A bit tougher than the usual Raich, I thought. Or perhaps just me still recovering from England’s double exit from Europe, so brain not in gear.
That said, there was a nod to Europe here – two Italians, one Czech, a Portuguese, a beautiful French region, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the capital of Germany. Completely unintentional, I’m sure. Or is it? ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, BATTLE OF BRITAIN? Has something been cracking off recently, or am I just imagining things?
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
1 Select tool
PICK
A dd.
3 One complementing director, say, needing stimulus at University College (Royal)
PRODUCER
A charade of PROD for ‘stimulus’, U for ‘university’, C for ‘college’ and ER for Elizabeth Regina or ‘royal’.
10 Elation about feature of Tootsie?
TOENAIL
(ELATION)* and referring to the children’s word for ‘toe’.
11 Least quiet home I’m entering
MINIMUM
An insertion of IN and I’M in MUM.
12 Seldom working, Church girl unhappy with short time available
ONCE IN A BLUE MOON
A multi-part charade: it’s ON plus CE plus INA plus BLUE plus MO plus ON.
13 Pinned out of bounds behind labyrinth
INNER EAR
Tricky. Raich is asking you to remove the outside letters of ‘pINNEd’ and then follow it with REAR for ‘behind’. The ‘labyrinth’ is part of the INNER EAR.
14 Water in Belfast or back in Cana, Galilee?
LAGAN
Hidden reversed in CaNA GALilee. The river that flows through Belfast.
17 In midst of returning group of wandering nomads
AMONG
Hidden reversed again: this time in wanderinG NOMAds.
18 History of quadruped I greeted?
PEDIGREE
Hidden the right way round: in quadruPED I GREEted.
21 Leicester City v Celtic perhaps – or something more serious?
BATTLE OF BRITAIN
Not my favourite clue, but it’s contemporary, I suppose. Leicester City won the Premier League in England and Celtic did the same in Scotland. So if they played each other, it might be the BATTLE OF BRITAIN. Except of course you’d have to have teams from Wales and Northern Ireland competing as well. A cd cum dd.
23 Footballer‘s party after right loan arranged
RONALDO
A charade of R, (LOAN)* and DO. He’s a footballer, apparently – first name CRISTIANO.
24 Attention given to story run before now
EARLIER
A charade of EAR, LIE and R.
25 What might be certain to describe answer: having a skull
CRANIATE
An insertion of A for ‘answer’ in (CERTAIN)*
26 Cheekier, disregarding odds, he succeeds
HEIR
The even letters of cHeEkIeR.
Down
1 Customer exactly right and not upset
PATRON
I think that this is an anagram of (PAR NOT)* but doesn’t that make it one of those indirect anagram thingies that some folk don’t like?
2 Scene cut is in Latin I believe – it’s climactic
CRESCENDO
An insertion of SCEN[E] in CREDO, which is Latin for ‘I believe’ and comes from the verb which ultimately gives us words like CREDENCE, CREDULITY and CREDIBILITY.
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem …
4 Brutal guy arrested by the French Resistance in plant
RAMBLER
RAMB[O] was a ‘brutal guy’ in films; that’s followed by LE for one of the words for ‘the’ in French, and R for ‘resistance’.
5 Famous Italian lingerie ad Thai revamped?
DANTE ALIGHIERI
(LINGERIE AD THAI)* with ‘revamped’ as the anagrind. Normally just referred to as DANTE, and best known for his Divine Comedy.
6 In morning fitting in manager’s performance, short
CAMEO
An insertion of AM in CEO for chief executive officer, or ‘manager’.
7 After game, Minister and worker in quiet contemplation
RUMINANT
A charade of RU for Rugby Union or ‘game’, MIN and ANT.
8 Famous Italian goalie, agile – ill, has to be replaced
GALILEO GALILEI
(GOALIE AGILE ILL)*
9 French region, almost too wonderful?
ALSACE
ALS[O] plus ACE. It is a beautiful part of eastern France. Good for gastronauts – the local cuisine is excellent, and heavily influenced by German cooking.
15 Cordial era ending, sadly
GRENADINE
(ERA ENDING)*
16 Excluding lawyers in court initially – quite unsophisticated!
BARBARIC
Two meanings of the word BAR, followed by IC for the first letters of ‘in court’.
18 University man, expert, very briefly East of Berlin
PROVOST
A charade of PRO, V and OST for the German word for ‘East’.
19 Call and restrain reportedly Prague reformer
DUBCEK
A charade of DUB and CEK for a homophone of ‘restrain’. Referring to Alexander Dubcek and the Prague Spring of 1968.
20 Not best companion for quiet night out?
SNORER
Raich doesn’t often do cds, but this is one.
22 Consequence of sun initially – you advised girl
TANYA
A charade of TAN and Y and A for the first letters of ‘you advised’.
Many thanks to Raich for this morning’s puzzle.
1d, I have been trying PAT (exactly) R (right), but then ON is needed…
perhaps PAT (“exactly right”) NOR (“and not” upset)
That should be RON, NOR upset – apologies for the mess.
Thank you Raich and Pierre.
The Battle of Britain started on July 10, 1940…
I found this quite tricky, the river LAGAN was new to me but at least I had heard of RONALDO. I could not parse CAMEO. TOENAIL, RUMINANT and SNORER made me laugh.
I love Pierre’s description of the cuisine in ALSACE as being “excellent, and heavily influenced by German cooking”!
Many thanks for excellent blog, Pierre. Cookie’s explanation of PATRON is what was intended.
Late to the party (didn’t start the crossword till late last night) but just a couple of observations:
In 17ac I originally thought ‘in midst of’ was doing double duty as definition and insertion indicator, but then realised that ‘group of’ was the insertion indicator – very subtle!
And I don’t know if it was intentional (I suspect it was) but both the ‘Famous Italians’ are usually referred to by their first names.
Thanks, Raich and Pierre.