I would call this an enjoyable and straightforward except for there being one clue I cannot explain, so perhaps not so strightforward after all. Can someone help me out please! Thanks Gurney.
| Across | ||
| 1 | RAMSHACKLE | In poor condition morning after run, explorer’s lost weight (10) |
| AM (morning) following R (run) then SHAKLEton (explorer) missing TON (weight) | ||
| 6 | SHUT | Closed second building (4) |
| S (second) and HUT (building) | ||
| 9 | EYE-WITNESS | Plastered wine set? Yes, I saw what happened (3-7) |
| anagram (plastered) of WINE SET YES | ||
| 10 | TRIO | Group turn it on regularly (4) |
| regular selection from TuRn It On | ||
| 12 | FAITH HEALING | Hale – if a thing works? This? (5,7) |
| anagram (works) of HALE IF A THING | ||
| 15 | CLEOPATRA | Queen at beginning criticises stars seen with glib artist (9) |
| Criticises (beginnig letter of) LEO (stars) and PAT (glib) RA (Royal Academician, artist) | ||
| 17 | LICIT | Allowed tenfold reduction in restriction at centre? (5) |
| I can’t explain this. LIMIT (restriction) with M (one thousand) reduced tenfold to C (one hundred) – very nice! Thanks to muffyword for this. | ||
| 18 | UTTER | Complete, say (5) |
| double definition | ||
| 19 | NETENYAHU | Politician using web – some expression of surprise at university (9) |
| NET (web) ANY (some) AH (expression of surprise) and U (university) | ||
| 20 | DOMINO EFFECT | Inevitable consequences – sad end? Come off it! (6,6) |
| anagram (sad) of END COME OFF IT | ||
| 24 | EATS | Takes in achievements, scratching head (4) |
| fEATS (achievements) missing (sctratching) first letter (head) | ||
| 25 | NICARAGUAN | Central American seeing his leaders run again unexpectedly (10) |
| leading letters of Central American (his, the definition’s) then an anagram (unexpecttedly) of RUN AGAIN | ||
| 26 | STEW | Difficult situation political moderates recalled (4) |
| WETS (political moderates) reversed (recalled) | ||
| 27 | SEASONALLY | By sound of it, notices working partner at certain times only (10) |
| SEAS sound like “sees” (notices) ON (working) and ALLY (partner) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | REEL | Needing lift, look for dance (4) |
| LEER (look) reversed (needing lift) | ||
| 2 | MIEN | Appearance of middle of Amiens (4) |
| middle letters of aMIENs | ||
| 3 | HEIR-APPARENT | Attitude, as you say, supported by a quiet father perhaps – he should succeed (4-8) |
| HEIR sounds like (as you say) “air” (attitude) followed by (supported by) A P (piano, quiet) and PARENT (father perhaps) | ||
| 4 | CAN IT | In US stop complaining after notice is taken initially (3,2) |
| initial letters of Complaining After Notice Is Taken | ||
| 5 | LOSE HEART | See group surrounding judge – become disillusioned (4,5) |
| LO (see) SET (group) containing HEAR (judge, in court) | ||
| 7 | HERMIT CRAB | Crustacean her guy’s served up – grumble follows (6,4) |
| HER then TIM (a guy) reversed (served up) and CRAB (grumble) | ||
| 8 | THOUGHTFUL | Considerate but ultimately stringent if you fail (10) |
| THOUGH (but) then stringenT iF yoU faiL (ultimate letters of) | ||
| 11 | BALL AND CHAIN | Doctor in ban call had means to restrict movement (4,3,5) |
| anagram (doctor) of IN BAD CALL HAD – nicely obscured anagram | ||
| 13 | SCOUNDRELS | Worthless people’s scorn led us astray (10) |
| anagram (astray) SCORN LED US | ||
| 14 | CENTIMETRE | Getting measure of adolescent I met recently? (10) |
| found inside adolesCENT I MET REcently | ||
| 16 | TANGERINE | Man from North African city supplying fruit (9) |
| double definition – a native of Tangiers | ||
| 21 | FLATS | Accommodation units, dull, small (5) |
| FLAT (dull) and S (small) | ||
| 22 | GULL | Fool flier (4) |
| double definition | ||
| 23 | ONLY | Extremely open and largely just (4) |
| outside letters (extremes) of OpeN and LargelY | ||
*anagram
definitions are underlined
limit/licit
Thanks Muffyword, very ingenious!
Thanks Gurney and PeeDee
Raced through this one in a couple of short bursts but enjoyed it.
Was able to work through the parsing of LICIT but didn’t see how THOUGHTFUL worked until coming here. Noticed the similarity in a number of clues – 10a, 4d, 8d (now) and 23d where we were asked to select single letters in the word play to get the answer or part of the answer.
Finished down the bottom with NICARAGUAN, STEW and GULL the last few in.
Thanks, PeeDee, for the blog and also to commenters. Glad you enjoyed it. Re #3, as crosswords have about thirty clues some ideas will recur in clues, eg anagrams or references leading to single letters. I think once there is variation in the methods of indication (as I’d say was the case in this puzzle), there would not be a particular problem with that.
Hi Gurney … and thanks for dropping by. My comment was meant more as a note rather than a criticism and as you say there was variation in the derivation of those single letters – it was just a bit unusual to see four of them. As in my earlier post, you will notice that I did not even pick up on the device as used in THOUGHTFUL.
Always enjoy your puzzles and please keep ’em coming !!!