An excellent puzzle from Alberich
As always, Alberich has delivered a puzzle full of excellent surfaces. Some of the solutions require a bit of general knowledge, but the tight wordplay and crossing letters allow the solver to at least make an educated guess.
My favourites were 6ac, 12ac and 22ac, and my LOI was ANISEED, not because it was a difficult word to see, but because it took me a while to parse it.
Thanks, Alberich.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SKEW-WHIFF | Small gardens smell? That’s not true (4-5) |
| S(mall) + KEW (gardens) + WHIFF | ||
| 6 | JACOB | Origins in Jamaica affected character of Bob Marley? (5) |
| First letters of Jamaica Affected Character Of Bob
Refers to Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s deceased partner in A Christmas Carol |
||
| 9 | APPAL | On departing, dress to shock (5) |
| APPA(re)L
RE, meaning “on” is removed from APPAREL |
||
| 10 | ENDOPLASM | Con imprisoned by nasty penal system emptied part of cell (9) |
| DO (“con”) “imprisoned by” *(penal) + SysteM
Endoplasm is the central part of the cytoplasm of a cell, and no, I didn’t know that either, but the wordplay and crossing letters make it possible to work out the solution. |
||
| 11 | MONTE CARLO | Focus perhaps on card game and look for famous gambling resort (5,5) |
| MONTE (“card game”) + CAR (“Focus, perhaps”) + LO (“look”) | ||
| 12 | ARIA | Song of unmarried girl in musical? (4) |
| (m)ARIA
Maria is a song from West Side Story, and “unmarried” instructs us to remove the M |
||
| 14 | ANISEED | I get stuffing with flavouring (7) |
| I SEE (“i get”) “stuffing” AND (“with”) | ||
| 15 | REPUTED | Thought about getting place with journalist (7) |
| RE (“about”) + PUT + ED | ||
| 17 | BLESSED | Cursed, or the opposite? (7) |
| “Cursed” and “blessed” are both adjectives that may be used as very mild expletives. | ||
| 19 | STOLLEN | Liberal tucked into hot bread (7) |
| L(iberal) tucked into STOLEN (“hot”) | ||
| 20 | THOU | You run off time after time (4) |
| T + HOU(r) | ||
| 22 | CADAVEROUS | Sickly-looking wretch gets ill over in Australia (10) |
| CAD (“wretch”) + *(over) in AUS | ||
| 25 | ORCHESTRA | Playing score, Mahler’s Third, reflected skill – of this? (9) |
| *(score H) + <=ART, where the H is the third letter of “MaHler” | ||
| 26 | INDEX | Daughter cracks (first off!) nine times table (5) |
| D(aughter) “cracks” (n)INE + X (“times”) | ||
| 27 | SERIF | Part of letter inflames revolutionary (5) |
| <=FIRES | ||
| 28 | CATAMARAN | Bog engulfs a river boat (9) |
| CAN (loo = “bog”) “engulfs” A TAMAR | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SPASM | Jerk succeeded in overturning plans (5) |
| S(ucceeded) in <=MAPS | ||
| 2 | EXPANSIVE | Loquacious setter’s led by love of old vessels (9) |
| I’VE (“setter’s”) “led by” EX (“love of old”) + PANS (“vessels”) | ||
| 3 | WILDEBEEST | Maybe 21 is in Calais, importing live animal (10) |
| (Oscar) WILDE + EST (French for “is”, therefore “is in Calais”), “importing” BE “(live”) | ||
| 4 | IRELAND | Resistance stops deal in developing country (7) |
| R(esistance) in *(deal in) | ||
| 5 | FIDDLER | Force lazybones to acquire degree as musician (7) |
| F(orce) + IDLER (“lazybones”) “to acquire” D(egree) | ||
| 6 | JAPE | Jean regularly visited gym? That’s a joke (4) |
| JeAn + P.E. | ||
| 7 | CHAIR | President leaves to tour island (5) |
| CHAR (informal name for tea, therefore “leaves”) “to tour” I(sland) | ||
| 8 | BOMBARDON | Continue to batter musical instrument (9) |
| BOMBARD ON = “continue to batter”
A bombardon is a wind instrument, a tuba that coils over it’s player’s shoulder. |
||
| 13 | SPOONERISM | So I’m person sporting best gear for guest beer? (10) |
| *(so im person) | ||
| 14 | ALBATROSS | A large bird that primarily soars at sea (9) |
| *(A L(arge) B(ird) T(hat) soars) | ||
| 16 | TALL ORDER | Write story about my Romeo – that’s a demanding task (4,5) |
| TALE “about” LORD (“my!”) + R(omeo) | ||
| 18 | DRASTIC | When upset, it’s in character to get violent (7) |
| ITS in <+CARD | ||
| 19 | SEALANT | In TV, a network providing watertight material (7) |
| A LAN (Local Area Network) in SET (“TV”) | ||
| 21 | OSCAR | Film star may get one description of stretch limo? (5) |
| A stretch limo could be an OS (outsize) CAR | ||
| 23 | SAXON | Old German soprano’s got a bit of a nerve (5) |
| S(oprano) + AXON (a nerve fibre) | ||
| 24 | BEEF | Muscle complaint (4) |
| Double definition | ||
*anagram
Thanks Alberich & loonapick.
As you say, lovely surfaces and accurate clues.
I missed stretch limo as OS CAR, doh! Many great clues, I particularly liked SPOONERISM and SKEW-WHIFF.
I don’t think of Ireland as a “developing country”! I think Alberich used “developing” to indicate an anagram
Sorry, john – fat finger syndrome. You’re right, Ireland is pretty well developed!!
Thanks Alberich and loonapick
Agree that this was a very good puzzle. Unfortunately he drew the error (of sorts) with THOU – had initially written in TEAR (you run) and T (ERA, off time). OSCAR invalidated it, but forgot to go back and repair! 🙁
I liked your 6a and 12a and liked the 1a as well.
Finished in the SE corner with CADAVEROUS and SPOONERISM (which I found a lot harder than it should’ve been).
Surely 14d is A L B T (A large bird primarily)and SOARS all “at sea” (anagram indicator)