A good solid challenge from the Don. Progress was slow but steady and I learnt a couple of new words along the way. Thanks Don, for a workout that was more than satisfying.
FF: 9 DD: 9
| Across | ||
| 1 | REALLY | Soldiers join forces? Well I never! (6) |
| RE (soldiers) ALLY (forces) | ||
| 4 | SHEPHERD | Quietly the female sits in building as farm-worker (8) |
| [ P (quietly) HER (the female?) ] in SHED (building) – I am not too sure about this parsing; I interpreted “the female” to be “SHE” rather than “HER”. | ||
| 9 | CLEAVE | Split stick (6) |
| double def | ||
| 10 | HOUSETOP | Employment in sweaty work where roofer operates (8) |
| [ USE (employment) in HOT (sweaty) ] OP (work) | ||
| 12 | URDU | Language of some loud rumours going round (4) |
| hidden, reversed in “…loUD RUmours…” | ||
| 13 | STEELINESS | Being stern and silent seems wrong, putting maiden off (10) |
| SILENT SEEmS* (without ‘m’ – maiden off) | ||
| 15 | EXTRADITABLE | Additional piece of furniture woman’s brought in that could be sent abroad (12) |
| [ EXTRA (additional) TABLE (piece of furniture) ] around DI (woman) | ||
| 18 | HOBSON JOBSON | Modified language of man who can’t choose work, young fellow (6-6) |
| HOBSON (man who cant choose – hobson’s choice, take it or leave it) JOB (work) SON (young fellow) | ||
| 21 | ADDRESSEES | We will receive messages, what could be sadder notices (10) |
| SADDER* + SEES (notices) | ||
| 22 | WHEE | That’s exciting early invention left abandoned (4) |
| WHEEl (early invention, without ‘L’ ) | ||
| 24 | BOOKINGS | Shout abuse at rulers? There will be reservations (8) |
| BOO (shout abuse) KINGS (rulers) | ||
| 25 | SUPINE | Retreating American to waste away with worry, offering no resistance (6) |
| SU (american = US, reversed) PINE (waste away with worry) | ||
| 26 | DISUNITY | Dissension of star, the thing evident in self-help enterprise (8) |
| [ SUN (star) IT (the thing) ] in DIY (self-help enterprise, Do-It-Yourself) | ||
| 27 | PEANUT | Gym enthusiast eats a bit of food (6) |
| PE NUT (~gym enthusiast) around A | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | RECOUPED | City publisher embraced by left- winger recovered (8) |
| [ EC (city) OUP (publisher, Oxford University Press) ] embraced by RED (left-winger) | ||
| 2 | ANECDOTE | Story of English record conveyed in a message (8) |
| [ E (english) CD (record) ] in A NOTE (message) | ||
| 3, 11 | LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT | Instant good feeling that florist gives out (4,2,5,5) |
| THAT FLORIST GIVES* | ||
| 5 | HOOTENANNIES | Parties have hilarious person meeting English nurses with children (12) |
| HOOT (hilarious person) E (english) NANNIES (nurses with children) – didnt know this word but guessed from the cross refs and parsing. | ||
| 6 | POSTILLION | One on coach in old street occupying passenger seat (10) |
| [ O (old) ST (street) ] in PILLION (passenger seat) – didnt know this word but getable from the wordplay. | ||
| 7 | ESTEEM | Admiration satisfies head of empire turning up (6) |
| MEETS (satisfies) E (head of Empire), all reversed | ||
| 8 | DEPOSE | Put down some medicine, record for swallowing (6) |
| EP (record) in DOSE (some medicine) | ||
| 11 | See 3 | |
| 14 | HANOVERIAN | After-effect of drink knocking out good Scot in a royal house (10) |
| HANgOVER (after-effect of drink, without ‘g’ – good) IAN (scot) – House of Hanover | ||
| 16 | ISTHMIAN | This odd fellow engaging one in old Corinth (8) |
| THIS* [ MAN (fellow) engaging I (one) ] – relating to the isthmus of corinth in old greece. | ||
| 17 | INTEREST | Extra money made from hobby? (8) |
| double def | ||
| 19 | BARBED | Prickly part of garden below refreshment area (6) |
| BED (part of garden) below BAR (refreshment area) | ||
| 20 | IDIOTS | Silly people do and it is ridiculous (6) |
| DO IT IS* | ||
| 23 | JUNE | Jack meets a French girl when Wimbledon starts (4) |
| J (jack) UNE (‘a’ in french) – name of a girl, and the month in which wimbledon starts. | ||
*anagram
Thank you for the blog, Turbolegs. I parsed 4ac as you did & shared your doubts at first. However, I now think that it’s used in the sense of saying “her” for “that female”.
18ac was unfamiliar, but easy enough to get from the word-play; otherwise the puzzle was a gentle solve (23d was a write-in for me!). Thank you, Bradman.
Thanks Turbolegs and Bradman.
I was racing through this until I got to the SE which took some time to unravel with HOBSON-JOBSON and ISTHMIAN both new to me and WHEE a bit on the iffy side so I couldn’t bring myself to enter it until I was sure.
Is 23 a double or triple? “a French girl” could be either une (indefinite feminine article) or une (indefinite unspecified article) with JUNE as the third definition. Works either way I suppose.
I also parsed 4 as P + HER in SHED.
Thanks Bradman and Turbolegs
Tough puzzle for me which took several sessions to finally nut it out and the SE was also the part where I struggled most and where I finished.
Hadn’t heard of HOBSON-JOBSON nor ISTHMIAN and the both of the two short words JUNE and WHEE took way longer than they should have to get.
Good entertaining battle.