Another new for me setter but the debut was back in early September
Not overly difficult for a monday morning solve, but some nice touches and rather cryptic/well hidden defs and a gratifying lack of unknown words 🙂
Enjoyed that, thanks Eccles.
Across
1 Perhaps lead singer needing courage on the radio (4,5)
BASE METAL
Sounds like BASS & METTLE
8 Organise Royal Variety appearance, initially to open (7)
ARRANGE
A(ppearance) initially & R(oyal) & RANGE (variety)
10 Team lacking wingers, 12-2 ahead perhaps, overcome by emotion (5,2)
EATEN UP
Team without the wings gives (t)EA(m) & if you’re leading 12 – 2 you’re TEN UP
11 Two items of clothing in position for sportsman (9)
SHORTSTOP
SHORTS & TOP – it’s a fielding position in baseball m’lud
12 Tried hard, but one leaves slowly following end of match (3,1,2)
HAD A GO
End of (matc)H & 1 removed from ADAG(1)O
15 Longing initially hard for female (7)
ATHIRST
H(ard) swapped with F(email) in AT FIRST (initially)
16 His curate screwed up sacrament (9)
EUCHARIST
[HIS CURATE]* screwed up
19 Instrument of abuse in use by naked vicar (9)
HARMONICA
HARM abuse & ON in use & a naked (v)ICA(r)
20 Small insects consuming oxygen in planes? (7)
SMOOTHS
S(mall) & O(xygen) in MOTHS
22 Act like an idiot and go away (4,2)
BEAT IT
BE A TIT
23 I loved bra being treated like military uniform (5,4)
OLIVE DRAB
[I LOVED BRA]* treated
25 Greek character, very small, getting leg over (7)
OMICRON
ON (leg in cricket) over MICRO
27 Tenor’s excuse for mutiny (7)
TREASON
T(enor) & REASON (excuse)
28 Become crazy and mouth ‘Pineapple’ (2,7)
GO BANANAS
GOB (mouth) & ANANAS (the pineapple plant)
Down
1 British and French human rights extended, essentially, for sect members (8)
BRETHREN
BR(itish) & ET (french for and) & HR (human rights) & essentially (ext)EN(ded)
2 Arrange 21 boxes (3)
SET
Hidden boxed by in 21 tSETse
3 Combined letters from mother receiving new organ (8)
MONOGRAM
ORGAN* anew inside MOM
4 Sheep throw up on shepherd’s head (4)
TUPS
PUT (throw) reversed & head of S(hepherd)
5 Choice at election time that provides a chance to experiment (10)
LABORATORY
LAB(our) OR A TORY
6 Support staff surprisingly curt in Switzerland (6)
CRUTCH
CURT* surprisingly in CH (switzerland)
7 Tyrant‘s desire for a teenager? (6)
DESPOT
Many teens suffer from acne so they wish to DE-SPOT
9 Human is beginning to torment David Attenborough? (10)
NATURALIST
Def by example – NATURAL = HUMAN – it’s natural/human to assume that ….. & IS & T(orment)
13 Grant freedom, with loonies let loose after a month (10)
DECOLONISE
DEC(ember) & LOONIES* let loose
14 Town’s shopping centre bar is tense in America (4-6)
HIGH-STRUNG
HIGH ST(reet) & RUNG (bar on a ladder say)
17 Working to support business, he’s accepted I too can provide unity (8)
COHESION
CO (business) & HE’S & I & ON (working)
18 Thanks pop star and son for opportunities to sample (8)
TASTINGS
TA (thanks) & STING & S(on)
20 Glaswegians, perhaps, hiding posh watches (6)
SCOUTS
U (posh) in SCOTS
21 Testes injured in fly (6)
TSETSE
TESTES* injured. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this a few times but still a smile
24 Jeer bishop’s mistake (4)
BOOB
BOO & B(ishop)
26 Fled from leaderless country (3)
RAN
A leaderless (i)RAN
Enjoyed that, thanks to Eccles and Flashling.
A pleasant wrestle with nothing unfair. For some reason I couldn’t parse ATHIRST, obvious now.
In 3d the mother would be MOM rather than MUM. [Fixed – flash]
Ditto – a nice solve with some smiles, e.g. LABORATORY.
Also the parsing for the last answer, IRAN, seems to have disappeared from the blog. [Fixed, thanks. Flash]
Thanks to S & B
A Goldilocks puzzle for a Monday. All pretty straightforward although I wasted too much time on 3dn thinking of ‘digraph’ and – trying to find a synonym for it – that the ‘mother’ must be ‘dam’ before 1ac put me on the right track.
Some neat cluing and a few surfaces to raise a smile, such as 23ac.
Thanks, Eccles and flashling
I liked this setter’s second offering. Just right for a Monday, with some careful clueing and lots of good surfaces.
I’m sure I’ve seen it before, but BEAT IT made me smile. Which is one of the things that cryptic crosswords should make you do.
Well done, Eccles – keep them coming. And thanks to flashling for blogging.
A really good fun way to start the week.
We cannot belive that we haven’t come across the device used for the parsing in 5d – pure inspiration. That wasn’t the only one either to raise a smile. Crosswords don’t have to be tricky to be enjoyable.
More of these please Eccles.
Wish we’d been blogging it – thanks flashling.