Yet another riveting challenge from Wanderer to bring a neat close to the FT work week. I enjoyed this solve thoroughly and hope others had a similar experience. Thanks to Wanderer!! I do have a bit of a struggle in being fully convinced about my parsing for 20ac, 26ac and 17dn so if anybody can improve upon it, much appreciated.
FF: 10 DD: 8
| Across | ||
| 1 | SHANNON | Irish flower girl (7) |
| double def (river) | ||
| 5 | AIRPORT | Tune left for John Lennon? (7) |
| AIR (tune) PORT (left) – Liverpool | ||
| 9 | VOTES | Crosses over from Odense to Vejle (5) |
| Hidden, reversed in “..odenSE TO Vejie” | ||
| 10 | HOT POTATO | Awkward situation when taking out a top tooth (3,6) |
| (A TOP TOOTH)* | ||
| 11 | REVEILLES | Wake-up calls engineers visiting Seville arranged (9) |
| RE (Royal Engineers) followed by anagram of SEVILLE – military bugle for morning risers | ||
| 12 | RHOMB | Lozenge initially recommended by house doctor (5) |
| R (Recommended, initially) HO (house) MB (doctor) | ||
| 13 | UNCONSCIONABLE | Loan concubines out? That’s excessive (14) |
| (LOAN CONCUBINES)* | ||
| 18 | RENAISSANCE MAN | One with many interests in conflict can remain sane after adopting son (11,3) |
| Anagran of [CAN REMAIN SANE] containing S (son) | ||
| 20 | DRAMA | Play a male sporting short haircut (5) |
| [ A M (male) ] in DRAg (haircut, short) ?? | ||
| 22 | ORCHESTRA | Group playing as an alternative version of The Cars (9) |
| OR (alternative) followed by (THE CARS)* | ||
| 24 | EXPLOSION | Former No.1, first of singles on album reviewed in report (9) |
| EX (former) [ NO I (no. 1) S (first of Singles) LP (album) – all reversed ] | ||
| 25 | RIFLE | Cap removed from toy gun (5) |
| tRIFLE (toy, without starting character) | ||
| 26 | DEAD SEA | Very deep water (4,3) |
| Cryptic definition – Still waters run deep. If its very deep, then you are probably more than just still. You are dead. | ||
| 27 | SCROLLS | Moves up or down for better viewing of US state car (7) |
| SC (south carolina, us state) ROLLS (car) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SEVERN | River having its source in 7 (6) |
| Liked this one – Solution is R (source of River) in SEVEN (7) – This is a river in the South Island of NZ, which is referred to in 7dn. | ||
| 2 | ANTIVENIN | Snakebite remedy? Worker takes one before turning up 9 to 5 (9) |
| ANT (worker) I (one) [ NINE (9) V (5), reversed) ] – I initially pencilled it as ANTIVENOM leaving the parsing for later before 18ac quickly showed me the error of my ways. | ||
| 3 | NISEI | That is the wrong lift for the offspring of a Japanese immigrant (5) |
| [ IE (that is) SIN (wrong) ] – all reversed | ||
| 4 | NIHILISTS | Believers in nothing as “nil” – is this unusual? (9) |
| (NIL IS THIS)* | ||
| 5 | ALTOS | A line taking tenor over soprano or other choir members (5) |
| A L(line) T (tenor) O (over) S (soprano) | ||
| 6 | RIO GRANDE | River seen by old relative during car journey? (3,6) |
| GRAN (old relative) in RIDE (car journey) | ||
| 7 | OTAGO | Not a golfer’s place in New Zealand (5) |
| Hidden in “nOT A GOlfer…” . I took “place in” to do double duty, working both before and after. | ||
| 8 | TROUBLED | Awfully blue, or extremely distraught? (8) |
| A double def with an intricate word play; with “Awfully” being the anagrind. Anagram of BLUE OR DT (extremely DistraughT) | ||
| 14 | OVIPAROUS | It’s obvious about parrot – it’s not b—– rubbish when it comes to egg-laying! (9) |
| Refreshingly unusual clue. ObVIOUS around PARrot (without B, without ROT [rubbish] ) | ||
| 15 | INNOCENTS | Thirteen popes who have done no wrong (9) |
| I am going to call this a double def – Pope Innocent I through Pope Innocent XIII were Roman Catholic popes. | ||
| 16 | BEAUTIFUL | Gorgeous boyfriend, yet ultimately one’s not quite satisfied (9) |
| BEAU (boyfriend) T (yeT, ultimately) I (one) FULl (satisfied, not quite) | ||
| 17 | BRIDGEND | Game drawn, involving northern Welsh town (8) |
| [ BRIDGE (game) D (drawn) ] containing N (northern) – I tried to see if the word “BRIDGED’ could lend itself to alternate meanings that might make parsing “game drawn” easier but I couldnt come up with anything meaningful. | ||
| 19 | WATERS | Salivates cooking stew, a ragout for starters (6) |
| Anagram of STEW A R (Ragout, starting character) | ||
| 21 | ALPHA | A star of greatest magnitude (5) |
| Its a direct clue; Obviously I am missing something. | ||
| 22 | OUIJA | Message board often used in job applications originally (5) |
| Starting characters of “..Often Used In Job Applications” | ||
| 23 | ERROR | What’s upset player or referee, essentially? (5) |
| Hidden, reversed in “…playeR OR REferee…”, with the ‘upset’ part indicating the reversal too. | ||
*anagram
20 across is surely ram in a DA, which is a short haircut. In 26 across I took Very and dead to be synonymous. HTH.
