I made heavy work of this. I’m not sure if this is down to the level of difficulty of the puzzle or just that I’m feeling very sleepy this morning and have not had enough coffee to get me going yet. Anyway, thank you Aardvark for an enjoyable tussle.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BASS TUBA | Perhaps school member only returning a musical instrument (4,4) |
| BASS (fish, member of a school pehaps) with BUT (only) reversed and A | ||
| 5 | PENCIL | Writer, when shaving, coins fundamental word in Italian (6) |
| PENCe (coins, missing bottom letter, when shaved fundamantally) and IL (an italian word). I think I have this right. Perhaps il could be a “fundamental word in Italian”? Either way to just pick a single word from another language without a more explicit indication of which word is required does not seem in keeping with the tight clueing style of the rest of the crossword. | ||
| 10 | AT LARGE | In full gear suffering after attending opening of library (2,5) |
| anagram (suffering) of GEAR following AT (attending) and Library (opening letter of) | ||
| 11 | HARDEST | Most complicated threads to embroider (7) |
| anagram (to embroider) of THREADS | ||
| 12 | NAMIB | Desert bar as one male enters rolling about (5) |
| BAN (bar) contians (as…enters) I (one) M (male) all reversed (rolling about) | ||
| 13 | WODEHOUSE | Novelist who grasps poetry with practice (9) |
| WHO contains (grasps) ODE (poetry) with USE (practice) | ||
| 14 | BRILLIANTINE | Talented creator, born for hairdressing (12) |
| BRILLIANT (talented) I (the creator of this crossword) and NE (born) – a dressing for the hair | ||
| 18 | TERRY GILLIAM | Film director using uncut material by Shakespeare, good for opening (5,7) |
| TERRY (uncut material) and wILLIAM (Shakespeare) with G (good) as the opening letter – the pile on terry cloth is uncut, leaving it as loops rather than strands | ||
| 21 | PTARMIGAN | Game bird training horse to turn after limb originally injured (9) |
| PT (physical training) NAG (horse) reversed (to turn) following (after) ARM (limb) and Injured (originally, initial letter) | ||
| 23 | LEAFY | Line delineates a piece of field abounding with trees (5) |
| LEY (line) contains (delineates) A Field (first letter, a piece of) | ||
| 24 | LESOTHO | Stars accepted arrangement of host nation (7) |
| LEO (stars) contain (accepted) HOST* anagram=arrangement of | ||
| 25 | RAMPART | Academy paintings captivate minister for defence (7) |
| RA (Royal Academy) ART (paintings) contain (captivate) MP (minister) | ||
| 26 | DESIRE | Fancy gentleman diving into British river (6) |
| SIR (gentleman) inside (diving into) DEE (a British river) | ||
| 27 | EDENTATE | Toothless thing in rubbish eaten by garden creature ultimately (8) |
| TAT (rubbish) inside (eaten by) EDEN (garden) and creaturE (ultimately, last letter of) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BEAUNE | Busybody keeps relative half- cut with wine (6) |
| BEE (busy body) contains (keeps) AUNtie (relative, half cut) | ||
| 2 | SALOME | Crux of plot appears in similar opera (6) |
| pLOt (crux, essential part, middle letters of) in SAME (similar) | ||
| 3 | TURNBERRY | Landscape painter touring Britain tracks course in Scotland (9) |
| TURNER (landscape painter) contains (touring) B (Britain) then RY (railway, tracks) | ||
| 4 | BEEF WELLINGTON | Hefty fare that man contested at Waterloo after gripe (4,10) |
| WELLING (man who contested at Waterloo) following BEEF (gripe) | ||
| 6 | EARTH | Land near the houses (5) |
| found inside (housed by) nEAR THe | ||
| 7 | CHERUBIM | Revolutionary spirit attracts two angelic-looking people (8) |
| CHE (revolutionary) RUM (spirit) contains (attracts) BI (two) | ||
| 8 | LETTERED | Academic’s landlord extended after vacation (8) |
| LETTER (landlord) with ExtendeD (after vaction, vacant=empty) – what an academic is | ||
| 9 | RHODE ISLAND RED | Chicken dish Leonard cooked with ginger (5,6,3) |
| anagram (cooked) of DISH LEONARD followed by RED (ginger) | ||
| 15 | NEARLY MAN | Composer Michael wanted to embrace aristocrat – he almost reaches (6,3) |
| Michael NYMAN contains (to embrace) EARL (aristocrat) | ||
| 16 | STIPPLED | Dotty taking alcoholic drink in outskirts of Stroud (8) |
| TIPPLE (alcoholic drink) in StrouD (outskirts of) | ||
| 17 | ARKANSAS | River boat, one with elite soldiers (8) |
| ARK (boat) AN (one) with SAS (elite soldiers) | ||
| 19 | PAPAYA | Father having to cough up a tropical fruit (6) |
| PA (father) with PAY (to cough up) then A | ||
| 20 | MYRTLE | Attempt to penetrate wood to uproot evergreen shrub (6) |
| TRY (attempt) inside (to penetrate) ELM (wood) all reversed (to uproot) | ||
| 22 | MOTOR | Drive doctor to river (5) |
| MO (doctor) TO and R (river) | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
Most of it wrote itself in, the NW corner taking a while longer to be the last to fall.
Thanks to Aardvark for an enjoyable solve and PeeDee for the blog,
Mostly straightforward fun. LOI 17d as, despite all the checkers, it too me a while for the penny to drop as I think of Arkansas as a state rather than the river that runs through it. Thanks setter and blogger.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee.
The answer to 8 down is the same as in another blogged crossword today and with the same clue number and position. A bit of a coincidence.
Like Stephen@2, I didn’t know of Arkansas as a river, but the wordplay meant that the answer couldn’t be anything else. Apart from that the puzzle held no problems, for me at least.
Thank you Aardvark & PeeDee.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
For 5A, I think it is
Definition: WRITER
[when]
PENC(e) [shaving coins]
IL [fundamental word {= THE} in Italian]
Any takers?
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
A little more straightforward than is normal for this setter but no less enjoyable for that. Only one that I didn’t parse properly was the LEY bit of LEAFY.
I also took IL (the) as simply being one of the fundamental words of the Italian language.
NEARLY MAN was a new term for me as was the composer who comprised most of the wordplay – it was my third last in – followed by the tricky PENCIL and what doesn’t look quite so hard now LETTERED the last one in.
Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee.
I also made heavy weather of this.
I resolved 5ac as Il being a definite article in Italian and hence being “fundamental” – but I wasn’t convinced.
I did get 1dn wrong. I solved it as BRANDY. BY being the body of BusY containing gRANDdad. Not quite as good as the proper answer but still seems to work!
On a more curious note, I’ve just been rewatching “Jabberwocky”. For anyone late to this site, I highly recommend this Terry Gilliam film which features a wealth of British character actors doing what they do best. Hilarious!