An excellent challenge from Wanderer this morning! Truly relished the challenge despite coming up short on 1 clue for the solve, and another for the parsing. Thanks to Wanderer for a great workout and to Geoff for the help where needed.
Seems to be a theme around matrimony .. 🙂 with a nina running on the sides.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | MEOWED | Made catty remark as setter married without a ring (6) |
| [ME (setter) WED (married)] around O (ring) | ||
| 5 | WASHRAGS | Wives and girlfriends take ages shopping, having rushed initially to get flannels in LA (8) |
| WAGS (wives and girlfriends) containing ASHR (initial characters of “.. Ages Shopping Having Rushed..”) | ||
| 9 | ENCLOSED | Enveloped in French bosom with pretty big bra size (8) |
| EN (french for ‘in’) CLOSE (bosom) D (~pretty big bra size – referring to the cup size) | ||
| 10 | CRAVAT | Credit female model for what groom might wear (6) |
| CR (credit) AVA (female) T (model, first car – Henry Ford) | ||
| 11 | NATIVE | Local resident sporting a tie and V neck top (6) |
| anagram of A TIE V N (Neck, top meaning first letter) | ||
| 12 | INSOMNIA | Not being able to go off with son getting secretly married instead of daughter in India (8) |
| [ SON containing M (married) ] replacing D (daughter) in INdIA | ||
| 14 | SLAUGHTERING | The gun a girl’s used in killing (12) |
| Anagram of THE GUN A GIRL”S | ||
| 18 | OPINION POLLS | Views set pieces coming from wing, getting head to second ball first? (7,5) |
| O (ball) PINION (wing) POLL (head) S (second) | ||
| 22 | NEWCOMER | Crewmen supply crossing overseas, primarily for the recent immigrant (8) |
| Anagram of CREWMEN around O (Overseas, primarily) | ||
| 25 | GELLED | Set piece from Leeds in last bit of second leg comeback (6) |
| LE (piece from LEeds) in [ D (last bit of seconD) LEG, all reversed ] | ||
| 26 | LEGATO | Smooth striking ends in the first goal (6) |
| anagram of TE (ends of ThE) GOAL – I dont think my parsing is right as I cant account for ‘first’ | ||
| 27 | INNUENDO | Uniform done in another fashion after hotel’s suggestion (8) |
| [U (uniform) ENDO (anagram of DONE) ] after INN (hotel) | ||
| 28 | YASHMAKS | Old woman entering shaky ground, beginning to say what Muslim brides might wear (8) |
| MA (old woman) in anagram of SHAKY, followed by S (beginning to Say) | ||
| 29 | CITIES | Names around Italy for Florence and Milan? (6) |
| CITES (names) around I (Italy) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2 | ENNEAD | A group of 9 seen topless and drunk (6) |
| anagram of sEEN (topless) AND – I needed external help to solve this as I hadnt come across this word before. | ||
| 3 | WILKINSON | Former stand-off in ex-PM’s entertaining family (9) |
| WILSON (ex-PM, harold wilson) entertaining KIN (family) [Jonny Wilkinson, helped England to win the 2003 Rugby World Cup by scoring a dropped goal in the last minute of play during the final against Australia] | ||
| 4 | DESPERADO | Dead duck involving shilling for each thug (9) |
| [ DEAD O(duck) ] containing [ S (shilling) PER (for each) ] | ||
| 5, 20 | WEDDING PARTIES | Celebrations making one traipse around (7,7) |
| WEDDING (making one) anagram of TRAIPSE – Quite liked this clue. | ||
| 6 | SACKS | Beds famous neurologist (5) |
| double def, Oliver Sacks | ||
| 7 | REALM | Department of Surreal Marriages (5) |
| hidden in “..surREAL Marriages” | ||
| 8 | GRADIENT | New e-trading bank (8) |
| anagram of E-TRADING | ||
| 13 | ONE | United no money for wingers? On the contrary (3) |
| “on the contrary” means that the clue has to be read as “..no wingers for money” i.e. mONEy (without wings) | ||
| 15 | TELEGENIC | Looking good on set piece? Header’s missed – length (not height) wrong (9) |