Thanks Turbolegs and especially Wanderer.
I first encountered 14 down years ago as the second word of one of the most famous telegrams in scientific history, sent by an excited W H Caldwell in 1884 just after he discovered how the duck-billed platypus reproduced.
MONOTREMES OVIPAROUS, OVUM MEROBLASTIC
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
20ac: RAM in DA (a haircut that resembles a duck’s behind)
26ac: The Dead Sea is apparently the lowest spot on the Earth’s surface, hence very deep.
17dn: I agree with the blog.
Thanks, TL. I found this fairly easy-going by Wanderer’s standards, but like you am puzzled by the parsing of 20ac and 26ac. I agree with you on 17dn and don’t find it a problem. It’s not exactly a Nina, but is there significance in the outside lights? — Shannon Airport, Dead Sea Scrolls, Severn Bridge(nd), Troubled Waters? Thanks, Wanderer, for another good one.
Incidentally, in 7dn, the “‘s” is a sufficient inclusion indicator, so no double duty is required.
You have a minor typo in 6D
O is abbreviation for old
GRAN is the relative.
I agree with Conrad Cork @1 with regard to DEAD being synonymous with VERY.
HTH?
aid @ 5
HTH? Hope this helps. Standard abbreviation, like IMHO. HTH. 🙂
Could 21d be a double definition: A (alpha)Star of greatest definition (alpha)
Another very fine crossword by Wanderer (though not as hard as he can be).
I failed on 26ac (quite a good clue, actually) and the intersecting 21d (ALPHA), which is surely a double definition.
Alpha is, as trenodia says, a star and also defined in Chambers as ‘being the most powerful or influential member of a group’ (which comes close enough).
However, in 24ac something is not clear.
From your blog, Turbolegs, the first O is missing.
The clue is either faulty or the O is coming from ‘first of singles on’ (S,O).
If it’s the latter, I find it a bit weak as I don’t like ‘first of’ for multiple fodders very much.
Nice to see ORCHESTRA clued in an original way, including one of my favourite 80s bands.
So, everything’s fine with 24ac?
Sil re 24ac: The O is certainly missing from the parsing, but Chambers 2008 gives o’ or o a shortened form of of and on. Thus “first of” only needs to apply to “singles”.
Thanks PB, thought it might be like that.
However, I am not really convinced whether this was really what Wanderer meant.
A bit too abbreviationary (!!) for his style of clueing.
Meanwhile, I cannot find O for ‘on’ myself.
I have a hard copy of Collins and beyond that rely on Chambers and Oxford as part of WordWeb (which comes with Crossword Compiler).
I am happy to accept your explanation but at the same time I am not 100% convinced.
Thanks Turbolegs and Wanderer.
I agree with PB on 20, 26 and 17.
In 24ac I saw it as Ex plus a reversal of NOI (number 1) SO (initial letters of “singles on”) and LP – so I think it works OK.
Hadn’t spotted Shannon Airport, Dead Sea Scrolls, Severn Bridge or Troubled Waters, but I always miss such things.
18 ac reminded me of Arthur Tree (one of several Monty Pythons Flying Circus send-ups of David Frost).
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Just did this one today and found it a tad easier than is the norm for this fellow.
I know that it is very late and no one except the blogger will see it …
21d is a double definition (as per trenodia@7) – ALPHA: the first letter of the Greek alphabet, A. It is also the brightest star in a constellation
26a is DEAD SEA = water; – made up by the charade of ‘very’ = DEAD (as in tired); (the) ‘deep’ = literary term for SEA
I’d be surprised if the setter was not referring to the SEVERN river in England – the 7 simply giving the SEVEN envelope of R (with no reference at all to 7d)
An enjoyable solve with the D-RAM-A (can’t believe that I missed the duck’s arse haircut) the only one not fully parsed.