Not too many problems this week. Just a high quality Sunday cryptic with one or two nice moments of education, such as at 7 down.
| Across | ||
| 1 | PRIORITY | Appeal in religious foundation is top concern (8) |
| IT in PRIORY. | ||
| 5 | WHAT IF | Wicket taken by bowler, say, with one following? A hypothetical scenario (4,2) |
| W + HAT + I + F. | ||
| 10/11 | CLAUDIO RANIERI | Dispelling of ridicule on air about a foreign manager (7,7) |
| A in (RIDICULE ON AIR)*. | ||
| 12 | U-TURN | Vessel carrying you on the Seine in reversal of direction (1-4) |
| TU in URN. | ||
| 13 | NASTINESS | Northern idiot entertaining rogue in set showing spite (9) |
| (IN SET)* in (N + ASS). | ||
| 14 | HARRY ENFIELD | Comedian has life reformed in consequence after bother (5,7) |
| HARRY + (LIFE* in END). | ||
| 19 | NIGHTCLOTHES | Outfit for retirement? (12) |
| A fairly straightforward cryptic definition. | ||
| 22 | EAGLE-EYED | A joy almost certainly found in journalist that’s discerning (5-4) |
| (A GLEE + YE[s]) in ED. | ||
| 25 | LLAMA | Eastern monk mentioned animal (5) |
| Homophone of “lama”. | ||
| 26 | PRONOUN | Female musician cutting quiet single? It could be her (7) |
| Yoko ONO in (P + RUN). | ||
| 27 | MANSION | One on board is back working in large house (7) |
| MAN + IS< + ON. | ||
| 28 | LAPSES | US city models, withholding nothing, in slips (6) |
| LA + P[o]SES. | ||
| 29 | GREENERY | Novelist rarely discontented in feature of countryside (8) |
| Graham GREENE + R[arel]Y. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | PICK UP | Notice small truck (4,2) |
| Two definitions, both quite clear, I think. | ||
| 2 | ICARUS | Priest heading off with American, tragically flawed figure (6) |
| [v]ICAR + US. | ||
| 3 | REDUNDANT | Edition in series on poet largely superfluous (9) |
| (ED in RUN) + DANT[e]. | ||
| 4 | THORN | Something prickly in old snooker star, we hear (5) |
| Homophone of the surname of Willie Thorne. | ||
| 6 | HINDI | Language retained by church in difficulty (5) |
| Hidden in [churc]H IN DI[fficulty]. I suspect I’m not the only one who spent a moment or two looking for a C…H or C…E word. | ||
| 7 | TEETERED | Support before seen to be held by Irish politician wobbled (8) |
| TEE + (ERE in TD). I’ll admit I had to look up the TD, but Chambers gives us Teachta Dalá, Deputy to the Dáil. | ||
| 8 | FLIP SIDE | Disrespectfully light-hearted element in family – it’s less familiar (4,4) |
| FLIP as in “flippant” + SIDE as in, for example, “baldness runs in my father’s side of the family”. | ||
| 9 | CRESCENT | Clubs close to fans in modern curved road (8) |
| C + ([fan]S in RECENT). | ||
| 15 | RALLYING | Feature of tennis or another sport? (8) |
| Two definitions. | ||
| 16 | FREELANCE | Self-employed person concerned with style in football club bottom of league (9) |
| (RE + ELAN) in (FC + [leagu]E). | ||
| 17 | INTERPOL | Lone trip devised for anti-crime organisation (8) |
| (LONE TRIP)*. | ||
| 18 | AGE GROUP | Peers say invested in a Greek publishing company (3,5) |
| (EG in (A + GR)) + OUP. | ||
| 20 | MALICE | Ill-will shown in country clique lacking heart (6) |
| MALI + C[liqu]E. | ||
| 21 | JAUNTY | Cheerful relative between start and end of journey (6) |
| AUNT in J[ourne]Y. | ||
| 23 | EMOTE | Show excessive feeling in demo televised (5) |
| Hidden in [d]EMO TE[levised]. | ||
| 24 | DEMUR | Object having bird in drive (5) |
| EMU in DR. | ||
* = anagram; < = reversed; [] = removed; underlined = definition; Hover to expand abbreviations
A good way to start the Sunday morning. I was very pleased with myself when my eyes alighted on 15d and I immediately put in ‘racquets’ so I was held up for quite a while. I hadn’t heard of TD for ‘Irish politician’ either but guessed it from the def., and couldn’t see what SIDE had to do with ‘family’ – thanks for the explanation. AGE GROUP and PRONOUN were my LOI’s, both excellent clues.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
I too couldn’t see where SIDE came from in 8dn.
I’d never heard of 10/11 and ended up having to guess the first name and typing it into google and see what completions it offered. As is often the case, I then saw the name in the paper the next day.
A puzzle where everything works clearly and cleanly. 26a is a fantastic clue. 10/11a was very much in the news in 2016 when Leicester City surprised the football world. 14a as also less in the news than when this puzzle first appeared, which shows the downside of recyling puzzles, which would be more easily forgiven if they were all of this one’s excellence.
As a relative newcomer to cryptics I enjoyed this puzzle. I like it when I can get 1a straightaway. I completed NW quadrant in no time but then average for the rest of the puzzle. LOI was 26a, but a great clue. Thank you to Hypnos and Simon.