I found this extremely tough and almost ground to a halt completely a couple of times. But with some perseverence I managed to finish it.
As usual, there was a lot of very good stuff and the usual Punk humour was present, most noticeably in 13 down. Some of the expressions I thought were a little obscure – things like sale for demand and jolly for certainly were too much of a stretch for me, although they are probably backed up by dictionaries.
| Across | ||
| 8 | CRAZY HORSE | Famous Sioux shoer? (5,5) |
| Shoer* = crazy horse | ||
| 9 | REAM | Paper tiger the Mafia? Bunkum, all may conclude! (4) |
| Final letters of “tiger the mafia bunkum”. | ||
| 10 | ENYA | Part for Broadway needing backing singer from Ireland (4) |
| Hidden, rev in “broadwAY ENeding” | ||
| 11 | ANKLE BITER | Youngster learnt to cycle with bike (5-5) |
| (Learnt + bike)* | ||
| 12 | SCARE STIFF | Petrify as rocks if set to be crushed by boa (5,5) |
| (If set)* in scarf | ||
| 14 | CASE | Bag for instance (4) |
| DD | ||
| 16 | NEW YEAR | River dams close – early days, perhaps? (3,4) |
| Wye in near | ||
| 18 | RWANDAN | African took to the track carrying baton (7) |
| Ran around wand | ||
| 20 | ORAL | Mouth – right, that shouldn’t open! (4) |
| [M]oral | ||
| 21 | SPARE TYRES | Those booted beginning to protest during arrest and yes, getting kicked around (5,5) |
| P[rotest] in (arrest yes)* | ||
| 23 | JOLLY ROGER | Flier in black and white certainly understood (5,5) |
| Jolly (=certainly, I suppose used in expressions, although I’m slightly dubious) + Roger (understood used in radio comms etc) | ||
| 25/7 | WORD GAME | Make war with dog, setter, in crossword puzzle, say? (4,4) |
| (War + dog)* + me | ||
| 26 | LENS | Some looker in French city (4) |
| DD – lens is part of the eye | ||
| 27 | SALSA VERDE | Magpie and dove primarily in demand for sauce (5,5) |
| Saver (=magpie) + d[ove] in sale – sale can apparently mean demand in expressions like “slow sale”. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BRONX CHEER | A shade less white, king standing to eat red raspberry (5,5) |
| Bro[w]n + Rex< around Che | ||
| 2 | EZRA | Priest, Manilow’s easy listening artist (4) |
| EZ with Z prononounced the US way sounds like easy + RA | ||
| 3 | CHEATS | Man in musical is a fraud (6) |
| He in Cats | ||
| 4 | BREKKIE | English kings partial to French food as informal meal (7) |
| E(nglish) + K(ing) K(ing) in brie | ||
| 5 | FEVERFEW | High temperature that’s exhausting, did you say, for plant? (8) |
| Fever + hom of phew | ||
| 6 | BRAIN CANDY | Machu Picchu resident into drink as stimulation for the mind (5,5) |
| Inca in brandy | ||
| 7 | See 25 Across | |
| 13 | ROYAL FLUSH | Hand, one dispensing with the king’s business? (5,5) |
| CD/DD, as in a toilet flush to dispense with the King’s “business”. | ||
| 15 | SLAVE TRADE | European film review read, dealing with human suffering (5,5) |
| Slav + ET + read* | ||
| 17 | ABSTRUSE | Esoteric system for stopping the introduction of Tory stratagem (8) |
| ABS (car brakes = system for stopping) + T[ory] + ruse | ||
| 19 | MANGOLD | Bloke given first place for root vegetable (7) |
| Man + gold. Mangold seems to be an alternative word for the chard. | ||
| 22 | EARLAP | A redhead lifted white clothes to reveal lobe (6) |
| A r[edhead] in pale< | ||
| 24 | OXEN | Ten in one for cooking stock (4) |
| X in one* | ||
| 25 | WEEP | Heading for pub minute earlier – that’s keen! (4) |
| Wee before P[ub], keen used in the mourn sense. | ||
*anagram
Tough indeed. The traditional gentle Monday puzzle would appear to be a thing of the past.
There were some real stretches: ”Manilow” as an exemplar for the whole of North America (blimey); ‘Earlap’ for ‘lobe’ (I don’t think they’re the same thing); and I agree about ‘jolly’ and ‘sale’. All gettable but none elegant, I’d say.
Still, much to admire, and a few chuckles: BREKKIE & ROYAL FLUSH were fun. Thanks to Punk a virtual cooling flannel for Neal’s fevered brow. Well blogged!
@NealH I wouldnt have envied you doing this blog-it was Mr Punk instead of Dr Paul- thanks!
I have to say he can turn up the volume to match the best-a very good puzzle indeed.
Forgot-isnt 15d European=SLAV, film=ET review READ*?
Fairly challenging – certainly an example of 6dn – an expression I hadn’t come across before but which was deducible from the wordplay. Interesting that all the 10-letter answers were enumerated as 5,5 or 5-5.
I didn’t have any issue with ‘jolly’, although I thought ‘demand’ for ‘sale’ a bit 17dn. My only other quibble is that EZRA was a prophet, not a priest (in the Old Testament anyway).
Thanks, Punk and NealH
Thanks, Neal. Fine, the Monday Indy puzzle has long since ceased being the ‘easy introduction to the week’. But this is just getting silly. As I’ve said a squillion times before, comments on Fifteensquared should be no arbiter of what’s an appropriate/good/bad/completely rubbish puzzle (although they might be a hint to setters and editors) but this for me was just unsolveable. Fair enough, I could just be a rubbish solver. But it just seems to me that since eimi recruited some new, young setters (well done to him) it’s become a bit of an ‘anything you can do, I can do harder; I can do anything harder than you’. But since Punk is anything but a ‘new young setter’, that’s no doubt bollocks.
I’m going to shut up and watch the footie now.
Good luck with that.
Should have stuck to the Xword, K’s D.