I found this one a whole lot harder than any other IoS puzzle I have blogged. There are still a couple I can’t completely explain. Good fun, but I am glad I had plenty of time to sole this one! Thanks eXternal.
| Across | ||
| 1 | HONSHU |
Island nearly close after drama backtracking (6)
SHUt (close, nearly) after NOH (Japanese drama) reversed (backtracking)
|
| 4 | CATGUT |
Free tag and cut stringy material (6)
anagram (free) of TAG and CUT
|
| 9 | OPPO |
Partner, East or West (4)
E or W = a palindrome
|
| 10 | SPHEROIDAL |
Drunk lad is pro, he gets round (10)
(LAD IS PRO HE)* anagram=drunk
|
| 11 | HUMERI |
Bones throbbing with rage when rejected (6)
HUM (throbbing) with IRE (rage) reversed (rejected)
|
| 12 | ENFOLDED |
Fondled nuts with ecstasy and hugged (8)
FONDLED* anagram=nuts with E (ecstacy)
|
| 13 | SNOWSHOED |
With spades for borders, instantly weeded and prepared for bad weather (9)
NOW (instantly) inside S S (with spades for borders) then HOED (weeded)
|
| 15 | EMMY |
Horrible memory, after being stripped of gold award (4)
MEMorY* anagram=horrible missing OR (gold)
|
| 16 | HAIL |
Stones dropped? Give praise (4)
cryptic definition / definition
|
| 17 | ADVERTENT |
Taking care, approach nurses rather oddly (9)
ADVENT (approach) contains (nurses) RaThEr (odd letters)
|
| 21 | PRO FORMA |
Poor farm forged invoice (3,5)
(POOR FARM)*
|
| 22 | INRUSH |
Out of the area, old Liverpool striker makes sudden arrival (6)
|
| 24 | INDISCRETE |
Homogeneous cider I sent abroad (10)
(CIDER I SENT)* anagram=abroard
|
| 25 | DOJO |
Combat centre party, work endlessly (4)
DO (party) JOb (work, endlessly) – a martial arts centre
|
| 26 | YOGURT |
Cultural fare, knocking back spirit in tent (6)
GO (spirit) reversed (knocked back) in YURT (tent) – a yoghurt a food (fare) that fermented with a culture
|
| 27 | REVERB |
What can change our perception forever – bacon sandwiches (6)
found (sandwiched) in foREVER Bacon
|
| Down | ||
| 1 | HEPBURN |
Female’s accepting lead on family film, new actress (7)
HER (female) contains (accepting) PB (lead, chem symbol) on U (family film) then N (new)
|
| 2 | NIOBE |
Writer’s point about Old English figure of myth (5)
NIB (writer’s point) contains (about) O (old) then E (English)
|
| 3 | HASHISH |
Dope, one tucking into hot kebab (7)
A (one) in H (hot) SHISH (kebab)
|
| 5 | ADRIFT |
Plug fissure undirected (6)
AD (advertisement, plug) RIFT (fissure)
|
| 6 | GUILLEMOT |
Emu got ill, sickly bird (9)
(EMU GOT ILL)* anagram=sickly
|
| 7 | TRAGEDY |
Elderly being squeezed by tax is disaster (7)
AGED (elderly) in (being squeezed by) TRY (tax, to exert)
|
| 8 | WHEELER-DEALER |
Spiv from Kentish Town in Queens needing revolver beforehand (7-6)
DEAL (town in Kent) in ER ER (The Queen, twice) following (neeeding … beforehand) WHEEL (revolver)
|
| 14 | WHIFFLING |
Smell something fishy when chatting (9)
WHIFF (smell) and LING (a fish) – to talk idly
|
| 16 | HERONRY |
Place for waders and half of rods possessed by scientist (7)
ROds (half of) inside (possessed by) Joseph HENRY (scientist)
|
| 18 | EVIL EYE |
To be around setter’s said to be a curse (4,3)
LIVE (to be) reversed (around) EYE sounds like (said) “I” (the setter)
|
| 19 | NOSE JOB |
With instinct book work for boat race (4,3)
NOSE (instinct) JOB (book, of Bible)
|
| 20 | GROCER |
Fabulous flyer collected by German shopkeeper (6)
ROC (fabled bird, flyer) in (colelcted by) GER (German)
|
| 23 | RIDGE |
Ammunition left by cart is narrow range (5)
cartRIDGE (ammunition) with CART leaving
|
*anagram
definitions are underlined
definitions are underlined
Thanks PeeDee,
This was indeed a good, difficult challenge.
I think you will kick yourself about 22: I(a)N RUSH and about Nose Job – think cockney rhyming slang.
WHIFFLING was new for me, although there is a character in an Ngaio Marsh book called The Whiffler (a Morris dancer of sorts).
Thanks, PeeDee, for blogging.
I too remember this one being on the tough side. Some unusual words like HONSHU and SNOWSHOED, and I couldn’t explain INRUSH either. I did get the NOSE JOB reference, though: many years ago there was a really rubbish song by a group I can’t remember titled ‘Nice legs, shame about the boat race’.
GUILLEMOT and OPPO were particularly good.
There were several in the bottom right i couldn’t get, including 22ac. Don’t think I’d heard of Ian Rush and I finally guessed IRRUPT. 19dn seems obvious now, and may even have turned up in a word search, but I couldn’t make the connection.
Ok for Independent on Sunday 5 years ago, waste of time 2019 in the i on a Monday. Why oh why do they keep printing these type of crosswords? What do we want ? ENJOYABLE, INTERESTING & intellectually stimulating crosswords.