Not too difficult and very enjoyable. Favourites 12ac and 29ac. Thanks Shed
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCARPER |
Mark for every run (7)
=”run”. SCAR=”mark”, plus PER=”every” |
| 5 | VARSITY |
Where to learn to stay put amid change (7)
=”Where to learn”. SIT=”stay put” inside VARY=”change” |
| 10 | SNUB |
Turned up? Rolls over (4)
=”turned [one’s nose] up?”. BUNS=”rolls”, reverse i.e. “over” |
| 11 | EQUESTRIAN |
Arnie misguidedly accepting mission on horseback (10)
=”on horseback”. (Arnie)* around QUEST=”mission” |
| 12 | MIASMA |
Maternal grandmother inhaling Italy’s noxious air? (6)
=”noxious air”. MA’S MA=”Maternal grandmother”, taking in I[taly] |
| 13 | TRIPTYCH |
Artwork seen in excursion to church on outskirts of Troy (8)
=”Artwork”. TRIP=”excursion” plus CH[urch], around T[ro]Y |
| 14 | CAMEMBERT |
Puma perhaps devouring one affiliated to cheese (9)
=”cheese”. CAT=”Puma perhaps”, around MEMBER=”one affiliated” |
| 16 | AGREE |
Consent to match (5)
=”Consent”; also =”agree” |
| 17 | ANVIL |
Block of Roman villas (5)
=”Block”. Hidden in [Rom]AN VIL[las] |
| 19 | APARTMENT |
Accommodation bit into end of prayer time (9)
=”Accommodation”. PART=”bit” inside AMEN=”end of prayer”, plus T[ime]] |
| 23 | OVERFLOW |
Spillage ended by predator’s return (8)
=”Spillage”. OVER=”ended”, plus reversal (return) of WOLF=”predator” |
| 24 | FORAGE |
Gather opponent’s collecting scrap (6)
=”Gather”. FOE=”opponent” around RAG=”scrap” |
| 26 | SLOPPINESS |
Casual attitude to trees in waste (10)
=”Casual attitude”. PINES=”trees” in SLOPS=”waste” |
| 27 | DUEL |
Fight knocking stuffing out of type of coat (4)
=”Fight”. DU[FF]EL=”type of coat” with its stuffing knocked out |
| 28 | COPYCAT |
One emulating Charlie in Flower of Scotland — Returning Officer first? (7)
=”One emulating”. C[harlie] in TAY=”flower/river of Scotland” reversed/returning, with COP=”officer” first |
| 29 | CLARITY |
Slowing down earthbound light (7)
=”light”. RIT[ardando]=”Slowing down”, in CLAY i.e. “earth-bound” |
| Down | ||
| 2 | CANTINA |
Is woman allowed into bar? (7)
=”bar”. CAN TINA?=”Is woman allowed?” |
| 3 | REBUS |
Puzzle concerning people carrier (5)
=”Puzzle”. RE=”concerning” plus BUS=”people carrier” |
| 4 | EWE-LAMB |
Female infant’s precious thing topped by a medic (3-4)
=Female infant”. [j]EWEL=”precious thing topped”, plus A, plus MB=”medic”, Bachelor of Medicine |
| 6 | ASSAIL |
Attack making halfwit become unwell (6)
=”Attack”. ASS=”halfwit” plus AIL=”become unwell” |
| 7 | STRATAGEM |
Plan to have stone layers on top (9)
=”Plan”. STRATA=”layers” on top of GEM=”stone” |
| 8 | TRANCHE |
Portion of hospital in dazed condition (7)
=”Portion”. H[ospital] in TRANCE=”dazed condition” |
| 9 | MUSTARD POWDER |
Daft words dreamt up for source of condiment (7,6)
=”source of condiment”. (words dreamt up)* |
| 15 | EPIGRAPHY |
Inscriptions putting end to male chauvinist musical genre hastily disembowelled (9)
=”Inscriptions”. [mal]E plus PIG=”chauvinist” plus RAP=”musical genre” plus H[astil]Y |
| 18 | NOVELLO |
Breaking right away from lovelorn songwriter (7)
Ivor NOVELLO is the songwriter. (lovelo[r]n)*, with r[ight] removed |
| 20 | REFUSAL |
Turning down authentic setting for Much Ado (7)
=”Turning down”. REAL=”authentic” around (acting as the setting for) much of FUS[s]=ADO |
| 21 | NEGLECT |
Name chosen to encapsulate gerbil’s initial lack of attention (7)
=”lack of attention”. N[ame] plus ELECT=”chosen” as in ‘president elect’, around G[erbil] |
| 22 | ULTIMA |
Thurman, badly lit, swallowed last syllable (6)
=”last syllable” in linguistics. UMA Thurman, swallowing (lit)* |
| 25 | RIDER |
11 proviso (5)
=EQUESTRIAN; also =”proviso” in a contract |
Copmus, you here yet? 29a is a lovely clue once it clicks. I must have been on Shed’s wavelength today. Most fun all week.
