A Thursday workout from Alberich
This took a while for me to sort out, and some clues were difficult to parse, but I got there in the end, with the bottom left corner holding me up for a wee while until I worked out CHUTZPAH, and the rest slotted in after that.
I couldn’t quite parse 19dn, but Gaufrd at comment 1 helped me out.
Thanks, Alberich.
| Across | ||
| 1 | TAFFETA | Cloth put round oily cheese (7) |
| <=FAT + FETA | ||
| 5 | SMETANA | Small opera company wants an American composer (7) |
| S + MET (“opera company”) + AN A(merican)
Bedrich Smetana (1824 – 1884) was a Czech composer, whose most famous opera, The Bartered Bride, which was performed at the Met (ie Metropolitan Opera in New York) in 1978 (it may well have been performed before or since but that was the result Google threw up). |
||
| 9 | GULAG | Penal colony’s uniform worn by government prisoner (5) |
| U(niform) “worn by G(overnment) + LAG | ||
| 10 | SHABBIEST | Extremely scruffy taxi drivers start off by hotel in street (9) |
| H (“hotel) + (c)ABBIES (“taxi drivers” with their “start off”) in ST | ||
| 11 | LIBERTINE | Don Juan, for one, is fellow in cracking romance (9) |
| BERT (“fellow”) + IN “cracking” LIE | ||
| 12 | ORDER | Fiat’s yellow colour repelled (5) |
| OR (“yellow”) + <=RED
OR is more commonly indicated by GOLD, but according to Chambers, it can also be YELLOW. |
||
| 13 | CABINET PUDDING | Constant inept cooking is masked by a promising dessert (7,7) |
| C(onstant) + (*inept) in A BUDDING (“promising”)
Cabinet pudding is a traditional English pudding made from bread (or sponge) and dried fuit. |
||
| 18 | HOT OFF THE PRESS | Of tabloid papers for starters, those fresh out will be this (3,3,3,5) |
| *(of TP those fresh), where T and P are the initials (“starters”) of “tabloid papers” | ||
| 20 | TUBER | Underground centre for storage? Some plants have one (5) |
| TUBE (“underground”) + (sto)R(age) | ||
| 22 | SATURNINE | Placed vase in Earl’s grave (9) |
| SAT + URN + IN E | ||
| 24 | PLAINTIFF | Is not impressed by society abandoning joint litigant (9) |
| AIN’T (“isn’t”) in (s)PLIFF (“joint” with S(ociety) abandoning it) | ||
| 25 | MOURN | Daybreak for poet’s said to be sorrowful (5) |
| Homophone of MORN | ||
| 26 | HEIRESS | Inheritance outwardly hers? Could be, having succeeded (7) |
| *(IE hers) + S(“succeeded”), where IE is I(nheritanc)E (“inheritance outwardly”) | ||
| 27 | LOAFERS | They don’t like work shoes (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | TOGGLE | Kick clothes horse, having lost fastener (6) |
| TOE “clothes” GG (“horse”) + L(ost) | ||
| 2 | FULL-BLAST | Sound when screening Raging Bull left as loud as possible? (4-5) |
| FAST (“sound”) “screening (*(bull) + L) | ||
| 3 | EAGER | Enthusiastic but a bore when speaking (5) |
| Homophone of EAGRE (a tidal “bore”) | ||
| 4 | ABSTINENT | Jack’s at home, getting stuck into Spanish wine? He’s not this (9) |
| AB’S (“jack”) + IN (“at home”) “getting stuck into” TENT (“Spanish wine”)
Tent is a Spanish wine, from Galicia or Malaga. |
||
| 5 | SCALE | Deposit account held by famous driver is mounting (5) |
| <=(A/c in ELS)
Crosswordland’s most famous golfer (ie one who drives) is undoubtedly Ernie ELS. |
||
| 6 | EMBROIDER | Mark’s brother stuffing duck? That’s to provide embellishment (9) |
| M + BRO in EIDER | ||
| 7 | AMEND | I agree, daughter has to improve (5) |
| AMEN (“I agree”) + D | ||
| 8 | ALTER EGO | Trusted friend wants change? Say nothing! (5,3) |
| ALTER + E.G. + 0 | ||
| 14 | INFERENCE | Barrier Reef only half protected – going under in consequence (9) |
| (RE(ef) “protected” by FENCE (“barrier”)) “going under” IN | ||
| 15 | PLENTIFUL | Abundant supply left up in London at first (9) |
| *(left up in L) where the L is the fist letter of London | ||
| 16 | INSTITUTE | Found popular replacement after losing editor (9) |
| IN (“popular”) replacing SUB (“editor”) in SUBSTITUTE (“replacement”) | ||
| 17 | CHUTZPAH | Outside small house unknown chap breaks neck (8) |
| *(chap) “outside” HUT + Z | ||
| 19 | TENNIS | Up in second half score first, securing game (6) |
| I stuggled to parse this, but Gaufrid came to the rescue (see comment 1 below) | ||
| 21 | BHAJI | I poke about, eating hot Indian food (5) |
| <+I JAB “eatng” H | ||
| 22 | SNIPS | More than one bargain turns up (5) |
| <=SPINS | ||
| 23 | RUMBA | Take part in humdrum ballroom dance (5) |
| Hidden in “humdRUM BAllroom” | ||
*anagram
Thanks loonapick
19dn is TEN (half score) in front of (first) IN reversed (up) S (second).
I enjoyed this from Alberich. Thanks Loonapick for the blog. I had failed to parse 24 across.
My reading on 19 down is first comes ‘ten’ = half a score , or twenty, followed by writing the word ‘in’ upwards plus’s’ = second thus securing, ie giving, the game TENNIS.
Managed it all.. but could not parse some.. Eager sounding like eagre (new term) Heiress seems rather iffy clueing to me tho..
Thanks loonapick and Alberich.
I had several parsing difficulties too so appreciate your help.
I’m still not convinced by “romance” = LIE, “kick” = TOE or “editor” = SUB, particularly the first of these, but can live with them.
EAGRE for a tidal bore was new to me so another to add to the memory banks!
Thanks again.
Thanks Alberich and loonapick
A good level of difficulty in a crossword that lasted throughout the day to get finished. Was one in which each clue needed to be grafted out one by one with some really neat word play that needed just as much and sometimes more work to sort out. The only fully unparsed clue by the time I came here was HOT OFF THE PRESS (probably more due to laziness than anything else). Found the parsing of both PLAINTIFF and LIBERTINE were testing as well.
Finished down in the SW corner with CHUTZPAH (a new term for me), TUBER (clever clue) and BHAJI (which was tough) as the last one in.