I have to admit that, due to the site problems I found when I got up this morning, I didn’t actually solve this one, instead reverting to the ‘reveal all’ option due to a lack of time. This was a pity because, whilst parsing the clues, I found them to be succinct and I would have enjoyed the solve.
Due to the hurried nature of this post because of its lateness, please excuse any errors missed due to only a cursory proof-reading.
Across
1 Last to be dismissed, first catch (4,3)
HOLD OUT – HOLD (catch) OUT (to be dismissed)
5 An extra drink? Cheers! (5,2)
PERKS UP – PERK (an extra) SUP (drink)
9 Moving in/out of team up the valley (5)
COMBE – COMB[in]E (moving in/out of team up)
10 Fitful rest before dawn (4-5)
STOP-START – STOP (rest) START (dawn)
11 English woman meets House representatives (10)
EMISSARIES – E (English) MISS (woman) ARIES (House)
12 Food and drink left for daughter (4)
MEAL – MEAd (drink) with L replacing d (left for daughter)
14 Sign of Labour/Tory grip (11)
CONTRACTION – CON (Tory) TRACTION (grip)
18 Resident champion follows the crowd (11)
HOUSEHOLDER – HOUSE (the crowd) HOLDER (champion)
21 Sound horn travelling to and fro (4)
TOOT – palindrome (travelling to and fro)
22 Moving in and out of base (10)
FOUNDATION – an anagram (moving) of IN AND OUT OF
25 Further strengthen defence on right — Everton’s front two score, if included (9)
REFORTIFY – R (right) E[verton] (Everton’s front) FORTY (two score) around (… included) IF
26 Southern France backs introduction of old patois (5)
IDIOM – MIDI (Southern France) reversed (backs) around (introduction of) O (old)
27 Sisters’ building firm closing, then opening (7)
CONVENT – CO (firm) [the]N (closing, then) VENT (opening)
28 Check pulse after shocking incident (7)
SCANDAL – SCAN (check) DAL (pulse)
Down
1 Cut a couple of journalists (6)
HACKED – HACK ED (a couple of journalists)
2 Transparent top worn by Puck? (6)
LIMPID – LID (top) around (worn by) IMP (Puck)
3 Respect one formulating a “known unknown” (4,6)
OPEN SECRET – an anagram (formulating) of RESPECT ONE
4 Regret a serviceman carries shocking weaponry (5)
TASER – hidden in (carries) ‘regreT A SERviceman’
5 I reopened building having laid the foundations (9)
PIONEERED – an anagram (building) of I REOPENED
6 Dare to feel up and down, but not at first (4)
RISK – [f]RISK (to feel up and down, but not at first)
7 Well in ground provides source of energy (5,3)
SHALE OIL – HALE (well) in SOIL (ground) – with an extended def.
8 Ratty and Mole holding up a pick-up truck (8)
PETULANT – Plant (mole) around (holding ) UTE (a pick-up truck) reversed (up)
13 Fever results when small boy touches a girl (10)
SCARLATINA – S (small) CARL (boy) A TINA (a girl)
15 Wordsmith finds account is entered in rewritten note (9)
NEOLOGIST – LOG (account) IS in (entered in) an anagram (rewritten) of NOTE
16 Chorister arranged to miss first song at oratory (8)
RHETORIC – an anagram (arranged) of CHORI[s]TER (chorister … to miss first song)
17 Influence catch — switch positions (3,3,2)
RUB OFF ON – RUB (catch) OFF ON (switch positions)
19 Regretted it being in black and white (6)
PITIED – IT in (being in) PIED (black and white)
20 Looking up word for “layer”: a hen, perhaps (6)
ANIMAL – LAMINA (word for “layer”) reversed (looking up)
23 20th-century wordsmith was indecisive (5)
NOYES – NO YES (was indecisive) – Alfred Noyes
24 Open with key finally, moving to front (4)
FREE – REEF (key) with the last letter moved to the beginning (finally, moving to front)
Thanks for all your work, Gaufrid, and thanks to the Great Skua – we should see you more often.
Great crossword. Lots of lovely misdirection. It took me ages to see how COMBE worked, but it’s wonderful.
@Gaufrid
What a shame that your technical problems robbed you of the chance to solve this excellent puzzle by Bonxie. I thought it was up there with the best of ’em in the recent past, and I look forward to the next one. 8d quite brilliant.
