) & OLD (crumbling) Crumbling causing some misdirection trying to find anagrams… | ||
| 7 | AMOUNT | Full value of a horse (6) |
| A MOUNT (horse) Possible candidate for easiest clue of the week. | ||
| 8 | ENSUED | Followed girl, within reason (6) |
| END (reason) around SUE | ||
| 10 | VALEDICTORIAN | Star US student, prudish when gulping beer down (13) |
| (ALE & D) in VICTORIAN (prudish) | ||
| 14 | MAPLE LEAF | Plan by the French page for a national emblem (5,4) |
| MAP (plan) & LE & LEAF (page) | ||
| 15 | SPLATTER | Shower drops on small dish (8) |
| S(mall) & PLATTER (dish) | ||
| 16 | ENDEARED | Finished receiving attention and charmed (8) |
| EAR (attention) in ENDED | ||
| 18 | DECAMP | Edward caught tucking into dripping in desert (6) |
| E for Edward this time & C(aught) both in DAMP (dripping) | ||
| 19 | GAUCHO | Oscar supports largely tactless cowboy (6) |
| GAUCH(e) & O(scar) | ||
| 22 | IRATE | Raider losing copper is angry (5) |
| (p)IRATE | ||
*anagram
E for Edward? Goulash? Verbing a noun? What’s wrong with stew?
Thank you, Flashling.
Is it Monday? Must be getting old.
Nice anagram for ORCHESTRATION.
Have a nice week all.
Rhotician @1
I wondered about this too, but decided the angrind was “goulash so” and that this just about gets away with it.
Oops, can’t be, ‘so’ is part of the anagram.
Perhaps you’re right.
Thanks Chifonie and flashling
Some nice clues – ORCHESTRATION in particular (I went for “arrangement” as the anagrind to start with).
I don’t see the SIGHT = SHOW, even as a noun – “a sight” is not necessarily (even probably) “a show”, is it?
I was typing “Where does the D come from in 10d?”, but I’ve just seen that it’s from Down.
All in all a lot better than the last Chifonie.
No thrills , but no complaints.
Thanks William, hope you have a nice week too.
Thanks, George.
Old = crumbling? I may be old but don’t think I’m necessarily crumbling!
Damp = dripping? Not in my book it doesn’t!
Agree that ‘sight’ doesn’t really work for ‘show’.
However, since I couldn’t write a crossword, I suppose I shouldn’t grumble.
All fairly straightforward but enjoyable. Thanks to Chifonie and flashling.
Stumbled only on GAUCHO – not being familiar with it, I’d put RANCHO – it sounded right, though I couldn’t think how it’d fit the wordplay.
I too liked the anagram for ORCHESTRATION. Having rightly assumed that it’d end in -ATION, it occured to me that the remainder was an anagram of THE CORRS – some interesting possibilities with that one.
Please can we have our mind-stretching Tuesday crossword back!!
Thanks Chifonie & flashling; fun crossword.
I couldn’t seem to fit FAWLTY into 26. 😉
I liked the SOFTWARE clue and SPICK AND SPAN. As I got more letters of ‘doorstep’ as crossers in 6, like flashling I thought there must be an anagram of doorstep with ‘o’ for on. 🙁
Normal service resumed, it seemed to me, even though it wasn’t a Monday.
VALEDICTORIAN was new to me but fairly clued – as an unfamiliar word should be, I’ve always thought. THRESHOLD last in; it took me some time to disentangle THRESH and thrash, mentally.
Thanks all
Like Muffin I found it difficult to accept show = sight.Some of this was very easy but the NE held me up for awhile, last in “threshold”.
Thanks to flashling for the blog. I totally failed to parse 6d. 🙁
Small typo in the blog: for 13 you have IMTIMATION instead of IN…
Not at all happy with VALEDICTORIAN, which does not mean a star US student, but the person delivering the students’ valedictory address.
….and s/he is selected because……..?
Collins: ‘a person, usually the most outstanding graduate, who delivers a farewell speech at a graduation ceremony’
Thanks, flashling. Could someone please explain why “reason” is “end” in 8d?
@crosser, for that reason = to that end.
I found this more enjoyable than a lot of Chifonie’s previous puzzles, and the quibbles that others have brought up didn’t occur to me during the solve. Like a few others THRESHOLD was my LOI.
Thanks, flashling @20.
No real complaints other than this was a little too easy. (But we didn’t have a normal Monday so balance is restored)
One or two slightly dodgy clues but still an enjoyable enough solve.
Now to watch Brazil thrash Germany. (Here’s hoping anyway!)
Thanks to flashling and Chifonie
Think you’d better stick to crosswords Brendan
thanks chifonie, great puzzle, and flashling.
Easy for even me. So the pros would have breezed through it. I found a few clues a little weak and a bit of a stretch. Glad to see more seasoned veterans quibble on the same points, sight, end etc.
True valedictorian is the designated speaker rather than a star student. But this is crossword, not OED. Here definitions are quite fluid. As engineer I am appalled when people treat force, energy, power as synonyms. But in crosswords, poppadom = bread, energy = power = force.
Sump said, ravilyn!
RedKev @24
I did qualify my comment with the “here’s hoping”
I suspected that this time Brazil team wasn’t good enough to go any further but I didn’t think they would capitulate so easily!
Germany were flattered by their poor opponents and will crack under a little more pressure. (From the winner of the other semi. No forecast from me on that result 😉 )
I know it’s late to be commenting on this one, but as an American I should just say that the fact that the valedictorian delivers an address is generally considered a secondary characteristic. We usually use the term when we’re talking about the highest academic achiever. In my high school (and probably most) the valedictorian was the student with the highest grade point average.