Peter is another fairly new setter for the Indy. The style seems similar to Dac with generally straightforward clues and polished surfaces.
| Across | ||
| 1 | SCHOOL BUS | Swimming group turned aquatic vehicle into something for children to ride on (6,3) |
| School (e.g.of fish) + sub< | ||
| 6 | CAPE | Clothing for cold animal (4) |
| C(old) + ape | ||
| 8 | HARRIDAN | Domineering woman and son dropping off type of tweed with short Scandinavian (8) |
| Harri[s] + Dan[e] | ||
| 9 | BLOTTO | Blonde heading to bingo is drunk (6) |
| B[londe] + lotto | ||
| 10 | REEFER | Soldiers free to relax with spliff (6) |
| RE + free* | ||
| 11 | FOLKSONG | Fellow looks afresh at New Guinea’s traditional music (8) |
| (F(ellow) looks)* + N(ew) G(uinea) | ||
| 12 | GARLIC | Beggar licensed to carry vegetable (6) |
| Hidden in begGAR LICensed | ||
| 15 | THESPIAN | Neat ship designed by arty type (8) |
| (Neat ship)* | ||
| 16 | DIRECTOR | Awful chapter given to graduate’s second supervisor (8) |
| Dire + c(hapter) + to + second letter of graduate | ||
| 19 | NAPLES | New priest leaving fruit in Italian city (6) |
| N ap[p]les | ||
| 21 | ECLECTIC | European clergyman dropping king in favour of court is catholic (8) |
| E + cleric with R replaced by ct | ||
| 22 | SELECT | Choose to promote short and shocking treatment (6) |
| Sel[l] + ECT | ||
| 24 | AUBURN | Reddish-coloured gold found next to Scottish stream (6) |
| Au + burn | ||
| 25 | OLEANDER | Old person putting up the money to conserve a plant (8) |
| O + lender around a | ||
| 26 | STYE | Rhinoplasty effectively conceals swelling (4) |
| Hidden in rhinoplaSTY Effectively | ||
| 27 | CONUNDRUM | Pretend to welcome woman with drink problem (9) |
| Cod (as in cod psychology) aroun nun + rum | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | SHAKE | Small fish is upset (5) |
| S(mall) + hake | ||
| 2 | HARMFUL | Dangerous weapon used by female in docked part of ship (7) |
| Arm + f(emale) in hul[l], although I can’t think of many instances where arm is used in the singular | ||
| 3 | ORDER | Obstreperous Russian initially rejected communist’s directive (5) |
| Initial letters of Obstreperous Russian + red< | ||
| 4 | BENEFIT | Man obtaining image used by the police has an advantage (7) |
| Ben + E-fit | ||
| 5 | SUBALTERN | Unstable suspect cornering Republican soldier (9) |
| Unstable* around R(epublican) | ||
| 6 | COOKS UP | Invents a story about spook wandering round university (5,2) |
| C(=about) + Spook* round u(niversity) | ||
| 7 | POTENTATE | Sum of money gets space at gallery for person of influence (9) |
| Pot + en (spacing measure used in printing) + Tate | ||
| 13 | AGINCOURT | Cargo unit dispatched to old European battle (9) |
| (Cargo unit)* | ||
| 14 | CATATONIC | Immobile jazz fan given a shot in the arm (9) |
| Cat + a tonic | ||
| 17 | EXECUTE | 10 tucked into extremely expensive and charming produce (7) |
| X in e[xpensiv]e + cute | ||
| 18 | RACCOON | Animal artist joining company involved in swindle (7) |
| RA + Co in con | ||
| 20 | PILSNER | Large sniper drunk lager (7) |
| (L(arge) sniper)* | ||
| 22 | STERN | Inflexible part of ship? (5) |
| DD | ||
| 23 | CREAM | Elite clubs given pieces of paper (5) |
| C(lubs) – used as an abbrev in playing cards + ream | ||
*anagram
Well I liked it.
I got cowl for 6a and that threw me for 7d for a long time.
Otherwise a nice start to the week!
I couldn’t have put it better myself copmus.
A faint whiff of the sea about a few of the clues, but not enough to be part of a theme, methinks.
Good stuff from the setter, and of course the blogger.
I liked this one too. A good daily cryptic, no theme (I think) and some inventive but solveable clues. My favourites were ECLECTIC and CATATONIC.
Thanks to Neal for blogging and to Peter for the puzzle. Just right for a Monday.
Peter (not that one).
A treat, but not too tricky – just right for today.
Thanks, Peter and NealH
Yes, it all went it fairly smoothly with 25ac nearly defeating me at the end. I was just about to do a word search when the answer popped into my head. Couldn’t parse it, though, so it was a guess but coming here, I find I was right, so thanks for explaining it for me.
Thanks to Peter for a good start to the week. Not too difficult but nicely composed. Not our most favourite grid though with only two links between top and bottom! If the puzzle had been more tricky that may have caused some problems.
Thanks NealH.