A thoroughly devious offering from Loroso with a couple that I cannot fully explain. Thank you Loroso, great stuff!
| Across | ||
| 1 | INCITE |
Stimulate knowledge, you might say (6)
INCITE sounds like (you might say) “insight” (knowledge) |
| 4 | OVERHAUL |
Pass an examination (8)
Just a guess. Could an overhaul be an examination at the doctors perhaps? I think that would be a possible consequence of an examination, not the examination itself. double definition – see gaufrid @3 |
| 9 | CHOPIN |
Pianist about to be given offer of lift? (6)
C (circa, about) with HOP IN (offer of lift) |
| 10 | PROFOUND |
Supporting institute is great (8)
PRO (supporting) FOUND (institute) |
| 12 | BETTER OFF |
Ms Davis returned for fellow that’s richer (6,3)
BETTE Davis then FOR reversed (returned) and F (fellow) |
| 13 | LODGE |
Good in bed? You can stay here (5)
G (good) in LODE (bed) |
| 14 | TINTAGEL CASTLE |
Can story about posh girl provide role for a ruin? (8,6)
TIN (can) TALE (story) containing (about) GEL (girl, in posh accent) and CAST (provide role for) |
| 17 | CATTLE STEALING |
14’s dubious stocktaking activity (6,8)
anagram (dubious) of TINTAGEL CASTLE |
| 21 | EQUIP |
Supply drug – crack (5)
E (drug) QUIP (crack) |
| 22 | EXORCISTS |
Is hiding monster they try to banish (9)
EXISTS (is) containing (hiding) ORC (monster) |
| 24 | SODALIST |
Swine! Very famous member of fraternity (8)
SOD (swine) A-LIST (very famous) |
| 25 | SPRING |
Extremely sharp sound makes you jump (6)
SharP (extremes of) and RIND (sound) |
| 26 | THROTTLE |
Accelerator and choke (8)
double definition |
| 27 | HAGGIS |
Express grief about eating a good local dish (6)
SIGH (express grief) erversed (about) containing (eating) A G (good) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | INCUBATE |
At home, baby’s fed to grow (8)
IN (at home) CUB (baby) has ATE (fed) |
| 2 | CROUTON |
Prisoner finds hammer in piece of bread (7)
CON (prisoner) contains (finds…in) ROUT (hammer) |
| 3 | TWICE |
On vacation, throw rocks again? (5)
ThroW (on vacation, vacated, no middle letters) then ICE (diamonds, rocks) |
| 5 | VERIFICATION |
Proof that “I” for “inactive” unravels (12)
anagram (unravels) of I FOR INACTIVE |
| 6 | RAFFLESIA |
Palm tree fences mostly to prevent parasitic plants (9)
Another guess. RAFFIA could be palm tree, but according to Chambers raffia is fibre from the Raphia palm. I do not know why LES would be ‘mostly to prevent’ RAFFIA containing (fences) LESt (to prevent, for fear that) mostly=unfinished |
| 7 | ARUNDEL |
Sussex town seminar – undelivered packages (7)
found inside (packaged by) seminAR UNDELivered |
| 8 | LADIES |
Female can notice dishonesty about this (6)
AD (advertisement, notice) inside LIES (dishonesty) – ‘the can’ is US slang for a toilet |
| 11 | ROLE REVERSAL |
Psychology exercise trap? (4,8)
a ROLE is a PART, so if I reverse it I get TRAP |
| 15 | AUTOPILOT |
George wants a book, not a collection (9)
A UTOPIa (book, by Thaoms More) missing A then LOT (collection) – traditional nickname for the autopilot on an aeroplane |
| 16 | AGA SAGAS |
3 hilarious stories (3,5)
A GAS (hilarious) twice – country romances |
| 18 | ASUNDER |
Like down, up? (7)
AS (like) UNDER (down) – ‘up’ could mean ‘in pieces’ I suppose? A bit tenuous. |
| 19 | ISSUING |
Publication has gone for litigation (7)
IS SUING (has gone for litigation) |
| 20 | JET SET |
In Paris I try standing up for the rich (3,3)
JE (I in Paris) then TEST (try) reversed (standing up) |
| 23 | COPRA |
Get painter some coconut (5)
COP (get) RA (Royal Academician, painter) |
definitions are underlined
A pleasing struggle by Loroso.