Thanks manehi and Shed. Good fun. Needed help with parsing of 28a and 29a. Favourite 12a.
Fun and mostly straightforward yet clever stuff from Shed, and thanks to Andrew – I needed reminding that flower also means river in crosswordland for 28a; it’s been a while. I liked ‘Much Ado’ => FUS.
My inner pedant’s eyebrow raised at EPIGRAPHY, which I thought was the study of inscriptions, but not just so according to my dictionary.
Thanks manehi. This was good, and quite testing in parts. As you et al note, 29a was nice: luckily for me I recalled Otterden having the RIT bit a month ago exactly. Ticks too for MIASMA and COPYCAT with its misdirecting ‘returning.’. Thanks Shed.
Speaking of inner pedants, I could hear my old English teacher saying “MAY Tina” in my head when I solved 2 down.
@ Ed Kane- I am indeed here and many thanks to manehi for the parse.Which I failed to do- but there was only one word that fit.
Thanks Shed and manehi. I needed help with parsing COPYCAT, fooled by Flower as usual, and CLARITY, what a good clue. Luckily I remembered CANTINA from an Everyman crossword a few weeks back.
Yes, very enjoyable. Favourites were MIASMA, COPYCAT, CAMEMBERT and EPIGRAPHY. Many thanks to Shed and manehi.
Thanks Shed and manehi
Lots of good clues. I particularly liked MIASMA, TRIPTYCH, STRATAGEM, EPIGRAPHY and REFUSAL.
I didn’t understand CLARITY – good clue, now it is explained.
My only problem was with some fairly meaningless surfaces – 4d, 8d and 21d, for instance.
Thanks, manehi, for the blog and Shed for a most enjoyable puzzle.
Favourite clues: MIASMA, COPYCAT, CLARITY and REFUSAL [I loved ‘Much Ado’].
Thank you, manehi, completed a Shed puzzle at last. Usually fail on 1 or 2.
Freddy @3 re EPIGRAPHY. Me too, but even as I was looking it up I sort of knew this setter wouldn’t do that!
Thought COPYCAT was smoothly clued and REFUSAL was neat, too.
Nice weekend, all.
Once again my views exactly coincide with Eileen’s @10.
Thanks manehi and Shed
A good example of art concealing art. A very elegant and enjoyable puzzle.
Very good, just shows what can be achieved with a bit of quality. There are a few things that irk me as usual, but I really like the thinking behind the clues of this guy. MA’S MA being a good example.
HH
A welcome return for one of my favourite setters, and even though it was probably towards the easier end of his spectrum I really enjoyed it. CLARITY was my LOI, and while I could have biffed it because I was just about certain that “light” was the definition I was pleased I waited until I could parse it because it was a gem.
Most enjoyable Shedster I can remember. Faves sames as blog.
RIT I always took to be short for ritenuto – ie immediately slower – as opposed to ritardando – gradually slowing – same as rall – but the dictionaries all seem to give both – even favouring ritardando by giving it as the first alternative.
An old Collins Encyclopedia of Music tells me that ritenuto can be used to mean ritardando so that’s not very helpful.
In the next symphony I write I shall use “meno mosso” to avoid confusion.
But I shan’t be changing my mind on rit.
I really enjoyed this. Just the right level of difficulty for me. Thank you Shed.
Unfurtunatey I had epigraphs, so did not get copycat. I didn’t understand clarity but now like it very much.
Thanks to Shed for a very enjoyable puzzle, and also to manehi for the blog. I couldn’t fully parse EWE-LAMB as I didn’t spot jEWEL. Having met “rit” in a recent puzzle eventually helped with CLARITY, but it was still my LOI.
Favourites are EQUESTRIAN, OVERFLOW, DUEL and MUSTARD POWDER.
It’s been a while since I last ventured here*, but thought Shed’s excellent puzzle deserved a comment!
*Watcha copmus and Jolly – I take it you are regulars!
It was 29a whose parsing defeated me. Many thanks, Manehi, I hope I will remember it.