Thanks all round.
(by the way I see Big Dave has been on to the help desk, too)
Thanks for getting the blog working again, Gaufrid, and thanks to Bonxie for the puzzle.
It was a challenging puzzle for me, with too many very nice clues to list favourites.
Commiserations, Gaufrid, for the problems you had to put up with. Thanks for the blog, and sorry you missed the fun of solving.
This was a highly enjoyable pyzzle with some excellent clues up there with the best. I particularly liked
14A (CONTRACTION) [my favourite]
22A (FOUNDATION) [one of the best anagrams I have come across]
25A (REFORTIFY)
7D (SHALE OIL)
8D (PETULANT)
20D (ANIMAL)
There were several misdirections to have to navigate around, and it was both a challenge and a pleasure to do so. Just a couple of clues were a bit clunky.
10A (STOP-START) was interesting for another reason. I took longer than expected on this, having thought of the idea of ‘stop-go’ straight away, and when the answer hit me I decided out of curiosity to look it up. The word (phrase?) ‘stop-start’ is not in either of my dictionaries or in Roget. ‘stop-go’ is there, and it means fitful. I’m convinced STOP-START is ok, and the clue and answer are fair.
me @4
I meant ‘puzzle’ not ‘pyzzle’. [What an awful typo! My apologies.]
Thanks to Bonxie and Gaufrid. I needed help parsing MEAL, SCANDAL (I did not know the connection between “dal” and “pulse”) and FREE (ditto for the link between “reef” and “key”). I did get COMBE without knowing the valley and took a while seeing the “rub” in RUB OFF ON which I should have known from Hamlet’s “Ay, there’s the rub” (apparently taken from lawn bowls). A delightful puzzle.
Well done Gaufrid!
We solved this one over lunch and tea. Quite a challenge in places as others have already commented. There were some great clues though. We needed a Thesaurus check for ‘valley’ but as soon as we did the answer became obvious.
We agree that the anagram for 22ac was excellent.
Thanks for the fun Bonxie.
Thanks Gaufrid. Always grateful for your efforts.
Thanks to Bonxie for a fun puzzle. South East corner required second sitting,
but all’s well.
Liked EMISSARIES, CONTRACTION, FOUNDATION, PIONEERED, IDIOM and SHALE OIL.
NOYES raised a chuckle and was hoping to see beeryhiker’s list!
8d I think could be ambiguous re its ‘upness’! The ‘holding up’ allows for ‘PLANT’ or ‘ETU’ to be reversed, and the unnecessary ‘a’ doesn’t help. Not sure about that one.
Anyway, I think this was pretty good elsewhere. I agree about CONTRACTION and FOUNDATION, SHALE OIL, and ANIMAL is a good re-run of an old ‘un!
Many thanks.
I sometimes come here to say “I never spot themes”. I might have spotted one today.
We have
‘last … first’ in the clue to 1A
‘in/out’ in the clue to 9A
STOP-START at 10A
‘Labour/Tory’ in the clue to 14A
‘to and fro’ in the clue to 21A
‘in and out’ in the clue to 22A
‘known unknown’ in the clue to 4D
‘up and down’ in the clue to 6D
… OFF ON at 13D
‘black and white’ in the clue to 19D
NOYES [=no/yes] at 23D
These are too many to be just a coincidence.
Thanks Bonxie and Gaufrid.
I solved this crossword early this morning and found the clues brilliant. I am too tired now to go into details, having passed a day dealing with several family problems, but am really looking forward to the next Bonxie puzzle.
Bonxie is a fine compiler we see all too rarely. This was all very enjoyable, and quite challenging in places, but everything made perfect sense in retrospect, which to me means high class misdirection. RISK was last in after PERKS UP, though the SUP had gone in much earlier. Needless to say I missed the “theme” Alan mentions @10
Thanks to Gaufrid and Bonxie
Just seen Alan Browne’s post, the stop/start, to and fro, in and out etc. etc. struck me too. Must go over it all again in the morning.
I never post this late but didn’t want to miss the opportunity. I’ve been a bit of a misery recently criticising Pasquale and Crucible and even having a bit of a go at Paul. It seemed only fair to come here to say how much I enjoyed Bonxie’s puzzle today. Not that it was easy, but everything made sense and I admired the thought behind pretty much every clue.
