Easy and difficult by turns, but enjoyable all the way through. Thank you Chalmie.
A light theme to the clues.
| Across | ||
| 1 | FEATHER | Dread holding the light thing (7) |
| FEAR (dread) holding THE | ||
| 5 | PARASOL | Soldiers look westward (it keeps the light off) (7) |
| PARAS (soldiers) and LO (look) revesed (westward, right-to-left as on a map) | ||
| 9 | INCURABLE | Blue car in crash can only get worse (9) |
| anagram (crash) of BLUE CAR IN | ||
| 10 | PINOT | Prize includes modish grape (5) |
| POT (prize) includes IN (modish) | ||
| 11 | SORE | Painful choice of direction (4) |
| S OR E (choce of direction) | ||
| 12 | ILLUMINATE | One will carefully consider dropping resistance to light (10) |
| 14 | SLIGHTLY | Not very cunning about window (8) |
| SLY (cunning) contains (about) LIGHT (window) | ||
| 15 | GANDHI | Film of Tensing and Hillary (6) |
| found inside (of) tensinG AND HIlary | ||
| 17 | FUGATO | Musical style of a tug in distress (6) |
| (OF A TUG)* anagram=in distress | ||
| 18 | FIREFANG | For openers, Farming Gazette features anger at supporter of compost burning (8) |
| Farmimg Gazette (for openers, first letter of) contain (feature) IRE (anger) and FAN (supporter) – excessive dryness caused by the decomposition of organic matter | ||
| 20 | FLOODLIGHT | It’s very funny topping God in argument about source of brightness (10) |
| LOL (it’s very funny) contains (with…in) gOD (topped, no first letter) all inside (with…about) FIGHT (argument) | ||
| 21 | SCAB | Second vehicle one you probably shouldn’t pick (4) |
| S (second) CAB (vehicle) – I had SCAR (S + CAR) at my first attempt | ||
| 24 | CILIA | “Eyelashes” sounds less sensible (5) |
| sounds like “sillier” (less sensible) | ||
| 25 | BLOWLAMPS | Light in battery burners (9) |
| LAMP (light) in BLOWS (battery) | ||
| 26 | SEND FOR | Unreliable friends have nothing for one to request (4,3) |
| anagram (unreliable) of FRiENDS with O (nothing) replacing I (one) | ||
| 27 | FRESNEL | Discoverer of polarised light almost complimentary backing optical instrument (7) |
| FREe (complimentary, almost) and LENS (optical instrument) reversed (backing) – Augustin Fresnel, one of a whole line of discoverers of polarised light | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | FLITS | Force with light weapons finally moves quickly (5) |
| F (force) LIT (with light?) and weaponS (final letter of). I wanted “force with light weapons” to be Jedi or similar, but it was not to be. | ||
| 2 | ACCORDING TO PLAN | Working doctor placing article as expected (9,2,4) |
| anagram (working) of DOCTOR PLACING with AN (article) | ||
| 3 | HERD | Crowd tried to be heartless (4) |
| HEaRD (tried, heartless) | ||
| 4 | RIBALDLY | Poke fun at director, embraced by friend in bawdy fashion (8) |
| RIB (poke fun at) D (director) inside (embraced by) ALLY (friend) | ||
| 5 | PLENUM | Meeting nurse in a sort of jam (6) |
| EN (enrolled nurse) in PLUM (sort of jam) | ||
| 6 | REPLICATES | Copies medical scan into answers (10) |
| CAT (computer tomography, medical scan) inside REPLIES (answers) | ||
| 7 | SONG-AND-DANCE-MAN | Fuss over island’s light entertainer (4-3-5,3) |
| SONG AND DANCE (fuss) on MAN (island) | ||
| 8 | LATHERING | Forming bubbles bursting near light (9) |
| (NEAR LIGHT)* anagram=bursting | ||
| 13 | WHITE DWARF | A smash in 24 hours, fans begin supporting inexperienced rising star (5,5) |
| HIT (a smash) in WED (24 hours) then Fan (beginning, first letter of) underneath (supporting) RAW (inexperienced) reversed (rising) | ||
| 14 | SOFT FOCUS | Photographic technique cuts off so badly (4,5) |
| (CUTS OFF SO)* anagram=badly | ||
| 16 | NIGHT OFF | Possibly evening out near Lord Snooty? (5,3) |
| NIGH (near) TOFF (Lord Snooty perhaps) | ||
| 19 | TIMBER | Black Watch goes round wood (6) |
| B (black) contains (with…round) TIMER (watch) | ||
| 22 | BASIL | Male graduate says ichthyosaurs lacked heads (5) |
| BA (graduate) and first letters (heads) of Ichthyosaurus Says Lacked | ||
| 23 | FLEE | Run away from cheat, avoiding city district (4) |
| FLEecE (cheat) missing EC (the City of London postal code) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Enjoyed this offering with the variants of ‘light’. Thanks Chalmie.