| anagram of pIECE (missing header) LENGTh (not height i.e. no ‘H’) | ||
| 16 | RESILIENT | Hardy transmitted again around 1.51 (9) |
| RE-SENT (transmitted again) around ILI (1.51 in roman letters i.e I, LI) | ||
| 17 | EPHEMERA | Recording male getting married on time? It’s short-lived (8) |
| EP (recording) HE (male) M (married) ERA (time) | ||
| 19 | I DO | What some brides say, and some widows (1,2) |
| hidden in “..wIDOws” | ||
| 20 | Â | See 5 down |
| 21 | MEDDLE | Tinker with gong, say (6) |
| sounds like MEDAL (gong) | ||
| 23 | COACH | Train company – an endless pain (5) |
| CO (company) ACHe (pain, endless) | ||
| 24 | MYOMA | Wanderer’s old mother’s benign tumour (5) |
| MY (wanderer’s) O (old) MA (mother) | ||
*anagram
For LEGATO the anagram fodder is ends of “the first” = ET plus GOAL
Nice one as always from Wanderer. Thanks also to TL. I cant believe I missed the Nina!
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs.
I missed the nina, while wondering where the trademark ‘straight’ double solutions other than 5, 20 had gone. If I’d spotted it I wouldn’t have had GELATO (Italian smoothie, just about) for 26. Ah well!
I also havered for ages over EPHEMERA, as I thought it was the plural of EPHEMERON, which is more or less borne out by e-Chambers, though they do say that the plural is now understood as a singular reference.
All in all a very nice puzzle.
Yes, I’d like to get sniffy about ephemera too. However, I didn’t/couldn’t complete every solution, so I’m, extra-grateful to TL. It must have been this morning’s duck egg, Wanderer, because I usually beat you. Thanks for the duel.
I think EPHEMERA is quite OK, defined in Collins as something transitory or short-lived with plural being EPHEMERAS or EPHEMERAE. There are other meanings where it functions as a plural but not the one defined in this puzzle.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs.
The definition for 17d should be “It’s short lived”, an EPHEMERA is an insect that lives only a day or a few days, e.g. the mayfly.
ENNEAD was a new word for me too – I know nonad, perhaps ennead is used to avoid confusion with monad? This is a rather amusing reference for ENNEAD, I think that should be decad at the end though.
Thanks Wanderer and Turbolegs
Generally like the work of this setter but didn’t really like this one when I started with REALM and GRADIENT. Gradually warmed to it though as I progressed through the grid especially when coming across gems such as INSOMNIA and ONE.
Don’t know whether I’ve ever come across ENNEAD outside of crossword-land, but it has formed pretty standard fodder for compilers for a lot of years. Can remember the pain of the feats of Jonny WILKINSON back in 2003 – it seemed that he couldn’t miss kicking goals from anywhere on the pitch.
Finished with WASHRAGS (even given that WAGS was the obvious container – just didn’t see the leading letters trick till late), the clever double definitions of SACKS and GELLED (which was very difficult to see where the LE and D came from).
Thanks Turbolegs and Wanderer.
I enjoyed this. Missed the Nina but that’s normal.
Needed your help to parse OPINION POLLS.
I know I’m a bit late but a couple of queries.
1. Why is CLOSE equivalent to Bosom in 9ac? and
2. I get the “son getting secretly married” to equal SOMN in 12ac but the clue suggests that the M is instead of the D of INDIA. Doesn’t the formation require an overlap indicator?
Hi Hamish
In case Turbolegs is busy, I’ll answer your queries.
1. Under ‘bosom’ as an adjective Chambers has “intimate”. I would suggest bosom buddies = close friends as an example.
2. The ‘getting secretly’ indicates the inclusion of M in SON and then the result replaces (instead of) the D in India.
Thank Gaufrid. That makes sense.