A very pleasant crossword, fair throughout and with two outstanding clues. Thanks, Redshank.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CUP MATCH |
Hear about stiff exam after university game (3,5)
CATCH (hear) surrounding (about) U for university and PM for post mortem, or examination of a stiff, in the criminal argot. |
| 6 | SMOOTH |
Low temperature in quiet flat (6)
MOO (low, as a cow does) plus T for temperature in SH for quiet |
| 9 | STASIS |
Secret police’s lack of action (6)
The Stasi (from the German Staatssicherheit) was the East German secret police. Add as S for the possessive. |
| 10 | MIDSHIPS |
Members eat one dish prepared centrally in vessel (8)
The members are MPs or members of parliament. Insert I (Roman numeral for one) and DISH jumbled up (prepared). |
| 11 | MENU |
Violinist’s top four course options (4)
The first four letters (top four) of Menuhin, the name of a very famous violinist |
| 12 | TRENCH COAT |
Dick’s classic garb misleads technocrat (6,4)
The trench coat is the classic attire of the private dick, or detective (think Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep). It is an anagram of technocrat. |
| 14 | VERTEBRA |
Back supporter, green energy supporter (8)
VERT (green in French) plus E for energy plus BRA (supporter) |
| 16 | NOAH |
Ancient Mariner’s revolutionary hollowed-out harpoon (4)
HArpoON with the middle letters taken out, reversed (revolutionary) |
| 18 | PAIN |
Old man in drag (4)
The old man is PA. Add IN. Drag for pain might seem dated to some, but not to one of us, at least. |
| 19 | DOBERMAN |
Mr Bean jogged behind docked dog – this one? (8)
DO (dog missing its last letter -ie docked) plus the jumbled (jogged) letters of Mr Bean. |
| 21 | CARTOONIST |
Ring put in box? It’s stuffed in drawer (10)
O (ring) inserted into CARTON (box) with the jumbled (stuffed) letters of ITS |
| 22 | PEEL |
Man’s port, Hull (4)
A double definition. Peel is the port of the Isle of Man. To hull a fruit is to remove the inedible parts. We were initially dubious as to whether this was synonymous with peel, thinking about hulling strawberries, but on checking we found that to hull a fruit can mean to remove the peel. It’s hard to choose between this and 8 down as the best clue. |
| 24 | HELP DESK |
Sleek PhD bamboozled aid provider (4,4)
An anagram (bamboozled) of Sleek PhD |
| 26 | CATCHY |
Memorable start in Cowes – yacht founders (6)
C, the first letter of Cowes, plus an anagram (founders is the indicator) of yacht. |
| 27 | INSERT |
Introduce cook, R Stein (6)
Cook (jumble up) the letters of R Stein |
| 28 | EYEGLASS |
Ogle German girl with it? (8)
Cryptic definition. EYE (ogle) G (German) LASS (girl) |
| Down | ||
| 2 | UNTIE |
Free broadcaster wants leader (5)
aUNTIE (a term for the BBC, the broadcaster) without its first letter (wants -ie lacks – leader) |
| 3 | MOSQUITO NET |
No-fly zone confines artist touring very big desert (8,3)
MONET is the artist, surrounding (touring) OS (outsize or very big) and QUIT (desert or leave). |
| 4 | TEST TUBE |
Energy target put back for lab equipment (4,4)
E for energy, BUTT the target (as in the butt of a joke) SET or put, all reversed (back) |
| 5 | HAMMER AND SICKLE |
Kremlin made cash changing its old symbols (6,3,6)
An anagram (changing) of Kremlin made cash |
| 6 | SEDUCE |
Lure foreign noble into bishop’s office (6)
The bishop’s office is a SEE (as in the Holy See). Insert DUC (a foreign nobleman) |
| 7 | OOH |
How nice hotel supports pair (3)
A pair (or pair of spectacles) is a zero score in an individual’s both innings in a game of cricket – ie OO. Add H, the letter represented by hotel in phonetic alphabets |
| 8 | TOP BANANA |
Leader to lead a fool (3,6)
TO plus PB (the chemical symbol for the element lead) plus A plus NANA (fool). The use of lead (we initially thought it was being used as a verb) was very clever. It’s doubly clever in that the term “top banana” was coined to describe the leading comedian in a burlesque show. This and 22 across were our favourite clues. |
| 13 | CENTRIPETAL |
Intercept bad ball, ignoring wings, moving to middle (11)
An anagram (bad) of intercept plus the central (ignoring wings) letters of ball. |
| 15 | EL ALAMEIN |
Eastern US city unconvincing in battle (2,7)
E for Eastern pls L A (Los Angeles, the American city) plus LAME (unconvincing) plus IN |
| 17 | OBSTACLE |
Let’s withdraw oar from corrupt car-boot sale (8)
An anagram (corrupt is the indicator) of car boot sale minus the letters o, a and r. The term “let or hindrance” will be familiar to British passport holders |
| 20 | HONEST |
I swear he’s not drunk (6)
An anagram (drunk) of he’s not |
| 23 | ETHOS |
That lot close to the top show spirit (5)
THOSE (that lot) with the closing letter moved to the front |
| 25 | POE |
He wrote verse lacking effort (3)
POEtry without the try or effort |
I absolutely agree this was an excellent crossword, combining fun, deviousness, wit and a smidgen of reasonable GK. 22a was my LOI as it took me a while to recall that IOM’s port was called Peel. I enjoyed very many of the clues including 1a, 21a, 3d, 15d, not to mention the sublime 8d – many thanks to Redshank and to D and L, too, for clear exegesis.
Thanks to S and B(s). Enjoyed this. I think 1a was my COD.
Very fine as usual from this setter.
Another fantastic crossword by one of my favourite setters.
Redshank is an extremely prolific compiler (in various guises) – and then still managing to come up all the time with such quality and inventiveness, well, that’s a real achievement.
It wasn’t a hard puzzle but a lovely one.
We all have our favourites but the deviously well hidden definition in 17d made this my CoD.
Closely followed by the easy 5d in which fodder and solution worked so well together.
And (I agree!) 8d, and ….
Many thanks to David & Linda for a meticulous blog.
And to Redshank for a ditto crossword.
Peel beat me for parsing but another cracking puzzle today. Thanks all.
Thanks D&L and Redshank for a delightful puzzle.
The surfaces were very beautifully developed – like Sil, I thought that 5d was particularly good – and I thought that some of the indirect definitions were brilliant.
I’d add 1ac and 3dn to my list of favourites and loved ‘stiff exam’ for ‘PM’ in 1ac – a new device for me.
More of the same please Redshank.
Thanks Redshank and D&L
A backlog puzzle that I picked up on the weekend that intermittently stretched across a very hot Saturday (got to 42 degrees – a first time ever pre-Christmas!).
A good challenge throughout and needed help parsing a couple of them – with POE, was looking to find how M could mean ‘lacking effort’. CUP MATCH was my last one in and also my favourite – however I parsed the PM part as the afternoon pm (as in ex-am) and thought that was quite clever – but it doesn’t in retrospect account for ‘stiff’. The postmortem as a ‘stiff exam’ is priceless and makes the clue even better.
Many fine examples of wit, misdirection and just clever clueing by this setter made this a delight to solve … and forget about the heat for a while !!