Thanks Gaufrid not yourfault. I found this tricky but got there in the end. Thanks to you Gaufrid and of course Bonxie. Agree with Muffin when I eventually got there combe was great.
First of all, a huge thanks to Gaufrid to get it all right today!!!
This puzzle was a real struggle to complete but I did.
Did I like it? That’s another matter. Not sure.
I am probably in the minority today but I tend to disagree with those who preferred this puzzle to yesterday’s Crucible.
I missed what surely is a theme, flagged up by Alan Browne.
Having to ignore punctuation is fine by me, so COMBE (9ac) and “closing, then” for N (in 27ac) are acceptable from that point of view.
However, “closing then” for N is something I would never use myself as it doesn’t feel right to me.
Where the use of “a” in 13d is essential, its use in 3d and 20d is misplaced.
I liked quite a few clues today (especially 14ac and 22ac) but I cannot see why Bonxie used ‘on’ in 25ac, a clue that also wants us to see ‘two score’ as ‘forty’. To me, it is ‘two scores’.
Technically speaking, there are more flaws.
The use of ‘after’ in 28ac is something I do not like.
It probably means that DAL follows SCAN but the cryptic grammar is clumsy.
I am also not sure that ‘building’ as an anagram indicator positioned behind the fodder is great (5d).
In 16d Bonxie wants us to make an anagram of CHORISTER and then remove the first letter of ‘song’.
Any setter who goes for ‘first song’ = S will be put on my black list, I’m afraid.
Nobody complained about ARIES being clued as ’house’.
I won’t either but there are some out there who think ARIES is a sign and not a house.
As I said before, I am probably in the minority today.
It looks all very clever (and glad you all enjoyed it), just not my cup of tea.
Hi Sil @ 16
“… a clue that also wants us to see ‘two score’ as ‘forty’. To me, it is ‘two scores’.”
But what about the standard phrase ‘three score years and ten’?
OK, Gaufrid.
Dicitonaries give either ‘twoscore’ or ‘two-score’ for 40.
Agree, ignoring punctuation or spaces isn’t much of an issue nowadays.
That said, I’m afraid I still don’t like it.
We’re all different, aren’t we?
Must admit I expected more dissent for this one. I’m all for creative bending of the rules, and rarely gripe online, but there was a lot in there that stretched things. “First song” simply does not give you “s”, for example and I can’t be the only solver to have therefore wasted time looking for an anagram of HORISTER. That may have been intended misdirection, but it’s annoying.
Maybe I’m just bitter because I didn’t finish.
Fully echo the thanks to Gaufrid for all his work today.
I loved solving this rare Bonxie – and owing to ‘your’ absence, I realise how much I learn from (and now love) you, Gaufrid & Co.
12 & 24, today. Bless one an’ all.
I knew only the spelling ‘coombe’ for ‘valley’. ‘Combe’ is new to me.
Sil
In Lincoln’s Gettysburg address it is: Four score and seven years ago…
Rishi @21
Devon spelling, as found in place names such as Ilfracombe, Woolacombe, Babbacombe etc.
Rishi @21, muffin @23 – that’s just the start of it – I’ve also come across COMB, COOMB and the Welsh version CWM, then there are CORRIEs or COIREs in Gaelic (occasionally CORRY too)…
Sil @16
You are in a grumpy mood today?!
Your flaws
The use of ‘after’ in 28ac is something I do not like.
It probably means that DAL follows SCAN but the cryptic grammar is clumsy.
I am also not sure that ‘building’ as an anagram indicator positioned behind the fodder is great (5d).
In 16d Bonxie wants us to make an anagram of CHORISTER and then remove the first letter of ‘song’.
Any setter who goes for ‘first song’ = S will be put on my black list, I’m afraid.
Nobody complained about ARIES being clued as ’house’.
I won’t either but there are some out there who think ARIES is a sign and not a house.
These are not flaws but your own peculiar preferences. All are fine to me.
Just FYI the SOED has
house
…..
9 Astrology.
a Each of the twelve divisions of the ecliptic fixed with respect to the horizon. Also mundane house. lME.
b Any of the signs of the zodiac considered as the seat of the greatest influence of a particular planet. Cf. mansion 5. lME.
