I found this extremely difficult. The clues are all quite understandable once you know the answer, but to get there is often very hard, so far as I can see, there being so many options for the wordplay and the definition.
Definitions in maroon and underlined.
It seems that there is some connection to the English poet Alexander Pope, who supplies the long answers at 11ac and 5dn, and also features in 4dn. But what this is I just can’t see, and having toiled over the puzzle for an age, am simply relieved to have finished it and happy to leave this agonising to others.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BEHAVE | Auxiliary verbs function properly (6) |
| “be” and “have” are auxiliary verbs | ||
| 5 | TEE SHIRT | Top river reached, crossing another (3,5) |
| Tees hi(r)t | ||
| 9 | SHRUG OFF | Dismiss small rough unstable fellows (5,3) |
| s (rough)* f f | ||
| 10 | CANCEL | Scrub part of church, not hotel (6) |
| c{h}ancel | ||
| 11 | TO ERR IS HUMAN | Corrupt hirsute Roman Pope’s wise words (2,3,2,5) |
| (hirsute Roman)* — ref. Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism: “To err is human; to forgive, divine”, a quotation that is also used in 5dn | ||
| 13 | BOOR | Yahoo loves taking over area in pub (4) |
| bar with its a replaced by 00 | ||
| 14 | IGNATIUS | Top Jesuit retires to become a new soldier (8) |
| (suit a n GI)rev. | ||
| 17 | AGGRIEVE | I gave Reg fluid for pain (8) |
| (I gave Reg)* | ||
| 18 | ACTS | One’s book (4) |
| 2 defs: One’s is 1’s, or 1ac’s, and 1ac is BEHAVE [= act] — and the book of the Bible | ||
| 20 | INCAPACITATE | Make weak old Peruvian head over most of a big town (12) |
| Inca p(a cit{y})ate | ||
| 23 | MOLOCH | God left to skulk about (6) |
| mo(l)och | ||
| 24 | INDULGED | Pampered batting failure nurses sprained leg (8) |
| in du(lge)d, ‘nurses’ being the inclusion indicator, and lge being (leg)* | ||
| 25 | CAREFREE | Relaxed about umpire ignoring first of extras (8) |
| ca ref{e}ree — yes, but which ‘first of extras’ does the umpire avoid? There are four options. | ||
| 26 | NORMAL | Standard northern exam baffles Mike (6) |
| N or(M)al — Mike in that telegrapher’s language, which is about to appear again — ‘baffles’ the inclusion indicator | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ECHO | Theatre choreographer packs in forerunner of foxtrot (4) |
| Hidden in theatrE CHOreographer — evidently that language which Radian had used for the previous clue was still at the forefront of his mind | ||
| 3 | ADULTERER | Luther oddly stops a German artist, one who cheats (9) |
| a Du(L{u}t{h}e{r})rer | ||
| 4 | EPOPEE | E.g. Homer work, English poet’s eye-opener (6) |
| E Pope e{ye-opener} | ||
| 5 | TO FORGIVE DIVINE | Video of riveting broadcast that follows 11 (2,7,6) |
| (Video of riveting)* — 11 is the first half of a quotation from Pope, of which this is the second half | ||
| 6 | EXCUSING | Erstwhile Catholic on drugs giving absolution (8) |
| Ex-C using | ||
| 7 | HINDU | Back university person who studies 22 (5) |
| hind U — 22 being VEDA, a Hindu is a person who studies this set of books | ||
| 8 | RE-EVALUATE | Swerve round a large truck carrying a judge again (2-8) |
| (veer)rev. a l u(a)te, a ute being an Australian shorthand for utility vehicle | ||
| 12 | GORGONZOLA | French author supports scary woman that’s brought on board (10) |
| gorgon Zola — on the cheese board | ||
| 15 | TRAVELLER | Tourist and cashier take in party briefly (9) |
| t(rav{e})eller | ||
| 16 | METAPHOR | Image Homer modified to describe bug (8) |
| tap in (Homer)* — I was unsure about tap = bug, but I suppose there’s a surveillance/espionage connection there | ||
| 19 | PARDON | Standard reader’s sorry (6) |
| Par don — I suppose a don, being a university teacher, is a reader, but it seems a bit vague to me | ||
| 21 | ATONE | Pay for a spirit when lunch is taken? (5) |
| I think this is a slightly unusual clue in that there are two pieces of wordplay: a spirit = a tone, and lunch is taken at one | ||
| 22 | VEDA | Live dangerously, devouring religious books (4) |
| Hidden in LiVE DAngerously | ||
*anagram
Thanks for the blog, John. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the puzzle.