We have not seen much of Shed in the Guardian recently, so this was a real pleasure.
Thanks to manehi for the blog. I needed you to explain CLARITY.
When I saw 20 I thought Much Ado About Nothing is set in MESSINA which has 7 letters so without looking any further I just wrote it in. Later on I realised it did not belong there so had to try again. 🙁 I got there in the end. Splendid misdirection by Shed.
It is always a pleasure to see a Shed. I’ve found that the rarity means that these days it seems harder to get on the right wavelength, but I got there in the end and managed to finish on paper with CLARITY last in. Liked MIASMA, SLOPPINESS, CANTINA and REFUSAL
Thanks to Shed and manehi
Excellent puzzle, finishing off a great week in the Guardian. Many thanks Shed, and to manehi for the blog.
Thanks to Shed and manehi. I had trouble parsing CLARITY (I mised “rit”) and COPYCAT (I took a while getting “officer” as “cop”) and I did not catch “much ado” as “fus,” but I finally got through and enjoyed the process.
“I don’t know if you can, but you may”.
Good puzzle, enjoyed it. Last one in was, like others, CLARITY. Needed manehi to explain the wordplay though, so thanks for that.
I agree that this was a most enjoyable puzzle and it’s nice to see Shed again. I had trouble parsing COPYCAT but the rest of it went in quite smoothly.
Thanks Shed
I came here to find out how CLARITY = LIGHT but am no wiser. Google hasn’t helped. Can someone explain please.
Hi HK
They are not exact synonyms but they are part of a close-knit set which includes illumination and contrasts with an opposite group of darkness, obscurity etc.
Well, I’ve had a good week too, just about my level and rounded off by one of my favourite setters. Glad to see HH likes him too.
But I really must remember to post when I complete the puzzle and not a few hours later.
Anyone else try SCAMPER for 1? In the absence of any dictionary to hand, I persuaded myself that Mark could be a verb and could mean to scam, since a mark is a scammed person (ref. The Sting, circa the 70s). This all made 3 a bit of a challenge. An almost audible clang followed when the penny finally dropped. I’m embarrassed that 3 wasn’t one of the first in, since it’s so obvious in hindsight.
High class puzzle as always. I’m another big fan of 29.
Thanks Shed and manehi.
A nice puzzle which at first seemed to promise a challenge.
However the friendly grid meant that the first pass provided enough crossers to guess the remaining answers and reverse engineer the parsing. The excellent cluing also helped here.
So sadly this was over very quickly. Fun while it lasted.
LOI was MIASMA which did hold me up briefly as I was searching my subconscious fro a single word meaning maternal grandmother which I could throw round “I”. Then I saw MIASMA and all was CLARITY.
Thanks to manehi and Shed
Very much the old guard on duty this week so far with Brummie being the young gun.
What’s the chances of an Orlando tomorrow then?
Not much of a chance, I fear, Lemma.
Actually, it’s for the second time recently that we have two Pauls in one week.
I do like Paul’s puzzles but it feels like this happens for contractual reasons.
Which is something I don’t like as such but do understand from the setter’s point of view.
@HKC #26
Light as per Collins #12 – mental understanding or spiritual insight.
Adelaide University’s motto is: Sub Cruce Lumen
meaning (we are told): Beneath the cross light
The cross being the Southern Cross (stars visible in the southern sky) – and light being the light of learning.
Brendan @30
Why ‘friendly grid’? I find grids such as this one with a line having only three (sometimes it’s only two!) space for letters rather annoying. That turns it into virtually two independent puzzles; top and bottom.
No row or column should have fewer than four spaces.
Roger@34
I tend to agree with your point, but what really decides the friendliness or not of the grid for me is the degree of crossing.
When fewer of the lights in any one solution are crossed than uncrossed, I would regard that as unfriendly – or at least inelegant.
If that lack of crossing is combined with poor clueing, then the whole thing can become a chore.
In this Shed puzzle there are 9 clues where the uncrossed lights outnumber the crossed. Happily the clueing is excellent so the ugly grid isn’t an issue for me this time!
Thanks Shed and manehi
Started this one on Friday evening … and finished it early Saturday morning after sleeping on it. My last few in were CAMEMBERT, EWE-LAMB and, as with some others, my last was MIASMA.
Found it challenging in places, but very enjoyable overall. Needed help with the parsing of CLARITY, not seeing the musical RIT (even though it has come up a few times recently) and MIASMA (where was also looking for a single word for grandmother). NOVELLO was new to me.