Klingsor is probably my favourite setter, so when I saw that I was blogging one of his I knew that it would be difficult but good and fair.
In fact it wasn’t all that difficult. Not easy, but so far as I can see everything makes sense straightforwardly enough.
If Klingsor has a Nina then it’s beyond me. But that would be nothing unusual.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EXHALE |
Blow out date once husband gets bitter? (6)
ex [= date once] h ale |
| 4 | SPEECHES |
Lectures bearing fruit for speaker (8) S “peaches” |
| 10 | BUMPTIOUS |
Self-important politician in bar promises to pay (9)
bu(MP)t IOUs — has ‘promises to pay’ ever been anything other than ‘ious’? |
| 11 | GONZO |
Absurd sentimentality about place down under (5)
go(NZ)o — I had some trouble justifying this since I had always thought that ‘gonzo’ was a noun, but it’s simply an adjective |
| 12 | SOT |
Person partaking of shorts regularly? (3)
s{h}o{r}t{s} — semi-&lit. |
| 13 | XYLOPHONIST |
Musician needs axes to cut this? No, wrong (11)
x,y lop (this? No)* — x axis, y axis |
| 14 | TISSUE |
Tabloids principally publish a lot of lies? (6)
T{abloids} issue |
| 16 | ROSSINI |
He scored runs batting, eclipsed by Australian mostly (7)
r Oss(in)i{e} — Ossie is in Collins as an alternative spelling of Aussie |
| 19 | AUGMENT |
After a month workers finally get increase (7)
Aug men {ge}t |
| 20 | INDEED |
Where Pict will be depicted? Certainly! (6)
in deed — if you place ‘Pict’ inside ‘deed’ you get ‘depicted’ |
| 22 | BUFFALO BILL |
Fan’s first to actually see advertisement for US showman (7,4)
buff a{ctually} lo bill |
| 25 | FUR |
Pelt fellow with egg? Not half! (3)
f ur{ge} |
| 26 | RIGID |
Severe cold that’s minus Fahrenheit (5)
{f}rigid |
| 27 | ILLEGIBLE |
Complex libel cases allowed less time? That’s hard to understand (9)
(libel)* round [= cases] legi{t} — I’d have thought that illegible meant hard to read rather than hard to understand, but I suppose in a wide sense of understand it’s OK |
| 28 | CONVERGE |
Come together to chat – that’s good for son (8)
converse with g replacing s |
| 29 | ARDENT |
Burning forest’s temperature (6)
Arden t |
| Down | ||
| 1 | EMBOSS |
Do relief work in Middle East, backed by employer (6)
(ME)rev. boss |
| 2 | HAMSTRING |
Disable mast originally handling mobile phone (9)
(mast h{andling})* ring — ‘mobile’ the anagram indicator |
| 3 | LATEX |
Team’s one short after dead rubber (5)
late X{I} |
| 5 | PAST PARTICIPLE |
Possessing minimal money, speaker’s spent a tiny bit to get heard perhaps? (4,10)
(“passed” particle) round 1p — ‘heard’ is an example of a past participle |
| 6 | ENGROSSED |
Caught up in flagrant drug taking in conclusion? On the contrary (9)
(gross E) in end — the contrary to what is written |
| 7 | HANOI |
In desperation a homeowner raised capital (5)
Reverse hidden in desperatION A Homeowner |
| 8 | SMOOTHIE |
This rogue imbibes low energy drink (8)
(This)* round moo, then e — rogue the anagram indicator |
| 9 | SOUL-DESTROYING |
Well, studying role playing is very dull (4-10)
so (studying role)* |
| 15 | SKEDADDLE |
Positioned in seat, fly and fly (9)
s(ked)addle |
| 17 | INEFFABLE |
Expert supports popular euphemism for swearword that’s not to be uttered (9)
(in eff) on top of able |
| 18 | BARBARIC |
Pub’s to exclude one caught being uncouth (8)
bar bar 1 c |
| 21 | PRIEST |
Clergyman‘s art satisfying one’s curiosity? (6)
priest is the third person singular of pry, the archaism indicated by ‘art’ |
| 23 | FAGIN |
Soldier’s in the cooler – he trained criminals (5)
fa(GI)n |
| 24 | LAGER |
This beer is great right to the end (5)
large with the r moved to the end |
Two completed unaided one after the other. Unheard of! Thanks to both.
A good challenge without being unreasonably difficult. I muddled up NZ and OZ reversed for ‘down under’ in 11 and guessed at PRIEST, although should have twigged to the old ‘art’ trick. I liked XYLOPHONIST with the misleading use of ‘axes’ and HAMSTRING.
Thank you to Klingsor and John.
Not too difficult for a Klingsor puzzle. You can always expect some musical references with him and we duly got XYLOPHONIST and ROSSINI – great surfaces for both of those.
Not sure though how many solvers would get SKEDADDLE if KED hadn’t come up in Monk’s puzzle about a month ago.
Thanks, Klingsor and John
Terrific puzzle with first-rate clueing. Hard to pick a favourite but ILLEGIBLE was brilliant.
Thanks, John. Quite chuffed to have finished this unaided, since I often struggle with Klingsor. But it was all there if you went looking for it.
Couldn’t understand PRIEST or XYLOPHONIST, so thank you for those. SMOOTHIE was my favourite today.
Thanks Klingson and John. Lots to enjoy, but I particularly liked the axes, relief work, and dead rubber.
Oops. Thanks, Klingsor.