[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
A pleasant challenge from MUDD that provided a fine blend of write-ins, deducibles and hard cryptics. Steady progress through the lower half literally laid the foundation for the remainder. By my own standards, if I didnt require much help solving MUDD, it means he is taking it easy on me. Thanks MUDD for this excellent Friday treat.
Fair to say, that there were atleast a handful of clues which I solved intuitively and spent longer trying to parse them right.
FF: 9 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | DOORMAT |
A downtrodden weakling? (7)
Cryptic clue |
| 5 | BARISTA |
Teacher in a flap knocked over café worker (7)
SIR (teacher) in A TAB ( a flap), all reversed |
| 9 | VALET |
Attendant backs Israeli city most of the way (5)
TEL AViv (most of Israeli city, reversed) |
| 10 | READDRESS |
Again look at colourful outfit carrying stain in the middle (9)
[ RED (colourful) DRESS (outfit) ] carrying A (stAin, in the middle) |
| 11 | LEASTWISE |
Anyhow, it’s most foolish? (9)
Cryptic clue, read as LEAST WISE ( = most foolish) |
| 12 | UTTER |
Say “damn” (5)
Double def. Had to google a bit to confirm that “damn” and “utter” could be used interchangeably. Most references stated “damned” for “utter”. |
| 13 | YOKEL |
Burden left for peasant (5)
YOKE (burden) L (left) |
| 15 | ANDALUSIA |
An artist welcoming us to a region of Spain (9)
AN [ DALI (artist) welcoming US ] A |
| 18 | STRAPLESS |
Such a bra unable to catch on back of mistress? (9)
TRAP LESS (unable to catch) after S (back of mistresS) |
| 19 | TACIT |
Animal returning, then it is silent (5)
TAC (animal = CAT, returning) IT |
| 21 | DRAKE |
Male pond life, old sailor (5)
Double def; old Viking ship of war according to Chambers. |
| 23 | CROSSWORD |
A stern talking-to for this (9)
CROSS (stern) WORD (talking-to) |
| 25 | CLOUD NINE |
A high court’s first vociferous figure (5,4)
C (Court’s first) LOUD (vociferous) NINE (figure) |
| 26 | GRILL |
Cook right to put in a bit of fish (5)
R (right) in GILL (bit of fish) |
| 27 | REFEREE |
Judge on release accepting justice, finally (7)
RE (on) [ FREE (release) accepting E (justicE, finally) ] |
| 28 | TITULAR |
Tribal leader has changed ritual in name only (7)
T (Tribal, leader) anagram of RITUAL |
| Down | ||
| 1 | DEVILRY |
Mischief in uninspiring witchcraft (7)
EVIL (mischief) in DRY (uninspiring) |
| 2 | OIL TANKER |
Pig scoffs plate, as dropping odd bits in vessel (3,6)
OINKER ( ~ pig) eating/including (scoffs) LTA (dropping odd bits of pLaTe As) – The parsing for this really eluded me for a while before I got it. |
| 3 | MOTET |
Church music encountered includes biblical text (5)
MET (encountered) containing OT (Old Testament, biblical text) |
| 4 | TERMINATE |
Stop meter in taxi only half way out (9)
Anagram of METER IN TAxi (only half way) |
| 5 | BLAZE |
Fire, one faced by a horse? (5)
Cryptic clue referring to a white spot or stripe on the face of a mammal. |
| 6 | RED MULLET |
Wine a particular style for fish (3,6)
RED (wine) MULLET (particular style, of the hair) |
| 7 | SHEET |
Page, one turned by a maid? (5)
Cryptic clue. |
| 8 | ASSYRIA |
Old empire’s fresh uprising under ignoramus (7)
YRIA (fresh = AIRY, reversed) under ASS (ignoramus) |
| 14 | LIP READER |
One observing a speaker improvising with real pride (3-6)
Anagram of REAL PRIDE |
| 16 | DISHONEST |
Serve one’s time as a con man, say? (9)
DISH (serve) ONES T (time) |
| 17 | SECTORIAL |
Rewrite article so in distinct parts (9)
Anagram of ARTICLE SO |
| 18 | SIDECAR |
Some vehicle driven fast is going uphill (7)
RACED (driven fast) IS , all reversed |
| 20 | TIDDLER |
Row about tails of gurnard, rudd and brill – fish often thrown back (7)
TIER (Row) about DDL (tails i.e. last letters of gurnarD, rudD, brilL) |
| 22 | ALOOF |
Cold Indian potato on top of freezer (5)
ALOO (Indian potato, anglicised) F (top of Freezer) |
| 23 | CHILE |
Country somewhat Arctic, did you say? (5)
Sounds like CHILLY (arctic) |
| 24 | SIGHT |
Sense place for hearing (5)
Sounds like SITE (place) |
I took “old sailor” in 21a to be Francis Drake.
I’m with Coby on preferring Sir Francis. DRAKE came up a couple of months ago (http://www.fifteensquared.net/2015/01/20/financial-times-14833-sayang/) where the second meaning was definitely a ship and scchua found a 1900s Royal Navy class of vessel but then in the comments Gaufrid referenced the Viking ship as being in Chambers.
Can I ask, does anyone else use Chambers on-line because that meaning does not appear there (http://www.chambers.co.uk/)? Is the on-line version abridged?
Anyway, thanks Turbolegs for the blog – needed help parsing STRAPLESS, OIL TANKER and BLAZE and failed on CROSSWORD (groan) and DISHONEST (was looking for a cryptic definition). Thanks to Mudd for the fun.
Hi Urieka @2
“Is the on-line version abridged?”
No, not abridged, the on-line Chambers is a different dictionary altogether. It is Chambers 21st Century Dictionary as opposed to The Chambers Dictionary.
Gaufrid – many thanks. May have to ask for a BRB for fathers day!
Thanks all for the comments. Ref DRAKE, I am sure Coby@1, Urieka@2 are right as well. My 2 cents are (a) Reference to the ship as an old sailor makes it more cryptic (though tangentially so, not defined as such in the dictionary) than to Sir Francis Drake and (b) I dont remember it now but I probably solved it soon after I solved OIL TANKER and was therefore leaning towards another ship reference.
Urieka@4 – Whats BRB (pretty sure you dont want a ‘Be Right Back’ on Father’s Day) ??
Cheers
Mahesh
Turbolegs@5
Chambers Dictionary is a Big Red Book so it is usually referred to as the BRB.
An excellent Friday treat indeed – thank you to Mudd and Turbolegs.
Lovely simple sums to complete today – yesterday was all Times Tables!
Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs
Just got to this today after performing the role of barman for 140 at 18th birthday party, so anything should have been easier than that !!! Most of this was … although the NE corner provided stout resistance with READDRESS, SHEET and BARISTA being the last to fall.
Thanks for the parsing of STRAPLESS – although I half suspected more, I couldn’t see it and just wrote it in as a cryptic definition.
Was in the Sir Francis camp at 21a. Read 7d more as a double definition – one straight and one cryptic, a typical Mudd / Paul clue.
Thought that 15a was cod with a clever construction (including a further Spanish element) and a fine surface reading that was closely related to the answer – quite brilliant