Agree with PeeDee that this puzzle was a mix of easy and not so easy, including some words I did not know such as Fugato and Firefang. Good to learn new words!
For 12 across I parsed this clue as ‘I’ll ruminate’ = One will carefully consider, dropping the ‘r’ to leave ‘illuminate’
Steven – I like your explanation for 12 across. I was never very happy with my effort.
Thoroughly idiosyncratic — thanks, Chalmie. Incidentally I had to Google for Fresnel, and was amazed at how many people can claim to have shared the discovery. Thank you, PeeDee
Thank you for the blog, PeeDee – I agree with your first sentence. Found myself having to look things up much more than I usually do in a midweek puzzle; firefang & Fresnel were just two of some of the terms which were unfamiliar to me.
That said the wordplay was manageable in most cases, so many thanks for the good brain workout, Chalmie!
Thanks PD and commenters. I’m taking “idiosyncratic” as a compliment.
FIREFANG is indeed an obscurity, but it’s a great word. It looks like it ought to be the name of a sword in Middle Earth.
Thanks Chalmie and Peedee. Never heard of FIREFANG, and I had SCAR at 21ac, so never completed 22d… but otherwise enjoyed this one.
Chalmie @5 – totally agree about the word FIREFANG. I can’t wait until the summer when my compost heap dries out and I get a chance to use it 😉
Thanks Chalmie and PeeDee
Got to this one this morning. It solved in two halves – the LHS which I found very easy, even FUGATO wasn’t all that bad – seemed logical from the anagram.
The RHS was a different story and struggled most of the way down that side. Hadn’t heard of the term FIREFANG, although originally coming from a farm, I was aware of the concept and the care required to ensure that a haystack would not self combust (or as we know now to ‘firefang’). Unsatisfactorily parsed ILLUMINATE as did PeeDee and glad to see a better option. Also had SCAR at 21, but my R was so poorly written that had no issue seeing it as a B so that BASIL quite naturally fitted.
All done now and can be off to do a bit of stand-up paddling !!
brucew – I am curious to know what is stand-up paddling?
Hi PeeDee
[It is a beach activity where on a 15 foot board (like a surf board) you stand up with a 6ft paddle and you paddle (a bit like the man in the back of a gondola). It took quite a few practice runs on my knees until I could properly stand up and do it … and if the sea is a bit choppy, it is even harder. Today my friend and I paddled from Brighton beach to Sandringham … and at 32 degrees, we paddled into Hampton beach for a swim along the way. It is brilliant, if a bit tiring, fun !!! I just had my 60th birthday late last year and have been doing it for about 6 months. It keeps one feeling much younger … a benefit of hanging around with younger friends !!
http://supb.com.au – will show you a photo of what it looks like … especially the photos down the bottom. ]
You would need an icebreaker attachment to do that here 😉
I guess doing it where an icebreaker is required wouldn’t be much fun. Having said that, I started to learn it here during our winter – it was only the fear of the cold water that kept me from falling in !!! 🙂
Thanks PeeDee and Chalmie.
Raced through this – including the working out of FIREFANG (new to me too but perfectly clued) and then hit 13dn, 19dn, 25ac and 26ac which took longer to solve than all the rest combined.
I still don’t get why BATTERY = BLOWS ……. And as I type the penny has dropped.
Think I’ll try stand-up paddling once the wind drops below F7! Sounds fun.