A pleasant solve from Redshank
Thanks, Redshank, for a nice Thursday morning mental workout, probably just the right level for this time of the week.
16dn and 23dn took me a few minutes to parse, so were last ones in.
| Across | ||
| 1 | EXPLOIT | Former Palestinian group’s regularly dirty deed (7) |
| EX P.L.O. + (d)I(r)T(y) | ||
| 5 | RECEIPT | Mark paid revised price on time, saving euros (7) |
| E in (*price) + T | ||
| 9 | VITAL | Group of relatives returned key (5) |
| Hidden backwards in “reLATIVes”, with “group of” indicating that we need to identify a group of letters. | ||
| 10 | RECLUSIVE | Like loner about to tackle cryptic clues [4] (9) |
| RE + *(clues IV) | ||
| 11 | SHORT WAVE | Band’s half-hearted gesture on departing (5,4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 12 | DETER | Put off deciding to drop mining (5) |
| DETER(mining) | ||
| 13 | SCHOOLMISTRESS | In middle of lesson she’s trim and cool, moving about (14) |
| *(shes trim cool) in le(S S)on
A nice & lit. as well |
||
| 18 | LARGE INTESTINE | Where food is entering last, ie being processed (5,9) |
| *(entering lst ie) | ||
| 20 | RESAT | Stunner pirouetted and struck a different pose (5) |
| <=TASER | ||
| 22 | GOLDFIELD | Where to dig up a nugget or sphere? (9) |
| GOLD (“nugget”) + FIELD (“sphere”) | ||
| 24 | HEY PRESTO | What magicians said when they worked with ropes (3,6) |
| *(they ropes) | ||
| 25 | ICING | Music in Glyndebourne’s more than topping (5) |
| Hidden in “musIC IN Glyndebourne” | ||
| 26 | WHO’S WHO | Doctor twice hides special list of big names (4,3) |
| S in WHO WHO (“Doctor twice”) | ||
| 27 | EL GRECO | Artist’s leg twisted – recovery’s seriously neglected (2,5) |
| *(leg) + RECO(very) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ELVISH | The language of Tolkien and King Henry (6) |
| ELVIS (“King”) + H | ||
| 2 | PATROL CAR | Panda, say, moves conspiratorially, less noisily (6,3) |
| *(copratral) (The letters in “conspiratorial” less those in “noisily”)
It’s a while since I last heard anyone refer to a police car as a panda car. |
||
| 3 | OWLET | Fledgling duck, large parts sodden (5) |
| O + W(L)ET | ||
| 4 | TARPAULIN | Sailor man at home makes shelter for himself (9) |
| TAR + PAUL + IN | ||
| 5 | RECCE | What scouts do in playground these days (5) |
| Double definition, with recce being short for “reconnaisance” and “recreation ground/park/centre” | ||
| 6 | COUP D’ETAT | Is this mounted due to pact being broken? (4,5) |
| *(due to pact) | ||
| 7 | IDIOT | One point impresses current dunce (5) |
| I(“current”) in 1 DOT | ||
| 8 | THEORIST | The detectorist leaves out notice for speculator (8) |
| THE(detect)ORIST | ||
| 14 | OVERTHROW | Remove public hotline (9) |
| OVERT + H + ROW | ||
| 15 | IDEAL HOME | I do business with head office myself to find des res (5,4) |
| I DEAL + H.O. + ME | ||
| 16 | ERNIE WISE | Comic, original one touring island in Irish (5,4) |
| I(“island”) in NEW 1 in ERSE | ||
| 17 | CLERIHEW | Priest almost cut short poem (8) |
| CLERI(c) + HEW | ||
| 19 | ADAGIO | A golf international’s in trouble for playing slowly (6) |
| A G I in ADO | ||
| 21 | SAY-SO | Authority comes out with circular letter (3-2) |
| SAYS + O (“circular letter”) | ||
| 22 | GUSTO | Relish occasional bits of glum sitcom (5) |
| GlUm SiTcOm | ||
| 23 | FLING | Pair abandon misleading affair (5) |
| F(oo)LING
At first, I thought “pair” was weak for OO, but then I thought of cricket, and a pair of ducks in two innings would be 00, so it’s all good. |
||
*anagram
Quickest Redshank-Crucible(?) ever for me-I’m usually fumbling for ages with him-I think he was in a benign mood-couldnt have been me!Pleasant nonetheless.
Indeed, an excellent puzzle from Redshank. Thanks for the blog too Loonapick.
Initially I did parse 22ac as you have above. But took a second look and parsed it as GOLD (or) FIELD (sphere) with the definition as “Where to dig up a nugget”
Cheers
TL
Thanks, Loonapick.
A highly enjoyable puzzle, as ever, from Redshank. Kicked myself for the amount of time I spent trying to parse the unparsable POLICE CAR for 2dn, which ended up as one of my favourites, along with LARGE INTESTINE [&lit?], EL GRECO, ELVISH and ADAGIO.
I parsed GOLDFIEELD as you did – and thought it a bit weak. I should have known better: I’m sure Turbolegs is right.
Many thanks, Redshank – a lovely start to the day!
I concur with the blogger and commentators’ remarks – a really nice gentle puzzle, so thanks Redshank.
I parsed 5d as ‘rec’ = short form of recreation ground (‘playground’) + ‘ce’ abbreviation of Common Era for ‘these days’
Cheers to all
So did I, Steven – I forgot to say.
Steven and Eileen.
Of course, you’re right, and I did see that, the for some reason, when writing the blog, something changed in my mind?
Turbo legs
Your parsing of GOLDFIELD makes much more sense. Thanks
Hi Loonapick
I sympathise – I do know how weird things sometimes happen in the gap between solving and blogging. 😉
Steven @ 4: so political correctness has now reached crossword solving! I always thought CE stood for “Christian Era”
Thanks Redshank and loonapick
Also found this rather benign, from a difficulty perspective, but very enjoyable to do.
Had similar parsing holdups with ERNIE WISE and FLING. Went down the unparsable POLICE CAR route at 2d until SHORT WAVE made it not so – still took a while to see his trademark subtraction anagram to justify it. Came here with THEORIST not fully parsed apart from the THE – more an oversight than anything.
Had sorted out GOLDFIELD the same as TL and thought it was probably the best clue.
Finished in the NE corner with the remediated PATROL CAR, the clever ELVISH and the well hidden VITAL as the last in.
Thanks Redshank and loonapick.
I too had 5dn as REC + Common Era and 22ac as OR = GOLD + SPHERE = FIELD.
All very straightforward otherwise – did need to look up CLERIHEW so I can count that as my new word for the day.