Nearly forgot to get the blog out as today is a holiday in Singapore and I was going about my day in Saturday mode before it struck me late evening that I am not a time traveler. I really wish I had taken this on, on time so that I could have done justice to Chalmie. In my unnecessary haste to solve this quickly and put it up, I had to use google sooner than I would have liked to for some of the answers. I do think that this puzzle from Chalmie only goes to reinforce the opinion that he is one setter guaranteed to serve up a stunner of a crossword. Thanks a ton to him.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | RAMSGATE |
Drives straight into entrance of coastal town (8)
RAMS (drives straight into) GATE (entrance) |
| 5 | RANDOM |
Money order for Roderick? (6)
RAND (money) OM (order, of merit) – Tobias Smoliet’s character. |
| 10 | BUGLE |
Make a dreadful mistake losing new horn (5)
BUnGLE (make a dreadful mistake, losing “N” – new) |
| 11 | UPRISINGS |
America goes round forcing open rebellions (9)
US (america) around PRISING (forcing open) – Loved the surface. |
| 12 | DECANTERS |
Alcohol containers heartless nobleman moves easily (9)
DE (heartless nobleman – DukE) CANTERS (moves easily) |
| 13 | ROOTS |
Automatons get rid of second- class carrots? (5)
RObOTS (automatons, getting rid of ‘B” – second class) – Carrots are a type of root vegetables. |
| 14 | BASHED |
Remains asleep, presumably, if criticised (6)
ASH (remains) in BED (asleep, presumably)
|
| 15 | SALADIN |
Crusader’s opponent wanting cold meal hot (7)
SALAD (cold meal) IN (hot, as in contemporary fashion) |
| 18 | IMPORTS |
One drinks after beginning to make trades (7)
I (one) [ PORTS (drinks) after M (beginning to Make) ] |
| 20 | CHAISE |
Ice has melted piece of furniture (6)
Anagram of ICE HAS |
| 22 | ETHER |
Last part of register contains article number (5)
ER (last part of registER) containing THE (article) – definition is in the context of something that numbs, and while not a completely new clue to me, still had me tripping. |
| 24 | POLAR BEAR |
White hunter giving two identical hats to Dr Spooner (5,4)
Spoonerism of BOWLER PAIR (two identical hats)
|
| 25 | CAPTURING |
Accurately describing international mathematician (9)
CAP (international, in the context of cricket) TURING (mathematician) |
| 26 | LET ON |
Admit what passengers hope a bus conductor will do to them (3,2)
Cryptic def |
| 27 | EDDOES |
Caribbean vegetable delicacy suffices after starters of eel and duck (6)
DOES (suffices) after ED (starting characters of Eel and Duck) |
| 28 | MEASURED |
Determined setter, guaranteed to lose, succeeded (8)
ME (setter) ASsURED (guaranteed, losing ‘S’ – succeeded) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | REBIDS |
Stays in auction (which could go either way) hosted by communists (6)
BI (which could go either way, naughty chalmie?) in REDS (communists) |
| 2 | MAGIC LAMP |
Wise men’s vice which Aladdin once had control of (5,4)
Charade of MAGI (wise men) CLAMP (vice) |
| 3 | GREEN CHARTREUSE |
Hens urge caterer to mix drink (5,10)
Anagram of HENS URGE CATERER |
| 4 | TOUPEED |
No-one standing in support on top of dais which has a rug (7)
[O UP (0-up, no-one standing) in TEE (support)] D (top of Dias)
|
| 6 | AUSTRALIAN RULES |
Perhaps Kylie Minogue is Queen of Football (10,5)
Kylie Minogue is an Australian diva. A queen would rule (more so than a king perhaps?!). Aussie rules is the varation of football specific to land down under. |
| 7 | DUNNO |
Director of international body has power to come up and search me (5)
D (director) UN (international body) NO (has power = ON, reversed) |
| 8 | MISUSING |
Not on target about university failing to follow the instructions (8)
MISSING (not on target) about U (university) |
| 9 | FRISKS |
Searches larks (6)
double def |
| 16 | DISSECTOR |
One cutting into dead detective’s area (9)
DI’S (detective’s) SECTOR (area) – Another clue that I just couldnt solve for quite a while. |
| 17 | WISEACRE |
Know-it-all spoils race after you and I take first and second (8)
[ WE (you and i) containing { I (first) S (second) } ] followed by anagram of RACE |
| 19 | SEPTIC |
Rotting this way in record time? Contrariwise! (6)
[ EP (record) T (time) ] in SIC (this way) |
| 20 | COLOGNE |
Pass over German wearing a perfume (7)
COL (pass) G (German) ONE (a)
|
| 21 | DRONED |
Fourth military aircraft was pretty uninteresting (6)
DRONE D (fourth military aircraft)
|
| 23 | HOPED |
Ha’aretz’s first comment piece expressed optimism (5)
H (Ha’aretz’s first) OP-ED (comment piece) |
Thanks Chalmie and Turbolegs
This was made a lot easier by getting AUSTRALIAN RULES as almost a write-in at 6 as the second clue in and hence opening up the entire right hand side. Made the puzzle seem not as difficult as it normally is for this setter, but still lots of nice clues.
Finished in the top left with RAMSGATE, TOUPEED and BASHED as the last few in. Didn’t properly parse COLOGNE or HOPED (had never heard of OP-ED before) and had to look up Tobias Smollett hero as well.
TL
Could 26a be LET IN (admit) rather than ‘let on’ (reveal info to someone)
The anno for 20d would be COL O(G)NE, not a simple charade but a charade with a container-content.
Rishi @2 LET ON was the answer I had in mind; while you’re technically right that it could be LET IN, I think that normal usage talks about people getting/being let ON a bus.
Thanks for the lovely compliment and blog, TL
Thanks for the blog, turbo legs
I did like 24ac even though I couldn’t get it.
I think ‘Could go either way’ = bi-curious, whereas ‘Does go either way’ = bi.
…and I still don’t understand how ‘Roderick’ = Random. I assume this some obscure literary reference.
Thanks Turbolegs.
‘A stunner of a crossword’ – isn’t that a bit over the top?
That said, it was a good one by a setter who’s also a good one.
Is it possible to explain 7d a bit more?
I do not see why there’s ‘of’ between ‘Director’ and ‘international body’.
Is (just) ON really synonymous to ‘has power’?
Or is it meant to be ‘power’?
Dunno. 🙂
Good point about 7d, Sil.
I’d have clued DUNNO as ‘I can’t get on nude from behind lacking initial excitement!’
Re 7d:
Director of international body = Director of United Nations = D, UN = DUN
If an electric device ‘has power’ it’s ON.
Sometimes we, with a bit of generosity and not bothering about what we read in crossword manuals and also by granting some individuality and peculiarity to the day’s compiler, we can interpret clues, I suppose.
Sil, I didn’t stop to think about DUNNO yesterday.
DUN for Director of the United Nations could
probably be justified by saying that UN can be used
to mean ‘of the UN’: the UN Security Council
= the Security Council of the UN.
However “has power” to come up would seem to require
“is on” to come up … yielding DUNNOSI.
Without a better explanation, I go along with Rishi @8.
OK, OK, so it should have been “having power”.
That would be fine by me.
But the use of ‘of’ in that clue, is it like Rishi suggests? Or?
Btw1, 6d may have been a write-in for our friend(s) down under but I really liked that clue.
Btw2, FirstThirdFourthThird, isn’t that AC/DC?
High Voltage, Powerage – ‘having power’?
🙂