- * = anagram
- [] = removed
- A(mpere) = abbreviation
I found this to be quite difficult, even though none of the clues individually seem particularly difficult. There were some quite off-centre word associations (such as time for rhythm and opine for suggest). 2D was my favourite – a brilliant &lit.
| Across | |||
| 1. | Disruptive worker at Apple gathering?(10) | ||
| Antisocial | Ant + iSocial (as in iPhone etc) | ||
| 6. | Score draw lacking slick wingers(4) | ||
| Etch | Sketch with the side letters of slick (s + k) removed | ||
| 10. | Upset odds badly(5) | ||
| Spill | SP (which I think stands for Starting Price) + ill | ||
| 11. | Farcical, ridiculous organisation, one I ignored(9) | ||
| Ludicrous | (R[i]diculous)* – the “one I” tells you to remove one of the two Is | ||
| 12. | Kind of jazz artist with good rhythm(7) | ||
| Ragtime | RA + g(ood) + time(=rhythm) | ||
| 13. | Detective’s turf in drugs incident(7) | ||
| Episode | Sod in E + pie. Pie is apparently a slang term for an unspecified drug, as in “selling pie”. | ||
| 14. | East German plays collecting silver for theatre worker(5,7) | ||
| Stage manager | Ag in (East German)* | ||
| 18. | Weak, short Italian beer, tavern served up(12) | ||
| Invertebrate | (It + beer + tavern)* | ||
| 21. | Bloc of countries rejecting American savings scheme with regret(7) | ||
| Eurasia | (A(merican) + ISA + rue)< | ||
| 23. | Reveal and enter result(7) | ||
| Outcome | Out(=reveal) + come(=enter) | ||
| 24. | Sort of filter in whole bean extraction?(9) | ||
| Whalebone | (Whole bean)* | ||
| 25. | Suggest son must leave work function(5) | ||
| Opine | Op [s]ine | ||
| 26. | Shout of the old liberals(4) | ||
| Yell | Ye + LL | ||
| 27. | Perhaps minor benefit in a small amount of money?(10) | ||
| Adolescent | Dole in a s(mall) cent | ||
Down |
|||
| 1. | Take in muscles on heavenly body?(6) | ||
| Absorb | Abs + orb | ||
| 2. | Priorities of treatment room in any given emergency(6) | ||
| Triage | &lit – initial letters of “treatment room in any given emergency” | ||
| 3. | Egocentric leftist sneered outrageously(4-10) | ||
| Self-interested | (leftist sneered)* | ||
| 4. | Left coalition to support business partner(9) | ||
| Colleague | L + league after co | ||
| 5. | Turn in battlefield data following uprising(5) | ||
| Addle | Hidden in battlefiELD DAta reversed. | ||
| 7. | In-depth, hard or difficult cases(8) | ||
| Thorough | (H or) in tough (cases is the containment indicator) | ||
| 8. | Note over telephone lines in inn(8) | ||
| Hostelry | Soh< + tel + ry | ||
| 9. | Order in Costa for a change to sandwich place(6,8) | ||
| Action Stations | (In Costa)* around station | ||
| 15. | Damage on top of wall essentially made of marble(9) | ||
| Marmoreal | Mar + more(=on top of) + [w]al[l] | ||
| 16. | ‘Steal’ present on holiday(8) | ||
| Giveaway | Give + away(=on holiday) | ||
| 17. | Improve upon passage in speech(8) | ||
| Overhaul | Over(=upon) + hom of hall | ||
| 19. | Decent holds for climbing spot(6) | ||
| Notice | Nice around to< | ||
| 20. | Failing to transfer allegiance(6) | ||
| Defect | DD | ||
| 22. | Miss that’s eager to embrace love(5) | ||
| Avoid | Avid around o | ||
Normal gentle start to the week. I think 27 is DOLE in A S(mall) CENT. I like to do Monday’s puzzles without writing down any workings or using the dictionary. MARMOREAL was new to me but gettable: last clue in & only then is Chambers opened. Good fun.
Thanks NealH and Lohengrin. I agree with Grant Baynham re 27 but I didn’t think the puzzle was particularly gentle – lots of interesting devices and some amusing ah-hah moments. My favourite was 1a.
Fairly gentle start to the week, but quite a few answers I wasn’t sure of till I got crossing letters. I knew MARMOREAL but couldn’t parse it.
I thought 19dn rather unsatisfactory; admittedly it had 50% checking, but all vowels. When I did get it, though, I parsed it quite differently. I took ‘decent holds for climbing’ to be NOT ICE, implying that you don’t want ice on your hand/foot holds when rock climbing. And yes, I am aware that there are enthusiasts for ice climbing who might think differently.
Re 12a, purists might quibble about whether RAGTIME is actually jazz, but it’s OK by me.
Thanks, Lohengrin and NealH.
Very enjoyable I thought and a fairly tough workout in places. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I think 13ac parses as PI (detective) + SOD (turf) inside E and E (drugs). Otherwise ‘detective’ doesn’t figure in the wordplay.
I did like this fourth Indy contribution from Lohengrin. A bit of a mixed bag in terms of difficulty (no bad thing: get started on the easier ones). My only negative comment would be to agree with Neal that there were some pretty remote synonyms here. My least favourite was ‘weak’ for INVERTEBRATE. I know that INVERTEBRATES are animals without backbones, and therefore ‘spineless’, but unless this is some urban usage that this ageing solver has not yet come across, I can’t think of any sentence where I’d substitute one for the other.
Thanks to S&B.
I think the detective in 13 is a PI, in two Es. Thanks Lohengrin and Neal.