I suppose I must have been lucky in 11ac being my first one in. I thought the anagrams for that and 5dn were very clever – I loved the hirsute Roman Pope! Another favourite was 10ac.
I’m expecting a friend for coffee any minute so have no time for more – just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it and thanks, as ever, to Radian.
I didn’t find this too difficult initially but then v. hard work to complete the last 5-6 clues. I managed to get both from the wordplay, but I’d never heard of MOLOCH and EPOPEE and I didn’t understand ACTS, for which I originally had ‘Amos’ – thanks for the explanation. Favourites were GORGONZOLA (esp. the wordplay), IGNATIUS and REEVALUATE – ‘UTE’ seems to be a bit of a cryptic standard these days. Sorry, but I can’t cast any more light on the possible Pope connection.
Thanks to Radian and John
Well done for solving and blogging this, John. Ridiculously difficult for a weekday Indy cryptic. I gave up with fewer than half the clues solved. So I’ll leave the agonising to others.
Thanks John and indeed Radian. My favourite poet in the starring role.
Re tap for bug, there is a hilarious scene in Police Squad (the Zucker brothers’ short-lived precursor to the Naked Gun series) where Leslie Nielsen tells Norberg to put a tap on the phone. Which he then does, with an actual tap.
A few tricky clues but generally I found this not too difficult. Having separated ‘Pope’ from ‘Roman’ 11ac was a write-in from the enumeration and 5dn simply followed on.
TEE SHIRT was one of my last ones in, mainly because I misread the enumeration as (5,3). Incidentally I would have given the correct enumeration as (3-5) rather than (3,5), but that’s a minor quibble.
EPOPEE was new to me but I knew MOLOCH. Today’s bit of useless information: Moloch was a god to which babies were sacrificed, apparently, but the word came to mean a baby, particularly a large one. There’s a reference in Dickens, if I remember correctly, to ‘a moloch of a baby’.
Thanks, Radian and John.
Very hard. I got it out, but not without assistance. Good things in there, though. I bet all if us went duck-hunting in 24ac…
With ATONE, PARDON, EXCUSING and the Pope quote dominating the grid one wonders whether Radian is saying sorry to someone somewhere. Certainly not us: this was a fair if rather exacting daily puzzle.
Thanks to John: go and have a cup of tea and a little lie down.
I think Grant @6 may have hit on something. As well as ATONE, PARDON and EXCUSING, several other answers, such as ADULTERER, SHRUG OFF, CANCEL, AGGRIEVE can be seen as related to either erring or forgiving. A suitable theme for Holy Week.
I’m sorry I failed to conceal my state of mind: nothing at all serious, but I have a foul cold/cough/etc, and ghastly coughing and spluttering fits usually followed by uncontrolled sneezing, so my outlook on life is rather less than sunny at the moment.
After an unchallenging but very neat puzzle by Chifonie in the Graun i was seeking something more challenging and I found it with Radian. I rather liked it-the Pope bits opened it up but I got snagged on MOLOCH(new to me)and METAPHOR (which I should have got)- EPOPEE was pretty gettable from wordplay making a trio of Pope clues.I will add Radian to my list!
And as Grant @6 says- the Pope theme is carried further. Great puzzle (even though I stuffed up on two clues)
Get well soon, John!
Sorry you’re feeling under the weather, John – get well soon! 😉
Good Papism. I would only complain about VEDA, where the indication suggests containment rather than hiding.