Excellent exegesis from PeeDee helping me understand ones I did not fully parse eg. 15ac – the reference to the More work escaped me as I knew the answer from the literal George.
I think 6d is correct, with ‘Raffia’ for palm tree, surrounding (fencing in) most of the word ‘lest’ = to prevent.
Hi Steven, I looked up lest and it has two definitions:
1 conj, so that not, for fear that
2 vi to listen
Neither of these seemed to match ‘to prevent’ very well
Thanks PeeDee
4ac is fine as a double def. Chambers gives both “to overtake or gain upon” and “a thorough examination, esp with a view to repair”.
Good to have Loroso back in Crosswordland.
I am somewhat suffering from a crossword fatigue but puzzles like this are the perfect remedy!
Devious? Don’t know.
The NW and the SE went in quickly, almost on the first pass.
But the SW was a different kettle of fish.
My LOI (11d, ROLE REVERSAL) was perhaps one of the best.
I had to think about AUTOPILOT – yes, ‘Utopia’ is a book but there are so many things that fit that definition.
It must have been done before but it was new to me, that fabulous anagram couple in 14/17ac.
Also liked 8d. I saw LADIES more or less straightaway but then was confused by the singular ‘female’ until the penny dropped.
Yes, this was inspiring stuff.
And – at least for me – proof that one doesn’t need (c)rudeness in clues to raise smiles.
Many thanks to PeeDee and Loroso.
ps,
the ODE gives for ‘lest’: with the intention of preventing (something undesirable).
That comes close enough, I think.
PeeDee @2
I share your reservation about ‘to prevent’=lest as I cannot think of a sentence where they are directly interchangeable. I think Loroso has been rather minimalistic with this part of the wordplay because one of the definitions for ‘lest’ in Collins is “so as to prevent any possibility that” and the example given is “he fled the country lest he be captured and imprisoned”.
Oxford on-line has: “with the intention of preventing (something undesirable); to avoid the risk of” with the example “he spent whole days in his room, wearing headphones lest he disturb anyone”.
Didn’t help myself by confidently entering cattle rustling for 17 before solving 14. Some absolute swines here but you’d expect little else from loroso and his mates.
Cheers PeeDee there were quite a few I’d given up on the parsing knowing you’d tell me.
Thanks PeeDee for the blog.
Respect to Loroso. But not a pleasurable solve. There seems to be a lot of rather loose clueing here and loose answers too.
For instance it might be clever to have two answers being anagrams of each other – and 14 was fairly clued – but when the answer to one of those is a wrong phrase (one rustles cattle, one does not steal them), then that to me was a source of irritation.
Moreover, whilst I get (and indeed got) 11, trap is not role reversal, it’s part reversal.
I do worry about a puzzle where even a seasoned solver like PeeDee can’t explain the parsing of a couple of clues.
It all goes to show how different we all are. Sil clearly enjoyed this immensely. I found it so irritating that by the time I got to the SE corner I couldn’t be bothered to finish – which is a shame because Haggis and Aga Sagas were well clued.
Keep up the good work.
Definitely agree with Hamish here. There’s a line between deceptive and deceitful and in my opinion 10 across and 13 across overstep it. Overhaul is stretching things,too. 6 across is a thin clue to an obscure answer.
Thanks Loroso and PeeDee
Took this to a cafe breakfast this morning and enjoyed it a lot – many penny-dropping moments as the twist in the tail was revealed – none better than my penultimate answer in LADIES which had been hampered with the E from an unsatisfactory OVERTAKE at 4a. I think that the misdirection of ‘can’ was quite brilliant. Was then able to get OVERHAUL, with no difficulty then in seeing both definitions.
Thought that the surface of 27a was quite apt – would be more than grief, the thought of eating that stuff !!
SODALIST was a new term and another nice clue. A lot to like here and look forward yo his next challenge.