| Across | ||
| 1 | DEBRIS |
Retiring gentleman given the sack? That’s rubbish (6)
SIR (gentleman) BED (sack) , all reversed. |
| 4 | TWO SIDED |
Daughter is to wed – that’s involved having a couple of parties (3-5)
Anagram of D (Daughter) IS TO WED |
| 9 | SASHAY |
Picked up small bag for excursion (6)
Sounds like SACHET, small bag |
| 10 | POLTROON |
Old officer stops Tom playing chicken (8)
[O (old) LT (officer) ] stops { PRO (Tom) ] ON (playing)
|
| 12 | Â AJAX |
Amateur weightlifter’s said to be a hero! (4)
A (Amateur) JAX (sounds like Jack’s, weightlifter’s)
|
| 13 | UNDERPLAYS |
Makes light of pal’s extremely nasty, rude snarling (10)
Anagram of PALS NY (extremely NastY) RUDE |
| 15 | COUNTER TENOR |
Singer’s withdrawn single after short time in token resistance (7- 5)
 [ONE (single), withdrawn = reversed after T (short time) ] in [ COUNTER (token) ] R (resistance)] |
| 18 | BEDFORDSHIRE |
Base car rental around southern part of England (12)
BED (base) [ FORD (card) HIRE (rental) around S (southern) ] |
| 21 | STEPFATHER |
Stumped tubby husband, holding record by Queen is not original pop? (10)
{ [ST (stumped) FAT (tubby) H (husband)] holding EP (record) } by ER (queen) |
| 22 | CLOG |
Cobbler initially needs some wood to make it (4)
C (Cobbler initially) LOG (some wood) – A clog is a shoe with a wooden sole. |
| 24 | INSCRIBE |
To dedicate novel is nicer, having penned book (8)
Anagram of IS NICER around B (book) |
| 25 | SMOOCH |
Little son needs to sponge neck (6)
S (little Son) MOOCH (sponge) |
| 26 | MISCHIEF |
Statement about Bond’s organisation’s bad behaviour (8)
Can be read as M IS CHIEF (statement about Bond’s organization) |
| 27 | GOSSIP |
Quangos siphoned a certain amount off, creating scandal (6)
Hidden in “quanGOS SIPhoned..”, with the outer letters removed (a certain amount off) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | DISPATCH |
Police officers plot to kill (8)
DIS (officers, detective inspectors) PATCH (plot) |
| 2 | BUST A GUT |
Make a huge effort getting university blokes’ party into bar (4,1,3)
[U (university) STAG (blokess’ party)] into BUT (bar) |
| 3 | IRAN |
One group of men serving Queen and country (4)
I (one) RAN (Royal Australian Navy, group of men serving Queen) |
| 5 | WHOLE HEARTED |
Generous with description of Polo? (5-7)
Cryptic def alluding to Polo, the mint with the hole. 🙂 Description is interpreted as indicating a “sounds like” answer. |
| 6 | SET UP HOUSE |
To start new domestic life, he put pants in to soak (3,2,5)
Anagram of HE PUT in SOUSE (soak) |
| 7 | DVORAK |
One who composed for keyboard (6)
A near double definition as I see it – Antonin Dvorak is the composer; the Dvorak keyboard is a special type of keyboard designed for speed typing. |
| 8 | DANISH |
Pastry cook’s creation has a new filling (6)
DISH (cook’s creation) containing A N (new) |
| 11 | UNPROFITABLE |
Providing only a little bread, dashed in, up for food (12)
Anagram of IN UP FOR (dashed – anagrind) TABLE (food) |
| 14 | STEERFORTH |
Navigate river to find Dickens character (10)
STEER (navigate) FORTH (river) |
| 16 | ZILLIONS |
No support for Brazil’s heroes? Lots and lots! (8)
braZIL (no support, i.e. no ‘bra’) LIONS (heroes) |
| 17 | HEDGE HOP |
Pilot, say, keeping height up after he had to fly low (5-3)
PO (pilot) EG (say) around H (height) reversed, after HE’D (he had)
|
| 19 | OSMIUM |
I am kept up by sumo wrestling and heavy metal (6)
MI (I’M , I am, reversed) in anagram of SUMO |
| 20 | CENSUS |
At first chaos follows, with European out for the count (6)
C (Chaos, first) ENSUeS (follows, with E – European out) |
| 23 | UMBO |
Boss is in the soup – not good (4)
gUMBO (soup, not good) – didnt know this so had to google to confirm. |
Financial Times 14,913 by ALBERICH
My eyes lit up with glee when I saw who my setter was today. By the time I got through the crossword, the smile was wiped clean off. Amidst the battering and bruising, I still managed to enjoy several clues. Outclassed by Alberich today. A typical tale of an extraordinary setter meeting an ordinary solver. 🙂 Thanks to Gaufrid for the assistance where needed.
FF: 8 DD: 10
*anagram
Truly a gem.
Too many wonderful surfaces to list them all. so I’ll just say 6 down and 26 across.
Respect Alberich. And Turbolegs, don’t be too hard on yourself (‘ordinary solver’ indeed!) and thanks for a great blog
Yes, very nice and well done Turbolegs. Just a couple of things: I think 3 down is IRAQ (I RA Q = Queen.) It’s much more likely than RAN = Australian Navy, which is surely one of those unforeseen alternatives we get from time to time? Also I’m fairly sure that the WITH in 5 down contributes the W and the Polo Mint but is played straight.
A couple of unknowns held me me (Umbo and Dvorak as a keyboard) and I had Millions in 16D until I realised this puzzle was a Pangram – and that Zillions also made sense of the clue!
An excellent tester from Alberich for which many thanks.
I did this on the way to and in the waiting room of a Speed Awareness Course. I can tell you that the crossword was the highlight of my day! Though for some reason I failed on CENSUS…
Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs
I can only echo the opening comment by CC#1. Time and time again Alberich crafts such masterpieces in terms of both wordplay and surfaces. The clues (and entries) were interesting and entertaining from beginning to end. Great stuff, and yet another hugely appreciated masterclass. Astonished there aren’t more (such!) comments in this blog.
Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs
A brilliant crossword – I knew that I was in for something special when I got my second one in – CLOGS – and saw the class of the wordplay so closely intertwined with the surface. That followed right throughout the puzzle !! The misdirection of the definitions just added an extra level of sublimity.
It was tough though, and needed lots of referential help to get me through. Even so, I could not properly parse MISCHIEF (another superb wordplay after seeing it) and WHOLE-HEARTED (have to claim an ‘away side disadvantage’ of not knowing Polo as a mint with a hole in the middle – we call them Lifesavers down here). I also failed to spot the pangram which would have saved me the shock of seeing IRAN as the answer to 3d in the blog – I see that the published solution was IRAQ.
Finished in the NE corner with WHOLE-HEARTED, POLTROON (cleverly defined and took a long time to parse after getting it – have come across TOM as a British word for a prostitute once before, but it hadn’t been retained – maybe this time!) and DVORAK (had not heard of that design of keyboard before) as the last one in.
It was one of those challenges in which there was an extra sense of satisfaction from solving and great enjoyment to see a master of the trade at work.