On the hard side for Klingsor. I thought, but none the worse for that: this is his usual well-produced article and I’m always pleased when I see that he is the person I shall have to blog. The clues are smooth and read well as simple phrases.
Some of the answers (bassinet, insets in that sense, crepitate) needed me to look up in Chambers to confirm, since I was only vaguely aware of their meaning.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
I can’t see any Nina here, but Klingsor doesn’t I think really do them, so perhaps I’m not as usual missing something. But on the other hand, perhaps I am.
| Across | ||
| 1 | BASSINET | Basket, one to catch fish originally (8) |
| (1 net) with bass preceding this [originally] | ||
| 5 | FACTOR | Agent works after taking year off (6) |
| factor{y} | ||
| 8 | WAN | White stick finally discarded (3) |
| wan{d} | ||
| 9 | SUPPLEMENT | Extra time is needed by loose-limbed people (10) |
| supple men t | ||
| 10 | INERT GAS | He maybe is great shakes around Nigeria’s capital (5,3) |
| (is great)* round N{igeria} — nice concealed definition (He = helium) but I fear enthusing about it too much as my suspicion is that it’s a bit of a chestnut | ||
| 11 | DAINTY | Daughter is not unknown to be genteel (6) |
| d ain’t y | ||
| 12 | DREW | Finished even fewer duties around houses (4) |
| Hidden reversed in feWER Duties — and there was I trying to think how dw = fewer duties, since it seemed to be re in dw (‘around houses’ can mean that ‘around’ is the middle part of) | ||
| 14 | JAW-BREAKER | We should seize opportunity in conflict? It’s hard to say (3-7) |
| ja(w(break)e)r | ||
| 17 | WELL I NEVER | My wife wants wake-up call round about noon (4,1,5) |
| w (reveille)rev. round n — another nice definition, which has appeared quite often in various places | ||
| 20 | EARL | King’s Head’s going to close for nobleman (4) |
| Lear (the king) with its head moving to the end | ||
| 23 | CUSTOM | Confined in nick, sons honour tradition (6) |
| cu(s)t OM | ||
| 24 | TELEGRAM | Periodically they’ll spread revolutionary message (8) |
| t{h}e{y’}l{l} (marge)rev. | ||
| 25 | ADMINISTER | Run dodgy trade in cars? On the contrary! (10) |
| minis in (trade)* On the contrary means that it’s cars in dodgy trade | ||
| 26 | BED | Qualified teacher gets the sack (3) |
| B. Ed | ||
| 27 | KENDAL | Resort Lake District neighbours for starters? (6) |
| (Lake D{istrict} n{eighbours})*, the anagram indicated by Resort — an &lit. I think, for otherwise ‘Resort’ would be both the definition and the anagram indicator, but it seems a bit odd as an &lit. since the whole clue isn’t really a definition of Kendal so far as I can see | ||
| 28 | PRENATAL | Woman replaces contents of parcel before delivery (8) |
| parcel with its contents (arce) replaced by Renata | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | BOW WINDOW | How setter perhaps goes round India to find architectural feature (3,6) |
| bow-w(Ind)ow — the setter is a dog | ||
| 2 | SINCERE | Genuine cases of contrite remorse shown after offence (7) |
| sin c{ontrit}e r{emors}e — the first one I got on a read-through of the clues, and I was beginning to panic | ||
| 3 | INSETS | Trendy cliques which are loose between the sheets? (6) |
| in sets — the definition of inset in Chambers talks about loose leaves being inserted | ||
| 4 | ESPLANADE | Flying seaplane initially disrupts seaside walk (9) |
| (seaplane d{isrupts})* | ||
| 5 | FIELDER | One fellow climbing tree makes slip? (7) |
| (1 f)rev. elder — slip fielder in cricket | ||
| 6 | CREPITATE | Gym backs wearing different attire following cold snap (9) |
| c (attire)* round (PE)rev. | ||
| 7 | OCTETTE | Composition improved endlessly after a month (7) |
| Oct {b}ette{r} | ||
| 13 | WELL-TIMED | Spring issue turns up on day that’s convenient (4-5) |
| well (emit)rev. d | ||
| 15 | BEEFEATER | Enthralling European exploit for one stout yeoman (9) |
| be(E feat)er — the ‘for one’ conveniently helps with the surface and is necessary so that you don’t have ‘stout’ defining ‘beer’ | ||
| 16 | ROLE MODEL | Press discussed poser, one who’s much admired (4,5) |
| “roll” model | ||
| 18 | EMULATE | Compete successfully with fast runner towards the end (7) |
| emu late | ||
| 19 | NOMINAL | With curtailment in all, “in name only” put another way (7) |
| (i{n} nam{e} onl{y})*, &lit. — which like the one at 27ac is a bit of a strain so far as I can see | ||
| 21 | ACROBAT | Tumbler of brandy’s first imbibed by a European (7) |
| a Cro(b{randy})at | ||
| 22 | NEURON | Ready to break news? A bit of nerve’s required (6) |
| n(euro)n — n n is news since only one n would be new — euro = ready as in cash | ||
*anagram
Very enjoyable and challenging. Thanks to both.
The app version has “rum” instead of “brandy” in 21D which makes it unsolvable. I figured it still had to be ACROBAT but couldn’t parse it successfully.
I’m somewhat relieved to see that I’m not the only one to find this hard. Unlike Geebs I gave up trying to parse the answers; if it fits and looks reasonably close to the clue it goes in. Thanks John for your explanations of EARL and KENDAL, I was stumped.
Good work out Klingsor, especially 1D which had me laughing. Bow-wow indeed!
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Quite a challenge, with some ingenious cluing (e.g. PRENATAL) and Klingsor trademark touches; I suspect ‘Renata’ doesn’t come readily to mind for many as a woman’s name but would be familiar to Klingsor (as Renata Scotto or Renata Tebaldi) knowing his musical interests.
‘He’ for helium might be an old chestnut but it caught me out – a real facepalm moment when I got 10ac.
Liked JAW-BREAKER and BOW WINDOW but my CoD was the aforesaid PRENATAL.
Thanks, Klingsor and John.
Yes, another very good and not easy puzzle which I finally completed after a bit of a struggle. Many clues which were satisfying to have solved and parsed including INERT GAS, WELL I NEVER (even if they’re both chestnuts) and CREPITATE. BOW WINDOW (How setter perhaps goes…) was my pick of the bunch though.
For 15d, I took ‘for one’ to refer to ‘stout’ as a sort of BEER.
Thanks to Klingsor for such a fun puzzle and to John for his usual helpful blog.
1d was great.
Thanks both.
Quite hard I agree. Got most of it out.
Surprised no-one else has mentioned the appearance of some of the answers in the preview which I happened to see after I had completed the Guardian. I thought that this was a no-no.
Lovely puzzle – agree about BOW-WOW.
Bracoman @6
Thanks for pointing out the preview mishap. I have edited to post so that those answers are no longer visible on the home page.
Apologies Bracoman and anyone else who suffered, for unwittingly giving some answers away. Didn’t think and should have done.
Yes of course WordPlodder@4, of course the ‘for one’ goes with ‘stout’. Blog amended.