Blooming hard this week, I thought. It’s blogging day and despite a week’s labour, I’m staring at a grid that’s less than half full.
That’s clearly not a criticism of the quality of the puzzle, of course. It just means I’ve got my work cut out cobbling together an even vaguely passable blog this week. There are one or two points where I’m a little shaky, so any help welcome.
| Across | ||
| 1 | DRAWBACK | Not prepared to support daughter before discovering a problem (8) |
| D + RAW + BACK. | ||
| 5 | ASSESS | Fools Spain’s premier judge (6) |
| ASSES + S[pain]. | ||
| 9 | PROPOUND | Offer for consideration by poet after support’s curtailed (8) |
| PRO[p] + Ezra POUND. | ||
| 10 | ON FIRE | Proceed with sack burning (2,4) |
| ON + FIRE. | ||
| 11 | RENDERED | Performed close by before going into the centre of Aberdeen (8) |
| (END + ERE) in [abe]RD[een]. | ||
| 12 | BASSET | Hound bishop to get something worth having (6) |
| B + ASSET. | ||
| 14 | DISAPPROVE | Reject dreadfully vapid prose (10) |
| (VAPID PROSE)*. | ||
| 18 | ORNAMENTAL | Decorative gold pieces found in South American city (10) |
| OR + (MEN in NATAL). | ||
| 22 | TREBLE | Make three times as much as Bert backing the French (6) |
| BERT< + LE. | ||
| 23 | ADMONISH | One teacher admits Miles is hard to reprimand (8) |
| A + (M in DON) + IS + H. | ||
| 24 | LAUNCH | Hours after, Shakespeare’s fool finally leaves by boat (6) |
| No idea. Shakespeare references are utterly lost on me, I’m afraid. | ||
| 25 | MISTAKEN | Wrong name makes it invalid (8) |
| (N + MAKES IT)*. | ||
| 26 | AVERTS | Heads off right after welcome by son (6) |
| AVE + RT + S. | ||
| 27 | GEDARME | Policeman getting information on armed criminal (8) |
| GEN + ARMED*. Great surface there. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | DEPART | Start out with extremely diverse role (6) |
| D[ivers]E + PART. | ||
| 2 | AROUND | More or less in a circle (6) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 3 | BOOTEE | Favour for the most part having support in shoe (6) |
| BOO[n] + TEE. | ||
| 4 | CONVENIENT | Involving little trouble for a German raised in a religious house (10) |
| EIN< in CONVENT. | ||
| 6 | SUNLAMPS | We object over ridiculous plans to collect millions of tanners (8) |
| Something or other M in PLANS*. But where do we get the SUS from? | ||
| 7 | EMISSION | Issue pardon without resistance (8) |
| [r]EMISSION. | ||
| 8 | SWEET PEA | Survey includes the introduction of targets at each plant (5,3) |
| (T[argets] in SWEEP) + EA. | ||
| 13 | FAR AND WIDE | Flyers about band leader disappearing with broad are everywhere (3,3,4) |
| RAF< + [b]AND + WIDE. | ||
| 15 | TORTILLA | Sick over American after wrong kind of pancake (8) |
| TORT + ILL + A. | ||
| 16 | INSECURE | Guarantee to protect the city when exposed to danger (8) |
| EC in INSURE. | ||
| 17 | IMPLICIT | It’s understood to be lawful by Ireland’s foremost politician (8) |
| I[reland] + MP + LICIT. | ||
| 19 | SORTED | Wore Penny out getting organised (6) |
| S[p]ORTED. | ||
| 20 | TINKER | Mess around with one considering ditching husband (6) |
| T[h]INKER. | ||
| 21 | CHANGE | Put up in church by convert (6) |
| HANG in CE. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition
The problem is with prize puzzle blogs which are published a week later is that I often can’t remember what I made of the crossword. But I don’t remember this one being particularly fiendish.
LAUNCH is LAUNC[E] plus H. Launce was a Shakespearean fool in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
SUNLAMPS is a reversal of US (‘we object’, in other words the object pronoun for ‘we’) plus M in (PLANS)*
Thanks to Simon and Poins.
24ac: Launce is a clownish servant in Two Gentlemen of Verona. Don’t know the play but I was vaguely aware of the name. So it’s LAUNC(E) + H(OURS).
I was confused at 18ac by knowing the South African province of Natal but not the South American city of that name.
Snap!
Thanks, chaps. I nearly commented that my initial thoughts were that 18ac might be a bit of a typo, having only heard of the ZA place. But Google told me it was correct, and I opted not to reveal my ignorance. Which I’ve now done. D’oh!