All of your other preferences seem to defy logic/common sense too?
I really don’t understand your points? 🙂
Sil
I enjoyed your analysis @16 and would like to comment on a few points.
Some clues were ‘clunky’ (my word) for reasons you gave. As well as 25A (REFORTIFY), which I previously gave as a favourite, I also had question marks over 27A (CONVENT) and 1A (HOLD OUT), both of which could have been improved.
I discovered the theme after my earlier post, and I now think that the theme got the better of Bonxie in 1A and 27A. [27A (‘… closing, then opening’) could be added to my list of themed clues above, by the way.]
As for punctuation, I think it is a rule now that a setter can mislead as much as he/she likes with it and the solver has to be ready to ignore it. In 27A, though, I thought the comma was unnecessary for the surface or for any other reason – it’s just there to be ignored!
I thought ‘two score’ in 25A was fine.
Thanks again to Gaufrid, I did not realise that he deals with all the site problems – alone? I am so sorry he missed the solve since I found it fun. COMBE was great, as were EMISSARIES, FOUNDATION, CONTRACTION, IDIOM and so many others.
I wonder if “Food and drink”, 12a, could join Alan Browne’s list?
Cookie @27
‘Food and drink’ – I suppose it could join the list. It’s up to you! After that, though, I don’t think there are any more.
Alan Browne @ 28, well, there is OPEN SECRET, they are antonyms…
Cookie @29
Oops. OPEN SECRET (3D) was one of the first pairs that got me going, and I remembered to include the ‘known/unknown’ from its clue in my original list (which I mistakenly labelled 4D) but not the answer itself. Thanks for pointing it out.
I think that makes 14 altogether. (There are 30 clues/answers in today’s grid.)
Open secret made me wonder if the theme was oxymorons, but I see now it was probably antonyms. Nice puzzle but I stuck at SE corner.
I’m afraid I don’t share the general admiration for this puzzle though I did enjoy the surface of 14a. I don’t think that “house” means “crowd” though it can mean an audience or that “pitied” = “regretted”. As for NOYES, though nicely clued, he is now only familiar to crossword setters and solvers.
Pino @32, Noyes, unlike you and I, hopefully, will always be known because of his poem the “The Highwayman”.
Cookie@33
Thanks Cookie.
Known perhaps but probably not well-known enough to be in a crossword if not already in scores of others. He’s not even a one hit wonderin the0 New (in 1972) Oxford Book of English Verse.
Thanks Bonxie and Gaufrid
A welcome surprise to see Bonxie’s name in the banner and liked this a lot.
Was one of those puzzles that I just kept chipping away at throughout the day and was able to finish off on the train ride home last night. Had no issues with the ‘liberties’ taken in the clues, especially the puctuation (both lack of or grammatically superfluous ones) – think that it just adds to the challenge.
Finished in the NW corner with HOLD OUT (tricky positioning of the wordplay), HACKED (needed the leading H for the second journalist to present) and COMBE (a new word for me).
Finally, thanks for your tireless work with the site Geoff – it is very much appreciated !!!!
Thanks Gaufrid and Bonxie.
A fairly middling puzzle for me.
I thought CONTRACTION excellent and really liked the FOUNDATION anagram.
The SE corner took a while to finally fall into place. I’m not sure that I agree with the Midi being in southern France – the name’s a bit of a giveaway! and I agree with Sil about “after” in the clue for 28.
But got there in the end with the only unparsed solution being COMBE. I see it now thanks but the forward slash is surely not right!
Hamish
“I’m not sure that I agree with the Midi being in southern France – the name’s a bit of a giveaway!”
Le Midi is a colloquial name for Southern France, consisting of the regions that border Spain, the Mediterranean Sea and Italy. (Wikipedia)
Thanks Gaufrid. I was sure that it was further north. Better check next time!
I am sometimes amazed at the obviously much more capable solvers than I am who carp at minor things. This was a wonderful puzzle that kept me entertained for longer than I care to admit, capped by the anagram of ‘in and out of’. Thanks to Bonxie – bring on all the misdirections, beautiful surfaces and other things that often defeat me, but always entertain me.
Can’t say I agree with KEY (CAY) = REEF (24d).
A key is a low sand island. A reef implies something hard (rock or coral) IMHO.